“With all due respect, I think we need to concentrate on the needs here in the U.S.A.”

The hand-written note addressed to me by name caught my attention. Someone had replied to a letter I’d written on behalf of Crossworld appealing for gifts to help with an escalating refugee crisis in the Middle East.

I paused when I read that note, because I know that the author isn’t alone in his concern for the deteriorating spiritual condition here in our own country. The nations have moved to our doorstep. Home-grown terrorism and gun violence have become commonplace. Millennials are leaving the church in droves. A militant liberal social agenda has God-fearing people on their heels.

And we’re asking people to help refugees in the Middle East? Wouldn’t we be better served allocating our resources to needs on the home front? Shouldn’t we put out the fire in our own attic before we dash off to save the neighbor’s? Some of my close friends and family would share this sentiment.

But are they right?

I want to suggest a grammatical answer: three ampersands. That’s right. The answer to whether we should allocate resources to reach the nations when our own country is a mess, is contained in three little ampersands — the fancy word for the and symbol.

When Jesus commissioned His followers to take the gospel to the nations, it was not an either/or proposition. It was both/and. Literally. He said, “You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts. 1:8). He did not say, “First … then … then … then….” He said, “Both … and … and … and….”

The Great Commission was never a matter of prioritizing. It was always a matter of multitasking. If Jesus had told His disciples to first get Jerusalem under control, they would never have gone anywhere else.

Dale Losch joined Crossworld as a disciple-maker in France in 1988, and has served as Crossworld’s president since 2009. He loves to motivate people to use their God-given passions to make disciples wherever life happens. Hear more from Dale.