Blessed Friday. A lot of the time, we don’t really know what God is doing in our lives or how “all things” are going to “work together for good.” But knowing and trusting aren’t synonyms. As many have said before and as you’ll read in the next few stories, we can trust our unknowns to the God who gave us his Son.

In today’s edition:

• Following God’s Call

• Gospel Fruit in Iran

• Sending Church Best Practices

🇮🇷 Christians aren’t accepted in Iran, yet the gospel grows.

Despite Iran being hard to reach, disciples are being made and equipped within the country, and technology is playing a big part.

Radical is working alongside a ministry that is evangelizing and discipling new believers inside Iran through social media content and online follow-up discipleship groups.

This content helps equip and educate new believers who have turned to Christianity from Islam. From the discipleship groups, emerging leaders are mentored and trained, preparing them to disciple others and to better serve in their local house churches.

How to Pray: Pray for leaders to rise up to start new groups locally with wisdom and guidance from the Lord. Also, pray for the safety and protection of those connected to the ministry in Iran who are under persecution.

🛩️ How often should churches visit those they've sent?

As a sending church, you want to know how to best care for those you’ve sent. You want to know how they’re doing, so perhaps you set up regular phone calls, and people in the church pray for them in small groups or during the Sunday service. Maybe a missions team sends an annual care package. 

But how should pastors think about visiting missionaries on the field? How often should they visit? Is there a concrete formula for this that works best?

Here are three principles churches should consider when answering this question.

1. Be careful when taking missionaries away from the work you’ve sent them to do.

Some missionaries might have many visitors, and visiting them too often with official visits from the church may be more cumbersome than helpful. If everyone thinks their short three-day “visit” is unique, yet that’s the sixth visit of its kind this year, you’re potentially taking the missionary out of their work and placing them into the role of tour guide.

2. Let the missionaries drive the agenda for any visits.

One helpful consideration is to ask missionaries on the field what they need. Rather than taking them away from their work, ask, "If we visited you on the field, what could we do to bless you, your family, and your work?”

3. Ensure that any short-term teams benefit the long-term missionaries.

Only send short-term teams to the field if their arrival will help the long-term workers, and do what you can to complement their work and not conflict with their work. 

For some, an annual visit would be welcome. Others would love the more frequent stopovers, and others would only be blessed with a visit every 2-3 years. Whatever is decided, when the time comes, visit intentionally in a way that blesses the missionaries on the field. 

— Dave Furman

🇲🇲 The people of Myanmar have been facing ethnic and religious persecution for years. 

The Details: For years, Myanmar has been in the midst of an ethnic conflict. In 2017, government forces destroyed 392 ethnic Rohingya villages, killing more than 30,000 people. The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim and nationless people because they are ostracized from Myanmar. On top of that, there was a coup d'état in 2021 when the Myanmar military overthrew the democratically elected government.

The Takeaways: With religious persecution against the Muslim Rohingyans and its Christian population, the state of the Church may seem bleak amidst all of the darkness. Due to the predominant Buddhist population and nationalism being tied to Buddhism, Christians in Myanmar face persecution. Despite the lack of religious freedom, we can pray for believers to be strong in their faith and witness so that more would know the true peace and healing only found in Christ.

☎️ How do I know what the Lord is calling me to do?

We make decisions every day in our lives. Many of them are small, and some of them are big. Periodically, we make particularly large, life-changing decisions. As followers of Jesus, we want all of our decisions to be led by him. So how do we know practically what he is calling us to do?

In order to answer this question, let’s consider four ways God’s Word speaks about God’s calling in our lives.

1. The Call to Salvation 

The call to salvation is the gracious act of God by which he draws us to become followers of Jesus and members of his church. This is the primary way Scripture talks about calling, and his call to salvation forms the unshakable foundation of our identity now and forever. Over and above anything else that may come to our mind regarding how God calls us to live, first and foremost he calls us to be his children. Let’s praise him as our Father every day for that call!

2. The Call to Mission

Every person who responds to God’s call as a follower of Jesus receives his command to make disciples of Jesus among the nations. You don’t have to wonder if you’re a disciple maker. Every single day, we’re to surrender our lives to however we can most faithfully make Jesus known in the world around us. As we shine the light of Jesus and share the gospel of Jesus in the world, we can be sure we are obeying the call of God in our lives.

3. The Call to Station

A station is simply a role, relationship, or responsibility in life that God has entrusted to us. One example of a station would be your place in a family, where different ones of us are called to be faithful sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and mothers and fathers, all for the spread of God’s gospel and the display of God’s glory. Other stations include God’s call to singleness (1 Corinthians 7), God’s call to membership in a local church (1 Corinthians 12:26), or God’s call to responsible citizenship in our country (Romans 13:1–7). Without question, God is calling you to be a faithful family member today, a faithful member of a local church, and a faithful citizen in your country.

4. The Call to Service

The call to service is the way God directs us as followers of Jesus to make him known in a certain way, at a certain time, among certain people, in certain locations, and/or through certain vocations. Think about Acts 13:2, when the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” God may call you to serve him through a particular career, or in a particular place, or at a particular time, in a particular way. God calls the body of Christ, with all its different parts, to live and work through a variety of different avenues in a variety of different situations for his glory in the world.

So let’s circle back to our original question: How do I know what the Lord is calling me to do?

I don’t want to oversimplify an answer to that question, but I do want to say clearly: asking this question starts with simply walking with God according to his Word every moment of every day in light of his gracious call to salvation in your life. It means giving your life today to making Jesus known where you live and wherever he might lead you. It means being a faithful family member, church member, friend, and co-laborer for the gospel. As you do all these things, and you’re discerning how and where God’s calling you to serve him in small or big ways, I would encourage you to ask the following questions:

• Desires: Do I have the desire to serve in this way?

• Gifts: Is this a good stewardship of the gifts God has given me?

• Abilities: Do I have the education, training, and expertise to serve in this way?

• Opportunities: Has the Lord opened up the opportunity for me to serve in this way? 

Prayerfully seek his Spirit as you answer all of these questions, and ask trusted followers of Jesus to help you wisely discern his leadership. And in all of this, be confident that the God who calls you is always, always faithful to help you do all that he calls you to do in a way that leads to your good, the good of many others, and the glory of our God in all the world!

— David Platt

📍 Attention Worthy

• Why should a missionary join a local church? Here are 10 reasons from Vincent Kajuma, a pastor in Mauritius. 

• Will God judge people for being born Muslim? This question (and answer) from John Piper has massive implications for the church’s mission.

• What does it look like for a church to be healthy when it comes to missions? Mark Dever offers some helpful thoughts, including 7 ways churches can pursue a biblical practice of missions. 

THIS WEEK’S COLLABORATORS:

Dave Furman, Selah Lipsey, Steven Morales, Jairo Namnún, David Platt, Camille Suazo

MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT!