Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Brooks Buser - Why go overseas when America is so lost?

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

In this Episode Brooks Buser, President of Radiance International and former missionary in Papua New Guinea, answers the question: “Why go overseas when America is so lost?Subscribe to stay up to date with each episode! Watch on YouTubeFollow on InstagramVisit Our Website

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this episode, I sit down once again with Brooks Busser, a former missionary in Papua New Guinea and the president of Radius International, and I ask him an important question regarding global missions. Maybe you've heard before someone say something like, hey, what's the difference between a missionary that crosses an ocean or an individual in a church who crosses the street to proclaim Jesus Christ. Aren't we all missionaries? Brooks will help us understand what the difference is between the two. Let's dial in. Brooks, often when I'm talking with other people about missions, I'll hear a rebuttal that there are so many lost people here in America.

Turn on the news, Johnny. America is falling apart. Why would we send missionaries when our own streets and our own churches are so weak? How would you respond to them biblically? Why is it still important to have such a passion and a burden and obedience to global missions in the midst of uncertainty and a sinful culture that we have here? Yeah, I've run into that a couple times, too. I think the best way to kind of break that down and just take it out of America, but I like to define things more in languages, why the English-speaking world has such great need. And I would agree with those brothers and sisters and say, the English-speaking world does, the Spanish-speaking world does, the Mandarin-speaking world does. But there's this

passage in Romans 15 where Paul says, I think it's in verse 32, where he says, from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, which is modern-day Albania, Paul says, there's no more work for me to do. There's nothing left to do here. He combines these things and he doubles down on it later and says, based off of that, I'm heading to Spain later on in the chapter. And church historians will tell us that less than 3% of the population from Jerusalem to Illyricum heard the gospel from Paul. There were local churches planted throughout their little outposts of light, and Paul says that's sufficient. In that area, in his mind, as Paul, the frontier missionary, that's the metric.

Are there solid churches in the English-speaking world? And brother, I mean, as we shoot this in Southern California, I know of seven solid churches in my city in San Diego. I know of a lot of solid churches in L.A. I know of a lot of solid churches in different cities around the country. And so for me to go, okay, the English-speaking world has such great need completely, and it will have such great need until Christ returns. But for us to look at the inequality of what we have in the English speaking world, and then what's in the Ampto people, the Sino people, the Nixic, who have no church, no gospel, no disciples, it's such a massive disparity. Yes, the English-speaking world has needs, but man, let's look at this sober-mindedly and go, let's head to the places

that still have nothing. That's where I kind of keep coming back to. Is there needs? Absolutely. But they pale in comparison to the lack of gospel and the lack of church in these other places. And if biblically reaching those language groups is a biblical command, then you would say that for churches, even in cities that have many lost people, reaching those language groups is a must and must be a part of their mission strategy or at least their burden or their prayer. What would you tell them? Yeah, I would say, I mean, it doesn't have to be the totality of what they do

in missions, but a church that doesn't have a component of reaching the unreached, not unreached peoples, unreached people groups where there's nothing there. They've got to have a component in that. I think the healthiest churches I know, or the ones that started off unhealthy, but then caught a vision for, we're going to start giving to that. Health comes back into the church because it's intrinsic to the Christian mind. It's intrinsic to the way Christians see the world is that we go where there is no gospel. We go to the lost. We go to the places that have the least. And when we're talking about lack of gospel representation, that's where those unreached language groups are. And so I think churches, as they catch that,

and they understand, again, the command of our Lord Jesus Christ to the church, the Great Commission was not given to individuals. It was given to the church. This is what we're about till Christ returns. I think that drives them, and it ends up energizing the church towards that. what we're about till Christ returns. I think that drives them and it ends up energizing the church towards that. Yes, there are needs, but we have thousands of missionaries here locally. We don't call them missionaries. You know what we call them? Church members. That's what they are. They're local church members. That's the missionaries

for these communities. But we have sent ones from our body. They're going to take the gospel where it doesn't exist. Yeah. So when you hear or I hear, everybody's our body. They're going to take the gospel where it doesn't exist. Yeah. So when you hear or I hear, everybody's a missionary, we're all missionaries, how would you respond to that statement? I'd say you're getting sloppy with your definitions. I worry sometimes when I walk out of churches and there's a sign over top, you're now entering the mission field. Well, in a way of speaking, I mean, my son, when he was younger, he would fall and he would have something on his knee and I'd put a Band-Aid on. I do doctor-like things, but I'm not a doctor. To call everybody a missionary is to me nobody's a missionary.

Once we lose the specificity of what that actual position is, what that role is, if everybody's a missionary, nobody is. If everybody's a missionary, nobody is. If everybody applying Band-Aids is a doctor, nobody's a doctor. We've got to have some definition to what we mean by mission field and missionary. And if it's everybody, it's everything and it's nothing at the same time. But if it means crossing barriers to get to those last people groups, then the church has a target, then they develop a strategy, and we continue to fulfill what the Christ left us to do.

Awesome, thank you so much, Brooks.