Missions For The Local Church: Introduction
Recently I visited one of our supporting churches. It’s a well-established and growing
congregation. The pastor asked me
a question that is not uncommon, in fact, almost everywhere I go in the U.S. I
am asked the same question – “How can we make our congregation more mission
minded?”
The majority of North American evangelical churches do
missions. By that I mean they have
a missions program, like they would have a program for youth, children or
seniors. Missions is important in
the sense that they believe it is a part of the Great Commission (Matthew
28:18-20). Many churches would
never think about abolishing their mission program but, unlike youth, children
or seniors ministry, missions does not support the “bottom line,” i.e., church
attendance or budget. In fact,
missions and missionaries are usually seen as a liability to the growth of the
church. Missions is not a program
that will help pave the parking lot or renovate the nursery. Missionaries neither tithe nor teach a
class. For the skeptic, missions
is a drain on resources. This is
never said overtly, but is manifested in benign neglect.
However, because missions truly is important, pastors desire
to go beyond just doing missions and instead want to do missions right. It is because of this felt need I write
this series on creating an effective global missions program for your local
church.
At the outset let me state clearly that in creating a good
missions program for your congregation is a process. Like every program of the church, developing a missions program
requires one major thing…a commitment to its development. As you will see in this series, there
are no five easy steps or one model to hold up as the example for all to
emulate. As with many things in
life, doing things well takes time and effort. If a pastor or church leader is not committed to the process
then the chances are that two years from now your global outreach will be as
dull as it is today, the result being a uninspired congregation for God’s
heart, taking the Good News of Christ and His salvation to the ends of the
earth.
So what is the process for creating a good missions program
for your local church? Here is the
outline for upcoming posts.
1.
Create a missions team. Who are they, why they exist, what is
their job?
2.
Define your purpose. How does your church and missions team define what is
missions; church planting, social work, short-term, harvest versus seeding
sowing ministries?
3.
Mission awareness. How can your team and congregation become savvy in
understanding missions today?
Where are the resources to help you become an educated body of world
Christians?
4.
Evaluation. After you complete steps one to three, its time to create a
guiding missions document or policy.
Analyze your present global outreach and work toward the goal of
becoming a Great Commission church.
You will notice that this outline does not discuss finances,
and for a very good reason. If
missions is done well and has a designed purpose the funding of mission projects
will take place. I will make the
case later that churches that do missions well seldom suffer financial hardship
for their local ministries.
As we go through this series, please send your comments and
questions along the way.
