Will You Stand in the Gap?
Military Missions
By Bryan Baggett
Over the last several weeks, I have spent more than half of my days visiting churches planted for the express purpose of reaching our U.S. Military with the Gospel. These also exist to disciple believers to become fully involved members in local churches all over the world after their military service is complete. I cannot adequately express to you in this article what the atmosphere of an overseas military church is like, but there are some distinctions that stand out that I would like to mention.
One distinction is the spirit of family. These Christian military personnel, whether stationed there as a family unit or without family, will come together with an unspoken need for fellowship with other believers. This is partly because of the day-to-day onslaught of our spiritual enemy working against these Christians. It is also because of the distance from their normal support groups such as their biological family or their home church. The impact that this thirst for fellowship brings often breaks down barriers that may otherwise create obstacles to developing new connections or friendships.
Another distinction is the willingness that service members have to bring others to worship with them. Their willingness to step out of their personal comfort zone to invite someone creates an atmosphere of spiritual anticipation of what the life-changing Gospel could do in another person‘s life. This brings excitement and expectation to a church and is truly a reflection of the first century church found in Scripture. Although these characteristics can certainly exist in a stateside church, it seems to be magnified significantly when folks are free from the normal distractions that life in the United States so often provides.
I have seen the power of the Gospel bring life-changing salvation to many recently and have witnessed the ongoing spiritual growth in many families. I have been following some of these families for more than a decade through their military careers. As they have climbed the ranks of military service, they have also continued to grow spiritually because of their access to a good Gospel-centered church and their personal commitment to stay involved in a local church throughout their careers.
These things continue to fan the flames of my soul to ensure that our overseas military churches continue. Our enemy who never slumbers or sleeps wants every one of these churches to close and we must not allow this to happen on our watch! In fact, we must seek out more young men who will rise to the opportunities that we now have and to expand and plant new churches to meet the current needs of our service personnel. There are places in the world right now where thousands of our troops are stationed and deployed without a New Testament Baptist church to attend. Will you pray with us and will you consider standing in the gap to fill one of these needs?
View a PDF of this World Magazine
