Why Care About World Missions?
A conversation with Bruce Bauer, director of the Doctor of Missiology program and former chair of the World Mission Department
Learn from Dr. Bauer's exciting mission experiences and discover how you can begin to reach the world for Jesus, right where you are.
What kinds of mission work have you done?
I started out as a student missionary in Japan between my junior and senior year of undergraduate studies. After graduating from Andrews, I went back to Japan as a missionary. My wife, Linda, and I were there for 15 years, then we moved to Guam-Micronesia, where I was president of the Guam-Micronesia mission for five years. We came to Andrews in 1989, and I taught until 1997. Then, from 1997-2001, I was the president of the Cambodia mission. I’ve been back teaching at Andrews since 2001.
What did your missionary experience teach you about reaching unbelievers?
My student missionary experience changed my whole perspective. I was a theology major and went to Japan, and people weren’t asking the questions I was trained to answer. We were trained to talk about doctrinal things. But the people just wanted to know why somebody that seemed to be fairly normal could believe in God. It forced me to approach life in a totally different way. Instead of just presenting doctrines, we had to help people experience God first, and taste God’s goodness. I think that’s what we have to do with postmodern people today. They need to experience God before they’re going to want to listen to what you want to tell them about God.
What are some of the ways to help people experience God?
In the field, I would often say, “Tell me one thing you want to change in your life.” I’d make a list, then say, “I’m going to pray that God would reveal Himself to you in that area of your life.” And God did incredible things. Over a course of three to six weeks, God would begin to solve the problems in that person’s life, and they knew it wasn’t because of something they were doing. That created an openness for them to really experience what was going on in the English Bible class. Prayer was a key thing. Praying for the sick, for demonized people, and in the Muslim context right now, praying that God would send people dreams and visions of Jesus, and then following up. Those are some of the ways God seems to be touching lives and helping people taste and see His goodness.
Why are you passionate about world missions? Why should Adventists care about missions today?
I started my ministry in a part of the world where only 0.5% of people were Christians. Here in America, we have a large Christian population, and we tend to emphasize Adventist distinctive doctrines. A lot of times, I don’t think we spend enough time talking about Jesus. Whereas, in mission you find people that are totally ignorant about salvation through Jesus. When you see people who are folk Buddhists and afraid of evil spirits set free by Jesus, it makes you excited about missions. We’re concerned about communicating Jesus across the barrier of faith and unbelief, taking the Good News to people for the first time. When you see how that impacts people, that’s exciting!
How can Adventist members and leaders begin to engage in missions, right where they are?
I really believe it begins with prayer. When a church or group of people would begin to pray for a country or unreached people group, God often works through their prayers to help them become much more engaged in mission, whether through giving, going, sending or getting involved. As they pray, they usually start studying about the people or the country, and as they know more, the Holy Spirit uses that information to get them more involved. I really believe that mission starts with prayer. Without prayer, it’s very hard to motivate people. You can get up and do mission rallies, and people will say, “That was wonderful!” And then they’ll go back home and not really change. But as people pray, it changes them and makes them more receptive to the call of God on their lives.
Can you give us an example of how prayer could impact mission motivation?
In Detroit, Michigan, there are 200,000 Muslims. What would happen if the churches in the Detroit area started praying for the Muslims in their community? If there are 1,000-2,000 Adventists praying for Muslims in their neighborhoods, I believe that God would begin calling people to outreach ministries that would impact that community.
How is the Doctor of Missiology program reaching the nations with the gospel?
Right now, we have 46 students in the program. We prepare them to go back to their home countries and train people to be much more active in reaching out to those in the world religions. That’s why I’m so excited about the international flavor of the students. We can educate Americans, but they have to learn a language and culture, whereas if we can educate people from out there — bring them to Andrews, give them a top-notch education in mission — and they go back, they don’t have to learn the language and culture. I still believe in cross-cultural mission. I believe there are a lot of places where Americans should go. But we need to train people who don’t have some of the barriers we face.
What is the biggest obstacle to preparing students to reach their nations with the Gospel?
Many of our students are facing financial crises. My goal this year is to raise $50,000 of scholarship funding. We have students from crucial parts of the world who haven’t been able to come to Andrews because of funds. So our department made a commitment to raising money to sponsor some of those students, because, if I read the Bible correctly, God wants people from every nation, kindred, tongue and people to be in His Kingdom. We have a lot of work to do!
Click here to sponsor an international DMiss student to help reach secular/postmodern people and those in the world religions of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. Select "Ministry Training Program Scholarship" from the dropdown menu to give any amount.
