Missions Blog for Churches

The following is part of a report from MTW’s Coordinator, Dr. Paul Kooistra. In it he describes the need for both US missionaries and partnerships with national leaders. MTW has seen a real growth in the number of national partners. This is truly exciting to think about, and I look forward to seeing more PCA members go to equip even more national partners. Indeed, theological training and ministry equipping are some of the strongest offerings the PCA has to the Church beyond our borders.

I am often asked why MTW does not work with nationals. The answer to the question is that we do work with nationals. In fact, we work with a lot of nationals. The number of our national partners now exceeds the number of long-term missionaries.

Some who ask this question are actually asking why we don’t work exclusively with nationals. To many it seems much more efficient and more economical.

As I have indicated above, MTW does not in any way diminish the importance of working with nationals. From the beginning of the Church, nationals have played a vital leadership role. Paul, during his first missionary journey, appointed local leaders in Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Throughout church history the translation of the Bible into the vernacular was of primary importance.

On the other hand, we see that one church reached out to another church and to the masses held captive in the darkness of their own sin. It is not possible to reach out only with money. If we don’t give ourselves, we have missed the very essence of the gospel. The incarnation of God argues for an incarnational response.

We actually have some places in the world where nationals ask us to come, wanting no monetary help, but only the encouragement and connectivity with the Church in the United States. They recognize that their church is richer spiritually for its interaction with our Church.

What is now needed is for our Church to realize that we are richer for our interaction with other churches around the world. Paul reminds us that the body of Christ is made up of many parts. Usually, we only interpret this truth in relationship to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We need to see that this also relates to the different parts of the Church around the world. We need each other, and that is one reason we respond to the Great Commission.

Pray for MTW and our missionaries as we deal with the weak dollar and the financial crisis within the U.S. We will be monitoring the budget very closely. I pray we will be able to deal with this matter by being very careful.   -   Paul Kooistra

One of the requests I often hear from churches is for missions material or curriculum for kids. There is a good bit of this out there in larger evangelical circles, but not very much within our denomination. Particularly, I’d love to see the development of more Reformed and Covenantal-minded missions material for children.

My guess is that there are churches out there that have created their own, or maybe even some of our own missionaries who have something that is put together. What we need to do is collect it and get it into a format that others can use/share.

If you know of anyone with such material, or someone who would be a good candidate to put something like this together, please let me know (seth.wallace@mtw.org). This could be a great tool for PCA churches to equip the next generation to have God’s heart for the nations.