by Randy Hurst
Director of Communications
Assemblies of God World Missions

The highest priority of our mission is not projects. It is people. The heart of our outreach is the missionary with a life calling—who leaves home, family and friends to live in a foreign land, learn a language and culture, identify with and love the people, share the good news of Jesus, and help establish a church that will endure. Even with all the technological resources and innovative ministries and programs available today, the divinely called missionary is and always will be the heart of our mission.

An expression long associated with missionaries is “the call.” Being a Pentecostal missionary is not a career choice based on human ambition or the desire for that deceptive goal the world calls “success.” For the obedient follower of Christ, success is simply service. And God has a will and purpose for each of His servants.

Because God’s servants are people; His callings are personal. He uses what will speak effectively to the individual heart of each person He has chosen for an awesome and noble purpose. For some, the call is dramatic and unforgettable. For others, it is the steadily growing realization that they have no alternative but to spend their lives taking the gospel to those who are waiting to hear.

When God speaks, a response is inescapable. The answer may be “no” or “later.” But two words that can never fit together are, “No, Lord!” And, in the urgency of this worldwide spiritual harvest, “later” might as well be “no.” For the consecrated heart there is no option other than “yes.” To say “yes” to His call often means surrendering personal dreams and ambitions on the altar of commitment. It can mean facing loneliness and even peril. What compels a person to leave the comforts and security of home, family and friends to serve Christ in a foreign land? The call.

It is a privilege, responsibility and sacred trust of the World Missions Executive Committee to interview new missionary candidates. They are sacred moments. As we sit across the table from these people, we hear a wonderful progression of testimonies of how God has called each personally. We believe each is on divine appointment with people in our world who are lost. Each is also a living testimony that God still calls messengers individually to proclaim the good news of Jesus in “the regions beyond.”

We continue to rejoice at the increasing numbers of new candidate missionaries coming to us with a divine call upon their lives to serve the Lord in the harvest field, which has increased just since I came to serve on the World Missions Executive Committee less than seven years ago from 148 countries to 200. We have entered more than 50 new countries just in the last seven years. That’s a new country every seven weeks!

Until recently, I had never stopped to consider how many prospective missionaries I have been involved in interviewing during that time period. I did a little research with the Personnel & Family Life Department and learned that in less than seven years, we have interviewed more than 650 new missionaries.

I wish you could sit with the committee for just a few of the interviews. This process never becomes old or perfunctory. As each prospective candidate shares the story of his or her divine calling, we marvel at the Lord of the Harvest’s strategic placement in spiritually needy areas of the world where the lost are waiting to hear the message of Jesus.

More new missionaries than ever are coming to us with the Holy Spirit’s call upon their lives. We must send them. Their faces reflect their joyful anticipation of the ministry to which the Lord has called them.

Twice each year new missionaries begin Candidate training school at our annual School of Missions. It is critical that we help them early in their deputation or they can really get behind in the process, which lengthens their itineration time. In a few cases, it can make the difference in whether or not they even make it to final appointment.

Our single most vital project is Senders Fund. When this fund was instituted, missionaries needed an average of 22 months to raise their budget and reach the field. The primary reason for the delay was the difficulty in raising their required cash budget. This meant they were staying in the United States much longer simply for a lack of cash. Since the introduction of Senders Fund, the average itineration time has decreased from 22 months to just 13. That’s nine months missionaries are preaching the gospel, planting churches, training national ministers, and touching poor and suffering people with the compassion of Christ that otherwise would be spent in the United States raising their budget.

Today our missionaries live and work in 200 countries of the world. People are coming to Christ and joining Assemblies of God churches worldwide at a rate of about 10,000 per day. The harvest is multiplying more than ever.

The Ethiopian in Acts 8 had God’s Word in his hands, in a language he knew, with a seeking mind and a hungry heart. But it wasn’t until God put Philip into the chariot beside him that the Ethiopian understood…and believed. He needed a messenger. Most of the lost in this world are like that Ethiopian. They need a person to come to them.

The missionary-apostle Paul declared, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:13–15, NIV).

Multitudes of lost people are waiting to hear the good news of eternal life. Jesus, the Lord of the Harvest, knows each lost soul and longs to reach each heart ... to let each know of His love and salvation. He also knows and has chosen each messenger and calls each personally.

Our Lord calls laborers into His harvest field. They respond in obedience. But the mission is not complete until the called are sent. And we must send them. If our Lord’s command is to all of us … He requires that each does something to take the good news of God’s saving grace to our lost world. We must all take the Great Commission to heart because it involves the whole church, those who go…and those who send.

The highest priority for our missions dollars is to rush these divinely called missionaries to the harvest field where the lost are waiting!

No need is both more important and more urgent than getting divinely called missionaries to the field to which the Lord of the Harvest has called them. Senders Fund urgently needs help to respond to the exciting continued increase in the number of new missionaries answering the call to the fields of the world.

Would you please prayerfully consider sending an especially generous gift to help us meet this urgent need? You may contribute online by clicking here.

Thank you for being a part in the cause that matters so much to the heart of our Lord—reaching a world that is spiritually lost.

Contact us with your questions.