Missions on Point

Everyone should consider how they can get personally involved in missions.  There is always more for you to learn as you grow in your understanding of both missions and the missionaries in your church.  Pray earnestly for the Lord to send out workers, and pray for those who have already been sent.  Begin sharing your faith now.  Support missions, not just financially.  And start reaching internationals.  This podcast begins to open our understanding on how you can be personally involved in missions.  But there is much more to grow in.  Keep going and don't stop!

You can find more details about the topics raised here at https://propempo.com/services/missions-paths/inquirer/

You can compile your only custom-made pdf of missions questions and answers with Propempo's handy tool: https://propempo.com/services/missions-path-pdf/

Everyone has a missions path to go down.  Which one is yours?  Begin your journey by inquiring.  Ask good questions.  Find out more about missions, it's biblical basis, it's history, your church's role in missions and the missionaries you know.  Become a life-long learner of missions.  Challenge yourself to commit to missions and grow in the depth of your understanding of God's heart for missions.  Inquire!  

You can find detailed answers to the questions asked here at https://propempo.com/services/missions-paths/inquirer/

You can compile your only custom-made pdf of missions questions and answers with Propempo's handy tool: https://propempo.com/services/missions-path-pdf/

We have much to praise God for when considering how churches are increasingly stepping up to take their rightful place being responsible for global missions.  We see God growing churches to become sending churches, and there are many organizations that are teaching this and supporting this now.  Please continue to pray that this paradigm shift in thinking about missions as church-centered would grow from a groundswell into a full on tidal wave of change in how most churches and agencies do missions.  And thank God that we are already seeing that conviction take root in several ways now.  Listen to this episode to hear a run down of several organizations that are on the right track.  And leave a comment on the podcast if you can think of any more.     

The church, the missions agency and the missionary all need to work together to accomplish the mission.  Who bears what responsibility?  How can we manage expectations?  And most importantly, how can we maintain the biblical conviction of keeping the church in the driver's seat?  Furthermore, how can we resolve conflicts when disagreements about or divergence from expectations arise?  In this episode we walk through a proposed template for a church and agency partnership agreement.  Feel free to adapt it as you like, because your church and the mission's needs will vary from situation to situation.

Over the years, missions agencies and churches have diverged from each other and often find themselves at odds.  But, missions agencies provide a unique role in fostering church partnerships.  First, agencies must recognize how they have succumbed to mission creep, no long supporting the church like they originally intended.  Second, missions agencies can equip the church for their role.  Third, they can let go of those roles that most appropriately belong under the domain of the local church.  Furthermore, missions agencies foster church partnerships too, through prioritizing prayer and facilitating the gathering of churches around the mission that they are partnering in.

No matter what kind of church you are, there is value in establishing church partnerships in the work of missions.  Three kinds of churches are explored in this episode: the sending church, the supporting church, and the receiving church.  Each kind of church has a unique interest in church partnerships.  Churches need other churches.  Just like the Gentile churches sent support to the church in Jerusalem, we too need to be aware of and ready to help other churches in need.  And who knows, one day we might find ourselves on the receiving end of care as well.  

The missionary is a bridge between two cultures and the churches in those cultures.  Church partnerships provides the framework for the missionary to understand the value of his work.  Sometimes work like raising support and writing newsletters can feel like a drudgery, and simply a means to an end.   But they're not.  They support the grand vision of church partnerships.  A vision for church partnerships can help motivate the missionary in their work to rise above the reduction of their ministry to metrics.  Brotherly affection crosses cultures too.

What do church partnerships have to do with missions?  Isn't it enough that we see healthy churches planted and leaders developed?  In this episode we walk through the biblical account of God's plan for his glory through the unity of churches across cultures as we together worship the same risen Lord and Savior.  Ever since the Tower of Babel, our cooperation has been cursed.  But now that we share the same Spirit, church partnerships can show the world something unique about God's glory.  This is the final goal of missions.  

We are weak, limited and frail.  Where can we find the strength to endure until the end, to accomplish the great task that Jesus has given to us to go into all the world, teaching disciples to obey all that Jesus has commanded us?  We are desperately dependent on God alone for both our justification and our sanctification.  God guarantees the success of the mission because he guarantees that his presence will go with us.  We find comfort in the powerful, personal presence of our Savior.  

Most people think of discipleship in terms of teaching, but it is easily neglected or undervalued.  It's too easy to think that something else is the objective.  Keeping this goal in mind, though, has dramatically important implications for the church and missions.  We cannot fulfill the goal without the life-long discipleship that is found in the local church.  From the cradle to the grave, everyone is still learning to grow in their obedience to all that Jesus has commanded his disciples.