‘Sun never sets’ on Auburn church’s missions work

It only takes a glance at Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn, to realize that missions is more than a passing interest for the congregation. 
   
The church’s welcome center is dominated by a giant map of the world surrounded by pictures of dozens of missionaries, families and individuals. 
   
With personal ties to more than 60 missionaries around the globe, it can literally be said that the sun never sets on Lakeview’s missions ministry. “Lakeview is considered by the International Mission Board (IMB) to be a missions mobilizing church,” said Lakeview Minister of Missions John West. 
   
West, who previously served with Franklin Graham at Samaritan’s Purse, will coordinate 10 overseas missions trips for Lakeview in the first eight months of this year. 
   
Teams will serve alongside full-time missionaries and national church leaders in places like Burundi and Malawi and  in restricted areas of the world. 
   
West estimates that in 25 years of short-term missions trips, Lakeview has sent more than 2,000 volunteers, some of whom God has eventually called to full-time missions service.
   
But the missions culture at Lakeview isn’t simply a schedule of trips. Church members are constantly exposed to missions in a myriad of ways. Hardly a service goes by without a word about (or from) a missionary. 
   
Even the 2004 Christmas cantata at Lakeview included a Lottie Moon Christmas Offering video. Children participate in Missionary Prayer and Care (M-PAC) groups where they receive baseball-type cards with Lakeview missionaries’ pictures and information about their work. 
   
Members are encouraged to attend the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class at Lakeview, a course that Auburn University students can take for college credit. 
   
Lakeview also hosts an annual International Missions Festival featuring nationally known missions leaders like Jerry Rankin, Avery Willis, George Verwer and Paul Borthwick.
   
West and others are quick to point out, however, that the real catalyst for missions at Lakeview is the vision of Pastor Al Jackson. With a passion for God’s Word and His glory among the nations, Jackson is a bellwether for missions in the pulpit and on the field. He approaches his role with insight and dedication. “God is calling us to reach the last frontiers – the Muslim world, the Buddhist world, the Hindu world, the Chinese world,” Jackson said. 
   
“We, as Southern Baptists, have the resources and the personnel, but the logjam is often with pastors.”
Jackson contends that pastors must “answer the question of lordship.” “The Lord Jesus has called us to reach the nations and the only answer we can give is ‘Yes, Lord’ because ‘no’ just doesn’t go with ‘Lord,’” he said.
   
Jackson challenges pastors to serve with “no geographical limits,” fearlessly leading their people to pray, give and go and even to be willing to go themselves when God calls. “Pastors must also answer the question of lifestyle,” he said. 
   
Pastors who teach and model modest living can lead their people out of financial bondage and enable them to release the resources necessary to reach the world. Jackson regularly reminds his own congregation that “the American dream and the New Testament call are not the same thing.”
   
He also calls on pastors to “answer the question of leadership.” 
   
“‘Out of sight, out of mind’ too often describes the missions climate in Baptist churches. The pastor has to wave the banner, to rally the troops,” he explained. But Jackson doesn’t just sound the call; he leads the way by serving several weeks each year as a member on Lakeview missions teams.  
   
He’s even passing his vision on to seminarians enrolled in a study program at Lakeview administered by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The small cohort of students complete intensive coursework at the church while serving on staff, including several weeks of missions work. 
   
They graduate after three years with a master of divinity degree in missions, evangelism and church growth and with first-hand experience in a vibrant missionary church.  
   
Jackson’s emphasis on “unreached peoples,” populations isolated from the gospel by geography, language or culture, is shared by leading missions advocates and agencies, including the IMB.
   
“Jesus promised that the gospel will be preached ‘as a testimony to all nations,’” said Jackson, explaining that the word for ‘nations’, ethne, doesn’t indicate political or geographic entities but people groups. “We want to be part of God’s mission to gather worshippers from every nation, tribe and tongue.”
   
This vision has launched a bold new initiative at Lakeview. Partnering with IMB, Lakeview teams are working among the Islamic coastal people, a people group with no known believers. 
   
Teams travel to the region for weeks and even months at a time developing communications and relationships in their pioneering work. They make personal sacrifices to go but do it with joy and a certainty that one day Islamic coastal people will be numbered among the people of God.