Brooks Buser Chapel – February 8th, 2023
By Madelynn Bryan
Madelynn Bryan is a sophomore at Christian Unified High school and is an editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper. She enjoys writing and takes an interest in political science. She is very excited to be writing for the school’s newspaper and uses it as an opportunity to spread the Word of God.
Missionary and Bible translator, Brooks Buser delivered a phenomenal message using his experience as a missionary as well as his extensive knowledge of the Bible to the students of Christian Unified High school. He reflected upon the experience of dedicating himself and his life fully to God.
Brooks is the president of Radius National, a supporter of the evangelical church and missions community that “[provides] pre-field missions training that equips cross-cultural workers to establish healthy, indigenous, reproducing churches among unreached language groups.” He is also a graduate from San Diego Christian college, where he met his wife Nina. Both Brooks and his wife participate in teaching at Radius National. They had a son together, who they brought with them on their missionary trip. Prior to his missionary work, Brooks worked as the CFO for a large company with generous benefits. Him and his wife were both very successful, however, they decided to leave their comfortable lives behind to submit to God’s calling for them.
Brooks’ message began with a description of what it meant to leave his life behind in order to serve God. He described his journey to the Yembiyembi people, an isolated people group located in Papua New Guinea, in 2013. These people had hardly been in touch with the outside world for a while, and up until 7 years prior to Brooks’ arrival, had practiced cannibalism. Despite their far from civilized civilization, the Yembiyembi people still felt that they needed something. They reached out for the gospel, so God brought them Brooks.
After an initial visit and much discussion amongst his peers, Brooks decided to take the Yembiyembi people on.
“We told them that we were going to come, and that we were going to be your missionaries. We’re going to do four things. We’re going to learn your language, we’re going to learn to speak how you speak. Number two, we’re going to teach you how to read and write in your own language; they didn’t have a written alphabet, so we had to develop an alphabet for them. Number three, we’re going to take this really important book and we’re going to translate this book into your language. And then number four, we’re going to teach you the meaning of this book.”
So Brooks did exactly that. He started from Genesis 1:1 all the way to the end of the Bible, and taught it to the Yembiyembi people. His hard work paid off. On April 21, 2008, the Yembiyembi people finally heard the message of the gospel in their own language. It’s very important to bring God’s word to unreached people groups, Brooks explains. He debunks the belief that “good hearted” people will go to heaven, despite never knowing Christ,as a theological fallacy.
“People don’t understand that the marching orders of the church are to get to the ends of the Earth. That’s why we exist as a church… [Some people] don’t understand that lost people like the Yembiyembi people and similar, go to hell if no one ever reaches out to these people. They will go to a Christless eternity. Some people don’t understand that. They believe, “Well there’s the third option that God will do for people who will never hear the gospel.” But that’s not true. We don’t find anything in the Bible, that’s a theological fallacy.”
He continues to say that the issue is that people don’t understand that it is our responsibility as Christians to reach out to people who have never heard of God. However, if we get too wrapped up in worldly things, we get lost, instead of following the plan that God has made for us. God plans on using his followers to bring others closer to him, but if his followers lose sight of what He wants them to do, other people pay the price. Brooks continues on to explain why he thinks Christians can be led astray and how to fix it.
“You know what I think is why people walk away from Christian Ministry? Why they walk away from living like Christains? I think it’s because we buy into the things that we want more than the things that our father wants.”
He ties this into the chapter of Luke 18.
“We find this in the story of a rich young ruler and how this was reconciled. Luke 18:18 it says this, “And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” and Jesus said to him “Why do you call me good, no one is good except for God alone. You know the commandments.” And the young man said, “All of these I have kept from my youth.” So the young man didn’t understand the way that Jesus was phrasing the question, he didn’t understand that when you look at something and you look at something and you lust, or you look at something and you covet, or you look at someone and you’re angry, you’ve committed murder, theft, and adultery already. He said, I’ve lived a good life. And Jesus is going to peel back one more layer of the onion. Jesus said to him, you still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, distribute to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven.” But the young man, not wanting to give up his life, walked away.”
When Brooks finished his message, Grant Todd, a youth pastor at Shadow Mountain closed the chapel with his takeaway.
