Lesson 106 · Unit 16 · The Sent Ones
Partnering with a Missionary
The ones who stay are not an audience. They are fellow workers at the home end.
Open
On the long table at the back of the church lies a stack of printed prayer letters: a family on some distant field, two pages of news, a few requests. The crowd leaving flows past the table, picking up the bulletin and the song sheet. Four weeks later at the big clean-up, a co-worker clearing the table counted the stack — three had gone. Nobody is against missions; the box marked "missions" always has something in it too. It is just that for most people a missionary is like the scenery on a wall calendar: an occasional glance, a moment of admiration, and then back to your own days. But Scripture has a different word for the people who stay behind — not audience, not fans. Fellow workers.
Scripture
Writing from prison, Paul thanks the church at Philippi in earnest for years of support. (Philippians 4:15-18, WEB)
15You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News, when I departed from Macedonia, no assembly shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only.
16For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need.
17Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account.
18But I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.
(3 John 5-8)
3 John 1:5-8World English BibleOpen in the Bible5Beloved, you do a faithful work in whatever you accomplish for those who are brothers and strangers.
6They have testified about your love before the assembly. You will do well to send them forward on their journey in a way worthy of God,
7because for the sake of the Name they went out, taking nothing from the Gentiles.
8We therefore ought to receive such, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
See
An account that runs both ways
Paul thanks the Philippians with a commercial word: "giving and receiving" — an account with entries on both sides. "For your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now" (Phil 1:5): the far end supplies the home end with spiritual bread, the home end supplies the far end with material need, one gospel, two ends kept in one ledger. More startling is the standing this gift has in God's eyes. It is not a tip and not a sponsorship; it is "a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God" (4:18) — the language of offering. The money leaves an account at the home end and lands on God's altar. So Paul says, "I seek for the fruit that increases to your account": the giver has not lost a sum, he has had fruit added to his books.
The fellow worker on the sofa
Third John is written to a man named Gaius. He did not go out; he never crossed a mountain. What he did sounds ordinary: he received the workers who "for the sake of the Name went out," and sent them "forward on their journey." But John's summary of him is weighty — "that we may be fellow workers for the truth." The workers took nothing from the Gentiles (3 John 7); the gospel does not charge the people who hear it. So where do the fare, the food, the strength to go forward come from? From the Gaiuses. The one who stays home holds up the one who goes out, and two names go down in God's ledger. The Lord himself used the same arithmetic: whoever receives a prophet receives a prophet's reward (Matt 10:41).
How to adopt a worker
Partnering is not a mood; it is a few fixed things. Fixed intercession: get his prayer letter and pray through the items on it — not "Lord, remember him" and done, but naming the visa, the language, the children's schooling. Fixed giving: the amount does not matter, the steadiness does — what a missionary fears is not a small gift but a gift that stops. A greeting once a quarter: a voice message, a drawing by your child. Many workers say the hardest thing to bear is not the hardship but the sense of being forgotten. And be conscious about confidentiality: some fields cannot have names and details made public, so ask before you forward a prayer letter. Finally, do not make him a hero and do not consume him: these are ordinary people, they get tired, they burn out (the lamp of Lesson 65 — a missionary needs oil too). Being a fellow worker means his weakness is inside the range of your prayers as well.
Deeper
Giving and receiving (Phil 4:15)
under Paul's pen a gift is a two-way account: the far end supplies spiritual bread, the home end material need, two ends of one gospel.
A sweet-smelling fragrance (Phil 4:18)
support is not a tip but an offering; the one who receives this gift is not the missionary but God.
Fellow workers (3 John 8)
receiving and holding up gives the one who stays the standing of a fellow worker, and the reward is reckoned that way too (Matt 10:41).
Gone out for the sake of the Name (3 John 7)
the workers take nothing from the Gentiles and the gospel does not charge a fee; so the home end is not a nice extra, it is a load-bearing wall of the mission.
Story
Brother Zhu runs a small tea shop in Quanzhou. Five years ago, on missions Sunday, the church introduced a family serving among a minority people overseas. Afterward, without thinking about it much, he signed up to give two hundred yuan a month — "call it selling two more cakes of tea." What actually changed him was the prayer letters. After reading the first one he copied the three requests onto the flyleaf of his stock book and prayed through them whenever he was sorting shelves. Later the small group formally adopted the family: they read a prayer letter aloud at one meeting a month, recorded a voice greeting each quarter, and at Christmas sent a case of tea and cards drawn by the children. Because the field is sensitive, they never post anything publicly, and in the group chat they only say "the family far away." In the fourth year, the worker came back on home assignment. The first thing he said when he sat down in the small group was, "I thought only a few people remembered us. It turns out that every month there is a roomful of people saying our names." He stopped there for a moment, then said, "You can bear the hardship. You cannot bear being forgotten." That was the night Brother Zhu understood that without ever leaving the country, he had been a fellow worker for five years.
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1Phil 4:17-18: why does Paul call a gift "fruit" and "a sacrifice"? Which old idea of yours do those two words correct?
23 John 8, "fellow workers for the truth" — staying put still counts as partnering. Does that standing surprise you? Why?
3Which missionary or gospel worker does your church support? Can you say his name and tell somebody how he is?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
God who receives the home end's giving as a sweet-smelling fragrance: thank you for letting those who stay have a share in the work of those who go. Bring one worker into my praying and into my accounts. Teach me to remember him steadily — intercession, support, a greeting that arrives on time. And keep me from putting him on a stage or treating him as scenery; let his tiredness and his children be inside my prayers too. In your ledger, let me be a fellow worker for the truth alongside him. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 20 min
Ask your pastor or the missions co-worker about one missionary or gospel worker your church supports, and get his most recent prayer letter. Read it through item by item, pray once for each item, and fix the time when you will pray regularly.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Keep one minute of fixed prayer for that worker every day this week. If your church has no one to support yet, use Matt 9:38 each day and ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.
Memory verse · 3 John 1:8
Wethereforeoughttoreceivesuch,thatwemaybefellowworkersforthetruth.
Walk further
Epaphras, the home-end worker who strove in prayer; Lydia, who held up a mission team with her house; Hudson Taylor and the net of supply behind the China Inland Mission; a prayer for missionaries; the companionship of intercession from Lesson 62.