Mission Platforms: Balancing Obedience and Security

Jesus commands us to go into the world as sheep among wolves. But more than just going to the wolves haphazardly, Jesus calls us to go as wise sheep. How do we do this in places defined by acute persecution as opposed to places defined by freedom to practice one’s faith?

We lived in South Africa for around eight years among the Xhosa-speaking people near Queenstown. Our third son was even blessed to be born in Umtata, Transkei.

In those days, we were openly known as missionaries in South Africa, and in Malawi before that. In 1991 we moved to Kenya as a family of five to begin work in the famine and civil war of Somalia. When we entered that country, we knew of only about 150 followers of Jesus. When we were kicked out, only four were left alive. 

Sadly, all of those who were killed for their faith had relationships with Western, overtly Christian organizations that contributed directly to the timing of their deaths. Understand me please: If they weren’t Christians, they could possibly still be alive. 

But the truth remains that when openly Christian workers or entities enter unreached and unengaged people groups (in places like China, India, current Russia, and all of Islam), everyone that is related to anyone from an openly Christian organization will be heavily scrutinized. Even friends they make can be harmed or killed, whether they have started to follow Jesus or not.

Ruth and I served nearly four decades overseas. Twenty-seven of those years were in places of extreme persecution. When we started working in Somalia, we created a non-government organization that is now in 15 countries. Though we employed 150 Somali Muslims to work with us, only four of those were believers.

Jesus was a carpenter. Paul was a tent maker. Many of the early disciples were fishermen. The word missionary does not appear in the Bible, nor does a title of a mission agency. I have no problem being an open missionary in open countries, but in closed countries, this is not advisable. 

Being a recognizable missionary sent out from a church or Christian agency will most certainly, with few exceptions, hinder your witness rather than help it. What you will end up modeling in closed countries, when you have the trappings of western Christianity, is that they need paid clergy, brick and mortar places of worship, religious educational buildings, and formal theological education degrees. 

We need to understand and struggle with the fact that, prior to Pentecost, and certainly after Pentecost, the biblical location of worship was in the homes of believers. As the early church was scattered through persecution beginning in Acts 8, they took their witness with them. They did not try to reproduce the Jewish synagogue or temple models of worship.

After only six months in Somalia, we were feeding 50,000 people a day, doing mobile medical clinics in 25 villages, daily burying 20 children who had died from malnutrition, re-settling refugees, and listening to the horrific stories of families who had been slaughtered. Often only the father or a mother or a grandmother were left alive. The stories we heard from any woman over 13 years of age included the repeated experience of the worst thing that any female can experience.

Somalis would approach me in Mogadishu at least three to five times a week. They would ask me if I “was a missionary.” To say yes would put my life at risk, along with the lives of my colleagues, the lives of Muslims who worked for us, and any believer that was in our circle of influence. 

One of the things we have learned from Jesus is to answer a question with a question. So when they asked me if I was a missionary, I would reply,  “Why are you asking me such a question?” Their reply would always be something like, “You are different. You don’t eat pork or drink alcohol like these other Christians from the West. You don’t cheat on your wife. You don’t curse the Somali people and boss them around. I was sent by others and we want to know why you’re different? You love the Somali people, you’re learning our language, and respecting our culture.”

That was the question I wanted to answer!

I would always tell them how I came to know and believe in Jesus Christ at 18 years of age. I would talk about God sending us to Africa and then Somalia. I would explain clearly who Jesus is, including His life, His death, and His resurrection. 

The conversation would become very friendly and in-depth about who Jesus is. Entering countries that are unengaged and unreached with an openly Christian platform, or one that can easily be found on the Internet, will be doubly dangerous for those who are sent out as well as those who seek Jesus or believe in Him.

This was not an easy decision for us. Our Baptist colleagues in Kenya, who had worked there for two generations and were openly Baptist missionaries, were very angry with us. In one meeting my wife and I were told, “If you go into Somalia and you do not go openly as Baptist missionaries, you are unethical and immoral.” 

I laughed, and my wife cried, which represents both of our personalities. Please don’t judge going as an open missionary or going on secure platforms as if one is more spiritual than the other. 

When we started working with Somalis in 1991, there were 70 million Muslims in eastern and southern Africa and zero missionaries working with them. They could not enter Muslim communities with open denominational or mission organizational identities. 

Their conclusion? If we can’t go openly as missionaries and as Baptists, then it is obviously God‘s will that we not go.” 

I’ve seen that in writing. 

The way I think about this issue hopefully generates light, not heat. As I’ve already mentioned, the word “missionary” is not in the Bible. All the thousands of denominations and mission agencies are simply vehicles. 

I can imagine myself as an open missionary in South Africa, driving a Peugeot sedan. But when I go into the desert and the sands of Somalia, I need a 4x4 pickup truck with guards. You drive whatever suits the terrain where you need to live and serve. 

In 2025, only 3% of all missionaries reside in unengaged countries! Because we can’t go openly among the “dangerously unreached,” we simply don’t go. And if we do go openly as missionaries, helping in orphanages, schools, and other traditional missionary activities, then we can stay—until there is some spiritual fruit. 

Once life and growth in Christ begins to show itself, the Westerner will be run out of the country and any local seekers or believers may lose their lives. What reason will the persecutors give for this? They will say that “they are trying to convert Muslims to become Christians, forcing Somalia to become a Christian nation.” These persecutors, at this stage, cannot even describe who Jesus is.

What you do when you go on secure, marketplace platforms, rather than going openly as a missionary, is to better enhance the opportunity of witness, sowing the Good News to families and units. As Cornelius and his household, Lydia and her household, they embrace Jesus together. With more Bible stories, they will baptize each other appropriately and biblically. Quickly, they will gather in their homes with the kingdom of God growing as in Acts 2 and Acts 4. 

By the end of Acts 4, there were approximately 10,000 followers of Jesus Christ. It took 200 to 300 years after Pentecost for the structures of Christianity to emerge in the form of buildings, paid and literate clergy, and denominations. Please write yourself into God’s story in such a way that you see those you send out as New Testament believers in an Old Testament environment. 

Ruth and I have interviewed over 650 believers in 72 countries. In most of these places, you should not identify as anything more than simply followers of Jesus Christ. Single men and women, as well as married couples and their children, need to be like Jesus without openly denominational or organizational labels. 

Everywhere Jesus went, He brought value to those that He served. He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, fed thousands upon thousands. He brought value to every community or individual He touched. What was His platform? He was the son of a carpenter.

Ruth and I have taught material similar to this for five full days to local believers in difficult places and to workers and their organizations globally. Where did we learn all of this? We learned it from believers in persecution.

Wherever you are on your mission journey, we invite you to enhance your training and understanding of platforms and countless other missiological strategies through our global resource called “Insanity Unleashed.”

We built this for those who go and those who send. We do not know of a better resource for preparing people to send and go to the hard places. It is biblically rooted, and inspired directly by the truths and practices we learned sitting at the feet of believers in persecution. This training will help you be wise sheep among the wolves for the sake of the Kingdom of God.