The Lost Coin

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a woman who has lost a coin and sweeps her entire house looking for it. It’s clearly not a large coin. It’s clearly not laying in the middle of the floor. It’s probably a smaller coin—somewhere in a corner.

Reflecting on that lost coin, I am left wondering about the lost souls in the world today. Particularly those whom none of us are trying to reach.

Four Lanes of Missions

While the varieties of cross-cultural Christian ministry are nearly infinite, Brooks Buser has recently summarized and categorized those varieties into four “lanes”—each of which is important and strategic for the mission of church. He describes these lanes as:

1. Training national pastors
2. English-speaking churches in cross-cultural contexts
3. Church planting in national or majority languages
4. Reaching those within minority language groups that are currently unreached by the gospel

The fourth is the focus of this brief article.

Lane 4 in Practice

It goes without saying that addressing the first three lanes of missions occurs more easily and naturally. The work necessary to access these communities safely, learn two languages (one that likely doesn’t have a writing system), translate the Bible, and persevere through some of the hardest living conditions in the world is extremely difficult. Pastors and church leaders naturally build relationships with those who are Christians from across the world in educational or conference settings. The cross fertilization that takes place gives rise to countless plans to send workers to help churches in other lands. Many of these connections encourage missions work in Lanes 1–3.

Lane 4, however, seems to require the concentrated attention of one who searches for a coin in the corner. It’s not going to get swept up easily or quickly. It’s going to take more intentionality, more deliberation, and more time. These things are required of both the individual who wants to go, and (even more fundamentally) on the part of the church from which they are sent.

Lane 4 in the Bible

We see Lane 4 missions described in a number of ways in the Bible. From “all families” in God’s promise to Abraham to “all nations” in the Great Commission. From Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the “ends of the earth” to John’s vision of the “great multitude . . . from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” Furthermore, Paul’s logic in Romans 10 should lead us to continuously consider our approach to Lane 4 missions: “How will they hear without someone preaching?”

Ever since those unnamed Christians returned to their homelands after Pentecost, the Great Commission has been pushed forward to the ends of the earth by people whose names we won’t know until heaven. The great majority of gospel advance, no doubt, has taken place through the humble witness of men and women about whom no biographies ever have been—or could be—written.

And yet, we stand on the shoulders of those unknown witnesses. Occasionally, a flash of celebrity reveals to us a small part of our history. We know about Paul’s entrance into Macedonia, but we don’t know that there weren’t Macedonians present at Pentecost. We know Paul’s desire to get to Spain, but we don’t know if other Christians had arrived there before him. We know that by the time Paul wrote to the churches in Rome, where he had never been, he could already name 26 Christians who were there in the imperial capital.

Lane 4 in Our Churches

The fact that any people remain in gospel darkness under God is the responsibility of his churches. We are the ones who send out preachers. How are we doing?

If we wait until members volunteer themselves for this work—if we as pastors are passive in the matter—are we obeying Paul’s command in Romans 10? What steps can we take to encourage our congregations to be sending congregations? If we don’t have a Paul and a Barnabas identifying themselves to us, can we pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out more laborers? Can we pray that publicly? Can we start prayer groups to pray for the language groups among whom there is no gospel witness?

These and many other questions pour into the mind of the honest and sympathetic reader of Paul’s logic in Romans 10. As we look around today, we ought to praise God for the spread of the gospel since Christ gave the Great Commission. Yet we cannot forget the darkness of ignorance that has not yet been dispelled. There are still more places that need the light.

The path of light to reach those lost in darkness can begin with the pastors of churches who ask questions like:

• Is there anything more I should be doing as a pastor?
• Is there anything more that our church should be doing?
• How should our support of 4th Lane missions look different than what we do to encourage the other missions lanes that we happily support?
• Would it be worth our elders having a dedicated discussion about this?

I share these questions with you because I’m wrestling with them right now. Pray for me, as I pray for us.