DMM: Extraordinary Prayer--Muscular Darkness

The Call to Prayer

As foreigners living among Muslim peoples, how do we respond to the daily customs and spiritual practices around us in ways that honor God and reflect the love of Christ?

Five times each day, the adhan—the Islamic call to prayer—sounds from local mosques, inviting Muslims to perform sholat, or ritual prayer. The call rolls across neighborhoods, penetrates homes, and punctuates the rhythms of daily life.

What stirs within you when you hear it?

Pause and acknowledge your response. Take time to write down your emotions, thoughts as you hear the blanketing call being broadcast to your Muslim context. Do you feel compassion, sadness, resistance, curiosity, urgency, disdain, compassion, resentment, anger, irritation, or conviction? Bring both positive and negative reactions honestly before the Lord.

Then ask a deeper question:

How does God see the people who are responding to their call to prayer?

Muscular Darkness

“And these are but the outer fringe of His works; how faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”

—Job 26:14

Monitor lizards. Muscular darkness. The call to Muslim prayer.

The morning sun declares itself against the silhouette of Mount R****. Tropical birds move through the lush foliage as the island awakens. Monitor lizards settle into the shadows, and snakes remain hidden beneath the dense landscape.

Then the first of five daily calls to prayer rises from mosque to mosque.

At the time of this reflection, more than one thousand mosques serve an island population of approximately four million people—nearly all of them Muslim. As predictably as the golden sun cresting above the mountain, the call summons the people to prayer.

For disciples of Jesus, that sound can become more than part of the cultural landscape. It can become a Holy Spirit led invite to intercession.

Hear the Call Through God’s Heart

The call to prayer reminds us that millions of Muslims faithfully seek to honor God according to what they have been taught. As followers of Jesus, we believe that the fullness of God’s saving love, grace, and truth is revealed in Christ.

This conviction should never lead us to contempt. It should lead us to compassion.

The spiritual need surrounding us can become fuel for an intercessory fire—one that burns until Muslim households have access to the transforming good news of Jesus.

Do we hear only a religious broadcast?

Or do we hear families, communities, and entire peoples waiting to encounter the beauty of Christ?

Persevering in Christ

My husband and I serve among Muslim unreached people groups since 1991.

One recent morning, we sat together overlooking the place of God’s calling. From our second-story balcony, I gazed across newly planted rice fields woven among Muslim neighborhoods. The call to prayer lingered in the air.

Precious memories greeted me around every corner.

We had arrived with a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Years later, we returned as empty nesters, entrusting our two children to God as they began their university years. Now, our daughter serves with our company in Middle Earth, while our son and his wife make disciples in our passport country. Our three grandchildren are some of the greatest treasures in our lives. 

Looking back, I could see the Father’s masterful artistry. His sovereign hand has been present through every shade and texture of our lives:

• Through physical attacks and threats
• Through life-and-death medical evacuations
• Through the deaths of colleagues
• Through shepherding others in emotional crisis
• Through conflict among missionary teams
• Through failures to extend grace
• Through extraordinary grace received
• Through fiery trials and spiritual warfare
• Through brokenness and grief
• Through seasons of profound celebration

Through it all, the Father enables us to remain.

He alone receives the glory.

Perseverance is not merely stubborn endurance. It is the fruit of repeatedly discovering the sufficiency, beauty, and worthiness of Christ.

The Necessity of Brokenness

The call to prayer also invites us to examine our own hearts.

Do we genuinely yearn with the love of Christ for our Muslim neighbors to know and love him? Or have familiarity, frustration, and disappointment dulled our compassion?

Brokenness is not weakness. Surrendered brokenness makes room for the redemptive power of Christ.

Through it, God exposes self-reliance, dismantles pride, and gives us a clearer glimpse of His glory. We decrease so that the life of Jesus may become increasingly visible through us.

The most serious darkness is not merely the spiritual darkness we discern around us. It is the darkness we tolerate within us—the pride, fear, resentment, and lovelessness that keep us from embodying Christ.

Before asking God to transform a people, we must allow Him to transform us.

Calvary Love

What does love have to do with perseverance?

Everything.

I did not understand Calvary love as deeply before walking through seasons that broke my heart. I would never have chosen many parts of that journey, yet within them, the Father revealed more of His sufficiency.

Could His deepest work sometimes occur within the process rather than merely at its conclusion?

When unwanted circumstances lie beyond our power to change, we confront our desperate need for God. We discover again that He keeps us from falling—not once, but countless times.

Perseverance grows as we hunger to know and receive His love in every circumstance. This paradoxical life is possible only through the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to embrace Calvary love regardless of the cost.

Calvary love does not retreat when ministry becomes difficult.

It remains.

It forgives.

It intercedes.

It lays down its rights.

It loves when love is not returned.

A Call to Engage

Each adhan can become a reminder of the spiritual battle—and of Christ’s immeasurable love for Muslim peoples.

Rather than allowing the sound to produce irritation or indifference, we can receive it as a prompt:

• To worship Jesus as the risen Lord
• To intercede for Muslim households
• To ask God to reveal Christ through dreams, Scripture, relationships, and miraculous answers to prayer
• To pray for Persons of Peace who will open their households
• To ask for reproducing disciples and house fellowships
• To pray for local leaders filled with humility, courage, and the Holy Spirit
• To offer ourselves again for God’s purposes

As one considers the call to Prayer for Muslims, may this be seen as an opportunity to anticipate the transformation of how we view those very ones who know not His love, His forgiveness, nor His grace and mercy. As I consider the reality that we have been invited to be co-heirs, through Christ alone, with the God of the universe, I find my own commitment to prayer sometimes pales in comparison. Though Muslim peoples pray in futility and repetitions, I stand in awe of the weapons of our warfare which we, as a Body of the Living God, so lamely appropriate.

Spend time interceding over these reminders.The call to prayer should also humble us. Many Muslims order their days around prayer, while those of us who have received access to the Father through Christ may treat intercession casually.

We have been given powerful spiritual weapons, yet how lightly we sometimes employ them.

Let every Muslim call to prayer awaken the Bride of Christ to intercede for their salvation.

Abba Father,

Clothe me this day in humility. Remind me that there is nothing more precious and nothing more worthy than pressing onward to know You and to adore You. Bring my heart to the onward and upward processes of clinging to Your worthiness alone in all areas of my life. 

At every Call to Prayer which goes forth among the lost, cause my heart to pause at the reality of Your risen presence and the nearness of the Your lavish goodness. Cause my heart to be quickened to intercede for the work of Your mighty hand in the revelation of Your truth and righteousness as the one and only Jalan yang Lurus dan Benar (the straight and true way of Allah). 

May I be one who understands at heart levels that I am coming before You, My King. May I give you all that is due Your Holy Name in my thought, action, and inclination of heart.  

In Jesus’ matchless Name, Amen.

—R. A.

DMM: Increase of Decrease

DMM: The Increase of Decrease

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

—Philippians 2:5–8

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

—James 1:22

Suri rose to prepare the family’s daily meal.

As is common among many of the Muslim unreached people groups in our region, she spoon-fed her young children, well into their pre-adolescent years. What followed, however, was not a cultural norm.

“I must spoon-feed my husband,” she emphasized, “or he will not eat!”

Did I hear her correctly? I wondered.

I asked Suri to clarify, and she repeated the same information. Her husband was an apparently healthy adult, yet she physically spoon-fed him each morning.

The local term for this practice is menyuap. Its root word, suap, refers to feeding someone directly, one mouthful at a time.

Because I had not encountered this particular practice during our many years in Southeast Asia, I asked whether it was a cultural custom unfamiliar to me. Suri assured me that it was not. Rather, she feared that her husband would not care for himself properly and might eventually die.

Her concern had led her to assume responsibility for something he was capable of doing himself.

That conversation stayed with me because it illustrated a danger we encounter in disciple-making: when care unintentionally creates dependency.

The Danger of Spoon-Fed Discipleship

Followers who must continually be spoon-fed rarely become love-and obedience-based disciple makers.

This is not the biblical pattern.

Every new disciple needs nurturing, encouragement, instruction, and patient guidance. Spiritual infancy is natural. Permanent spiritual infancy is not.

Healthy discipleship helps people learn to feed on God’s Word, listen to the Holy Spirit, obey what God reveals, and help others do the same. The goal is not independence from Christ or His Body. It is mature dependence upon Christ rather than unhealthy dependence upon a human teacher.

A movement leader, David Watson, once described the distinction this way: "there is a significant difference between becoming a cross-cultural Christian follower and becoming a cross-cultural Kingdom reproducer."

One may adopt Christian language and practices without learning to reproduce obedient disciples. A Kingdom reproducer, however, abides in Christ, obeys His Word, makes disciples, and equips others to do likewise.

Suri had followed Jesus across cultural boundaries, but her development as a reproducing disciple maker had stalled. Her story also raised an uncomfortable question for me:

Have our methods helped people mature, or have we trained them to wait for us to feed them?

When Care Creates Dependency

Grace-filled, unflinching evaluation is an essential part of Disciple-Making Movements—for local partners and outside catalysts alike.

We must be willing to ask whether our leadership is developing mature disciples or cultivating dependency. Sometimes what appears to be compassionate care may actually prevent another person from assuming responsibility.

A leader may prepare every lesson, answer every question, solve every problem, facilitate every gathering, and make every ministry decision. The disciples receive, but they do not learn to discover. They listen, but they do not obey. They participate, but they do not reproduce.

Gradually, a suap-me mindset develops:

• “Feed me.”
• “Teach me.”
• “Tell me what the passage means.”
• “Answer my questions.”
• “Lead my group.”
• “Do the ministry for me.”

This tendency is not limited to one culture or mission field. It flourishes in many churches and Christian organizations—including those in our passport countries.

The problem is not receiving teaching. Scripture clearly affirms the role of teachers, shepherds, and leaders. The problem arises when teaching never equips hearers to become doers.

James warns us that hearing without obedience produces self-deception.

The Increase That Comes Through Decrease

Philippians 2 presents Jesus as our supreme model.

Though He possessed all authority, He did not use His position for self-exaltation. He emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, humbled Himself, and became obedient—even to death on a cross.

This is the posture required for multiplying discipleship.

Outside catalysts and ministry leaders must become willing to decrease. We model faithfully, but we resist becoming indispensable. We assist patiently, but we do not assume permanent control. We watch others lead, even when they do things differently from us. We coach from alongside—or eventually from a distance—so that local disciples increasingly depend upon Christ and His Word.

Our decrease creates room for others to grow.

This does not mean abandoning emerging leaders before they are multiplying in healthy ways. Nor does it mean withholding care, wisdom, or accountability. It means that our care is always moving toward maturity and reproduction.

In DMM, successful leadership is not measured by how many people depend upon us. It is measured, in part, by how many people are learning to depend upon Christ and equip others.

End Vision Informs Everything

Our End Vision should shape every stage of disciple-making.

If the vision is merely to gather people around an outside teacher, spoon-fed discipleship may appear successful. People attend. They listen. They appreciate the leader. They may even become knowledgeable.

But if the End Vision is to see cascading movements to Christ among unreached peoples, then we must ask different questions:

• How are disciples learning to hear God through His Word?
• How are they responding in loving obedience?
• How are they sharing what they discover?
• How are they gathering their households and relational networks?
• How are they facilitating discovery rather than merely repeating information?
• How effectively are they developing other leaders?
• How are new generations of disciples and groups emerging?

If someone settles into the posture of “God, just feed me,” or protests, “I cannot make disciples because I am not educated enough,” that person may be seeing God, Scripture, or discipleship through an unnecessarily limited lens.

God has always used ordinary people who trust and obey Him. The power does not reside in advanced education, polished communication, or outside expertise. It resides in God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.

Signs of Spoon-Fed Discipleship

A pattern of prolonged spiritual dependency may produce several recognizable characteristics.

1. Dependence on Human Teachers

Disciples rely primarily on others to interpret and apply God’s Word rather than learning to engage Scripture prayerfully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2. Vulnerability to Error

When believers have not learned to examine teaching through Scripture, they can be easily misled or ensnared.

3. Difficulty Crossing Cultural Boundaries

Disciples may know how to receive within one familiar church environment but lack the confidence and adaptability to make disciples in another context.

4. A Consumer Orientation

The central question gradually becomes, “What am I receiving?” rather than, “How can I obey, serve, and reproduce what God has entrusted to me?”

5. Fear of Responsibility

Believers may feel incapable of obeying unless an established leader approves every step or accompanies them.

6. Little or No Reproduction

What is continually received but never obeyed or shared rarely produces multiplying generations.

7. Excessive Dependence on the Shepherd

Leaders must continually provide attention that could have been invested in new people and emerging generations.

These signs should not become reasons to shame people. They are invitations to evaluate our discipleship practices and ask how we can help people move toward maturity.

Developing Reproducing Disciples

When evaluating and developing those with whom we partner, we must:

• Listen closely. Seek to understand their spiritual condition, relationships, fears, gifts, and present challenges.
• Encourage clearly. Affirm evidence of God’s work and call forth the potential He has placed within them.
• Model faithfully. Demonstrate how to pray, engage Scripture, make disciples, facilitate groups, and develop leaders.
• Assist appropriately. Serve alongside them while allowing them to assume increasing responsibility.
• Watch attentively. Give them opportunities to lead while observing where further coaching may be helpful.
• Coach intentionally. Ask discovery-oriented questions that help them evaluate, obey, and identify their next steps.
• Release expectantly. Entrust responsibility to them while remaining available for encouragement and accountability.

This process requires humility from the outside catalyst. We must resist the desire to remain at the center, receive the credit, or ensure that everything is done according to our preferences.

Multiplication requires surrendered leadership.

Move With the Movers, While Loving the Lingerers

One of the most important skills in movement work is learning to move with the movers while continuing to love the lingerers.

Some people respond quickly to God’s Word, obey what they learn, share it with others, and begin reproducing. Wise leaders invest deeply in these responsive disciples.

Others require more time. They may struggle with fear, family pressure, unresolved wounds, limited capacity, or reluctance to obey. We do not discard or devalue them. We continue to love, pray for, and encourage them.

Yet love does not require us to invest the same amount of training time in every person.

Jesus loved the crowds, invested more deeply in the disciples, and entrusted particular responsibilities to those who were prepared to receive them. In the same way, movement practitioners must discern where focused investment will produce multiplying fruit.

This is not favoritism. It is stewardship.

Moving with responsive people while loving those who linger requires continual dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Without His guidance, we may become impatient with slower people or remain so occupied with dependent disciples that we neglect emerging reproducers.

The Posture of a Movement Servant

The posture of a heart seeking cascading movements to Christ is anchored in grace-filled choices.

We choose to serve rather than control.

We choose to equip rather than impress.

We choose to release rather than retain.

We choose obedience rather than mere knowledge.

We choose reproduction rather than dependence.

And we choose to decrease so that Christ may increase—in us, in emerging leaders, and throughout multiplying generations of disciples.

The goal is not to produce disciples who continually hold out an empty spoon.

The goal is to help ordinary people feast upon God’s Word, obey the Holy Spirit, and invite others to the table.

—R. A.

DMM: The Hunt for Red October (The Hunt for Persons of Peace)

The film version of The Hunt for Red October follows the deliberate search for a rogue Soviet submarine during the late Cold War. Much of the story’s intrigue centers on one critical question: What is the submarine commander’s true intent?

CIA analyst Jack Ryan studies Captain Marko Ramius’s movements, words, character, and personal history. Based on what he has learned about Ramius, Ryan becomes convinced that the commander’s intentions are not what others assume. He then acts with courage and determination upon that conviction.

In a far greater and more consequential way, those seeking to make disciples must learn the heart, words, character, and purposes of God.

Our search for Persons of Peace is not based on human instinct alone. It follows the pattern Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 10 and Luke 9–10. As we grow in our knowledge of the Father’s heart and learn to follow the Holy Spirit, He gives us eyes to recognize those He may already be preparing.

The love of Christ compels us to enter this prayerful, deliberate pursuit. We do not merely wait for spiritually receptive people to find us. We intentionally pray, go, listen, share, and look for those in whom the Holy Spirit is already at work.

Trusting the Father’s Intent

To seek the launch of a Disciple-Making Movement is to trust the heart and intent of the Father.

For the sake of His glory and renown, we pursue those whom He is preparing—not only individuals, but also their households and relational networks. We believe God desires to draw people to Himself and reproduce obedient disciples among families, communities, and entire peoples.

A Person of Peace will often:

• Welcome the message and the messenger
• Listen with spiritual openness
• Receive or seriously consider the message
• Open a household or relational network to discovery

The Person of Peace may not initially understand or believe the gospel. Yet this person demonstrates unusual receptivity and relational influence. Through that open door, an entire household or community may gain an opportunity to discover God through His Word.

Recognizing such a person requires intimacy with God, dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and patient engagement with many people.

When Progress Feels Slow

A colleague serving among unreached people groups once shared this honest reflection:

“I appreciate your prayers for relationships and for Persons of Peace in particular. Actually, I need to become more intentional about praying for Persons of Peace.

“It has seemed very slow. I have spent time with each of these women only once or twice. Initiating relationships and praying are really all I can do right now because we do not yet have a natural point of connection.

“I know it has been only two and a half months, but it is difficult to know what progress should look like at this point. I am excited to begin a Discovery Bible Study with whomever the Lord leads us to, and I am eager to begin. Yet I also recognize that it may take time.”

Her words express a tension familiar to many Kingdom Movements practitioners. We carry a sense of urgency because people remain without access to the gospel. At the same time, we must respect the unhurried work of the Holy Spirit in human hearts.

We pray fervently and act intentionally, but we cannot manufacture spiritual hunger. We can initiate conversations, build relationships, share stories, and invite people to discover God’s Word. Only the Father can draw people to Himself.

Faithfulness sometimes looks like visible fruit. At other times, it looks like continuing to pray, love, and sow when progress seems painfully slow.

Whatever It Takes—and However Long It Takes

Those who feel called to pursue a Disciple-Making Movement often pray:

“Whatever it takes, Lord, launch a Kingdom movement among this unreached people group for Your glory.”

I would add:

“However long it takes, Lord, raise up multiplying worshipers from among this people.”

Searching for Persons of Peace takes time, intentionality, perseverance, and trust-filled obedience. It requires us to release our preferred timelines without surrendering the urgency of the task.

Faithful pursuit means refusing both passivity and anxious striving.

We do not sit back and expect a Person of Peace to appear without intentional engagement. Nor do we attempt to force spiritual responsiveness or label every friendly person a Person of Peace.

Instead, we pray and go. We meet people. We enter homes when invited. We listen carefully. We share God’s story and the story of His transforming work in our lives. We invite people to discover His Word with their families and friends.

Then we watch for those who welcome, listen, respond, and open their relational communities.

A foundational biblical principle must be embraced: we usually need to speak with many people before finding those whom God is preparing to open their households as households of peace.

The search is both strategic and profoundly spiritual.

People Are Not Projects

Intentionality must always be rooted in genuine love.

A Person of Peace is not a ministry mechanism, a strategic shortcut, or a means of gaining access to a community. Every person we meet bears the image of God and deserves to be treated with dignity, patience, and sincere care.

We do not value people only because of what they might accomplish for a movement. We love them because God loves them.

Our search must therefore remain relational rather than transactional. We listen without manipulating. We serve without demanding a response. We invite without pressuring. We trust the Holy Spirit to reveal what He is doing and how we should respond.

The love of Christ compels us—not the pursuit of impressive numbers, rapid results, or ministry recognition.

Knowing the Master Commander’s Heart

Our first and greatest pursuit is intimacy with Christ.

Before searching for Persons of Peace, we seek the face of God. Before studying the spiritual openness of others, we ask Him to search and transform our own hearts. Before asking where He is working, we learn to recognize His voice through Scripture, prayer, worship, and loving obedience.

Out of the overflow of this intimacy, we become increasingly sensitive to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

As we learn the Father’s heart, we begin to recognize what reflects His purposes. As we become familiar with His Word, we can better discern the people and places He may be preparing. As we walk in step with His Spirit, He directs our conversations, relationships, and invitations.

This has everything to do with finding Persons of Peace and their households.

Know the Master Commander’s heart. Know His words. Know His character and intent. In knowing Him, we increasingly learn His ways.

Then we pray.

We go.

We listen.

We love.

And with patient, expectant faith, we look for the people and households whom God is already preparing.

—R. A.

DMM: Delighting in God's Glory--To Be or Not to Be?

In Scripture we are plugged into a supracultural standard that critiques us in order to sharpen and polish and refine us…Scripture also nurtures us…Scripture still sometimes leaves me breathless. I see such honesty, such beauty, such profundity, such ultimacy.”

-Miriam Adeney (Missiologist/Professor/Author) (excerpt from an email exchange 2011)

Judy and I had settled into a quiet cranny of a local coffee spot in the midst of a densely populated Muslim people group. 

To be or not to be? That was the question we posed to one another. Were we really convinced that to “be” in Christ was the ultimate place for any of our hearts to cultivate deeply, no matter the people God calls one to serve?  Or was the task the “main thing”?

Both the development of intimacy with Christ daily as well as engaging in hearing and doing what He purposes for the peoples of the earth to know His glory are essential in the worship of God.

Another missionary colleague once confided how she rarely spent time with Jesus either enjoying His presence or soaking in His Word.

Grace and love covers every aspect of our lives. Having said this, the question begs, “How can I trust God to do a work of Holy Spirit led transformation of an entire unreached people group when I am not convinced of my own personal need for daily transformational power of the presence of God.

Personal Reflection:  Consider your growing intimacy in the Lord.  If one were to ask input from your focus UPG friends, both believers and non-believers, as to what you model in terms of your desire for the Lord, what would they say? What do you say? What is the Father’s heart in this area? Grace led intentionality is the emphasis.

DMM-Big Distractions and the Big Compel

 

Big Distractions and the Big Compel

Within the American expression of the Bride of Christ, our cultural assumptions can quietly shape us in ways that are inconsistent with a biblical worldview.

I have often wondered whether we have reversed God’s design for us as His followers and lost sight of His purposes for humanity. Have we become content to live in the shallows while avoiding the depths of His ways? Have we allowed unrecognized distractions to consume opportunities that could be offered for His glory?

These questions invite us to consider what I call the Big Compel.

God’s glory, unchanging love, and infinite worthiness compel every aspect of life for a disciple of Jesus. We are not driven by guilt, human ambition, or the need to prove ourselves. We are compelled by love for the One who gave Himself for us.

“For Christ’s love compels us.”

—2 Corinthians 5:14

Have We Forgotten Our First Love?

Have we forgotten our First Love?

Have we forgotten our allegiance to His Kingdom and our calling to become His instruments in the fulfillment of His purposes?

What is God’s design for the Bride of Christ? To what purpose and function does He call His Church?

When considering the Great Commission, John Piper summarizes our responsibility in global mission with a pointed statement:

“We are all goers or senders—or disobedient.”

Some are called to cross cultures as sent ones. Others participate by praying, giving, encouraging, equipping, and sustaining those who go. Yet none of us is invited to remain indifferent to Christ’s commission.

Sending involves far more than providing financial resources. Faithful senders embrace the task alongside those who go. They intercede persistently, offer encouragement, help carry practical burdens, and remain deeply invested in seeing disciples made among the nations.

Jesus gave His commission to the whole Church:

“Go and make disciples of all nations.”

—Matthew 28:19

The word translated “nations” is ethne—the peoples of the earth. Every disciple has a role in seeing God’s glory declared and multiplying disciples raised up among them.

A New Landscape of Distraction

When my husband and I first arrived on the mission field in 1991, we did not face the challenges created by today’s hyper-connected world.

Communication with our passport country was limited and often difficult. We could not instantly stream entertainment, follow events in the United States, or remain continually connected to family and friends through social media.

Today’s technology offers extraordinary benefits. It enables workers to communicate with supporters, access training, translate resources, maintain vital relationships, and share the gospel through media. Digital tools can accelerate Kingdom purposes when used wisely.

But connection can also become distraction.

A missionary may live physically among an unreached people while remaining emotionally and relationally tethered to life back home. Hours can disappear into social media, streaming entertainment, online news, and endless digital conversations.

The question is not whether technology is good or bad. The question is whether we are using it intentionally or allowing it to shape our attention and affections.

Will the End Vision—the launch of cascading movements to Christ—inform how we invest our time? Or will we be consumed by tools that were meant to serve us?

Rachel Kleppen’s article, “Netflix Is Making It Harder to Be a Missionary,” explores how constant connection to one’s former life can hinder the deep cultural presence required in cross-cultural ministry.

If we do not learn to practice self-control in an internet- and social-media-saturated age, our capacity to remain deeply present with God and people will be diminished.

Attention Is an Issue of Stewardship

Distraction is not unique to missionaries. Every disciple must decide what will form the heart, occupy the mind, and receive the hours entrusted by God.

Our attention is one of our most valuable resources.

This does not mean that rest, recreation, or communication with loved ones is wasteful. Healthy rest is essential. Enjoyment is a gift. Missionaries need supportive relationships, sustainable rhythms, Sabbath, and time to recover from the demands of cross-cultural life.

The problem arises when recreation ceases to restore us and begins to consume us—when digital habits numb rather than renew, isolate rather than connect, and weaken rather than strengthen our capacity to love God and others.

The goal is not relentless activity. It is surrendered attentiveness.

We want to become people who are present to God, present to our families, and present to those among whom He has placed us.

Discovery Bible Study: A Biblical Work Ethic

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

—Colossians 1:28–29

The following Discovery Bible Study can help individuals and teams examine work, endurance, stewardship, and dependence upon Christ.

Read the Passages

• 1 Thessalonians 2:9–12
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6–13
• Acts 20:31–35
• 2 Timothy 2:1–10
• 2 Timothy 4:1–8

Read each passage aloud. Then ask someone to restate it in their own words without teaching or preaching.

Discovery Questions

1. What do these passages reveal about God?
2. What do they reveal about Paul’s calling and character?
3. How did Paul invest his time and energy?
4. How did he interact with the people he served?
5. What hardships was he willing to endure?
6. What did he hope to accomplish through his labor?
7. What do these passages teach about dependence upon God?
8. What example should we follow—and what must be adapted to our own calling, family responsibilities, health, and season of life?
9. What is God asking you to change or obey?
10. With whom will you share what you are learning?

What Can We Learn from Paul?

Paul’s work was marked by perseverance, sacrifice, and purpose.

At times, he labored night and day. He supported himself through practical work while also proclaiming the gospel and strengthening believers. He admonished, exhorted, and encouraged people with tears. His ministry was deeply relational—life upon life.

Paul was willing to endure hardship because he longed to see people reconciled to God and formed into maturity in Christ. He also wanted to model diligence for believers who supported themselves through ordinary work.

Yet Paul’s specific schedule should not become a rigid standard imposed upon every disciple.

Paul was single and carried a particular apostolic calling. A married person, a parent of young children, someone living with illness, or a worker recovering from trauma will carry different responsibilities and limitations.

Biblical diligence is not the same as compulsive overwork. Faithfulness cannot be measured merely by hours worked. Jesus Himself withdrew to pray and invited His disciples to rest.

Our goal is not frantic activity but fruitful obedience—laboring with the energy Christ supplies while honoring the responsibilities and limits He has given us.

How Can We Multiply Our Time?

We cannot create more hours, but we can steward our existing hours more intentionally.

Consider these practical possibilities:

• Integrate family and ministry appropriately.
  Look for natural opportunities to practice hospitality, prayer, service, and disciple-making together without making family members feel that every interaction is a ministry assignment.
• Remove lower-priority commitments.
  Ask which activities are good but not essential in your present season.
• Invite local believers and the lost into everyday life.
  Travel, shop, prepare meals, or complete appropriate errands together. Ordinary life can become a setting for relational discipleship.
• Steward mealtimes intentionally.
  Share meals with Persons of Peace, emerging leaders, teammates, neighbors, or those who need encouragement.
• Delegate wisely.
  Release tasks that others can do so you can focus on responsibilities God has uniquely entrusted to you.
• Establish digital boundaries.
  Limit social media, news, and entertainment when they begin consuming attention needed for God, family, relationships, rest, or ministry.
• Seek practical help.
  When culturally appropriate and financially possible, consider fairly compensated household assistance or other support that relieves unsustainable burdens.
• Invite outside perspective.
  When you feel overwhelmed, ask a trusted coach, mentor, or teammate to help you examine how your time is being used.
• Request additional workers.
  Some burdens cannot be solved through better time management. Pray for and actively seek more laborers from near-neighbor disciples as well as new disciples from within the UPG.
• Protect life-giving rhythms.
  Preserve time for abiding in Christ, sleep, exercise, Sabbath, friendship, and unhurried presence with your family. For singles, cultivate life giving community both on-site, where possible, as well as on line.

The question is not simply, “How can I accomplish more?” A better question is, “How can I become more fully present and obedient to what God has actually asked of me?”

Inviting the Lord to Examine Our Time

Seeing cascading Kingdom Movements to Christ launched among the remaining unreached people groups requires surrenderedness.

How we spend our time is a strategic area to invite the Lord to examine.

We can prayerfully ask:

• What currently receives the best of my attention?
• Which habits deepen my love for Christ and people?
• Which habits repeatedly distract or numb me?
• Am I using technology as a tool, or is it quietly mastering me?
• Does my schedule reflect God’s priorities for this season?
• Am I working from intimacy with Christ or striving to prove my worth?
• What must I release to become more present and obedient?

The Big Compel is not the pressure to accomplish everything. It is the love and glory of Christ laying claim to everything.

His worthiness compels us to go.

His love compels us to send.

His glory compels us to pray.

His presence compels us to abide.

And His Kingdom purposes compel us to steward our attention, energy, resources, and time so that those who have not yet heard may one day become multiplying worshipers of Jesus.

May we refuse the shallows—not through restless striving, but through a deep and surrendered love for our First Love.

—R. A.