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If you are going to become a missionary in an organized group, like Ethnos or the IMB, some type of language proficiency is required. It would not be a wise use of money and resources to send a missionary into a foreign land where the missionary cannot speak or understand the native language. 

So it is with us. 

We have a ministry to those around the church. Let's call it the neighborhood ministry. Perhaps it is a ministry around your home. Maybe it is the neighborhood around your work, where you shop, or any place in between. Wherever your local mission field is, one thing remains true: you must be able to speak the language to communicate God's love.

If you are thinking, "Hey, I speak English," hold on for a moment. You can speak the most refined English in the city, yet the homeless, the drug addict, the poor, and the downtrodden will not understand you. It is not, necessarily, that they cannot comprehend your words - it is something different:  they don't trust you.

Like learning a foreign language helps missionaries communicate, it also builds trust with those they are sent to. If the object of your gospel presentation does not trust you, then (absent a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit) there is no basis of mutual trust. 

Here is how Paul states this principle in 1 Corintians 9:

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Learning a foreign language takes a long time. The most effective way to learn it is being immersed in a culture that speaks that language. When immersion happens, then the learner learns in the same way that babies learn to speak the words of their parents.  

So it is with our local missionary efforts. Building trust with those whom we seek to influence takes time. Trust, over time, augmented with earnest prayer ordinarily takes time and patience. It takes trial and error. It also requires wisdom, correction, then relentlessly trying and trying again. It takes conviction grounded in the Word of God and his commission (Matthew 28) to learn people, understand people, earn their trust, then speak truth to their heart. 

We would love you to join us at Sojourn Church as we strive to minister to the neighborhood around our church on the Northside of St. Joseph. We are a church that is committed to discipleship and transformation of the lives around us. 

- Dave