Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Brooks Buser - What's my Role in God's Global Mission?

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

Jonny Ardavanis is the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University and hosts the podcast Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis. He is passionate about the Gospel and God’s Word and desires to see people understand and obey it. Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode Brooks Buser, President of Radiance International and former missionary in Papua New Guinea, answers the question: “What's my Role in God's Global Mission?"Subscribe to stay up to date with each episode! For Podcast: Spotify, Apple, Stitcher, TuneIn and RadioPublicLink: https://open.spotify.com/show/3zRD4xDc5spuY1NVeLwVY0?si=lLp1mnQcRiefbGNQmzfSvA&dl_branch=1For more information on Jonny Ardavanis and Dial InVisit: https://www.jonnyardavanis.com

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis, and this is Dial In. In this episode, I sit down with Brooks Busser, the president of Radius International, and ask him an important question. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissions all of his followers to go and make disciples of all of the nations. All of the nations is what Jesus says, and so there's a global work that Jesus is doing. He says he's building his church in Matthew 16, and that church is going to be global. So every single Christian has been commissioned to be a part of this global work that Jesus

has commissioned us to be a part of. But the question is, what is my part in that? If I'm not a missionary necessarily, how can I as a businessman, a teacher, a lawyer, a nurse, or a doctor be a part of what god is doing globally that's what brooks is going to answer in this episode you're not going to want to miss it let's dial in brooks thanks for sitting down with me i remember reading in high school the biography and the journals of William Carey. And he once said that, I will go down into the well, speaking of missions, but you must hold the

rope. Either way, our hands are bloodied. And he speaks to that regardless of whether or not you or I go actually overseas, everyone is called to be a part of God's global mission. But often today, people are fairly divorced outside of maybe a monthly payment that they give to a missionary from what God is actually doing. So what does it look like for someone here in America or in a Western context to actually hold the rope? What is God's design for a businessman who's involved in his local church in the United States to hold the rope and to give his life for God's global mission, even if he's not actually going? Yeah, that's such a good question. There's so many saints, Christians in the church,

faithful church members that I think are going to be lauded at that great day when we gather around the throne and we realize what they did to see the gospel go to places where it's never been before. And the only thing that I can maybe kind of draw people or make it simple is just from our own situation. We had what was called a partnership group where we had five families, and they were basically our mouth, our ears, our hands back here when we were over there.

And they stayed in contact with us. I really do believe when we presented the gospel, we had our entire church praying for us around the clock, and they helped organize that. And then they found out that we needed AA batteries, and they put together a package, and they got it to us as quickly as possible. And then they helped when we came back, and our son needed to get into a school, and they helped with those types of things. I think there's a variety of ways, but to be faithful on your missions committee, but I mean, I'm getting ahead of myself, to be a faithful church member first, to be regular at the church. I think it starts from that. And if you have a vision for the church, then you have a vision for what

the church as a body is doing in these foreign contexts. And you try and help out with these different things. You live a different life because you realize the value of what is going on over there. We had a couple in our partnership group, Marv and Shirley Friedman. Marv died about three years ago and Shirley went to be with the Lord about a month ago. And they drove older cars intentionally. They could have upgraded their house in San Diego, but they lived in a smaller house, and they were just faithful at keeping track of what was happening with us and one other couple from the church that were going.

They were to me the model senders. They realized this isn't Brooks and Nina's thing. This is our thing because we're a part of this church and they're the members that are sent out to do that. And so as they would stand up every fifth Sunday and bring our prayer request to the body and as they would pray through key times when we were facing some sort of challenge or there was some event happening, They were just faithful in those things. I think that's the model, Sunder, is they never let go of the rope.

When William Carey made that statement, he said, I'm going down the well and both of our hands are going to be bloody. Don't let go of the rope until the Lord takes you home. And that was the idea. We're doing this for life. This isn't a season. This isn't a fad. We're doing this for life. This isn't a season. This isn't a fad. We're doing this until the king returns.

I've heard Piper say that there are goers, senders, and disobeyers. Speak to them just briefly everyone's biblical privilege and responsibility, regardless of vocation, to be a part of God's global mission? I think it's not something that is optional if you're a Christian. If you're not a Christian, you have all sorts of options. You follow your own ambitions, your dreams, your giftings. The newest one that I hear is my passions. My passions are leading me. Most people's passions will land them in jail. You want to be about your passions or the King's passions? Because the King has a plan. He

has an agenda and he's made it pretty explicit in all four of the Gospels and in Acts. Man, I want this message to go to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so Jerusalem's got the Gospel, Judea's got the Gospel, praise God, Samaria's got the Gospel, we've still got the ends of the earth to go. And at one time, the United States was the ends of the earth. Now it's further out there, and it's going to take more, but we're involved in that task if we're Christians. And if we're Christians and we're not, we fall into that category that John Piper describes as the disobeyers. And so usually, sometimes I'll give a message and people will come up to me and they'll say, which one do you think I'm in? I'm like, brother, if you're asking me the question,

my guess is you're in the third category. Now, you mentioned gifts and passions as far as like how that aligns with people and getting involved in global missions. I sometimes hear that students will say, I don't know how I'll use my gifts or my passions in that environment. Talk about maybe the misconception briefly why people might think they have to use those in another context. Like if this skill doesn't translate to me going overseas or to me serving or partnering with other missionaries, then it's not where God has me. Talk about why that's incorrect thinking. I think it's incorrect thinking because it's putting us ahead of God's agenda. It's putting me and what I desire or what I'm good at ahead of what the king desires.

When I was leaving for the mission field, I was a CFO of a Dutch multinational. I worked in the Netherlands. I worked in Germany. And I got to Papua New Guinea. Then I got to Yembe Yembe. And for nearly 16 years, I taught a small business course at the very end for our elders on like how to sell your cocoa beans and how to get a little money back on them. That was the extent of me using my business background and my giftings. And I think of John Payton, who just had these incredible giftings. He was running one of the strongest churches in Scotland before he left for the mission field. And then he leaves for the mission field. He doesn't get to use any of his rhetorical ability for years. He doesn't get into any of that. He's running for his life for years in that island of Tanna. And people talk about, well, if my giftings aren't used, you know what, maybe the king will

use your giftings, maybe he won't, but it's really not your decision. The king's given us a job, and maybe by God's grace, you'll get to use it, and maybe you won't. But that shouldn't be the question that you're asking. You're starting from the wrong premise. What does the king desire? And then I fit in around that. That's just, yeah, where we see a lot of young people stumbling sometimes. Yeah, because regardless of that gifting or that passion, God has given us a command, and we are called to obey that,

regardless of where we see it fitting in with our agenda or our skills. And so, Brooks, thank you for your input, and I really appreciate your time. No worries.