The work of discipleship and church planting cannot take place unless non-believers are evangelized and born again. At the same time, we cannot leave new converts on their own simply because they claim to be Christians. They must be grounded in their faith, taught what it means to turn their backs on the world and follow Jesus.

When it comes to the topic of what works, and what is meant to work, in missions, I am happy to tell you that the tried and true is still better. Even in missions. The old paths are still the good paths. I hope someday to be of old age and still saying the same thing: why the tried and true is still better. The aim is not to be traditional for the sake of being traditional, nor to insist that whatever was done in the past must have been better than what we do today. They were sinners then too and made mistakes and errors and we have learned from them. But it is the case that the old ways, when it comes to the mission of God in the world––evangelism, discipleship, church planting, church strengthening––are still today, as they were then, the biblical means of grace.

To make the case for the tried and true in missions, Acts 14 has become my go-to text. If you have one shot to help a group of people try to understand the mission of the church, what missions is about, what missionaries do, you can’t do better than to point them to the missionary par excellence: the Apostle Paul.

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples. (Acts 14:19–28)

That last paragraph shows how Paul has returned to Antioch. This was the church that had “set apart” Paul and Barnabas for Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:2). He’s come back to report, declaring all that God had done through him, and how he had opened a door of faith. That’s the big picture summary: he had opened a door of faith. This is at least the bare minimum of what we are doing in missions, we are praying that God might open a door of faith.

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