Worship and Missions

Last night at church we saw a presentation from a mission’s team our church had sent recently to Togo, South Africa.

They had some crazy stories and some great testimonies, but what I’ve honestly been thinking about ever since then are the lyrics to the song that was playing in the background of the video they put together. I’ve never heard it before, but it’s currently on my top ten list of favorite songs:

“Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out.”

Sometimes when I think about missionaries, I tend to think in terms of their passion for the people in the countries where they are serving. But that’s not really what should be driving us to the mission field. Passion for the people is good, yes. But it’s our passion for Christ that ought to be our number one motivator.

The more we learn about God and His love for us, the more fully we understand Christ’s sacrifice, the more we recognize what an awesome God we serve, the more driven we will be to share with others – whether at home or abroad.

Worship leads to evangelism.

Which makes me think…when it comes to telling others about Christ, am I passionate…or passive? Do I really treasure Him the way I claim to? Or have I let the flame of worship grow cold?

“Missions is the overflow of our delight in God…”
--John Piper--