Wrapping Up: Energizing the Local Church

In this series I’ve given broad guidelines I believe will energize your church for global outreach.  Each church has it’s own ideas on what and who to support.  Younger congregations tend to lean toward social mission programs, missional churches tend to look at the strategic approach to reaching the unreached.  Some additional thoughts as your mission’s team develop its Great Commission goals.

Age – The effectiveness of a missionary or project does not depend on age.  There is always a push to support younger projects and it is indeed important to invest in the future of missions.  However, there is something to be said for people and organizations that have been serving for ten years or more.  New missionaries must learn culture and language while those on the field long term are in place to do significant ministries.  Those who invest in the stock market look for a proven track record of the companies.  That would be true of missionaries and mission organizations on the field as well. Venture capitalism is important, but I wouldn’t put all of the resources into those with just a good idea.

Diversify -  Try to keep your projects in balance.  Avoid investing all your capital into one region of the world or one people group.  The congregation will weary if they only hear about the needs in China when there interest may be in Ukraine or some other part of the world.  Even if your mission budget is only $10,000 a year, divide that money among two or three projects, not just one.

Keep People Informed – There are several good ways to keep the congregation informed.  One is to focus on a missionary or missions project each month.  If you have a bulletin for Sunday services, highlight one project or person each month in that bulletin.  Some churches have “mission moments” each month, where they take five minutes of the morning service to report on missions.  Sometimes it is a video clip from the missionary on the field.  One of our supporting churches writes me occasionally to set up a Skpe presentation.  The person in charge video’s my greetings to the congregation, activities I am involved in and prayer requests.  They then show that presentation in their morning service.  Posting prayer letters on a board is okay, but it’s not the best approach these days.  People want “real time” updates.  Always remind the congregation how the church’s mission program is funded and how vital there participation to the Great Commission.

Conferences -  Whether you call it a global impact week or discover missions or a missions conference, each year their should be at least one Sunday that is dedicated to the Great Commission effort.  Though the days of having nightly services Wednesday through Sunday is not as effective with 21^st century Christians, a week of highlighting the congregations missions effort is still the best way to keep global outreach a priority before the people.  One church I know has bookend Sunday’s.  The fist Sunday sets the tone for the missions emphasis week, with different missionaries speaking in Bible classes and a special speaker for the morning service.  International suppers on Saturday sometimes work as well as a breakfast for men or women to hear a missionary speaker.  Though the attendance may not be high for all venues, the goal is to give opportunity for busy people in the church to pick the forum that fits their need for engaging in missions.  The first Sunday is informational, the second Sunday should be for challenge people to do their part in reaching the world with the Gospel.

Evaluate Annually -  Each year the mission’s team should meet to evaluate the missionaries and projects they support.  Analysis should include their ministry activities the past year, their prayer needs and their support level. 

Prayer – Finally, in all things pray that the Lord of the harvest guide and direct the team and the church in how to be engaged in world missions.  If the church members are praying then it is probably a safe bet they are also giving and going. 

One lady came up to me after a conference and said she just couldn’t wrap her head around missions, that it was vast and complicated, “like the national debt.”  All too often when people think about “taking the Gospel to the whole world,” they are overwhelmed.  They don’t believe God is calling them to be a career missionary and they are dissatisfied with just giving money.  It’s the role of the local church to help each member to recognize they do have a role.  Giving is indeed a part and certainly going.  But being engaged with missionaries and projects may be as simple as getting on Facebook with a missionary family.  Through constant contact people can be informed and pray for those who serve in different parts of the world. 

CONCLUSION

I trust these simple guidelines on how to energize the local church for the Great Commission has been helpful.  Certainly there are many other issues that need to be discussed.  If you have a specific question, please write to me (drrglewis@gmail.com) and I will give you my best opinion, and recognize, it is just my opinion.  God bless, as together we seek to take the blessed hope of Christ to every nation, people and tongue in the world.

Part III: Analysis and Implentation (D)

 

 So far we have looked at the mission projects the church wants to be involved in, the budget for global outreach and now it is time to determine the dollar amount of support for those projects.

As with earlier topics, when it comes to determining financial contributions, one size does not fit all.  It is the role of the mission’s team to determine global outreach expenditures.  

First, what is the budget of each missionary or missions project?   For a North American missionary family of four, the annual support need will probably range from $50,000 to $70,000.  Obviously it depends where missionaries live in the world.  In developing countries it will obviously be less that developed countries.  The mission’s team must do its homework in understanding how to analyze a missionary’s budget, which would include asking the sending mission agency about cost of living in those countries as well as going to the Internet for cost of living index.   While Kenya may be a developing country, cost of living in Nairobi is much higher than another city in the country.   Obviously a family of four will be different for a single missionary.  My advice is to ask the missionary to help your team understand their financial needs and work accordingly.

This financial analysis also would apply to national missionaries, mission organizations and projects.  If the project is for Sudanese refugees, instead of just responding to the appeal, “$20 dollars will feed a refugee for a month,” find out what their budget is and how the money is spent.  There is always overhead in every project, whether it is the cost of promotion, administration and personnel needs and they are usually legitimate.  An astute mission’s committee (team) should be able to inform the congregation how much a $20 contribution actually goes to feeding the refugees.   

Determining Support Amount

How much to support missionaries and mission projects?  Again, it depends on your scale of priority.   If those missionaries and projects were in the 15 – 20 point scale, perhaps your church would support them 5% of their total budget.  Let’s suppose a missionary or project’s annual need is $65,000 (about $5,500 per month) meaning your church’s monthly contribution would be approximately $270 per month or $3,240 annually.  Perhaps their missionary activity is in the 10-point scale and you want to support those in that group at 3%.  Your support to those people and projects, using the same annual budget would be around $165 per month or $1,950 annually. 

Of course every dollar counts and every contribution is appreciated.  However, some churches have a standard amount of giving no matter the need.  A monthly contribution of $100 means a missionary must find 54 other churches or people to give that amount to reach their budget.  There is always outgoing expenses as well, emergency travel or unforeseen ministry expenses (the breakdown of a vehicle or the sudden devaluation of the local currency).  For the missionary that means they must find at least 60 or 65 donors at that $100 level just to stay current with their financial obligations.  My recommendation is that churches make an attempt to provide at least 3% for each missionary project that is 10 points or more on your scale. For those who are less than 10 points, either discontinue their support or commit to giving them 1% of their support needs.  (There is nothing wrong with supporting the retired missionary living in Omaha, if that is what they need to live on.  After all, they were faithful servants representing your church for 40 years. )

When is the last time you gave your missionary a raise?  A church supporting a missionary $75 per month since 1980 is actually contributing, adjusting for inflation, approximately $26.40.

No matter how you analyze your mission program one thing is clear…the support should be focused and intentional.  Who, what, how much, should be a process.  I believe that if the local church leadership will treat missions in a serious, prayerful and thoughtful way, it will energize the whole body of believers for the Great Commission.