Day 30: Training of Pastors and Church Planters

“Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”, was the command given by Jesus to those that follow Him in Matthew 28:19-20.

Back to Jerusalem missionaries from China know that handing out Bibles and praying for people is not going to bring long term change in North Korea. In order to bring long term change, there is a huge need for making disciples. Pastors, evangelists, and ministers are desperately needed. That is why Chinese missionaries are not just sharing the Good News and then leaving to celebrate a victory, but they are willing to live and die in North Korea to be a living sacrifice.

They eat, sleep, work, and live everyday life with the people in North Korea. They do not deliberately separate themselves in isolated foreign communities. Instead, they mingle among the locals and make friendships that will last a life time. They make friends with the people of North Korea like Jesus did with His disciples.

In His final hours on earth, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He wasn’t only praying for strength to face the task that was inevitable for the salvation of man, He prayed deeply for His disciples. He had grown to love them and they had grown to love Him. Paul mentors several different men during his missionary journeys and even mentions them in his letters. Old Testament scriptures were not widely available to the normal person during the days of Jesus and the New Testament did not even exist in the canonized version for another couple hundred years. Face to face discipleship is how the first century church grew.

Jesus spent time with his disciples and personally showed them the ways of the Kingdom. The disciples took the deposit that Jesus made in their lives and began making investments in the lives of others. This is really the only method that the Chinese missionaries in North Korea are able to employ. They do not have Bible schools or theological seminaries to train up new believers. Instead, they have to rely on the exact same method that Jesus used with His disciples. More missionaries are needed for this task.

Prayer Points:

• North Koreans need missionaries that are willing to invest the rest of their lives in North Korea
• Discipleship is key to training up new pastors and leaders in North Korea
• Just like the disciples of Jesus, the likelihood of North Korean disciples surviving till they are old is slim. Many North Korean disciples will face premature deaths and prayer for them is desperately needed

Today’s Scripture Reading:

2 Timothy 2:21-25
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.