Author Archives: Stokingthefires

In your introduction, do you elevate yourself or Christ?

There is nothing unbiblical about the office of a pastor. There is nothing wrong with describing someone’s ministry as missionary work. My concern is something different: when did the work we do for Christ become a title attached to our names?

“Hi, I’m Pastor…”

“Hi, I’m Missionary…”

Before I have told you who I am, I have already told you my position. I have distinguished myself from you.

And this became very personal to me years ago.

One of the things I set my heart upon when I began serving the Tiale people was to build as many bridges as I could, to relate to them and serve them. Early on, I noticed a strong status bent within the culture: titles, hierarchy, position. Titles could give people authority they did not necessarily deserve, while also subconsciously creating a rift between them and others in the community.

Over 10 years ago, in my personal studies, I discovered this “slave” mentality taught throughout Scripture.

So, over the years, I intentionally divested myself of titles: pastor, missionary, advisor, etc. Instead, I emphasized their kinship terms: brother, son, uncle. Eventually, it settled into their minds: I did not want those other titles among them. I wanted the familial ones.

Years later, after teaching for some time and nearing the end of a four-week course on the Christian life, I explained to the class the biblical concept of being a slave of Christ.

One of the students astutely raised his hand and asked:

“Can we call you slave?”

Knowing that I had stopped them from using other titles in the past, I smirked and replied:

“This one title, you can.”

He nodded, turned toward his fellow classmates, even the Tiale pastors, and began talking with them.

And almost in unison, they got it.

It clicked.

Why mention myself above Christ?

And if you come to Tiale land, you might even hear some of them call me “slave” when we talk.

That word is stronger than our English translations sometimes make it sound.

The Greek δοῦλος (doulos) fundamentally describes a slave, someone belonging to another. Paul repeatedly reached for this language when identifying himself: “a servant [δοῦλος] of Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:1; Titus 1:1). Paul and Timothy were “servants [δοῦλοι] of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:1). James did the same (Jas. 1:1). So did Peter (2 Pet. 1:1) and Jude (Jude 1).

They certainly possessed offices, gifts, and authority. Paul could even identify himself as an apostle when the context required it.

But there is something profoundly Christian about slave.

“Pastor” can shift attention toward what YOU do for Jesus.

“Slave” demands attention toward what JESUS did for you.

Pastor describes a ministry.

Slave describes ownership.

One tells you something about my work.

The other tells you everything about my Master.

The issue isn’t whether you are a pastor, missionary, teacher, evangelist, or whatever ministry God has allowed you to perform.

The question is why we are so eager to put our ministry in front of our names.

Maybe Christian ministry needs fewer introductions designed to establish our status and more introductions that make people wonder about our Master.

Because Christianity was never supposed to be about making my name larger.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John 3:30

https://youtu.be/2OCzYRda6wQ?feature=shared

Your feet (and slave) to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu. Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.

https://youtu.be/lHtR8TjIuQA?feature=shared

Back in Vanuatu! 🇻🇺

The moment your feet touch the soil, ministry is “on”!

From stepping off the plane and talking with customs agents who know you work in the “jungle,” to purchasing enough supplies to last an entire month (don’t forget anything, because it’s a three-hour drive each way!), the work begins immediately.

Then come the deliveries to people for whom you’ve brought equipment from the States, since many things simply aren’t available here. Add to that picking up food, gasoline, and supplies for various work projects, including an upcoming water project that F.I.A. is beginning among the Tiale people.

Needless to say, the ability to juggle responsibilities, adjust plans, and remain flexible is essential!

And then there’s the rain!

Rain is always a lingering concern for people in Vanuatu, especially those living deep in the jungle who must cross rivers to reach their homes.

Once the rain begins, the race is on to beat the rising rivers. Sometimes, an hour makes the difference between sleeping in your own bed or spending the night in your truck beside a flooded river, waiting for the water to subside the following morning.

After ten years in this country, my heart rate still rises every time I cross those rivers! Even the Tiale people, who have crossed them their entire lives, still get nervous. You never take those crossings lightly.

But amidst the travel, supplies, projects, and challenges, the greatest joy is seeing what God continues to accomplish through His Word!

Although our Bible school students still have several weeks of lessons remaining, we kept the previously scheduled ceremony date to accommodate visiting families.

The students were excited to celebrate the completion of one season of learning, yet equally eager to continue into the next. That desire to keep learning Scripture is especially encouraging!

It was also a tremendous joy to watch the other four teachers stand before the students and offer their own words of encouragement, challenge, and warning. Seeing these men take increasing responsibility for teaching and strengthening others is one of the most rewarding aspects of this ministry.

Please continue praying for the following:

1. Our Bible school students: Pray that they remain faithful to the Scriptures they have learned, not merely retaining knowledge but demonstrating obedience in their daily lives.
2. Their families and communities: As these students return home, pray that they will faithfully represent Christ and become lights among their own people.
3. The Tiale ministry team: We are now discussing and developing strategies for future outreaches, the continued growth and maturity of the churches, and upcoming youth programs. Pray for wisdom, unity, discernment, and faithfulness to Scripture as we make these decisions.

There is much work ahead, but it is encouraging to see the ministry increasingly carried forward by the very people we came to serve.

Thank you for your continued prayers and partnership in the work God is doing among the Tiale people!

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu. Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.

I just spoke at a missions conference.

Now I’m at the airport, heading back to Vanuatu.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Colossians 3:16)

We can own multiple Bibles, hear preaching every week, access sermons instantly, and still treat the Word like a supplement instead of the substance of our lives.

Meanwhile, millions live with radically less access to Scripture.

That disparity should disturb us.

If the Word truly dwells richly in us, it must reshape our appetites, our schedules, our money, how we raise our children, and what we consider important.

We cannot gorge ourselves on biblical abundance while remaining indifferent to spiritual starvation.

The question is not merely, “Do you have the Word?”

The harder question is: Has the Word taken enough possession of you that you care who still does not have it?

Thank you for your prayers and partnership!

https://youtu.be/LOsxK6Wt5mE?feature=shared

Your feet to the Tiale people in the country of Vanuatu. Seth, Nicole, & Selah.

Why do the unreached stay unreached?

One reason is painfully simple:

“Long-term missions is dying because fewer people want to commit long-term.”

Bible translation, language acquisition, discipleship, and establishing a mature indigenous church cannot normally be accomplished during a summer trip. Sometimes the work requires one, two, three, even four decades.¹

“You do not reach the unreached in two weeks. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.”

Short-term missions can accomplish legitimate good. But I wonder whether we have also created a generation willing to visit missions without giving their lives to missions.

There is another major problem:

“We have forgotten what ‘unreached’ actually means.”

Unreached is not simply a synonym for neglected, unusual, disadvantaged, or insufficiently evangelized. In historic missiology, the term concerns ethnolinguistic peoples lacking an adequate indigenous Christian community capable of evangelizing their own people.²

And Scripture access must remain central.

A church may initially begin through oral witness or another language, but without God’s Word understood clearly in the heart language, how will that church independently teach doctrine, correct error, disciple believers, train pastors, and reproduce for generations?

“If they cannot understand the Word of God in their own language, the missionary task is not finished.”

Perhaps the unreached remain unreached because reaching them requires two things we increasingly avoid: precise understanding of the task, and a willingness to give decades to finish it.

References

1. Ethnos360, “Translation Questions,” accessed September 8, 2026.
2. Joshua Project, “Definitions,” accessed September 8, 2026.

https://youtube.com/shorts/oPK5SEc0BFo?feature=shared

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.

Do not build your faith on anyone. Do not build it on a pastor. Do not even build it on the people you love most.

Build it on Christ and His Word.

On our wedding day, I told my wife in front of witnesses, “I will fail you. Do not rely on me. Rely on Jesus.”

That principle reaches far beyond marriage.

Biblical ministry should never make people increasingly dependent upon the minister. The servant should become less necessary as Christ becomes more clearly known: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

The goal is not to build your name, platform, reputation, or legacy. Serve faithfully, even if that means disappearing into obscurity.

The gospel does not exist to make us known. It proclaims Christ.

If people leave your ministry impressed with you but still dependent upon you, did you actually point them to Jesus?

https://youtube.com/shorts/ngJGlsyG4Zw?feature=shared

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.

The purpose of training men is not simply to fill pulpits. It is to develop a church capable of reproducing itself and carrying the gospel beyond itself.

Pray for these two men as they continue training and prepare to assume greater responsibility in the local church. This transition will allow one of our most mature believers to focus increasingly on evangelism, taking Course One throughout the Tiale villages and, Lord willing, into sister-language communities and other language groups.

The pattern we are pursuing resembles Antioch: a maturing local church develops leaders, releases mature workers, and participates in sending them outward (Acts 13:1–3).

The goal is not permanent missionary dependence. It is a healthy, autonomous, self-replicating church reaching beyond itself toward the unreached.

The missionary may help establish the pattern. But ultimately, local believers must become the ones carrying the gospel to their own people and beyond.

If everything still collapses when the pastor or missionary steps away, did we build a mature church, or merely a ministry dependent upon us?

https://youtube.com/shorts/YGv1XWhAnmw?feature=shared

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.

Biblical training should produce more than students who have completed lessons. It should produce men increasingly capable of teaching others.

One pastor has now taught through Courses 1–4 and nearly the entire New Testament epistle curriculum, with only Romans, 1–2 Timothy, Titus, and Revelation remaining. Another has completed Courses 1–4 along with 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. Two additional pastors in training have already taught Courses 1–2 and are now working through Course 3.

This is not merely information transferred from missionary to student. The goal is truth entrusted to faithful men who become able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2).

A healthy ministry should not remain dependent upon the missionary to do all the teaching. Maturity should increasingly reproduce itself.

If years of preaching produce listeners but not mature believers who can teach others also, are we actually making disciples, or just filling seats?

https://youtube.com/shorts/zdTDFELO8tM?is=WkLY0V7mgBd6XXbC

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.

Strengthening the churches.

Early morning. Nearly an hour on foot. Up and down mountains. Across rivers.

Then several hours preaching and teaching the lessons the pastor had asked me to bring.

And the service kept going.

A wild boar can wander close. Dogs can come through like a pack. Babies can cry. Kids can make noise.

Church does not stop because life is happening around it.

That is something worth remembering in a culture where sometimes a whimpering baby is treated like a disruption that needs removed.

The church is a body, not a performance. Families belong together. Fellowship is rarely neat.

We taught. We prayed. We ate together. We encouraged one another. Then we walked home.

The pastor was strengthened. The church was strengthened. I was strengthened.

And maybe that is the point.

Do not let a short drive, some rain, inconvenience, or a little noise keep you from fellowshipping with believers this Sunday.

Some Christians cross mountains and rivers for it.

Maybe we should stop acting like twenty minutes in the car is suffering. We can even control the temperature on the way there.

We have an incredible privilege to gather with believers and worship God. Let’s be thankful for it, and actually use it.

Thank you for praying for us and the Tiale ministry.

https://youtu.be/ybsz3sYJnVY?feature=shared

Your feet to the Tiale people and the country of Vanuatu, Seth, Nicole & Selah Stokes.