I stood this morning on the shores of Antioch, the sending city of the first missionaries Saul (Paul) and Barnabas. The little port of Seleucia Pieria is about a half hour outside of Antioch and was the exact geographical spot where Paul and Barnabas boarded a vessel sailing for Cyprus. Standing on the mountain above the stretch of beach that used to be the port, I could hear the prayer call from the local mosque. What an irony: The place the Gospel was sent from to the “uttermost parts of the earth” is a land that is now 99.2% Muslim!
Turkey is a land of 70 million people and only .3% are “Christian” and those are Greek Orthodox. We have traveled this land for almost ten days and not seen one Christian church! In EVERY village there is the three story spire of a minaret that issues the prayer call five times a day from the mosque below…but not one church, anywhere. At times from our hotel room I have counted eighteen mosques you could easily spot from one side of the hotel windows. And, believe it or not, this is the land Paul evangelized his entire lifetime and planted the churches we read about in the new Testament: Ephesus, Colosse, Pisidian Antioch, Laodicea, Hierapolis. We have been to the port of Troas where he left for Macedonia and been to Paul’s hometown of Tarsus. And here, our final place, at Antioch where Paul was sent out, NOT ONE CHURCH.
Is the job of missions finished? Of course not. The people here are gentle, welcoming, and open. Their country is modern and beautiful. This is the point: Every generation must be evangelized. Paul did his part in shaking Asia Minor 2000 years ago but not a trace is to be found here today. Our job is not finished…it is just getting started.
We in America are awash with churches, churches that compete over music styles, cool points, and giveaways. Marketing madness, program pickiness, and finicky faith is everywhere. While we focus on each other, the lost are perishing without Christ…by the billions.
Where are the new generation missionaries who will answer the call of the Holy Spirit to lay down their lives like Paul did and fight wild beasts, robbers, rivers, beatings, and jailings to carve out disciples like Timothy, Titus, and Luke? Let’s quit wasting our energies on the trivial and focus on the remaining harvest.
It is interesting that as I stood on the hillside overlooking the port of Antioch, a field of freshly harvested wheat lay in hundreds of bundles on the ground. Out there, beyond that port, beyond the horizon, lies the harvest. Do you hear the call?
