There’s a question I want you to sit with this month: Does global mission still matter?
In a moment when the world feels both more connected and more fractured than ever, it’s easy for the Great Commission to feel like a relic of another era, something for career missionaries and church history classes – or worse yet, something insensitive, imperialist, or otherwise problematic. The “why”, however, behind our church and many others’ continued focus on mission isn’t primarily rooted in tradition or a sense of cultural superiority. It’s rooted in the character of the living Jesus Himself.
In Luke 22, on the night before His crucifixion, the disciples were doing what people typically do: arguing about who among them was the greatest. Jesus redirected them with a question and an answer that cut through all of it. “For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the one who serves”.
The One with all authority in heaven and earth chose the posture of a servant. That’s not just a quaint lesson in humility, it’s a revelation of what God is like. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). This reframes everything about why we still go.
To be on mission is to take on the shape of Christ: blessed, broken, and given.
As an inspiring model, in the early 2000s, the Melanesian Brotherhood, a remarkable Anglican religious order of missionary brothers in the Solomon Islands and beyond, gave voice to this same truth in Jesus’ striking phrase: “I am among you as one who serves.” This community, evangelized for the first time only about 100 years ago, is committed to following Jesus’ walk in a very tangible way. In an area where established churches have failed to gain footholds, they live vows of poverty and go out two-by-two into remote communities across Melanesia, They are healers, peacemakers, and destroyers of weapons. They often go two-by-two to the death in environments hostile to the Gospel of Jesus. To them, mission isn’t a program. It’s not a required sideshow to the Sunday Service. It’s not outmoded. It’s a lived, daily embodiment of Christ. It’s the privilege of allowing Jesus, who came to serve, to continue His work until He returns through ordinary, willing people. The Brotherhood has been called “exceptionally successful”, and a transformative, restorative force across Melanesia, raising living standards, ending blood feuds, and bringing salvation to thousands of Melanesians in one of the most remote, high-risk, areas on Earth.
That’s the “why.”
At Browncroft, we don’t pursue global mission because we have something the world lacks. We pursue it because Jesus, in His very nature, moves toward people — especially the vulnerable, the overlooked, and the unreached. To be on mission is to take on the shape of Christ: blessed, broken, and given.
In truth, our church partnerships with global workers and communities is participation in the oldest story there is — the story of a God who doesn’t stay seated — who comes down from the mountain, who gets up from the table, and who wraps a towel around His waist and gets to work washing feet.
The Great Commission is still alive because the servant King still is. He is still in the midst of them as one who serves.
So what’s your next step?
If this stirred something in you, don’t let it sit. Here are a few ways to move from inspiration to participation:
Pray. Join the Send Me prayer team, led by Tom Fasoldt. Become a warrior of prayer — supporting our sent mission partners and calling up new ones.
Learn. The Perspectives course starts June 1. It’s one of the most formative discipleship experiences you can have for understanding and engaging in God’s global purpose.
Show up. The Send Me Mini-Conference is free. It’s one Saturday morning and an outstanding place to dive in. You’ll soak up what the Great Commission really means, explore what it means to be made in the image of God, discover how your creativity is part of the work, learn how uncommon living in your own neighborhood restores relationships, and hear how God empowers us to reach the least, the lost, and the most vulnerable who have no one else.
Give. Financially partner with Browncroft Mission & Outreach. Generosity is a sanctifying spiritual practice. Your generosity is good for your soul, and it is what makes it possible to send and sustain the people on the front lines.
The Servant King is still moving. Is He stirring your heart? Will you draw closer to Him and follow where He leads?
