by David Dixon
Eastern PA District Team
I’ve got two words for you: constructive interference.
For over 125 years, the Christian and Missionary Alliance has prayed and labored to bring the Gospel to the least reached parts of the world. That burning passion to see the good news of Jesus impacting the neighborhoods and nations has been the unifying and driving force of our movement.
No one would refute this key value of the Alliance but as can happen in many movements or organizations that have been around for as long as we have, the focus can drift or passion can wane in the face of the issues that arise right in front of us.
With over 4,000 people groups, representing 40% of the world’s population still having little or no access to the Gospel, we cannot lose focus or allow our passion for seeing the message of Jesus brought to the nations fade. This is not just about an organizational goal. This is about doing our part to walk with Jesus in completing his mission of hope to the world.
If you have an Alliance background, I hope that I do not have to share with you the theological underpinnings of why reaching the nations is an important part of the mission of the Church. My aim today would be for you to consider your involvement in global missions from a different perspective.
In my almost 10 years in the Alliance, having been involved with multiple churches in a variety of roles, the most common reason that I hear for why a particular church cannot be more involved with Alliance Missions is that there are too many problems locally to look globally. Those problems could be declining church attendance, a lack of zeal, too much inward-focused activity, or many others. It’s easy to get caught up with what is right in front of us.
When we look around, we recognize the need for discipleship and spiritual maturity within the people of our local church. We see the need for the Gospel in the neighborhoods and community that our church is in. We see all the work that needs to be accomplished right here that it seemingly makes sense that we give so much energy to it. We recognize how big a task it is to mobilize the church to minister next door and wonder how we could split our focus to another part of the world and still be effective in both.
Could I ask you to consider another perspective? This is where constructive interference comes in.
For all the nerds, constructive interference is when the amplitude of two waves add together to make a higher displacement. In layman’s terms, it’s when two waves cross paths to make an even greater wave than one of them could make on their own.
When we get our churches involved in local evangelism and global missions, this is what happens. Our work locally starts a wave of the Gospel in our community. Our work globally starts a wave of the Gospel in another part of the world. When those waves collide, the Gospel impact is multiplied in ways that it could not by simply having the force of a single wave.
When we view missions through this lens, what we do in our neighborhoods reverberates around the world and what we do around the world reverberates into our neighborhoods. When we raise our level of engagement in Alliance Missions, it can raise the level of engagement in your church’s local mission. It doesn’t take away from one, it can actually increase both. If we focus only locally, then we can miss out on the power and depth that a strategy of constructive interference can bring. When we call our churches to engage people both locally and globally for the sake of the Gospel, we find that Holy Spirit uses those colliding waves to draw us into deeper life with Jesus.
For me one of the beautiful things about the Gospel is that as we embrace a strategy that seemingly would spread us thin, God is faithful to demonstrate his power through us as we become more fruitful in our neighborhoods and nations.
With this in mind, I would like to ask you to consider how the Lord might be leading you to increase your (or your church’s) engagement in Alliance missions.
How might he be leading you to pray for missions, reach out to an international worker, send a team, promote, or give differently?
What would it look like for a wave of constructive interference, as it relates to missions, to impact your church?
If you would like to talk more about Alliance Missions engagement in your local church including ways to encourage prayer, how to communicate about missions, how to get connected to one of the district’s international workers, or how to develop a missions leader or team in your local church, please reach out to Alan Rathbun at alan.rathbun@epdalliance.org. Our team is always happy to hear from you.