Guarding Missions from Pragmatism

Oct 15

Missionaries face relentless pressure to prioritize results over faithfulness. Drawing on five truths from Paul’s ministry in 2 Corinthians 4:1–7, Smith exposes pragmatism’s subtle grip on modern missions. Discover why Scripture alone must define missionary methods, why weakness displays God’s power, and why faithfulness, not visible results, remains the true measure of gospel success.

*Originally preached at the Tea Missions Conference in Manila, Philippines, on November 8, 2025.

28 min read

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Introduction

The Bible alone is sufficient for defining missions and evaluating missionary methods. Yet many missionaries, even with a good and biblical desire to spread the gospel, become susceptible to pragmatic methods that prioritize results or rapidity over biblical faithfulness. These undermine biblical authority and lead to confusion of the gospel, conversion, and the local church.¹

I have never officially been called a “missionary.” In nearly twenty years of full-time ministry (mostly as a lead pastor and church planter in Canada and the United States), I have spent far more time calling missionaries home from the field than sending them out. One church I served devoted close to 70% of its budget to missions. Within a few years, that number dropped to 10% amid crisis after crisis: children in rebellion and leaving the faith, inappropriate relationships on the mission field, laziness in gospel work, theological drift into liberalism, and outright deception.

The pattern was tragically consistent. The sending process looked excellent; the candidates started strong, with prayerful conviction and gospel clarity. But somewhere along the line, they stopped trusting the Word of God. What began with dependence on Scripture ended in dependence on self. Discouragement set in, pressure mounted, and pragmatism, the belief that “if it works, it must be right,” quietly took the wheel.

Pragmatism measures truth by visible results. “Does it work?” is more important than “Is it faithful?” John MacArthur has shown that the same philosophy has reshaped modern evangelicalism at large, turning the church into a marketing enterprise, the gospel into a consumer product.² In missions, the pressure is greater: Donors want numbers, agencies want growth charts, and the missionary feels the daily weight of “produce or perish.” The end justifies the means until the means corrupt the end.

This critique resonates deeply with the mission of many faithful seminaries and international training networks committed to the conviction that Scripture alone thoroughly equips God’s servants for every good work in ministry and missions. Their emphases on expository preaching and sound biblical theology serve as powerful safeguards against pragmatic dilutions of the gospel message. Through their global efforts to establish training centers, these institutions model steady, indigenous discipleship and church planting. When many others are interested in rapid, measurable results, these efforts instead prioritize long-term faithfulness. Resources produced by centers dedicated to biblical missions reinforce this principle: True outreach must rest on strategies firmly rooted in Scripture. Such approaches echo the warnings of trusted voices like MacArthur: “Pragmatism as a test of truth is nothing short of satanic.”³ In missions, this means rejecting donor-driven metrics and sensationalized reporting in favor of simple dependence on divine mercy and sovereignty, recognizing how crises often expose the dangers of shifting from initial gospel zeal to self-reliance, theological compromise, or deceptive practices.

The danger of pragmatism on the mission field is not that it builds too much but that it builds without God. It replaces revelation with innovation, dependence with technique, and obedience with outcomes.

The apostle Paul faced the same temptation in Corinth. The church there prized impressive apostles, flashy rhetoric, and visible power. They wanted men who could draw crowds, perform signs, and win arguments. You can almost hear them saying, “If Paul would only change his message, the Jews and Gentiles would respect him more.”

In 2 Corinthians 4:1–7, Paul pulls back the curtain on what faithful ministry actually looks like when the pressure to perform is crushing. He presents five truths about gospel ministry that guard us from the subtle drift of pragmatism and keep our mission pure.

1. The Ministry We Have Is a Mercy, Not a Marketing Strategy

The apostle Paul opens 2 Corinthians 4:1 with a declaration that strikes a blow to every pragmatic impulse in missions: “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart” (ESV).

Those who have labored on the mission field or in the pastorate know the weight of those words. There are seasons when the work feels crushing, when you have poured yourself into preaching, discipling, translating, training, and building, only to see hard soil, few converts, loud critics, and slow fruit. In those moments, pragmatism begins to whisper: “You’ve got to make it work. Change the method. Try what’s trending.” The suggestions are never in short supply: social-media strategies, conference models, email campaigns, courses, or the latest “success stories” from large ministries.

Pay attention to what the apostle Paul does. He roots perseverance in mercy, not metrics. He does not say, “Having this ministry by the success of our strategy . . .” but “by the mercy of God.” That single phrase dismantles every pragmatic instinct. Ministry is not a marketing strategy to engineer for success; it is a merciful stewardship from the sovereign God.

Ministry Begins with Mercy

Every true ministry starts not with our resumé but with God’s mercy. Paul never got over the fact that he, a former persecutor, blasphemer, and violent man (1 Tim 1:13), was shown mercy on the Damascus Road. The same is true for every missionary and pastor. None of us earned our call; we were entrusted with it. We were not chosen because we were the best option. We were shown mercy so that God’s grace might shine through our weakness. When that truth grips the heart, the pressure to perform for approval evaporates. Gratitude replaces striving.

Mercy Kills Ministry Pride

Pragmatism grows in the soil of pride. It coaxes us: “You can make this happen. You can fix this. You can prove yourself.” But mercy assures us: “You can’t, and you don’t have to.” We do not labor to impress God; we persevere because God has already been merciful to us. That is why Paul can say, “We do not lose heart.” He does not mean we never grow weary, discouraged, or frustrated. He means we never give up.

Mercy Is the Antidote to Ministry Burnout

Every statistic tells us missionaries and pastors are leaving the work faster than ever before. Why? Because they have traded the mercy that called them for the metrics that define them. When results become our identity, disappointment becomes our constant companion. But when mercy becomes our identity, faithfulness becomes our joy. The missionary who lives by mercy can stand in the hardest field and say: “Even if no one listens, I will preach. Even if the ground stays hard, I will sow. Even if I never see revival in my lifetime, I will obey.” That is the freedom pragmatism can never give.

The Presbyterian Church of America’s (PCA) Mission to the World manual puts it sharply: “Theology must always judge practice.”⁴ Phil DeHart comments, “Pragmatism is the conviction that because Christ offers no direction in this or that practical matter, we are essentially on our own.”⁵ Mercy reminds us we are never on our own.

Before we ever discuss methods, models, or measures, Paul forces us to remember the foundation: Our ministry is not a marketing endeavor but a merciful gift. The mercy that called us is the mercy that keeps us and will one day crown us. In that mercy, the whisper of pragmatism is silenced, and the Great Commission becomes what it was always meant to be, not a frantic quest for results but a faithful walk in the mercy of God.

2. The Methods We Use Must Reflect the Message We Preach

The apostle Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 4:2: “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

The first verse shows us why we serve (because this ministry is a gift of God’s mercy). The second verse tells us how we must serve: with uncompromising integrity. Paul draws a hard line. He does not merely avoid shady tactics; he publicly renounces them. The word “renounced” signals a decisive, visible break. Why such strong language? Because methods matter. The way we proclaim the message inevitably says something about the message itself.

The Temptation to Tamper

Paul confronts the ancient version of modern pragmatism head-on: “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word.” Corinth was a city obsessed with showmanship, flashy orators, polished rhetoric, and manipulative persuasion. Crowds flocked to the most entertaining voice, not necessarily the truest one. Does this sound familiar?

That same temptation follows us onto the mission field today:

“Let’s make the gospel more appealing to this culture.”
“Let’s soften the edges of sin or judgment.”
“Let’s rebrand the message to fit the audience.”

Every time we tamper with Scripture, we implicitly declare, “God’s truth is not powerful enough on its own.” We surrender the only authority we have. Pragmatism whispers that the gospel needs our clever help, better packaging, smoother delivery, quicker results. But the gospel does not need clever packaging; it needs clear proclamation. The Holy Spirit often uses weak deliveries. The results depend on God’s timing, not ours. We do not adjust the message to fit the world. We announce the message that will change the world.

As MacArthur warns, pragmatism has led churches to replace expository preaching with drama, comedy, and marketing surveys, mirroring the early 20th-century rise of modernism.⁶ Modernism began not as outright heresy but as a pragmatic push for relevance and unity, downplaying doctrine to appeal to a skeptical age. It synthesized Christianity with science and philosophy, assuming biblical methods were outdated. The result? Theological liberalism and unbelief swept through denominations.

In missions, the same temptation appears: pursuing biblical ends with non-biblical means.⁷ The “subtle threat” is the evolution of pragmatic methodology into flawed theology. Marwan Aboul-Zelof warns that such approaches often stem from “poor hermeneutics,” treating biblical narratives (like the “persons of peace” in Luke 10) as prescriptive blueprints for rapid multiplication while ignoring imperatives for patient discipleship.⁸ When methods eclipse the message, we don’t just tamper, we trade divine authority for human ingenuity, echoing modernism’s fatal error.

Every Method Carries a Theology

Our methods are not neutral. They preach. They either declare that God’s Word is sufficient or that it is not. That is why Paul insists on “the open statement of the truth”: transparency, clarity, and honesty. He does not hide the cost of following Christ. He does not bait people with promises of comfort or success. He simply lays out the truth and trusts the Holy Spirit to open hearts.

What you win them with is what you win them to.

Win them with emotional manipulation, and you will have to keep manipulating to hold them.
Win them with programs and strategies, and you will need bigger programs and better strategies to keep them coming.
Win them with the Word of God, and the Word of God will hold them.

The missionary who leans on pragmatism is always exhausted because the system depends on his constant effort. But the missionary who depends on the truth is continually renewed because the power rests in the gospel, not in himself.

The Integrity of Open Proclamation

Paul finishes with accountability language: “We commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” Nothing to hide. No marketing spin. No inflated reports. No numbers massaged to impress supporters back home, just the truth, the whole truth, in the sight of God.

This is the missionary mindset we must recover. Faithful missionaries do not ask, “What works?” They ask, “What is true?” They do not measure success by how fast the crowds come; they measure it by how faithfully Christ is preached. Andy Johnson’s diagnostic question is piercing: “Are we attracted to a method because it is scripturally faithful, or because we first heard it ‘worked’?”⁹

When the pressure comes—and it always does—to cut corners, to make things look better than they are, to preach what sounds smoother, remember Paul’s words: “We refuse to tamper with God’s Word” (2 Cor 4:2). The moment we compromise the method, we have already corrupted the message. The methods we use must reflect the message we preach. Anything less is pragmatism in disguise.

3. The Measure of Success Is Faithfulness, Not Visibility

The apostle Paul presses the point even further in 2 Corinthians 4:3–4: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Paul has just declared that he proclaims the truth openly and without manipulation. But what happens when people do not respond, the crowds do not come, and the results do not seem to justify the effort? That is precisely when pragmatism knocks loudest. Here is the heart of the battle. Pragmatism says, “If they’re not responding, change the message.” Paul answers with a truth that dismantles every results-driven approach: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” In other words, the problem is not the message; the problem is spiritual blindness.

The Reality of Spiritual Blindness

Missionaries and pastors, hear this clearly: The reason people do not believe is not because your presentation lacks creativity or your strategy lacks cleverness. It is because “the god of this world has blinded their minds.” The enemy is not culture or disinterest; it is Satan himself, blinding hearts to the truth of Christ. Missions is spiritual warfare, not spiritual marketing. No marketing plan on earth can open blind eyes; only the Holy Spirit can do that.

This means the success of our ministry does not depend on how persuasive we are but on how faithfully we preach the unchanging gospel. You can preach with perfect clarity and still be rejected; Jesus was. You can reason with precision and still be mocked; Paul was. You can love with compassion and still be hated; the apostles were. Faithfulness, not visible fruit, is the true measure of success in ministry.

Aboul-Zelof illustrates this with biblical examples.¹⁰ Abraham and Sarah turned to Hagar because ten years had passed and the promise seemed too slow. Their pragmatic solution produced Ishmael, not the child of promise. Israel treated the Ark of the Covenant like a good-luck charm and lost it. Human effort cannot enact God’s purposes. The Bible’s pattern is often slow and steady: decades for Abraham’s son, centuries for the exodus, thirty years before Jesus began public ministry.

Aboul-Zelof’s article expands this pattern across Scripture, revealing pragmatism as an ancient snare. Consider Saul in 1 Samuel 13: He waited for Samuel to offer the sacrifice but, fearing defeat as his army scattered, took matters into his own hands (1 Sam 13:8–12). The result? God rejected his kingship, declaring, “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22). Consider the Israelites in Numbers 21 who grumbled against God’s provision; their pragmatic complaints led to judgment, only reversed by faithfully obeying God’s command concerning the bronze serpent, a type of Christ lifted up. Even in the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 faked generosity for visible approval, but their deception brought death. These stories reveal that human effort cannot enact God’s purposes; they produce Ishmaels, not Isaacs, conflict, not covenant fulfillment. The Bible’s timeline reinforces this: God’s redemptive plan unfolds slowly, from Abraham’s decades-long wait to the 400 years of silence before Christ. Pragmatism demands speed; faithfulness trusts sovereignty. As Andy Johnson notes, evaluating by “numbers of responses” ignores Jesus’s parable of the sower, where initial growth often deceives. The seedbed of eternal fruit is faithful, persistent obedience.¹¹

The Lie of Visible Success

Pragmatism insists, “If it is not working, change it.” Paul answers, “If they are not seeing, pray harder and keep preaching.” Pragmatism defines success by visible impact. Faith defines success by invisible obedience. Visibility is not veracity. There are ministries exploding in numbers but imploding in truth. Other ministries are laboring in hidden corners of the world without newsletters, platforms, or recognition, yet the gates of hell tremble before their resolute, humble faithfulness.

When we begin measuring success by visibility, we start doing ministry for the wrong audience. We start preaching for the crowd instead of for the Christ who called us. That is why Paul insists his ministry happens “in the sight of God.” The ultimate metric is not what people see but what God knows.

The Light That Cannot Be Manufactured

Notice the phrase “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Light is not something you manufacture; it is something you reveal. The missionary’s job is not to create light but to remove the obstacles so that light can shine. The same is true in church planting. You cannot force illumination by gimmicks, entertainment, or cultural adaptation. That is like shining a flashlight at a blind man; it simply does not work. Only God can say, “Let light shine out of darkness.”

Here is the reality check: If the gospel is veiled, it is not because you have failed; it is because the world is blind. And when you truly believe that, you stop panicking when the results do not come quickly. You stop chasing visibility and start valuing faithfulness.

The measure of success in missions is how faithfully we proclaim the gospel. Anything else is pragmatism in disguise.

4. The Mission Is to Preach Christ, Not Ourselves

The apostle Paul captures the heart of biblical missions in one crystal-clear sentence: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor 4:5).

If you want to boil down the entire philosophy of faithful missions into one verse, this is it. Paul draws the decisive line between faithfulness and pragmatism, between God’s work and man’s show: “We don’t preach ourselves.” That single refusal separates true ministry from every self-centered substitute.

The Subtle Drift Toward Self

No missionary ever begins by saying, “I want this ministry to be about me.” The drift is subtle. Though we start by preaching Christ, we end up promoting ourselves. We share stories, testimonies, videos, and prayer updates, all good things in themselves, yet the spotlight slowly shifts. Before long, the report is no longer about what God is doing through His Word but about what we are doing for God. What began as a boast in the Lord soon becomes a boast in self.

When ministry becomes self-centered, it loses its supernatural power. Paul refuses to play that game. He declares, “We proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.” In a world that glorifies personality, Paul glorifies proclamation. In a culture addicted to image, Paul insists on lordship. In a generation obsessed with influence, Paul calls us back to servanthood. Pragmatism subtly shifts the spotlight from Christ to the missionary, turning reports into self-promotion rather than divine testimony.

The Centrality of Christ’s Lordship

Notice what Paul actually preaches: “Jesus Christ as Lord.” That is the substance of every faithful message; not Jesus as a helpful friend, Jesus as your life coach, or Jesus as a moral example but Jesus as Lord: absolute authority.

This is the truth every culture resists, the only truth that saves. Pragmatism wants an agreeable Christ, one who fits the audience, never confronts, never commands. But Paul refuses to adjust the Christ he preaches. He proclaims the sovereign, risen, reigning Lord and calls all people everywhere to repent and believe.

That is why the true missionary does not measure sermons by how people feel but by whether Christ is exalted. Making Christ acceptable is not our task; the task is to make Him unavoidable. Paul offers the sovereign Lord who demands repentance and faith.

The Identity of the Missionary: Servant

Paul finishes the verse with these humbling words: “with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” In other words, “I am not the hero. I am the servant. Jesus is the Lord.” That is the biblical hierarchy of ministry: Christ is Lord, people are loved, and we are servants.

Pragmatism reverses that order. It makes the missionary the hero, the people the project, and Christ the logo. Biblical ministry flips it back. It is not about our name, our reputation, or our platform; it is about His glory among the nations. That is what it means to be Christ’s ambassador—not an entrepreneur, not a performer, not a visionary brand-builder but a servant whose only message is, “Be reconciled to God.” The missionary’s identity is servant, not hero.

The Freedom of Servanthood

Here is the beautiful truth: When you stop preaching yourself, you stop carrying the unbearable burden of proving yourself. Paul’s freedom came from knowing his worth was not in results but in his Redeemer. He was not auditioning for approval; he was already accepted in Christ.

When you embrace servanthood, you are free to be faithful. You can go to the hardest places, preach the hardest truths, and face the harshest rejection because you are not defending your reputation; you are advancing His kingdom.

The mission is to preach Christ, not ourselves. Anything less is pragmatism in disguise. When we keep Jesus Christ as Lord at the center and ourselves as servants at the side, the power of God is free to work through the simple proclamation of the gospel.

5. The Model for Ministry Is Weakness, Not Power

The apostle Paul gives us one of the most liberating truths in all of Scripture: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7).

If you are weary, this verse was written for you. Paul has just described the light of the gospel shining into darkness, and now he tells us exactly where that light shines from: inside ordinary, fragile jars of clay. That is, you and me. God deliberately puts priceless treasure in fragile containers so no one confuses the power of the gospel with the ability of the messenger.

The Treasure and the Container

The treasure is “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” The jar is the missionary: ordinary, fragile, unimpressive, weak. God designed it this way on purpose. When the container is weak, the treasure shines brighter. When the missionary is small, the message looks great.

This is the divine irony: The world prizes strength, but God displays His power through weakness. When the world builds a movement, it looks for the strong, the gifted, the influential. When God builds His kingdom, He looks for the humble, the dependent, the broken. The goal is never to display the jar; it is to magnify the treasure inside.

The Weakness That Glorifies God

Here is a truth that pragmatism absolutely hates. Pragmatism thrives on strength, strong leaders, strong results, strong images, strong technique. But God delights in weak vessels carrying a strong message. When we embrace that, we stop competing with one another. We stop trying to prove ourselves. We stop building ministries that look powerful but lack prayer.

The missionary who understands this verse can say, “My weakness is not a liability; it is a lens through which God’s glory is magnified.” The moment ministry becomes about my strength, it stops displaying God’s power. Pragmatism says, “Make it bigger, flashier, faster.” God says, “Make it faithful, humble, dependent.” One builds monuments; the other builds disciples. One impresses donors; the other pleases God.

Weakness Is God’s Delivery System

Jars of clay were cheap, ordinary containers, used for oil, water, grain. They broke easily. That is the image Paul chooses for the missionary: fragile, forgettable, replaceable. But in that fragility, God shows His surpassing power.

When you are weak and still proclaim Christ, it is obvious where the power comes from. When you are exhausted but still faithful, it is obvious who is sustaining you. When you are overlooked but still joyful, it is obvious whose glory you live for.

This is why the theology of weakness is not a side note; it is the foundation of missions. God does not need strong people; He uses dependent ones. He is not looking for those who can make ministry work; He is looking for those who trust that He can. Weakness is God’s delivery system.

Weakness Is Spiritual Warfare

Remember verse 4: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” That is the battlefield. Satan’s weapon is deception; God’s weapon is truth. Satan uses power to blind; God uses weakness to reveal. That is the upside-down strategy of heaven. Weakness is spiritual warfare.

The cross looked like defeat, but it was victory. The apostles looked like failures, but they turned the world upside down. Missionaries may look small, but through them the gospel shatters darkness.

So when you face resistance, when the culture mocks your message, when your ministry feels insignificant, remember: That is exactly how God planned it. He put a priceless treasure in a clay pot so no one would ever confuse the power of the gospel with the ability of the messenger.

The model for ministry is weakness, not power. Anything less is pragmatism in disguise. When we embrace our frailty and keep the spotlight on the treasure, the surpassing power of God is put on full display for the world to see.

Diagnosing Pragmatism Today

Recent discussions in missiological journals illustrate pragmatism’s subtle harms in missions through flawed hermeneutics. For instance, justifying polygamy in African fields by pragmatically citing Old Testament examples as merely “cultural” often stems from results-driven adaptation, leading to poor contextualization and long-term conflict rather than true covenant faithfulness. In Indonesia, rigidly applying texts like Ephesians 6:1 (“honor your father”) without cultural discernment damaged family relationships and hindered discipleship, imposing unintended restrictions that quenched the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19).

Such approaches risk relativism by dismissing biblical commands as “just cultural” or treating narratives as prescriptive blueprints for speed, prioritizing quick inclusivity over creational truths. This echoes warnings about “reverse-engineering” movements without biblical grounding, producing shallow conversions and division. As one missionary serving in theological resource ministry in rural Africa observed, Western publishing houses and organizations often push materials “clearly unsuited for the audience” simply because it “looks like something is being done.” Driven by a Western mentality rather than studying the field’s actual needs and context, these efforts reflect pragmatism’s focus on visible activity over indigenous relevance and long-term fruit.

True obedience discerns God’s mission beyond rigid rules: Commands accommodate specific contexts, but ignoring their significance distorts intentions. This reinforces the need for theology to judge practice, guarding against pragmatism’s shortcuts that erode the gospel’s transformative edge in the field. Supporting churches must evaluate by alignment with Scripture’s imperatives, not rapid results.

How do we know when pragmatism has taken root? Johnson offers three diagnostic questions that every missionary, sending church, and agency should ask:¹²

What attracts us to our methods—biblical faithfulness or visible results?
How do we define success—numbers of decisions or God glorified through obedience?
Where do we turn first for methods—the latest book reporting “phenomenal success” or the pages of Scripture?

Aboul-Zelof adds concrete examples of pragmatic methods that have caused confusion: the Insider Movement that softens the gospel call to carry one’s cross and return to old Islamic practices; strategies that prioritize rapidity over patient discipleship; and the reverse-engineering of “what works” instead of waiting on God to act. All share the same root: poor hermeneutics that treat descriptive narratives (e.g., persons of peace in Luke 10) as universal blueprints while downgrading clear imperatives.¹³

DeHart asks, “What is the alternative to a theological mission?” He answers: “In a word, it is pragmatism. . . . The consequence of failure on this point . . . is ‘death not only of theology but also of missions.’ ”¹⁴ In missions, we risk doing evangelism according to the latest strategy and only running to the Word when the numbers stall.

To combat this, sending churches and agencies must prioritize theological accountability over performance metrics. MacArthur recounts a conversation with a megachurch pastor who asked for “the secret to growing a large church.” His response? “I have no desire to build the church. Jesus said He would build His church, and I don’t want to be in competition with Him.”¹⁵ This mindset shifts evaluation: Instead of quarterly growth reports, assess missionaries by their dependence on Scripture and prayer. Johnson urges focusing on “the work of the word in men’s minds,” asking if methods clarify the gospel or obscure it. Ultimately, as the PCA manual insists, rejecting pragmatism means living “under the domination of theology,” where every strategy submits to Christ’s lordship.¹⁶ This guards against autonomy, ensuring missions thrive not on innovation but on the unchanging power of the gospel.

Supporting churches and agencies must recover the same standard. Evaluate workers first by biblical faithfulness, not by reported numbers. Encourage the faithful laborer whose fruit is slow in coming. Commit, as the PCA manual declares, to be a theological mission where theology judges every practice, and pragmatism is rejected as autonomy from the King.

Conclusion: The Long View of Faithfulness

The apostle Paul never ended a letter without fixing his gaze on eternity. He was not interested in short-term disciples; he aimed to forge lifelong finishers. From a Roman prison cell, scarred, abandoned by many, and awaiting execution, he issued his final charge to Timothy with unyielding conviction:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim 4:1–5)

Feel the weight of those words. This is the long view of ministry. Paul is not concerned with what works this month or draws a crowd this year. He speaks of the day when every servant of Christ will stand before the Lord of the harvest and give an account—not for the results produced but for the faithfulness with which the Word was proclaimed.

Facing execution, Paul did not boast of numbers reached or churches built. He simply affirmed: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7). That is maturity. That is what missions demands. That is what will endure the test of eternity. In a world obsessed with quick wins and visible metrics, let us recover this eternal perspective. Pragmatism may promise results, but faithfulness alone will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21).

One seasoned missionary reflects on this long view: Faithfulness is “being intentional and purposeful. . . . Missionary work is an act of faith. . . . It has a long view.”¹⁷ He contrasts it with evangelism-heavy approaches that neglect deep discipleship, echoing the pioneering Nigerian theologian Byang Kato’s bold critique of Western missions for prioritizing rapid evangelism over patient theological education and training—leading to weak churches vulnerable to syncretism. Kato’s legacy reminds us that true fruit grows through Scripture-saturated equipping, not frenzied urgency.¹⁸

Another voice from the field warns that pragmatism often creeps in undetected: “The forward movement of the Church has been slow and steady, not fast and frenzied. It is the quiet, weekly work of the Word that does the work.”¹⁹ In seasons of apparent failure or waiting, we learn more of God’s character, His sovereignty in using even our weaknesses to open doors and teach dependence.

The treasure is still in jars of clay. The power is still God’s. The call is still the same: Preach Christ crucified, trust the mercy that called you, and do not lose heart.

B. K. came to know Jesus Christ as Savior just before entering middle school in North Bay, Ontario. Prior to his calling to full-time ministry, B. K. served in various ministries while working as an intelligence officer in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In 2007, he started serving in full-time ministry roles as a church planter and lead pastor in Decatur, IL, and Victoria, BC. In 2018, he was called to serve as lead pastor of Squamish Baptist Church. B. K. holds an MDiv (2007) and DMin (2020) from The Master’s Seminary.

1. Marwan Aboul-Zelof, “Pragmatism in Missions,” Great Commission Council, January 1, 2026, https://www.greatcommissioncouncil.org/articles-blog/pragmatism-in-missions.
2. John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World (Crossway, 1993), 23.
3. MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 13.
4. Committee on Mission to the World, Policy Manual (Presbyterian Church in America, 1979), 679, https://pcahistory.org/pca/digest/v1/1979_mtw_policy_manual_pp674-689.pdf.
5. Phil DeHart, “A Practical Guide for Foreign Missions,” byFaith Magazine, December 5, 2025, https://byfaithonline.com/a-practical-guide-for-foreign-missions/.
6. MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 13.
7. Aboul-Zelof, “Pragmatism in Missions.”
8. Aboul-Zelof, “Pragmatism in Missions.”
9. Andy Johnson, “Pragmatism, Pragmatism Everywhere!” 9Marks, February 26, 2010, https://www.9marks.org/article/pragmatism-pragmatism-everywhere/.
10. Aboul-Zelof, “Pragmatism in Missions.”
11. Johnson, “Pragmatism, Pragmatism Everywhere!”
12. Johnson, “Pragmatism, Pragmatism Everywhere!”
13. Aboul-Zelof, “Pragmatism in Missions.”
14. DeHart, “Practical Guide for Foreign Missions,” quoting the Committee on Mission to the World, Policy Manual, 679.
15. MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 173–74.
16. Committee on Mission to the World, Policy Manual, 679.
17. Aaron Dunlop, “Dr. Byang Kato’s Thoughts on Foreign Missions,” Aaron Dunlop (blog), September 19, 2025, https://aarondunlop.substack.com/p/dr-byang-katos-thoughts-on-foreign.
18. Keith Ferdinando, “The Legacy of Byang Kato,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 28, no. 4 (October 2004): 169–74.
19. Dunlop, “Dr. Byang Kato’s Thoughts on Foreign Missions.”

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