What Role Do International Churches Have in the Great Commission?

What do international churches have to do with the Great Commission? You might ask that question because you’ve never heard of such things. International churches are congregations that meet in trade languages, like English or Chinese, even if that’s not the majority language in their country.

You might ask that question because international churches often have a reputation for being cut off from the society around them, where foreigners can gather with other foreigners, so they don’t have to develop meaningful friendships with their neighbors and coworkers. In many cases, the reputation is well deserved.

But international churches are in fact, churches. God intended for the church to display his manifold wisdom by uniting Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 3:10). Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church (Matthew 16:18). They have the same role as any other church in the world. At the same time, there are specific ways in which international churches can be a strategic complement to other kingdom endeavors.

International Churches Can Equip Expat Christians

I’m of the mind that the more Christians there are in a place, the better. I don’t just want to see the nationals of a particular place converted—I want to see everybody, including expatriates, converted.

And expats, whether they are converted here or come already knowing Christ, who work “normal jobs” have evangelistic opportunities that I, a full-time minister of the gospel, would love to have. Many believers may not have the time nor gifting to plant a church overseas, but their faith has a level of credibility with unbelievers that a “professional Christian” often lacks. 

This is especially true in the Muslim world where there’s a lot of misinformation about Christianity. Many people assume you become a Christian because free grace means you can indulge whatever sinful passion you want. Far more effective than a preacher saying “that’s not true” are Christians who live like that’s not true.

International Churches Can Care for Traditional Missionaries

One of the main reasons missionaries leave the field is a lack of pastoral care.¹ Missionaries aren’t exempt from our Lord’s instruction to be a part of a church. As much as a sending church may love and care for their missionaries, they are limited in how much they can do, since it is almost always in a different country from where the missionary lives. 

While in some contexts joining an indigenous church is a good option, at other times it may be imprudent because missionary members can bring undue outside attention, unintentionally discourage young leadership, or just simply wear out their families. Missionaries are often in difficult church situations, trying to help young churches grow in health. Many today have difficulty separating their spiritual life from their ministry to locals, with the effect being that many missionary wives and children, in particular, pay a high price of spiritual loneliness.

Some missionaries choose to mitigate those challenges by having their team covenant together as a church. This option is certainly biblically viable, but it brings its own kind of difficulties, for instance, their job and church community overlap completely.

While joining an international church also has its challenges, a faithful international church can provide pastoral care and Christian fellowship to missionaries in ways that can help them not only endure but grow in faithfulness as they minister.

International Churches Can Serve as a Model Church

In countries hostile to indigenous Christianity, international churches are often tolerated. Countries wanting foreigners to bring long-term business opportunities will regularly provide legal pathways for foreigners to worship according to their religion. This means that international churches can exist with greater visibility than indigenous churches in many of the least-reached countries in the world.

At the same time, international churches, and their members, are automatically more visible in a society—precisely because they’re foreigners. They stick out by default, and so are more easily observed. 

In 16th century London, many Londoners chose to do business with Dutch merchants rather than English ones, because they were quicker to trust the Dutch merchants. That’s not because the Dutch are inherently more honest than Englishmen; it’s because the Dutch merchants in London were members of the “stranger church” in London, which was committed to church discipline. It was known that they were a part of a community that was committed to the holiness of its members and was willing to discipline them for the sin of cheating their clients. Their foreignness meant they were more noticed, which meant their godliness was more apparent.²

International churches, by being inherently different from the society around them, are more visible. That’s a great opportunity, but it is also a weighty responsibility, as their moral failings will also be that much more visible. 

Those same “stranger churches” in London also became a resource for the English Reformation. Their foreignness meant they had greater freedom to reform their practices according to Scripture more quickly than the Church of England.³

International churches are not a silver bullet for the Great Commission. But if they are churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, he will use them in his certain victory over the gates of hell as they seek to honor their Lord and Savior.

1. See Scott Logsdon, “Why Is It Essential for Missionaries to Join a Church Where They Live?” on 9marks.org for an array of stats on this. ↵
2. Andrew Pettegree, Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth-Century London, (Oxford University: Oxford, 1986), 300-301. ↵
3. Jonathan Gibson & Mark Earngey describe this in their introductory material to the stranger church’s orders of worship in their edited volume Reformation Worship (New Growth Press: Greensboro, NC, 2018), 454-57. ↵