Contagious courage and selfless sacrifice have advanced national banners on the front lines of countless wars throughout human history. Therefore, what banner do we uphold for which we would give our lives, and the lives of our sons and daughters?

Several years ago, a question was asked at a General Synod meeting, as to what banner we bear when we go unto the nations? The answer was “the banner of Christ!” We join with Moses who, after the defeat of Amalek, declared, “The Lord is my banner.” Christ is the banner, and the Church is the army. This banner advances in humility—not by blood on the battlefield but by Christ’s blood on the cross. It advances in boldness—not because the outcome of the battle is unsure but because the war is already won. 

In His goodness and wisdom, according to Ephesians 3:10, God declared, “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” The Church is the megaphone of His victory and the residence of His glory. Despite our problems, failings, and weaknesses, we are the bride of Christ, called upon to advance His banner, in humility and boldness. The banner advances in the hands of unlikely men and women who, through witnessing the costly sacrifice of others, take up the banner of Christ and claim new ground in places far from the comfort of a home church. This is the heart of missions.

This year, we celebrate the sending of the first foreign ARP missionary, Mary Galloway Giffen, who took the banner of Christ to Egypt. The ARP Church wanted to send a minister, but it was Mary who stepped forward to answer the call. Her inspiration came, in part, from Ann Judson, wife of Adoniram Judson, America’s first missionary. At Mary Giffen’s farewell ceremony, her sacrifice to permanently leave her family to promote the Gospel in Egypt, an Islamic land 5,000 miles away, inspired Rev. Neil Pressly to begin missions in Mexico, where there is an ARP denomination of thousands today. And Minnie Alexander, after reading Mary’s letters of ministry and sacrifice, pioneered work in Pakistan, where the ARP denomination includes tens of thousands today. These three extraordinary individuals inspired five generations of ARP missionaries in planting and strengthening hundreds of churches and thousands of new believers in Christ, across dozens of countries, for the last 150 years.

We advance the banner of Christ with a battle cry rooted in our ARP history: “The free offer of the Gospel and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.” This watchword, born from the belief that the Gospel is for all men without condition, cost, or constraint, counters legalism and government overreach, while opposing the Enlightenment’s sacred, secular divide. The battle cry found its voice on December 6, 1733, in Gairney Bridge, Scotland, where Ebenezer Erskine, James Fisher, Alexander Moncreif, and William Wilson met to form the Associate Presbytery. In doing so, they cast off the reproach of the church of Scotland, making it known, from Glasgow to Edinburgh that they were raising anew the banner of Christ and declaring, “The free offer of the Gospel and the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” bold and rooted in the affirmation of the work of the cross. As Ebenezer Erskine proclaimed: “It is the great design of Gospel ministers to commend Christ, to set Him forth as the free gift of God to sinners of mankind. I offer Him to you; I offer Him freely—without money and without price.” This message would cross the Atlantic and become the rallying cry for the formation of the Associate Presbyterian Church in 1782.

This moment marks the birth of missions within the ARP Church—a spirit that, having firmly established the denomination in the United States, would soon formalize its commitment through the creation of the Standing Committee on Missions, in 1837. Tasked with overseeing domestic and foreign outreach, the committee labored faithfully for 38 years but was unable to raise up a foreign missionary. It appeared the church was waiting for the perfect moment—and the perfect missionary. Mary Galloway Giffen rose with quiet boldness, lifting high the banner of Christ and carrying the free offer of the Gospel to the people of Egypt.

The banner and the battle cry have echoed across the nations for 150 years and may echo another 150. How does one plan a 150-year strategy? God’s Word is a light unto our path, but it doesn’t reveal the intricacies of our entire journey on earth; at most we get a few steps at a time. So, I challenge us, not with a 150-year strategy but rather, a 150-year posture rooted in the values of humility, boldness, and connectedness. Our denominational forefathers modeled this, and World Witness has recognized this as the ethos of its missionaries. Humility, because Christ has won the victory by His efforts and therefore, we do not strut or stride in our teachings and preachings. Boldness, because we are heralds of a victory already secured, proclaiming it to a world slow to believe. Connectedness, because Christ has appointed only one vehicle to bear this message—the body of Christ, His Church. Humility, boldness, and connectedness are our posture of faithfulness.

While faithfulness is the foundation, the next level of the ministry’s development must be vision and competence. Though it is not possible to lay out a vision that will span the next 150 years, I suggest we dare a faithful guess at how the Lord will expand His Church. While needs may be found in every corner of the world, the refrain I hear echoed wherever I travel is that Africa is the continent poised to send forth the greatest missionary force since the western century of missions from the 1850s to the 1950s, during which was estimated 70,000 missionaries were sent. Africa currently has 685 million Christians and is expected to rise to 1.2 billion by 2050. For the next hundred years, it is estimated 200,000 to 400,000 missionaries will go to the nations, and African missionaries will become the driving force behind the largest missionary movement from a single continent, in the history of Christianity.

What is it that we offer Africa’s unprecedented movement? In truth, their missionary zeal and passion for Christ may prove to be a greater blessing to us than anything we could give them. Yet, if there is one gift we might impart, it would be the guidance of our Reformed doctrines that are now starting to shape the future of the African church in Rwanda. One of the clearest examples of these doctrines is “The free offer of the Gospel,” which is a response to the prosperity gospel’s erosion of the African church and the “Lordship of Jesus Christ,” and an exhortation against antinomianism’s erosion of the African church, as well. 

SEED Ministry has enjoyed three incredible years of training cohorts of pastors, but there remains a pressing need for incarnational ministry. This involves ARP missionaries who will live, teach, and labor among them, discipling with an African mindset while matching their sacrifice. If we are serious about enabling an African missionary movement, we must join them on the front lines. 

Not only in Africa, but lives must continue to be given in the service of the Gospel to our team with  Bridge Europe, to the work of the schools and hospital in Pakistan, to the efforts of reaching Muslims with Ethn? Outfitters in the U.S., to the nationals of Lithuania, Spain, the United Kingdom and especially, to the 10/40 Window, spanning North Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, which contains 6,012 unreached people groups totaling 3.45 billion people. 

As the Church, may we move forward with humility and courage, boldly proclaiming with our lips and demonstrating with our lives what we steadfastly believe: “The free offer of the Gospel and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”