On this Missionary Conference Sunday, Pastor Ben Anderson brought a powerful message about the nature of God’s mission work — and what it means for us as a church to be part of it. Ben is GBC’s missionary and has served for decades in Kenya, the Philippines, and beyond. His message drew from Romans 15:14–24, unpacking why Paul’s missionary strategy remains the model for reaching the unreached today.
The Work Belongs to God — But He Uses Us
Ben opened with a foundational truth: mission is not a human invention. It’s woven into the very character of God. He desires for the lost to be saved — and He has given us the privilege of joining Him in that work.
“God works. God desires for the lost to be saved. God has given us the gospel, God gives us Jesus Christ, God gives us the mandate, the commission — you are ambassadors of Christ. And yet we have to do our part because God has given that responsibility to us.”
We can pray all day for Myanmar to hear the gospel, Ben said, but they won’t unless someone goes. God has assigned us to the work — He won’t do it without us. That means missions isn’t optional for the church; it’s a responsibility.
The TENS Strategy: How the Work Gets Done
Ben shared a framework he developed from Paul’s ministry — a strategy he calls TENS: Target, Equip, Nurture, and Send.
When missionaries go to a new region, they first identify a target area where Christ is not yet known. Then they equip nationals — training local believers to carry the work forward. They nurture those leaders, and eventually send them out to continue the ministry so the mission agency can move on to the next unreached place.
This is exactly what Paul did in the eastern Roman Empire. After 10 or 11 years of ministry there — establishing churches, training leaders — Paul declared he had “no more place to work in these regions” (Romans 15:23). He had raised up others to carry on, so he could move west to Spain, where the gospel had never been preached.
“Paul was talking of a region 1,500 miles long. He’d only worked there for maybe 10 or 11 years. And he’s saying there’s no more place for me to work. I have trained other people to work in these regions. … Now I have to go to the Western half.”
Training the Next Generation
Ben illustrated this with a personal story from a graduation in Kenya. A young man named John — a third-generation Grace Bible Church member — stood up and said, “I am the product of mission.” Missionaries had come to his village years earlier, his grandfather was saved, and now John was a missionary himself, serving in Cambodia.
That’s the goal. Not dependency — but multiplication. Ben and Joyce left Kenya after 18 years, but the work didn’t stop. The churches they planted are still multiplying. The Bible school is now run by Kenyans. A church is planted every two months. The fourth generation is on the way.
“We trained them, and then we turn the work over to them so that they could continue on. … Joyce and I left Kenya after 18 years and we felt comfortable leaving why? Because we had spent our lives training others to carry on the ministry.”
Is Mission Worth It?
Ben closed with a challenging question: Is mission worth it? He and Joyce had master’s degrees, a home, good jobs in Phoenix. They could have stayed. Instead, they spent four decades on the mission field.
Then he told a story. A man named Randy was an Uber driver in Wisconsin. He picked up a Filipino businessman at the airport and drove him for three days. Over those days of conversation, Randy learned the man was a believer — and he attended Grace Gospel Church in the Philippines.
The man’s father had been saved decades earlier when a missionary named Vernon Anderson came to his town and preached on a public address system. That man’s family — children, grandchildren, extended family — all came to faith. Vernon Anderson eventually went to the mission field himself and preached the gospel in the Philippines.
50 years later, Randy — who goes to Grace Bible Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — picked up that man at an airport. The gospel had gone full circle.
“Is mission worth it? Is it worth our lives, the decades of the lives that we spend on the mission field? … My whole extended family — my brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts — we are all members of the Grace Gospel Church because that missionary came and preached to us.”
So What?
Ben’s message leaves us with a clear challenge. God has not called every believer to go overseas — but He has called every believer to be part of the mission. That looks different for each person:
- Pray for unreached peoples and our missionaries on the field
- Give — a portion of every offering supports global missions
- Go when the Lord opens the door
- Equip yourself to disciple others, wherever you are
The fields are white for harvest. The question is not whether God will save the nations — it’s whether we will join Him in the work He has assigned to us.
Scripture References
- Romans 15:14–24 — Paul’s missionary ambition and the “no more place to work” passage
- John 4:35 — The fields are white for harvest
- 2 Corinthians 5:20 — We are ambassadors of Christ
- Romans 10:14–15 — How shall they hear without someone preaching?