Global Missions Week helps students find their role in the Great Commission

The World Missions Center (WMC) at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary hosted its fall Global Missions Week on campus, Sept. 14-16, with an emphasis on Central Asia.

The weeklong emphasis provided students from all degree programs an opportunity to learn about global missions, connect with Central Asian teams from the International Mission Board (IMB), and learn about opportunities to serve with the IMB, ranging from short-term to career missions service.

“This week students were exposed to life and service among people who are living in deep Gospel poverty,” said Ian Buntain, director of the WMC and associate professor of missions. “They had the opportunity to question those who are serving, to hear about the joys and challenges of everyday life, and to imagine ways in which God might be preparing them for the privilege of serving in a context in which every believer they meet has joyfully embraced the Gospel despite the significant cost of consistent suffering for the name of Jesus.”

The WMC hosted events throughout the week including informational lunches and prayer gatherings. On Wednesday morning Southwestern Seminary’s female students gathered for a Women’s Tea to hear from both single and married women serving in the field and learn how women have their own unique role to play in the mission field.

Students also heard from Zane Pratt, vice president for global training for the IMB, during the Sept. 16 chapel service. Pratt previously served 20 years as a missionary in Central Asia, which is home to 360 million people with only an estimated 120,000 evangelical believers. In his message, Pratt challenged students to consider how God wants to use them for the Great Commission.

“I urge you to resolve the question yourself, what your role is to be in the mission that Jesus gave you,” Pratt said. “Jesus combined taking the Gospel to the nations with the Gospel that saved us. Jesus combined the command to take the Gospel to the nations with the Gospel that saved you. It’s not something that’s just reserved for the few. It’s something that all must consider.”

Following the chapel service, the WMC hosted the Going Global Lunch, during which IMB personnel shared their experiences serving in Central Asia. They also answered student questions about life on the mission field and what opportunities are available to them.

One IMB worker reflected on his own experience working in what he described to be a difficult and challenging place. Although the church faces hardships in the region, he said the work is worth it.

“We want you guys to come work with us, we want you to come help us, but we want you to know that it’s not easy,” he said. “If you come work with us, you’re going to take up your cross pretty much daily. We have some hard places. Come see what you can do to help push back darkness and join God who is already at work in a place where there’s so much darkness.”

Students from Southwestern Seminary and Texas Baptist College were invited to participate in Global Missions Week. Sarah Lewis* is a Master of Theological Studies student whose experience with the spring 2021 Global Missions Week ultimately led her to pursue a call to global missions.

“I got to talk to a missionary who encouraged me to pray about doing missions,” Lewis said. “Since that moment I was not able to get it out of my mind and knew that it was the direction I felt the Lord leading me in.”

“Southwestern has greatly impacted my view of mission over the past year of being here,” Lewis said of the seminary’s missions emphasis. “I had been interested in missions, but it was through Global Missions Week that the Lord really brought it to my attention and has continued to give me a deeper passion for international missions.”

Master of Divinity student Michael Kim* also attended Global Missions Week, but from the perspective of having already served on a three-year term to Central Asia, where he used a business platform to reach Muslims living in the country in which he served.

“My time at Southwestern has helped me discover biblical counseling, which in turn has led me to a richer walk with God and more clarity about the urgency of both global missions and soul care,” Kim said. “Hence, my ministry vision and purpose has both widened and deepened here at Southwestern.”

For information or inquiries about missions opportunities through Southwestern Seminary or the IMB, email wmc@swbts.edu, or visit the World Missions Center, located in Mathena Hall 108.

*Name changed for security