All Articles For Go Ye Into All the World

One of the main goals in foreign mission work must be to establish indigenous churches, churches that are able to exist on their own. The goal must be churches that are self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. In a previous article (November 15, 2011, p. 90) we looked at what it means to establish churches that are self-governing. Now we consider the second characteristic of an indigenous church, namely, self-propagating. What is a self-propagating church? Every church of Christ on earth is called to carry out the great commission. Every church must go forth into the world and preach the gospel. Beginning...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. In the Puritan classic by Richard Baxter, The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, Mr. Baxter speaks of the duty of the people of God to excite others to obtain the saint’s rest, but he gives a caution about the manner of performing this duty. But because the manner of performing this work is of great moment, observe, therefore these rules: Enter upon it with right intentions. Aim at the glory of God in the person’s salvation. Do it not to get a name, or esteem to thyself, or...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of the Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The consideration of the principles of missions legitimately includes a discussion of the methods of missions. The reason is simple. The methods are to be determined from the principles. The biblical basis for this relationship between principles and methods, between faith and practice, is easily shown. The Scriptures give us the contents of our faith – what we are to believe in order to be saved. They make one wise unto salvation (II Timothy 3:15), but they also thoroughly equip one unto every good work...

Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed minister-on-loan to Singapore. Polemics is the activity of Christians and the Christian church in which they expose errors which may be within the local church, in the church-world in general, or even among the heathen. It always concerns itself with differing viewpoints and calls the attention of the Christians to the seriousness of errors that may be present. It is to be distinguished from apologetics in that the latter is the science of developing proper biblical answers to wrong teachings and carefully defending the faith from error. Polemics focuses upon the actual activity of...

Rev. Moore is foreign missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. I was asked to write some Standard Bearer articles on the work that we are doing in Ghana, West Africa. I am now fulfilling a part of this request. As I take up the writing of this article, it is rather difficult to know where to start and what to include. The reason for this is that so much has transpired since we took the call to be missionary in Ghana, and also because the Lord has so richly blessed us in this labor to the present time. That means...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Edgerton, Minnesota. Recently Rev. Rodney Miersma and I returned from a journey halfway around the world to the country of the Philippines. Traveling there on behalf of the Foreign Mission Committee of our Protestant Reformed Churches, we visited contacts in four cities: Manila, Daet, Cagayan de Oro, and Bacolod. We both felt it a great blessing and privilege that we were able to make this trip. It was especially a blessing to meet and to fellowship with people of God who, though far from us in miles, are one with...

Rev. Stewart is pastor of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland. The Web site of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church (CPRC) in Northern Ireland is our most cost-effective and international form of witnessing. It bears its testimony day unto day and night unto night, for the Internet never sleeps. Whereas it is too much to claim that “There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Ps. 19:3), we do at least have items in over a hundred foreign languages (especially Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian, Spanish, Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Filipino, and Ukrainian). Many are the...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. Quite incredibly, for a second year in a row I was invited to be the speaker at the family camp of the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore. These family camps are held yearly by the church in Singapore. Over the years they have been a source of great blessing to many. I have attended at least ten such camps over the years, at many different places in Singapore and Malaysia, some with my wife and family. There were two reasons for which this opportunity again filled me...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. (Preceding article in series: August 2003, p. 452.) Some of our readers may not be comfortable with designating a special worship service in the established churches as a gospel service. This designation is intended to distinguish such a service from the regular worship services that take place twice every Lord’s Day. But, one might ask, if every worship service ought to include gospel preaching, and if the gospel is the good news of salvation that the pastor is commanded to bring every time he mounts the pulpit, why would...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Rev. Audred Spriensma, his wife Alva, and their daughter Jessica have lived in the Philippines now for close to a year and a half. As a missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches, Rev. Spriensma does his work under the supervision of Doon Protestant Reformed Church, the calling church for the mission field in the Philippines. As part of Doon’s and the Foreign Mission Committee’s supervision of the missionary and the field, a delegation visits the field at least once a year. Such a delegation visited recently, from October 20...