Faith Based Missions

Before I finished a recent read about George Muller, a 19th century saint and caretaker for thousands of orphaned children, I was reading about one his contemporaries, Hudson Taylor.  Taylor is known for his mission work in China.  Like Muller, Taylor depended on God for providing funds and people to serve alongside of him in the mission work.  He, too, was a man of prayer as well as a man who trusted God without reservation.  In his day "faith missions were unheard of, the only organizations in existence being the regular denominational boards. "  ("Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret" by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor).  

The Zoar Church was one of the churches on my first Charge.  Every fall the church had on its schedule a week long Missions Conference.  As a greenhorn preacher, I had no idea what to expect when several missionaries from the Oriental Missionary Society came for a week to share their mission work and invite the members of the Zoar Church to make faith commitments to support their mission work.  These were missionaries who could not go back into their work until they had raised financial support from local churches like Zoar.  They gave flesh to mission work as they told stories of the work they were doing for God in far away countries.  

The missionaries who came to Zoar were spiritual descendants of Hudson Taylor.   Like him, they believed and practiced a faith based ministry.  My denomination sent and funded missionaries, but these folks were different.  They practiced a risky faith and they came to visit churches which supported them.  For many of us it was our first contact with a real missionary.  Taylor was passionate about presenting Christ to the people of China and those who serve Christ today in faith based ministries walk in his steps.