Go Make Disciples: Mobilizing for Missions

“By God’s grace, with my background, it’s almost like I was raised to do this kind of ministry,” Caleb reflected, thinking back on his experience growing up, familiar with two different cultures. “But even once I became a believer, it took many years before I had any desire to reach other nations and people from different cultures.”

During the first three years of his life, Caleb and his parents lived in Arkansas, his mother’s home state. However, for the majority of his childhood, Caleb grew up in the town where his father was raised in Zacatecas, Mexico.

When Caleb’s parents first met, neither of them knew the other’s language. His father was studying at a seminary in Mexico with the hope of becoming a church planter. His mother was visiting on a mission trip, wanting to become a missionary. Six months after meeting each other, they got married.

Growing up, Caleb experienced regular discipleship from both of his parents and quickly became familiar with the importance of involvement in the local church. In their hometown, his father planted and led a house church that would grow to 200 people over the next 15 years. Caleb and his three siblings had front row seats as they watched their parents’ ministry and heart for others.

“I got to hear the gospel from my dad day in and day out from the pulpit,” Caleb recalled. “And, because of the preaching of the word, it was very evident to me from a young age that I was not a believer.”

Because of the preaching of the word, it was very evident to me from a young age that I was not a believer.

Despite this awareness, it was many years before he surrendered his life to Christ and chose to follow him. When Caleb was 14 years old, God caught ahold of his heart, convicting him of his sin and turning him to repentance; it was not long after that Caleb started seeing a transformation in his life.

He began developing and using his gifts to serve the local church, and for the first time, he had the desire to step outside of his comfort zone and share the gospel with his friends.

The Power that Changes Lives

Over the next few years, Caleb would continue to grow in his faith. In that season, multiple people suggested to him that missions or ministry might be in his future, but Caleb’s response remained, “No, no that’s not for me.”

During his senior year in high school, Caleb attended a missions conference during which God caught Caleb’s attention once again and redirected his life.

“There was a pastor who was preaching about the fall of Solomon and how, although he was the wisest man on earth, he still fell in sin because he wasn’t seeking the Lord,” Caleb recalled. “That sermon had nothing to do with missions, but I realized: ‘The way he is helping me see Scripture and how this is impacting my walk with the Lord — I think I want to do that. I think I want to help people grow closer to the Lord, whatever that means, whether it’s missions or preaching.’”

I think I want to help people grow closer to the Lord, whatever that means, whether it’s missions or preaching.

And so, he told God, “‘I don’t care what that looks like; I just want to serve you in that way.’”

Through the faithful preaching of his father, Caleb had seen the effect that God’s word had on his own life, calling him out of darkness and into light.

Now, sitting, listening to the speaker at the conference, Caleb was struck — not by a specific message or command — but by the power of the word of God to change lives.

A Season of Preparation

It would be several years before Caleb would see the full answer to his prayer and desire to reach people for Christ. In college, he pursued a degree in mechanical engineering. However, his focus became campus ministry. It was during this time that he met his wife, Emma Kate, who also had a heart for reaching others with the gospel.

As he and Emma Kate threw themselves into campus ministry over the next few years, he began to become aware of gaps in his understanding.

“College guys are smart, and they ask really hard questions,” Caleb recalled. “When I was on staff after I graduated, I felt very ill-equipped to answer some of those questions. As I was teaching them how to study the Scriptures, I saw a lot of holes in my thinking that made me realize, ‘I really am struggling with certain areas of theology and interpretation because I was never formally trained.’”

This was the realization that brought him and Emma Kate to Southeastern — this and a desire to continue pursuing missions, something he knew Southeastern prioritized. However, he wasn’t certain what the path forward would look like.

Learning to Handle the Word Rightly

Caleb’s first seminary class that fall was introduction to the Old Testament with Tracy McKenzie. In that class, Caleb watched with amazement as McKenzie, who taught Hebrew as well as Old Testament, interpreted God’s word with confidence and humility.

“In the first class,” Caleb remembered, “he explained to us how, in Genesis 1, the beresheet (“In the beginning”) points us to the end described in Genesis 49, the promise of the Lion of Judah that would come and rule. And then we saw that the first verse of the Bible really alludes to the Messiah and is basically about Jesus. He made all of these ties using the Hebrew, and I realized, ‘I have no idea how he got there, but I want to learn how he got there.’”

That following January, Caleb enrolled in his first Greek course with Dr. Black. Despite his interest in biblical languages the previous semester, Caleb’s enrollment in Greek that winter term was solely pragmatic. He wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible.

Little did he know that God would use that very class to change the way Caleb viewed the relationship between missions and God’s word.

“Dr. Black’s heart for ministry and for missions just seeps through his teaching,” Caleb said. “Every class, he would always do some type of devotion tied to missions or ministry, and then he would tie it to the Greek language.”

All of a sudden Greek wasn’t just about paradigms and vocabulary. It was practical, and its study had so much to lend to the Christian life.

This study wouldn’t be a quick process, though, Caleb realized. According to Dr. Black, people rarely saw the amount of effort that went into understanding the original languages and carefully translating God’s word. But the fruit of that labor and its ministry was profound.

Caleb came to the conclusion: “I want to have that foundation. I want to be able to say I went to the farthest extent that I could to handle the word rightly.”

I want to be able to say I went to the farthest extent that I could to handle the word rightly.

Over the next three years, Caleb dedicated himself to his studies and to understanding God’s word. He threw himself into his classes, spring, summer, and fall.

From professors like Chuck Quarles, he saw what it meant to have a passion for both God’s word and his people, and in class with Benjamin Merkle, he began to understand the importance of hermeneutics and of identifying presuppositions that each reader and translator bring to the text.

Reflecting on his path to biblical studies, Caleb realized, “My prayer, ‘Let me learn the Scriptures,’ was answered tenfold through Southeastern — more than I ever could have thought.”

Mobilizing the Local Church

While at seminary, Caleb and Emma Kate also became involved at Richland Creek Community Church, and during his studies, Caleb had the opportunity to serve in a variety of different ministry roles there, applying his classroom training in his local church.

Following his graduation in fall of 2022 with a Master of Divinity in Advanced Biblical Studies, Caleb applied for the position of missions director at Richland Creek. The role offered an opportunity to be a mobilizer for missions as he and Emma Kate waited to see if God would send their family overseas one day.

The position turned out to be a great fit, and Caleb began in July of 2023.

In his role, Caleb works to equip and mobilize the members of Richland Creek to fulfill the Great Commission. His desire is to use the preaching of God’s word to encourage people to go, trusting the Holy Spirit to work and move within the church body.

Throughout his work, Caleb continues to see the fruit of his studies at Southeastern as he applies his biblical language study to everyday ministry.

“In my daily preparation for teaching and even encouraging people in the mission of God, I get to use my language studies to point listeners back to the Scriptures as a motivator for missions,” Caleb said.

In my daily preparation for teaching and even encouraging people in the mission of God, I get to use my language studies to point listeners back to the Scriptures as a motivator for missions.

“I’m not an expert at it,” he expressed. “I don’t think I will ever be a professor of Greek and Hebrew. But I can go to the original languages and try to figure out, to the best of my abilities, what the text is saying. And that is probably the biggest mark that Southeastern has had on me — care for the Scriptures and a deep theological belief that every single word matters in the original text. It’s infallible.”

Caleb finds great joy in cultivating hearts for missions at Richland Creek and building a culture of sending amongst those who do not feel called to the mission field. Each year he and his wife prayerfully consider whether or not God is calling them overseas, careful not to close their hearts to that opportunity. In the meantime, they continue to seek to advance the gospel in their current community as they serve the local church and make disciples.

Join us in praying for the Acuñas this fall as they welcome their second child — a little boy — into their family. Pray that they would rest and find their strength in Christ during this transition. Pray also for Richland Creek as the church seeks to emphasize missions and discipleship over this coming year.