Missio Colonia | Kevin and Kathi in Cologne, Germany

I've been reading a really good biblical theology of missions lately, and the section I'm going through now is about Paul's theology of Christian mission. In particular, Paul writes in Romans 1:5 that he received "grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith." This idea of the obedience of faith really struck me. I think we in America tend to be very results oriented. In relation to missions, we want to see people being saved. But, that's not the whole story.

We admire Paul's visionary missionary efforts to unreached peoples, but we tend to overlook that he spent a significant amount of his missionary career building up the churches he help found. With this in mind, God has impressed upon me the fact that our ministry isn't just going to be about "conversion numbers." It's about building up the body of Christ "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. 4:13).