Mission to the World enters the heart of Atlanta By Parker T. Williamson The Layman Online Monday, November 11, 2002 ATLANTA – For the first time since the tragedy of 9/11, Atlanta's Hilton Hotel sold out all of its rooms. More than 2,000 Presbyterians converged on this city Nov. 8 to immerse themselves in a major, multi-cultural event sponsored by Mission to the World, an agency of the Presbyterian Church in America. There is no question where the priorities line up for this relatively small Presbyterian denomination. At a time when the 2.5 million member Presbyterian Church (USA) is reducing its full-time missionary force to 300, the 306,000-member Presbyterian Church in America is now fielding 510 full-time career missionaries, plus 330 full-time, "short-term" missionaries who serve for periods of one to three years. In addition to this 840-member, full-time missionary force, PCA congregations, by year-end, will have dispatched throughout the world volunteer mission teams composed of more than 7,000 members. At its General Assembly in June, PCA officials said the denomination was the largest mission-sending Presbyterian body ever in North America. "Those congregational mission trips have become one of our most effective ways to recruit new missionaries," says Paul Kooistra, coordinator of Mission to the World. "It is not unusual for people to go to the field as a short-term volunteer and then experience God's call to a full-time missionary career." E-mail evangelism It is amazing to see the interface between short-term volunteers and career missionaries, says Dan Iverson, who resources a church planting ministry in Japan. Iverson told Atlanta conferees of a young Orlando woman who came as a volunteer to his mission station near Tokyo. Among those whom she befriended was a young woman who lives near Iverson's church. When the Orlando Christian returned home, she maintained a vigorous email correspondence with her Japanese friend. As their relationship became more intimate, the Orlando woman discovered an open door to share her faith. Soon emails were flying in three directions, with Dan Iverson in the middle. "Get over there and visit her," said the Orlando volunteer to Iverson, "she's ready for the gospel." Astounded by the technology that connected a Japanese neighbor with the gospel via the keyboard of an Orlando volunteer, Iverson quipped, "William Carey never saw anything like this!" Multitudes of young people Clearly this Atlanta conference was designed with recruitment in mind. Packed with senior highs, college students, young marrieds and parents pushing baby strollers, this was a young crowd. Computer programmer Tim Falkins, 27, and his wife Becky, 25, who is a nurse, were typical of many who eagerly waited outside the doors on opening night. "We're here because we think God may be calling us into missions," said Becky. Meeting missionaries and nationals from 48 countries offered the Falkins a smorgasbord exposure to mission opportunities around the world. If the Falkins do conclude that missions is God's call, they have their work cut out for them. Unlike the PCUSA, almost all full-time PCA missionaries raise their own financial support. "We're not worried about that part," says Tim. "If God wants us to be missionaries, he will provide the means." One of those means comes through PCA congregations, each of which has a missions committee. Joe and Connie Ashbrook from Panama City, Fla., were among hundreds of local mission committee members who came to this conference. In fact, a special seminar was established to train them for the task of recruiting and supporting people on the field. The college crowd The Rev. Scott Sherman, a Princeton Theological Seminary alumnus who helped plant a new church in Greenwich Village, N.Y., before coming to the Intown Community Church in Atlanta, was especially glad to see the huge student turn out. Serving a congregation in the Emory University area, Sherman has a special interest in challenging college students to receive and share the gospel. The Rev. Craig Wilkes, director of Partner Relations for Mission to the World, said that his unit made a special effort to attract college students to this event, raising more than $30,000 in scholarships to help them make the trip. "We have a goal of doubling our career missionary force in ten years," said Wilkes. "A key factor in reaching that goal is sharing the vision for this ministry with our college students." While the PCA has only one-eighth the membership of the PCUSA, its greater commitment to ministry is evident through its per-capita giving: $1,973 per member v. $726 in the PCUSA. Shout to the Lord! Inside the Hilton's great ballroom, praise music led by a 16-piece orchestra and 25-member choir shook the chandeliers. There was no equivocation among these Presbyterians over the Lordship of Jesus Christ. One could hear it in All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, and O Worship the King, All Glorious Above. From songs, prayers, and pulpit orations Jesus, the sovereign king of the universe was boldly proclaimed. Also obvious was the Reformed doctrine of election. "This is God's message," declared Paul Kooistra. "This message was initiated before the foundation of the world … this is a message of the triune God. The Father initiates it; the Son accomplishes it; and the Spirit applies it." God has already chosen those who are his own, said Kooistra. Our job is to announce it, to invite those whom God has redeemed to claim their inheritance. From Russia with love Lyuda Betin, a Ukranian Christian who worships in a church planted by Presbyterian missionaries, punctuated Kooistra's election theme with the story of her conversion. "God loved me before I was born," she said. "I grew up in an atheistic country. My parents never told me about God … but I heard about God in university where my science professors spent many hours trying to prove that God doesn't exist." Betin said that she, who had never heard of God before, couldn't help but wonder why communist officials were expending so much energy trying to prove that this God who does not exist does not exist. Actually, she said, God was working through those who did not believe in him, because their protestations made her curious. When the Soviet empire collapsed, life in the Ukraine became very severe. Betin, now married, and a teacher of English in the university, saw all of her savings disappear. "The stores were empty. People lost their jobs. The electricity was often turned off and we had no heat in the winter. I became angry and depressed." In the midst of these struggles, Betin met a man on the campus who handed her a Bible. Curious about its contents, she began to read it, as did her husband. They discovered strange counsel, like "love your enemies," that knocked them off their feet. "It contradicted all I had been taught," she said. Betin said she and her husband decided to try it, and they discovered that, although they didn't understand why, their new practice of forgiveness engendered huge changes inside themselves. Turning point In 1994, a turning point occurred in Betin's life. Eight missionaries came to teach Christian morality and ethics at the college. They needed interpreters, and Betin, along with several colleagues, was selected. The interpreters had no problem with the English language per se, but with no background in the faith, they found that many Christian terms made no sense. So the missionaries organized a Bible study for them. That did it. "Now it all came together," she said. "I began to understand how God had been working in my life since before I was born. I saw that he had been working even through my parents, professors and others who did not believe in him." Betin echoed Kooistra's words, concluding that it was not the missionaries who brought her to faith, but God. The missionaries helped her see and understand what God had been doing in her life. But it was clearly God the Father who initiated this conversion; Jesus Christ who accomplished it; and the Holy Spirit who applied it to her life. In 1997, the government tried to stop the work of missionaries in the Ukraine. A new law declared that foreigners could no longer teach Bible studies. The missionaries left, but Betin and her friends continued their Bible study group, which attracted a steady stream of visitors. Soon thereafter, they organized a Presbyterian church and elected their own elders to lead worship, organize a medical clinic and a school grounded in the Reformed faith. "We don't have open persecution here any more, but there is still strong atheism in our society," said Betin. "We feel a great responsibility to preach the gospel here, and we know that the Lord will bless us when we do." Seminars Interspersed among the plenary presentations, 42 breakout groups offered conferees a rich variety of seminars covering everything from strategies for ministering to the Muslim world (syncretism was not an option) to specialized ministries among age, gender and ethnic groups. Teachers from every continent were present to discuss mission opportunities in their land. Security measures were obvious when in public forums, missionaries and nationals from areas dominated by Islam were identified by first name only, and their nametags flagged their location as "sensitive country." Gospel ecumenism The service took on an ecumenical flavor when baritone soloist Frank Boggs, worship leader at Atlanta's Church of the Apostles stepped onto the stage. The Church of the Apostles was formerly a rapidly growing, evangelical Episcopal Church, soaring to more than 3,000 members in very few years under the Biblical teaching of Rev. Michael Youssef. But when national officials of the Episcopal Church became enamored with homosexual activism and syncretistic worship, the Church of the Apostles felt that the integrity of its ministry was being compromised. It left the Episcopal Church and is now a congregation of the Evangelical Anglican Church of Australia. The church conducts three simultaneous worship services on Sunday, a traditional service in its 2,800-seat sanctuary, a blended service in its chapel, and a praise service in its gymnasium. Youssef preaches to all three packed services via huge Sony high definition television monitors. Adding spice to its ecumenical flavor, Frank Boggs, the church's worship leader, is a Baptist. For all the saints A highlight of the conference occurred when the congregation sang For All the Saints, Who from their Labors Rest. As those words were sung, images appeared on giant screens above a stage adorned with 48 national flags. Appearing above the audience were Dwight L. Moody, C.S. Lewis, David Livingston, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mary Slesson, Eric Lidell and many others, a visible reminder of that great communion within whose circle these Presbyterians had gathered. As the pictures of those who had gone before flashed aloft, more than one hundred missionaries and nationals currently in service around the world entered the auditorium in a solemn processional, there to be named in the prayers of God's people. Mission to the World Mission to the World is identifiably an arm of the Presbyterian Church of America, but while its leaders insist on doctrinal integrity, they put little emphasis on denominational labels. "When we plant a church in another country," Kooistra told The Layman, "we don't name it a PCA church. We often use the name Evangelical, or Presbyterian or Reformed." Kooistra said Mission to the World tries not to think institutionally when helping to establish churches in other lands. "We prefer to think of ourselves as part of a movement rather than an institution," he said. "Our strategy is to work with the nationals to get the church started. Once they are established, we turn everything over to them."

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