Missionary Training is Essential

In today's blog post, I want to share with you a missionary training ministry that we highly recommend if you are seriously considering a career in missions. Becoming a missionary is one of the best things you could do, but it must be rightly understood before one gets fully involved. The cost of missions work is high, and just as Jesus warned His potential followers as to the nature of what it means to follow Him (Luke 9:23-27), we also believe it is wise to fully understand what you are getting involved in when signing up to become a missionary. Radius International teaches this well, and for this reason, and others, we highly recommend this ministry to be part of your training.

I heard it said recently, that even at seminary today, where there's good and proper ministry training happening, seminary students are likely to take only one course on missions, yet the global mission of Jesus Christ is His top priority. Jesus' final words to His disciples teach us this. He could have spoken about many things, but this is what He said in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The mission of the church, simply stated, is to be evangelizing the lost, making disciples of Jesus that also evangelize the lost, and planting Biblical churches where God's people worship together, grow in grace, and go out to the people with the Gospel message. When we apply ourselves to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ we are being salt and light in this world. Sadly, the global mission of Jesus Christ is often overlooked and evangelism can be sidelined. We would recommend seminary (though not all are commendable and there are certain costs to be considered; price but also having to leave your church) as good training for ministry, of course, but we personally believe the best discipleship and training happens, or should happen, within the local church. If seminary can be added to the training, great! In any case, whether you are seminary trained or well discipled by faithful church leaders, we also commend to you the Radius missionary training program, as it has its focus specifically on the global mission of Jesus and the training of long-term missionaries.

It's noteworthy, that we are living in a time where much of what happens in missions is, sadly, not Biblical. Often the mission work happening today is based on man's ideas and a poor understanding of man's depraved and sinful condition before a holy and just God. There are entire movements within missions now (Disciple Making Movements - more info HERE, or HERE) that are based on a low understanding of God's sovereignty, a flimsy understanding as to the nature and purpose of the church, and a generic understanding as to how man gets saved and what a disciple actually is... Radius, on the other hand, shares a very similar philosophy of ministry as ours. We are of the same doctrine as well.

Like us, they commit to train missionaries to understand the cost, to endure suffering, to commit to long-term service, to dedicate themselves to the proper learning of the language (and culture) and to evangelism, teaching the Bible, making disciples, training national elders to oversee the church plants so the missionaries can pull out. In other words, like us, they teach and practice the work of apostolic church planting cross-culturally.

So if you're considering a future in missions or you know anyone who is, first of all we would recommend that they consider Practical Missions Cohort and the need for missions in Italy. We too, at PMc via the Academia, are committed to training missionaries, specifically in the Italian context. In addition, we warmly point you to check out the Radius ministry as a great way for you and/or your church to pursue fruitfulness in Biblical missions. Be sure to check them out. And if you do go there, be sure to let us know. We welcome missionaries who have participated in their program.