Missions Blog for Churches

by Blaire Oakley

The following are questions meant to facilitate further involvement of churches in the work of the particular fields with which they partner.

Caring for the Team:

• Prayer Networks:
  • How can you encourage prayer for the team?
  • What process will you follow and who will be responsible for coordination? 
• Encouragement
  • How can you encourage members of the team?
  • Balancing the field’s need to communicate with the partnership, their needs for security, and a desire not to be overwhelmed by emails and such, how can we promote communication?
  • What projects could be undertaken?
  • Are there special opportunities to encourage the children of the team?
  • Are there simple things (i.e. foods, household items, personal items) that the missionaries cannot obtain in their new host country that they miss?  Are there small things we could put together to send to them as an encouragement?
• Pastoral Care
  • Drawing from the resources of churches, are there ways to coordinate pastoral care?
  • Should the partners be involved during the re-entry process (either for Home Ministry Assignment or End of Term?)
  • Are there resources we could provide (books, website recommendations, etc.) that would be spiritually encouraging/enriching to the team.
• Security Policy
  • In regards to sensitive fields, how can you help protect the security of the team member in your own churches, on the Internet, etc?

The Extended Team (involving both new team members and national team members)

• Training
  • Are there ways the partnership can contribute to training team members?
  • Are there things we can provide to help cut training costs?
• Ministry Strategy
  • What input or questions does the partnership have regarding team strategy?
  • Are there unique resources/ideas of the partners that could contribute to ministry strategy?
  • Can the partner church send a team for a vision trip to get a greater sense of the needs and vision of the team?
• Resources and Development
  • Are there possibilities for short-term projects, for teams with either general or specific skills experience?
  • Are there translation projects the partnership can help coordinate?
  • Can the partnership contribute to training nationals?
• Financial Support
  • Do the partners understand and support the team budget?
  • Are there any changes to be considered?
  • How can the partners support the team budget, either directly or through fund raising?
  • Are there available resources within the partnership that could help lower the overall budget (i.e. available copier, paper resources for support letter mailings, church members willing to stuff and mail letters, car available for use during HMA or support raising, donation of SkyMiles for missionary to use for flight to training events or field, etc.)
• Globalized Ministry
  • Are there people within the target group living near the partners (i.e. you partner with a team in the Ukraine, and have a population of Ukrainians nearby)?  Can you facilitate local outreach to these groups? (This website can help you with this undertaking)
  • How can the field (expatriate or national) help partners reach these people?

Promoting the Ministry

• Promoting Field Awareness
  • How can the partners work together to educate others about the people group, balancing the need for promotion with the need for security?
• Recruitment & Assessment
  • Considering ministry priorities, how can we coordinate our efforts at recruiting new workers?
  • Given the awareness of the field that partners will have, are there ways that the partners can help in the assessment process of new candidates?
• Expanding the Partnership
  • How can you coordinate an effort to broaden the partnership, either by adding members to the Steering Committee or the broader partnership?  What process will you follow to add new members?
• Partnership Organization
  • Who will serve as the chairman of the Steering Committee?
  • Are other leadership roles necessary to facilitate the partnership?
  • Looking ahead, can you envision creating sub-committees for a specific task (i.e. working groups?)
• Assisting the Suffering Church
  • Are there appropriate ways that the partnership can assist believer within the people group who are suffering for their faith?

Here is a great new tool for you to consider using to help your church see “the world around them.” The North America People Group Project has recently been launched (click here to view it). This site allows you to discover, from census data, the varying ethnicities, races, and languages represented around you. I would not only recommend you sharing this with your congregation (to take advantage of individually) but would also challenge churches to do some homework on this site and develop print media for their congregations. This would increase awareness of how God is bringing many nations to us, and would challenge people to consider how to engage our new neighbors. It would be particularly useful to do something like this during a missions conference or missions emphasis time. Take time to try this tool out and then share your experience and/or ideas here by posting a comment.

India will soon surpass China as the most populous nation on earth. And intense religious persecution is taking place in both countries. Recent reports have told of severe attacks on Christians in Orissa State, India. A number of churches were closed and Christians were not able to worship on Christmas Day.

However, there are some encouraging signs. Recently, an Indian man in his early 20s came to Christ, was discipled via chat-line by a PCA ruling elder from Texas, and ultimately was used by the Lord to establish a group of churches that expects to grow to 300 congregations in the next 10 years.

In spite of extensive persecution, the Church in India is moving aggressively ahead and growing by leaps and bounds. Will the Church in India see the same kind of growth as the Church in China? Click here to read more