Charles Haddon Spurgeon
This quote from the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon does the rounds occasionally and draws a lot of attention. It is waved about by missionary apologists trying to mobilise more workers for the overseas mission field. It is quoted by tweeters to draw attention to global mission.
But put this sentence back into the context of the original sermon, and you will see that Spurgeon is not encouraging people to leave their homes and occupations to bring the good news to strangers on the other side of the world. He is challenging every Christian who claims to love Jesus to tell their family, friends and neighbours –right where they are!
The text of his sermon is so good that the whole paragraph needs to be read:
If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself; you will be whispering it into your child’s ear; you will be telling it to your husband; you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent; your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him.
Yes, the world still needs people to travel to the ends of it to bring the good news of Jesus to people who have no other means of hearing about him. But we should not forget the many millions in our own neighbourhoods who do not yet know him. Contemporary missionary challenges in western sending countries include thousands of refugees who have come to us recently, millions of non-European immigrants who have arrived in the last 60 years, forgotten people groups like the Roma, marginalised tribes like the urban poor, and many other unreached groups in our midst including the indigenous unreached population. The older translations of Mark tell us to “Go into all the world….” – a missionary being someone who is sent (as an emissary) on a mission. Spurgeon reminds us that it doesn’t matter whether we go to the other side of the world or the other side of the street… as long as we go.
