"Missions is nothing more than a budget to pay."

Ever hear someone say this to you? Perhaps you have thought this yourself; missions is about money. Missions, at least in the Church of the Nazarene, is about a budget to pay and, therefore, a burden to bear for many.

Ever think that? Many have, I am sure.

How sad.

Surely our Savior didn’t mean for his world mission Statement to be nothing more than a bill statement we must pay? When he said, “…go and make disciples in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”  Surely he wasn’t seeking to merely place a financial burden to our shoulders?

I think not.

Taking the message of salvation to the ends of the Earth is to be a blessing. I don’t believe that our God meant for the work of missions to be a burden or budget. Yes, it does take quite a bit of money to make missions happen…. sometimes. But our focus is not to be on the money but on the Master. Global missions is at the very heart of our Master and King from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end.  Dr. Nina Gunter, General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, once said, “If you take missions out of the Bible, there is little left but the covers.” Missions is in the DNA of our Master and Savior. God’s heart beats and bleeds for the nations of the world.

Therefore, shouldn’t your heart and my heart be burdened with what caused our Savior to bleed?

Lost souls.

That is what missions is about. It is not about a bill or a budget. It is about our Lord longing for lost souls to learn about his love. In a sense the Lord has already paid the “price” to make missions happen with his very life. He took care of the “bill” so that you and I could be free and empowered to obey his Great Commission and Command; go, teach, preach and make disciples. Missions is about making the Master known to the multitudes of lost souls throughout the world; near and far. Therefore, let’s not allow ourselves to consider the heartbeat of God as something we can just toss money towards. Our Master paid the debt to make missions a priority. Shouldn’t you and I do the same? May our burden be centred on the mission of locating lost souls and not solely on paying some mission budget.

-- Tonya Kucey is the Nazarene Mission International (NMI) Canada Representative for the General NMI Council