Every missionary eventually stands at a fork in the road, usually without realizing it. On one side is a life spent doing the work himself, preaching every sermon, making every visit, answering every question, carrying the church on his own back for as long as he is there. On the other side is a harder, slower road: spending himself training someone else to do it.

Here is the truth that has to settle deep before a man ever boards a plane. His job is not to do the work of the ministry. His job is to train others to do it.

That distinction determines whether he leaves behind a church or a dependent congregation that collapses the day he leaves.

The Gifts Were Given to Train, Not to Perform

Paul answers why God gives gifted men to the church, and the answer is not what most of us assume.

"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-12)

Read that carefully. The gifted man was not given to the church to do the work of the ministry. He was given to perfect the saints so that they could do the work of the ministry. The apostle, the evangelist, the pastor every one of them was handed a training assignment, not a performance assignment.

Paul keeps going, and the picture gets bigger.

"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: ...But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:13, 15-16)

Notice who does the edifying in the end. Not the apostle alone. Not the missionary alone. The whole body, every joint doing its part. A missionary who tries to be every joint in that body is not building a church — he is substituting himself for one. The body was never designed to grow because one man never stops working. It was designed to grow because every man learns to work.

Teach Them Everything You Know

If the goal is to train, then the missionary cannot afford to hold anything back. Half-teaching produces half-equipped men, and half-equipped men cannot carry a church.

Paul told the Ephesian elders exactly what he had done among them.

"For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts 20:27)

All the counsel of God. Not the parts that were easy to explain. Not the parts that kept people comfortable. Not the parts that let the missionary stay indispensable. All of it. A missionary who quietly withholds the deeper things how to study, how to counsel, how to lead a business meeting, how to handle conflict, how to prepare a message has not truly discipled anyone. He has only kept them dependent on him a little longer.

Jesus gave the same instruction to His own disciples before He left them.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)

"All things whatsoever I have commanded you."

That phrase leaves no room for a shortened curriculum. Jesus did not train the twelve to admire Him. He trained them to do what He did, and then He left, trusting the work to men He had spent three years pouring Himself into. That is the pattern. Teach everything, hold nothing back, and trust that the men you are training can actually carry what you hand them.

Decide Now What Your Goal Is

Here is where most missionaries go wrong before they ever leave the airport. They know they are called. They know the country. They know the language they need to learn. But they have never sat down and decided, in plain words, what they are actually trying to produce.

Without a clear goal, a missionary will default to the easiest measurement available: how many people came to church, how many raised a hand at the altar, how big the crowd is on Sunday. Those numbers feel good, but none of them answer the real question. Is a national man standing behind that pulpit in ten years who did not exist there before?

Decide the goal now, before the work begins. Not "I will win souls," though he must. Not "I will plant a church," though he must. The goal is this: I will leave behind men capable of doing everything I am doing, so that the church no longer needs me.

That goal will cost more than a sermon costs. It means slowing down to let a national brother preach badly before he preaches well. It means bringing men into decisions instead of making them alone. It means measuring success by how replaceable you become, not how needed you stay.

A missionary who never decides this ahead of time will drift for years, doing good work that quietly trains no one. A missionary who decides it before he ever unpacks his bags will build with the end in mind from the very first day.

The Job Was Never to Be Needed Forever

Every missionary wants to be useful. That desire is good. But usefulness measured by how much you personally accomplish will always fall short of usefulness measured by how many men you leave standing after you are gone.

The gifts were given to train the saints, not to replace them. The gospel was given to be taught in full, not in part. And the goal has to be decided now, not discovered by accident twenty years into the work.

Train them. Teach them everything. Decide today what you are aiming at. That is the missionary's real job, and it is the only kind of work that outlives him.

Alignment Ministries