What does First B Jackson teach about missions?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, missions is not treated as a program the church runs but as the central purpose God has been working toward since He called Abraham. Pastor Ray has taught from Psalm 67 that the reason God blesses His people is so that His way would be known on the earth and His salvation among all nations. That spreading circle, as he called it, starts with faith and has always been aimed outward, toward every people and nation who have yet to hear. Paul's argument in Galatians 3 confirmed the same thing: those who belong to Christ by faith are sons of Abraham, and the blessing of Abraham was always meant to reach the Gentiles.
The messages at First B have returned repeatedly to what missions actually looks like on the ground. Dave Hatfield, who has spent seventeen years in a dumpsite community outside Nakuru, Kenya, pressed the congregation to stop trying to argue people into the kingdom and start simply loving their neighbors and letting the Holy Spirit do His work. Norris Williams, describing disciple-making movements across the Middle East and Nigeria, made the same point from a different angle: God's job is to draw people to Jesus, and the disciple's job is to love God and make disciples, not to do God's work for Him. What both men described was ministry that multiplied precisely because it began with finding the right person, sitting with them, and letting God move. Pastor Joseph Kamau Kabui, preaching from John 17, added that the unity of believers is itself a form of witness, that when the world sees genuine oneness among Christians, it sees evidence that Jesus actually came from God.
Pastor Ray has also held up the personal cost that runs through the biblical story of missions. His teaching on 2 Timothy showed that the gospel is always carried by actual human beings whose faithfulness deserves to be named, and his work through Acts has traced how God used persecution, imprisonment, and hard turns to move the message outward. The commissioning of Florin and Violetta to Romania, and the work of Anders and Brooke in Zambia, have given the congregation living examples of what it looks like to walk through fear and surrender into whatever God has opened. The thread across all of it is the same: little is much when God is in it, and the nations are the destination.
Taught from Psalm 67 · Genesis 12 · Acts 1:8 · John 17:20-26 · Galatians 3
The passage taught · Acts 4
1 As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them,
2 being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening.
4 But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 29, 2025 That All of Them May Be One Pastor Joseph Kamau from Kenya preaches on John 17, calling believers to unity that witnesses to the world and reflects our oneness with God.
- March 16, 2025 Barefoot in the Bush Missionaries Anders and Brooke share how God is changing lives in Zambia through camps, schools, and village Bible studies, and call their home church to deeper surrender.
- February 16, 2025 Who Was I to Stand in God's Way? Peter defends the Gentile mission in Acts 11, and a Wyoming congregation hears how God tears down barriers so the gospel can reach everyone.
- September 8, 2024 Love People Into a Relationship With Christ A former stockbroker shares how God sent him to a Kenya dump site, where loving outcasts and preaching the Bible daily is changing lives one neighbor at a time.
- February 19, 2023 The Spreading Circle Psalm 67's "spreading circle" shows how God's blessing flows from Abraham through us to every nation, rooted in faith and the call to carry the gospel outward.
- August 14, 2022 Little Is Much When God Is in It Jesus feeds 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. Pastor Ray walks through all four Gospels to show what God can do with the little we offer Him.
- October 6, 2019 Romanian Missionary. REMM - Traditional A Romanian missionary shares how prayer, grace, and the fall of communism opened doors for the gospel across Romania and around the world.
- October 6, 2019 Romanian Mission. REMM - Contemporary A Romanian missionary shares how prayer sparked revival through prisoners of war, communist persecution, and orphanages, tracing God's faithfulness across generations.
- March 31, 2019 Kingdom Work - Traditional Missionary Norris Williams shares how God is building disciple-making movements across the Middle East, Nigeria, and beyond through ordinary people willing to pray and obey.
- March 31, 2019 Kingdom Work - Contemporary Missionary Norris Williams shares how ordinary people praying and obeying God are sparking gospel movements across the Middle East, Nigeria, and beyond.
- March 3, 2019 The Lord Stood With Me Paul closes 2 Timothy with a list of names, and Pastor Ray traces what faithfulness, desertion, and service look like in the lives of real people then and now.
Mentioned along the way
- August 3, 2025 The Vicissitudes of Life Acts 21 follows Paul pressing toward Jerusalem despite warnings, raising hard questions about hearing God's voice when the people around you disagree with where He is leading.
- February 23, 2025 Stay True to the Lord A sermon from Acts 11 on how ordinary believers carried the gospel outward, and what it looks like to take, remember, rely on, encourage, and participate today.
- March 27, 2022 The Book of Jonah - Sunday, March 27, 2022 - 11am Service The pastor walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God's mercy toward enemies challenges our own willingness to share the gospel with people we would rather see judged.
- November 17, 2019 Christ or Judgment: Those Are the Two Options Hebrews 10 calls us to draw near, hold fast, and stir one another toward love, but also warns that willful sin leaves only a terrifying expectation of judgment.
- November 10, 2019 Let Us Draw Near Hebrews 10:19-25 calls believers to draw near to God, hold fast to Jesus, and stir one another toward love and good works as the day of His return approaches.
- March 3, 2019 The Lord Stood With Me Paul's final letter names real people who served, strayed, or stayed faithful. A Kenya mission trip shows what those choices look like in our own time.
- November 12, 2017 Scattered for a Purpose Ken and Lori McEwen share how God uses the global scattering of people for redemptive purposes, and what that means for Christians loving their neighbors.
- May 28, 2017 Learning to Lean on God's Will Pastor Ray weaves Ephesians 1:3-14 with stories from a Guatemala mission trip, showing how God works out His will through the obedience of ordinary people.
- October 9, 2016 The Seed and the Soil A Romanian missionary shares how the gospel survived communism and spread worldwide, preaching on the parable of the sower from Mark 4.
- September 25, 2016 Bear Much Fruit Norris Williams shares how ordinary believers across the Middle East and Africa are multiplying disciples and planting thousands of churches through simple, obedient faith.
- February 16, 2014 And Thus We Came to Rome The pastor concludes Acts by walking through Paul's arrival in Rome, where he preached Christ unhindered, showing the gospel must be shared, cannot be stopped, and alone can save.
- December 1, 2013 The Shepherd's Dog Missionaries Ken and Lori McCune share how compassion for lost people drives their work among Spanish speakers in Wyoming, drawing from Matthew 9 and John 10.
- August 11, 2013 Philip Acts in Obedience, Traditions Philip obeyed God's call immediately, crossed cultural lines, and changed a life forever. A sermon on what happens when we say yes without waiting to know why.
- August 11, 2013 Philip Acts in Obedience, Morning Praise Philip obeyed God's call instantly and without question, and one conversation on a dusty road changed a life forever. What would that kind of obedience look like in yours?
- October 28, 2012 Whatever He Says to You, Do It Mary's two words to the servants at Cana still speak: listen to whatever Jesus says, then do it. A simple call to faith and obedience.
- September 23, 2012 The Spreading Circle Psalm 67 traces God's spreading circle of blessing from Abraham through Jesus to all nations, calling believers to share that blessing with every people group on earth.
- March 18, 2012 The Invasion of God Ron Turpin walks through John 11 to show how God invades a life with resurrection power, calling the bound and spiritually dead to be loosed and set free.
- January 8, 2012 New Clothes for a New Life A January 2012 sermon from Colossians 3 calling believers to take off old habits and put on compassion, love and humility as a new year begins.