Missions Blog for Churches

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The Internet is an invaluable tool when it comes to research. It still amazes me how vast the resource pond is, and even more so, how expansive Christ’s Kingdom really is. I have been adding links on the right-hand column of this blog under the section “Missions” that will aid you in learning more about what is and has gone on around the world in terms of Kingdom expansion.

I’d like to add a few more helpful sites and highlight them here. First is the Global Mapping International’s mission research websites list.  If you’re preparing a sermon on missions or Christ’s Kingdom or putting together a prayer guide for your missions conference, some of these links will help you find that critical data you want to educate your people about.  GMI is behind Operation World which many in the PCA are familiar with and use for prayer and education. If you haven’t ever seen the book Operation World, check out the website and get a copy of the book.

Another invaluable research website is Gordon Conwell’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity. In particular, you can find directories of missions organizations and news about missions. But pay special attention to the extensive data as well as helpful graphics here.  Also note the resources page here.

The World Christian Database is connected to Gordon Conwell and you can find the link on their site, but I’m mentioning it separately. Here you can learn about data for evangelization, persecution, Bible translation as well as general social data such as education, infrastructure, and health.

Have you collected research sites or are there books you’d recommend? If so, please share them with us.

One of the challenges many missions leaders ask us about as we visit churches, regards how to best communicate missions news to church members. There are calendars, bulletin boards, pages on the church’s website (although we all need to be careful with that), inserts in the bulletin, announcements from the pulpit, prayer time, through small groups, etc… But it seems that that no matter which methods a church uses, many are often looking for more effective means, or at least ways to validate that their method is effective.

I would like to hear how your church is communicating to its members regarding missions news. What’s working? What hasn’t? Feel free to email me here, or even better, post your ideas in the comments section below to share them with others.

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.

by, Jack Beall

What’s your preferred method for planning a trip by car? Over time, I have made the progression from maps to MapQuest (and sometimes back to maps when the printouts were incorrect!) and recently to GPS. I love the freedom that my new GPS provides when I am traveling. And I marvel at how much information my system provides along the way. There is everything from verbal turn-by-turn directions given by a female voice (with a British accent, no less), to speed limit changes as I’m driving (“Beware,” she says), to my estimated time of arrival. Even when the novelty of this new gadget wears off, I suspect I’ll still appreciate the travel guidelines it gives.

As MTW’s Church Resourcing team meets with churches across the denomination, we are finding that there is healthy diversity in how PCA churches generate and allocate resources for missions. Interestingly, there appears to be a widespread and growing appreciation for the GPS-like freedom that individualized, congregation-specific policies provide. Prayerfully- and thoughtfully-discerned mission policies offer help in navigating decisions about important matters like candidate selection and missions partnership participation.

So, how exactly does your church make decisions about whom to support and at what level? For that matter, how do you individually decide those things for yourself? Also, do you support either many broadly scattered missionaries or a few missionaries in specific target locations? What about a plan to involve people from your congregation in expanded missions roles? Click here to read more

by, Bill Hay

In 1988 I had a life-changing experience. I went on my first short-term missions trip to Romania. God used that experience to show me His kingdom throughout the world, and how the church I pastored could be a part of His work. Before this trip I believed in world missions and we supported a few missionaries. But after this trip, I made a commitment to world missions and we increased the number of missionaries we supported.

The 20 years since that first missions trip have been some of the most fulfilling of my life. During this time I have learned a number of things about growing your missions  giving—how to build vision, face today’s unique challenges, and maintain a year-round focus on missions…click here to continue reading this article

by Rev. Tim Keller

Introduction
The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else—not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes—will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow-raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.

The normal response to discussions about church planting is something like this:

1. We already have plenty of churches that have lots and lots of room for all the new people who have come to the area. Let’s get them filled before we go off building any new ones.
2. Every church in this community used to be more full than it is now. The churchgoing public is a “shrinking pie.” A new church here will just take people from churches already hurting and weaken everyone.
3. Help the churches that are struggling first. A new church doesn’t help the ones we have that are just keeping their nose above water. We need better churches, not more churches.

These statements appear to be common sense to many people, but they rest on several wrong assumptions. The error of this thinking will become clear if we ask, “Why is church planting so crucially important?”

Because—

A. We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE

1. Jesus’ essential call was to plant churches. Virtually all the great evangelistic challenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply to share the faith. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is not just a call to make disciples but to baptize. In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism means incorporation into a worshipping community with accountability and boundaries (cf. Acts 2:41-47). The only way to be truly sure you are increasing the number of Christians in a town is to increase the number of churches. Why? Much traditional evangelism aims to get a “decision” for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these decisions disappear and never result in changed lives. Why? Many, many decisions are not really conversions, but often only the beginning of a journey of seeking God (other decisions are very definitely the moment of a new birth, but this differs from person to person). Only a person who is being evangelized in the context of an ongoing worshipping and shepherding community can be sure of finally coming home into vital, saving faith. This is why a leading missiologist like C. Peter Wagner can say, “Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.” [1]

2. Paul’s whole strategy was to plant urban churches. The greatest missionary in history, St. Paul, had a rather simple, two-fold strategy. First, he went into the largest city of the region (cf. Acts 16:9, 12), and second, he planted churches in each city (cf. Titus 1:5-appoint elders in every town). Once Paul had done that, he could say that he had fully preached the gospel in a region and that he had no more work to do there (cf. Romans 15:19, 23). This means Paul had two controlling assumptions: a) that the way to most permanently influence a country was through its chief cities, and b) the way to most permanently influence a city was to plant churches in it. Once he had accomplished this in a city, he moved on. He knew that the rest that needed to happen would follow.

Response: “But,” many people say, “that was in the beginning. Now the country (at least our country) is filled with churches. Why is church planting important now?”

We also plant churches because—

B. We want to be true to THE GREAT COMMISSION. Some facts:

1. New churches best reach a) new generations, b) new residents, and c) new people groups. First (a) younger adults have always been disproportionately found in newer congregations. Long-established congregations develop traditions (such as time of worship, length of service, emotional responsiveness, sermon topics, leadership style, emotional atmosphere, and thousands of other tiny customs and mores) which reflect the sensibilities of long-time leaders from the older generations who have the influence and money to control the church life. This does not reach younger generations. Second, (b) new residents are almost always reached better by new congregations. In older congregations, it may require tenure of 10 years before you are allowed into places of leadership and influence, but in a new church, new residents tend to have equal power with long-time residents.

Last, (c) new socio-cultural groups in a community are always reached better by new congregations. For example, if new white-collar commuters move into an area where the older residents were farmers, it is likely that a new church will be more receptive to the myriad of needs of the new residents, while the older churches will continue to be oriented to the original social group. And new racial groups in a community are best reached by a new church that is intentionally multi-ethnic from the start. For example: if an all-Anglo neighborhood becomes 33% Hispanic, a new, deliberately bi-racial church will be far more likely to create “cultural space” for newcomers than will an older church in town. Finally, brand new immigrant groups nearly always can only be reached by churches ministering in their own language. If we wait until a new group is assimilated into American culture enough to come to our church, we will wait for years without reaching out to them.

[Note: Often, a new congregation for a new people group can be planted within the overall structure of an existing church. It may be a new Sunday service at another time, or a new network of house churches that are connected to a larger, already existing congregation. Nevertheless, although it technically may not be a new independent congregation, it serves the same function.]

In summary, new congregations empower new people and new peoples much more quickly and readily than can older churches. Thus they have always reached them with greater facility than long-established bodies, and always will. This means, of course, that church planting is not only for “frontier regions” or “pagan” countries that we want to see become Christian. Christian countries will have to maintain vigorous, extensive church planting simply to stay Christian!

2. New churches best reach the unchurched—period. Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations. [2] This means that the average new congregation will bring 6-8 times more new people into the life of the Body of Christ than an older congregation of the same size.

So although established congregations provide many things that newer churches often cannot, older churches in general will never be able to match the effectiveness of new bodies in reaching people for the kingdom. Why would this be? As a congregation ages, powerful internal institutional pressures lead it to allocate most of its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members and constituents, rather than toward those outside its walls. This is natural and to a great degree desirable. Older congregations, therefore, have a stability and steadiness that many people thrive on and need. This does not mean that established churches cannot win new people. In fact, many non-Christians will only be reached by churches with long roots in the community and the trappings of stability and respectability.

However, new congregations, in general, are forced to focus on the needs of its non-members simply in order to get off the ground. So many of its leaders have come very recently from the ranks of the un-churched that the congregation is far more sensitive to the concerns of the non-believer. Also, in the first two years of our Christian walk, we have far more close, face-to-face relationships with non-Christians than we do later. Thus a congregation filled with people fresh from the ranks of the un-churched will have the power to invite and attract many more non-believers into the events and life of the church than will the members of the typical established body.

What does this mean practically? If we want to reach our city, should we try to renew older congregations to make them more evangelistic, or should we plant lots of new churches? But that question is surely a false either-or dichotomy. We should do both! Nevertheless, all we have been saying proves that, despite the occasional exceptions, the only wide-scale way to bring in lots of new Christians to the Body of Christ in a permanent way is to plant new churches.

To throw this into relief, imagine Town A and Town B and Town C are the same size, and they each have 100 churches of 100 persons each. But in Town A, all the churches are over 15 years old. As a result, the overall number of active Christian churchgoers in that town shrinks, even if four or five of the churches get very “hot” and double in attendance. In Town B, 5 of the churches are under 15 years old, and they, along with several older congregations, are winning new people to Christ, but this only offsets the normal declines of the older churches. Thus the overall number of active Christian churchgoers in that town stays the same. Finally, in Town C, 30 of the churches are under 15 years old. In this town, the overall number of active Christian churchgoers will be on a path to grow 50% in a generation. [3]

Response: “But,” many people say, “what about all the existing churches that need help? You seem to be ignoring them.”

Not at all. We also plant churches because—

C. We want to continually RENEW THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST.

It is a great mistake to think that we have to choose between church planting and church renewal. Strange as it may seem, the planting of new churches in a city is one of the very best ways to revitalize many older churches in the vicinity and renew the whole Body of Christ. Why?

1. First, new churches bring new ideas to the whole Body. There is plenty of resistance to the idea that we need to plant new churches to reach the constant stream of new groups, generations, and residents. Many congregations insist that all available resources should be used to find ways of helping existing churches reach them. However, there is no better way to teach older congregations about new skills and methods for reaching new people groups than by planting new churches. New churches have freedom to be innovative, and they become the “research and development” department for the whole Body in the city. Often the older congregations were too timid to try a particular approach or were absolutely sure it would “not work here.” But when the new church in town succeeds wildly with some new method, the other churches eventually take notice and get the courage to try it themselves.

2. Second, planting new churches is one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Body. In older congregations, leaders emphasize tradition, tenure, routine, and kinship ties. New congregations, on the other hand, attract a higher percentage of venturesome people who value creativity, risk, innovation, and future orientation. Many of these men and women would never be attracted or compelled into significant ministry apart from the appearance of these new bodies. Often older churches “box out” many people with strong leadership skills who cannot work in more traditional settings. New churches thus attract and harness many people in the city whose gifts otherwise would not be utilized in the work of the Body. These new leaders eventually benefit the Body in the city.

3. Third, new churches challenge other churches to self-examination. The success of new churches often challenges older congregations in general to evaluate themselves in substantial ways. Sometimes it is only in contrast with a new church that older churches can finally define their own vision, specialties, and identity. Often the growth of the new congregation gives the older churches hope that “it can be done,” and may even bring about humility and repentance for defeatist and pessimistic attitudes. Sometimes, new congregations can partner with older churches to mount ministries that neither could do by themselves.

4. Fourth, a new church may be an evangelistic feeder for a whole community. The new church often produces many converts who end up in older churches for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the new church is very exciting and outward facing but is also very unstable or immature in its leadership. Thus some converts cannot stand the tumultuous changes that regularly come through the new church and they move to an existing church. Sometimes the new church reaches a person for Christ, but the new convert quickly discovers that he or she does not fit the socio-economic make up of the new congregation, and gravitates to an established congregation where the customs and culture feels more familiar. Ordinarily, the new churches in a city produce new people not only for themselves, but for the older bodies as well.

Summary: Vigorous church planting is one of the best ways to renew the existing churches of a city, as well as the best single way to grow the whole Body of Christ in a city.

There is one more reason why it is good for the existing churches of the region to initiate or at least support the planting of churches in a given area.

We plant churches—

D. As an exercise in KINGDOM-MINDEDNESS

All in all, church planting helps an existing church the best when the new congregation is voluntarily “birthed” by an older “mother” congregation. Often the excitement, new leaders, ministries, members and income of a new church wash back into the mother church in various ways, strengthening and renewing it. Though there is some pain in seeing good friends and some leaders go away to form a new church, the mother church usually experiences a surge of high self-esteem and an influx of new enthusiastic leaders and members.

However, a new church in the community usually confronts churches with a major issue— the issue of kingdom-mindedness. New churches, as we have seen, draw most of their new members (up to 80%) from the ranks of the unchurched, but they will always attract some people out of existing churches. That is inevitable. At this point, the existing churches, in a sense, have a question posed to them: “Are we going to rejoice in the 80%—the new people that the kingdom has gained through this new church, or are we going to bemoan and resent the three families we lost to it?” In other words, our attitude to new church development is a test of whether our mindset is geared to our own institutional turf, or to the overall health and prosperity of the kingdom of God in the city.

Any church that is more upset by their own small losses rather than the kingdoms large gains is betraying its narrow interests. Yet, as we have seen, the benefits to older congregations of new church planting are very great, even if that may not be obvious initially.

SUMMARY

If we briefly glance at the objections to church planting in the introduction, we can now see the false premises beneath the statements. A. Assumes that older congregations can reach newcomers as well as new congregations. But to reach new generations and people groups will require both renewed older churches and lots of new churches. B. Assumes that new congregations will only reach current active churchgoers. But new churches do far better at reaching the unchurched, and thus they are the only way to increase the churchgoing “pie.” C. Assumes that new church planting will only discourage older churches. This is a possibility, but a new church, for a variety of reasons, is one of the best ways to renew and revitalize an older church. D. Assumes that new churches only work where the population is growing. Actually, they reach people wherever the population is changing. If new people are coming in to replace former residents, or new groups of people are coming in—even though the net population figure is stagnant—new churches are needed.

New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase the number of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body of Christ. The evidence for this statement is strong—Biblically, sociologically, and historically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all this evidence. We must beware of that.

APPENDIX A: HISTORICAL LESSONS

If all this is true, there should be lots of evidence for these principles in church history—and there is.

In 1820, there was one Christian church for every 875 U.S. residents. But from 1860-1906, U.S. Protestant churches planted one new church for each population increase of 350 people, bringing the ratio by the start of WWI to just one church for every 430 persons. In 1906 over a third of all the congregations in the country were less than 25 years old. [4] As a result, the percentage of the U.S. population involved in the life of the church rose steadily. For example, in 1776, 17% of the U.S. population described themselves as “religious adherents,” but that rose to 53% by 1916. [5]

However, after WWI, especially among mainline Protestants, church planting plummeted, for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons was the issue of “turf.” Once the continental U.S. was covered by towns and settlements and churches and church buildings in each one, there was strong resistance from older churches to any new churches being planted in “our neighborhood.” As we have seen above, new churches are commonly very effective at reaching new people and growing for their first couple of decades. But the vast majority of U.S. congregations reach their peak in size during the first two or three decades of their existence and then remain on a plateau or slowly shrink.6 This is due to the factors mentioned above. They cannot assimilate new people or groups of people as well as new churches. However, older churches have feared the competition from new churches. Mainline church congregations, with their centralized government, were the most effective in blocking new church development in their towns. As a result, the mainline churches have shrunk remarkably in the last 20-30 years. [7]

What are the historical lessons? Church attendance and adherence overall in the United States is in decline and decreasing. This cannot be reversed in any other way than in the way it originally had been so remarkably increasing. We must plant churches at such a rate that the number of churches per 1,000 people begins to grow again, rather than decline, as it has since WWI.

Dr. Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City, and continues to serve that congregation as senior pastor.

1 C. Peter Wagner, Strategies for Growth (Glendale: Regal, 1987), p. 168.
2 Lyle Schaller, quoted in D. McGavran and G. Hunter, Church Growth: Strategies that Work (Nashville:Abingdon, 1980), p. 100. See C. Kirk Hadaway, New Churches and Church Growth in the Southern Baptist Convention (Nashville:Broadman, 1987).
3 See Lyle Schaller, 44 Questions for Church Planters (Nashville: Abingdon, 1991), p.12. Schaller talks about “The 1% Rule.” Each year, any association of churches should plant new congregations at the rate of 1% of their existing total—otherwise, that association will be in decline. That is just “maintenance.” If an association wants to grow 50%+, it must plant 2-3% per year.
4 Ibid, pp.14-26.
5 Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America 1776-1990 (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 1992) p.16.
6 Schaller, 44 Questions, p.23.
7 See Schaller’s case that a lack of church planting is one major cause of the decline of mainline Protestantism. Ibid, p.24-26. Finke and Stark show how independent churches, such as the Baptists, who have had freedom to plant churches without interference, have proliferated their numbers. Churching, p.248.

This article is available in .pdf format for easier reading and printing by clicking here.

Our Life-Consuming Mission: Our first priority should be to extend God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth 

By Richard Pratt

Life is full of projects—working a job, raising a family, serving the church, reaching the lost. Most of us have so many projects that we can hardly list them all. But I’ve noticed something about the endeavors of my own life and of many others around me. We often start with a good goal, a true vision. But when difficult times arise we easily lose heart and give up.

We need a vision that can carry us through the rough times. In fact, we need a vision that is so compelling that we can pass it on to our children, our grandchildren, and their children for generations to come.

Many passages in Scripture display the grand vision Christ wants us to embrace, but one passage that sums up the matter in just a few words is the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9-13).

Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples to teach them how to pray, but He also revealed the priorities of His life in these words. After all, don’t we all pray about things that are important to us? In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus displayed the kinds of things that were important to Him, as well as the priorities we should have for our own lives.

As I look at myself and others around me, I’ve noticed that most of us find the priorities of our lives in the bottom half of the Lord’s Prayer. We want to depend on God to meet our needs: “Give us today our daily bread.” We yearn to be more assured of forgiveness in Christ: “Forgive us our debts.” We desire to do better today than we did yesterday: “Lead us not into temptation.” If these ideals are important to you, rejoice! They are essential to living by faith in Christ. But did you notice that each of these petitions has a common element? They are all concerned with “us.” We find ourselves at home in the bottom half of the Lord’s Prayer because it reflects the greatest vision that many of us have for our lives: securing our personal well-being.

As important as the last half of the Lord’s Prayer is, the kind of vision that can energize us throughout our lives and provide generations to come with a compelling goal appears in the first half of Jesus’ model prayer. The opening of the Lord’s Prayer calls our attention to some of the most significant aspects of the Christian faith.

Our Vision of God

Jesus’ prayer first calls us to focus on our vision of God. Jesus began by addressing God as “our Father.” These are precious words for Christians. It is a delight to know that when we come to Christ in saving faith, we actually become God’s children. He cares about our needs and takes personal delight in us.

I had the privilege of being in Indonesia two days after the great tsunami struck Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka in December 2004. While I was there, I spoke with a number of Muslims about the terrible tragedy that had come upon that great island nation. I always asked them two basic questions. First, I asked, “Do you believe God had anything to do with this tsunami?” Their answer was predictable. “Yes, of course. Allah is in control of everything. Everything happens in-sha’a Allah [as Allah wills].” But then I followed with a second question: “Do you find any comfort from God when you pray?” Every person I asked replied in much the same way. They laughed and said, “I pray now even more than I used to, but I don’t find any comfort. All I pray is, ‘Please, don’t send a tsunami to destroy me, too.’” Although there are exceptions, mainline Islam teaches that God is so transcendent, so distant, that He does not care tenderly about us. In fact, most Muslims think it blasphemy to speak of God as “our Father.” How sad.

Jesus’ opening to the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of the good news that we bring to so many in the world today. God becomes the loving Father of all who come to Him by faith in Christ.

But I think we need to admit something to ourselves. Although there are evangelicals who think of God as too transcendent, most of us today have been so influenced by the narcissistic, self-absorbed ethos of modern Western culture that we have just the opposite problem. When we hear “Our Father,” we tend to think of God as if He were a sweet grandfather. We envision Him as if He were an old man sitting in His rocking chair, wringing His hands and saying to Himself, “Is there anything more I can do to make my children pay a little more attention to me? Is there some way I can improve their lives so they will love me?”

Do you wonder why popular Christian movements today have reduced our faith to the pursuit of personal prosperity, treating God as a heavenly banker? Do you wonder why so many of us center our faith on gaining assurance of well-being and acceptance, reducing Jesus to our therapist? It is because we hear “Our Father” and we think “Our Sugar Daddy.”

I’m glad to say that this is not the vision Jesus offered His disciples in the Lord’s Prayer. We know this because He did not simply say, “Our Father.” He taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven.” Every time the Scriptures describe heaven, whether in the Old Testament (Psalm 29, 82, 103:19-22, Isaiah 6:1-4, Job 1) or in the New Testament (Matthew 25:31, Acts 7:55-56, Revelation 4), the picture is the same. Heaven is not the place of the divine grandfather’s rocking chair; it is His throne room. Blinding glory radiates from His throne; peals of thunder and flashes of lightning fill His royal dwelling; countless creatures bow before Him and honor Him as the King. In fact, when Jesus told us to pray, “Hallowed be your name,” He alluded to Isaiah 6:3, where the prophet Isaiah saw the seraphim crying before the throne of God, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

This understanding is confirmed by the fact that in the days of Jesus (Mark 11:10; Acts 4:25) it was quite common in Israel and the nations surrounding Israel to speak of human kings as the “fathers” of nations, much like the English still call their queen “Mum.” So, when we read that Jesus spoke of God as “our Father in heaven,” we should recognize that the fatherhood of God is an image of His royal benevolence (Isaiah 63:15-16). Simply put, Jesus was employing the most prominent portrait of God in all of Scripture: God as our royal Father enthroned in heaven.

In our modern world, it is difficult to grasp the significance of this vision of the divine because most of us have practically no idea what it means to live under the rule of a king. In Western democracies, we think of political leaders as public servants to whom we give a measure of power and authority. If they serve us well, we give them more power. But if they don’t make our lives better, we withhold our allegiance. Sadly, what is true in politics often bleeds into our faith as well. We think we are doing God a favor when we give Him a portion of our time. We think ourselves extraordinarily faithful if we give a tenth of our earnings to the church. In modern democracies, we believe in a government “by the people and for the people,” and we end up with a god who is “by the people and for the people.”

If there is one basic truth to be learned from the opening of the Lord’s Prayer, it is that God does not serve us. Rather, we serve Him and His imperial purposes. Let’s not forget how the apostle Paul summed up the matter in Romans 11:36. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” In the beginning God the King created everything, and now He sustains everything—all for His own glory as the King of all creation.

Perhaps you are a factory worker, a teacher, a mother, a lawyer. Whoever you are, a larger and deeper vision for your life begins with the conviction that we live in the empire of our heavenly royal Father. Our lives are not our own. We are not living in a democracy where the highest goal is the pursuit of our own happiness. Our royal heavenly Father owns us. He lays claim to every moment, every penny, every ounce of energy we have. Were we not bought with a great price, the blood of His own Son? As our King, God expects us to envision our lives as service to Him without restraint, without exception, without limits, even when it is inconvenient or dangerous. Nothing—absolutely nothing—should have first place in our lives, other than service to our royal Father enthroned in heaven.

Our Vision of the World

The upper half of the Lord’s Prayer does not just challenge us to assess what we believe about God. It also calls us to have a particular vision of the earth, the planet we share with the rest of humanity. Listen again to what Jesus said, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

After Jesus drew his disciples’ attention toward their royal Father, He turned them toward the Father’s kingdom. He taught them to pray, “Your kingdom come.” Then He explained what He meant: “Your will be done.” God’s reign comes where God’s will is done. And where did Jesus want to see God’s kingdom come? “On earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of God is coming here, to our planet.

By and large, most evangelicals today think Earth has about as much significance as the paper that wraps a Christmas present. The gift inside is what we really want. In much the same way, we think that spiritual men and women do little more than tolerate life on this planet in order to reach what is important: heaven.

Now, the New Testament makes it plain that there are ways in which heavenly matters ought to preoccupy us. We are encouraged to set our minds “on things above” (Colossians 3:2), to store up “treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20) because “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). We rightly take great comfort in knowing that our friends and loved ones who have passed away are now in the heavenly presence of God (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). The world in which we live is still corrupted by sin. And Jesus, our King, is now in heaven. He is the centerpiece of our lives, the divine and human person who reigns at the right hand of God the Father. Our attachment must be with Him in the first place, and not with the fallen world in which we live.

But be careful. We must never forget that heaven has never been Jesus’ ultimate destiny. The New Testament teaches plainly that the final place of Christ’s eternal presence is the “new heavens and new earth” (Revelation 21:1). At the time appointed by His royal Father, Christ will return to the earth in glory to bring God’s kingdom to its consummation on earth. And our blessed hope is that one day we will reign with Him over that new earth. As Revelation 5:10 puts it, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

While we wait eagerly for the return of Christ, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that our prayer, our heart’s desire, now should be to see God’s kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven. Heaven is not our final destiny, but our standard. As Jesus said, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is the standard, and the ultimate goal is for the earth to become like heaven.

Just how is God’s will done in heaven? In a word, God’s will is observed perfectly. This is by no means the situation on earth at the present time, but Jesus’ vision for this planet was that one day it will be true here too.

Jesus’ desire to see God’s kingdom come to earth reveals how He understood the earth and the reason for His incarnation. In biblical faith, Earth is the place where the true Creator God, the God of Israel, demonstrates that He is the Supreme Creator of all, that He is King over all rulers and authorities, both in the spiritual and physical realms (Ephesians 3:10). And more than this, according to Scripture, God has ordained that His kingdom will come to earth through the service of His image—human beings. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were told to extend the borders of Eden to the ends of the earth when God said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). Of course, our first parents and all who followed them have not done a very good job at turning the world into the glorious paradise of God. Yet, it was precisely because of our failures that the Second Person of the Trinity became one of us. He became the last Adam, the perfect human being who fulfills all that the human race was originally designed to do. Jesus knew that His high calling was to be the man who would turn this planet into the kingdom of God.

We put all our hopes for our world in Christ alone. But as members of Christ’s body, we also play an important role in building His kingdom. In the Old Testament, God extended special mercy to Israel so they would spread the blessings of God to the ends of the earth (Genesis 12:3). In the New Testament, Christ has empowered the church with the Holy Spirit to reach the entire world with the gospel and to teach everything He has commanded (Matthew 28.18-20, Acts 1:8). While we will never complete this ultimate goal prior to the return of Christ in glory, we are on His mission, the mission of bringing God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven.

I remember visiting London with some friends about 15 years ago. We were exploring how we might reach out to the thousands of Muslims in the greater London area. One of my friends asked me why I thought so many Muslims had come to London. “Is it to get a better job?” he asked. “Is it for better education?” I told my friend, “Of course, many Muslims migrate to the West for these reasons. But for the faithful—and there are many of them—the answer is very simple. Muslims are on a mission. They want to spread Islam to the ends of the earth, to establish the reign of Allah throughout the globe.”

Recent events in the news demonstrate just how true this is. Why is Islam one of the fastest growing religions in the West? Why are so many Muslims working to bring Shariah law to Europe and America? They believe they have been called to establish the will of Allah and his kingdom throughout the world.

Sadly, while faithful Muslims give their lives to spreading their false religion, many evangelicals have forgotten their mission to establish the kingdom of the true God over the entire earth. The most popular evangelical preachers, teachers, books, and films today teach that Christianity is doomed to fail in the Great Commission. At times, we even relish setbacks to the spread of the gospel as welcomed signs that Christ will return soon. As a result, most evangelicals today are left with little more than the hope that they can see God’s will come to their personal lives, to their immediate families, and on occasion to their local churches.

But Jesus offered a different vision of the earth for His disciples. We know from our catechism that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” But how is God to be glorified? How is He to be enjoyed forever? Jesus put it this way later in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” For many of us, our greatest dream is to live in safety, to retire comfortably, and to escape this planet by flying away to heaven. Yet, the first priority in every Christian’s life should not be to ensure our physical, economic, social, or emotional well-being; it should be to extend God’s kingdom and His righteousness to the ends of the earth. We are on a kingdom mission. We have been called and empowered by God’s Spirit to give our lives to bringing God’s will to the entire earth as it is in heaven.

What does commitment to this kingdom vision imply for the ways we live day by day as followers of Christ? First and foremost, it entails a reorientation toward Christ’s vision for His followers. All too often, evangelicals make a sharp distinction between missionaries, Christians on a mission, and other ordinary Christians. Missionaries make choices about their education, their home location, their employment, their friends, and everything else in their lives in service to their kingdom vision. The rest of us, however, are often not quite so deliberate in our choices. We simply seek the education that suits us. We choose to live in the nicest house we can afford. We find a career that brings us fulfillment. We just choose friends we like.

In reality, Jesus wants all of us without exception to be kingdom missionaries. Every Christian is on a life-consuming mission: the mission of bringing God’s will to the earth as it is in heaven. Seeking the kingdom of God means finding that role to which God has called each of us in this kingdom mission. As carpenters, teachers, homemakers, bankers, and every other role in life we fill, we are to proclaim by our words and to demonstrate by our actions the good news that this planet was designed to become the kingdom of God in Christ.

Integrity in the workplace is rare in our day; treating others with dignity and honor has nearly disappeared; sacrificial giving has diminished to a trickle; risking reputation, comfort, and life for the sake of the gospel is almost unthinkable. Yet as those who look beyond our personal lives to build God’s kingdom on earth, we have been called to see every facet of life as an opportunity to bring His kingdom to earth as it is in heaven.

We live in a day of wondrous opportunity. There has never been a time in recent history when opposition to the Christian faith has been so great. Sometimes I dread the kind of world we may be handing to our children and grandchildren. At the same time, however, there has never been a moment in recent history when the potential for extending the reign of Christ has been so great. We must always remind ourselves that our faith began with one man, Jesus, and a handful of followers. Today that faith has extended to nearly every nation on earth. The progress of the kingdom in the past should give us enduring hope for the future. If we will move beyond preoccupation with personal well-being and catch the vision that Jesus gives us in the opening of the Lord’s Prayer, we will see the gospel and the kingdom go forth with power in the future as never before.

God is our King, and the earth will become His kingdom. This kind of vision is big enough and deep enough to carry us through the hard times of our lives, and it is a vision that we can pass on to generations to come. What could be more important for our day than the vision of the kingdom of God?

Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. is the president of Third Millennium Ministries and professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.  Pratt is the general editor of the NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible and a translator for The New Living Translation.  He has also authored numerous books, including Pray With Your Eyes Open, Every Thought Captive, Designed for Dignity, He Gave Us Stories, and Commentaries on 1 & 2 Chronicles and 1 & 2 Corinthians.

A few words about Third Millennium Ministries:
The kingdom of God is growing throughout the world, but church leaders throughout Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the former Soviet Union, Latin America, and other lands have little opportunity to learn the Scriptures and sound theology.  Third Millennium Ministries is bringing seminary education to church leaders in these nations through DVD, Internet, and radio broadcasts.

Third Millennium’s graphic-driven curriculum can be used independently or in support of existing organizations.  The ministry has forged strategic relationships with Bible schools, seminaries, churches, agencies, and missionaries throughout the world.  Third Millennium freely distributes curriculum for use overseas, and provides master copies at no cost to reliable individuals and organizations for duplication and distribution.

Third Millennium Ministries produces a multimedia master of arts curriculum taught by many professors from a variety of seminaries.  The ministry has distributed more than 2.8 million hours of materials to 52 nations in five languages: English, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.  Several radio and television networks are in the planning stages of broadcasting this curriculum in these languages.  Mission to the World and other mission organizations are translating these materials into other languages as well.

To learn more, contact Third Millennium Ministries at (877) 443-6455, or www.thirdmill.org.

Copyright 2007, all rights reserved, byFaith magazine. This article first appeared in the April 2007 issue of byFaith and is reprinted by permission.

PURPOSE OF THE MISSIONS CONFERENCE

For the church that has begun to recognize the primacy of missions and evangelism, the missions conference provides an opportunity to fuel that vision in a unique manner. It is an opportunity for a congregation to re-focus on its biblical mandate in ministry and to restore perspective upon its church’s mission. In many churches whose vision and involvement in missions has become the focus of a few members of the church, a conference is an opportunity to push that vision outward and to give opportunity for ownership to the congregation. Paradoxically, rather than depleting the local church, a missions conference serves to enhance interest, resources and fruitfulness of the local church.

Your missions conference will be a time for explanation, illustration and personalization of world evangelism. It is also a prime opportunity to convey your particular vision and how members can get involved. In order to accomplish this, you must plan your conference as thoughtfully as possible.

KEY PLANNING DECISIONS

• What are you hoping to accomplish?
  Consider how the conference can help move your missions vision forward. It is easy enough to plan a busy program. The challenge is to plan a schedule where events meaningfully contribute to your overall purpose.
• What is the best schedule for your conference?
  Common options include a weekend event or a 10-day conference that includes two Sundays. Determine the schedule that best fits your church and will generate the most enthusiasm.
• How can you involve the most members?
  Missions is for everybody. While not everyone will serve in the missions ministry year round, the conference is a time for maximum exposure and participation. Schedule prime-time events that will appeal to many people and/or will best promote your  missions vision.
• Which missionaries will you invite?
  Do you want to open the conference to all missionaries, in order to increase the contact of your members to missionaries? Or will you be more selective, in order to encourage members to support missionaries who align with your vision?
• What outcomes do you want from your members?
  Consider distributing some kind of response card for members to complete. Be sure to follow-up on these commitments.

COMMON COMPONENTS OF THE CONFERENCE

• Sunday worship services should include songs, prayers, Scripture and announcements related to missions. Flags from around the world could be carried and/or displayed.
• Missionaries and nationals from the church’s areas of focus should be given broad exposure during the conference. Carefully select the missionaries you want to highlight during worship services.
• Introduce response card at beginning of conference, which should be turned in at the end. This card could include responses for prayer, giving, learning and going.
• Include prayer in all events, but also plan special opportunities dedicated to prayer.
• Missionaries can be briefly introduced to the congregation in a service, with more opportunities for them to give presentations at other times.
• Sunday school classes can host missionary speakers and/or programs related to missions.
• Schedule the main speaker for weekday morning meetings. These may have a special focus for missionaries or specific groups of members.
• Plan special events such as a men’s breakfast, a women’s luncheon and/or concert for teenagers.
• Schedule special events for the children.
• Set up displays for missionaries the church supports, including prayer cards, photos, informational brochures, videos, maps, flags, and other such resources.
• Plan home meetings in which missionaries share pictures, videos, and speak informally in a question and answer time.
• Consider calling missionaries in other countries during worship, Sunday school classes, or homes.
• Plan events related to local, cross-cultural missions opportunities. This promotes awareness of the world in your community, gives people first hand experience, and encourages “here/there” connections to your missions ministry.
• Schedule half-day seminars about other cultures, religions and/or biblical basis for missions.
• Promote pre-selected two-week projects.

THEMES FOR MISSIONS CONFERENCES

Consider these possibilities as you create your own theme:

• A Light to All Nations
• A Needy World, A Saving Message
• As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You
• Compelled by His Love
• Expect Great Things from God, Attempt Great Things for God
• Extending Christ’s Kingdom to All Peoples
• For God So Loved the World
• From Every Tribe, Nation and Tongue
• Here Am I, Send Me
• The Light of the World
• Lord of the Harvest
• One Message for Many Nations
• Reaching the Unreached
• The Unfinished Task
• White to the Harvest

TWO ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULES

10-Day Format

FRIDAY

• Appreciation Dinner for Missions Committee
• Orientation Meeting for missionaries

SATURDAY

• Men’s breakfast: a missionary shares (20 min)
• Women’s luncheon: a missionary shares (20 min)
• Youth event, e.g. concert, movie

SUNDAY

• Sunday School: missionaries share in all classes
• Morning worship: missionary shares (3-5 min), message by main speaker, introduce response card and challenge
• Evening: a missionary shares (3-5 min), message by main speaker

MONDAY

• Seniors’ luncheon
• Evening: a missionary shares (3-5 min), message by main speaker

TUESDAY

• Evening: a missionary shares (3-5 min), message by main speaker
• Dinner with officers and wives

WEDNESDAY

• Men’s prayer breakfast; a missionary shares
• Evening home groups

THURSDAY

• Women’s prayer luncheon; a missionary shares
• Evening home groups

FRIDAY

• Off day

SATURDAY

• Half-day educational seminar

SUNDAY

• Missions message by pastor
• Turn in response cards

Weekend Format

FRIDAY

• Orientation Meeting
• Covered dish supper
• Introduce missionaries (2-5 min. each)
• Kick-off message from main speaker
• Display area for missionaries

SATURDAY

• Men’s breakfast: a missionary shares (20 min)
• Women’s luncheon: a missionary shares (20 min)
• Youth supper: a missionary shares (20 min), discussion follows
• Dessert in homes: missionaries share slides, videos and a Q&A time

SUNDAY

• Sunday School: missionaries share in all classes
• Morning worship: missionary shares (3-5 min), message by main speaker; distribute response cards
• Covered dish lunch at church
• Evening: a missionary shares (3-5 min), message by main speaker

SUBCOMMITTEES

Dividing the responsibilities for the missions conference and appointing leaders of the various activities can greatly ease the organizational challenges of the conference. Depending on the size of the conference, one person could undertake more than one responsibility. Subcommittees also provide an excellent means for increasing participation. Encourage church members to volunteer for different responsibilities and involve them as much as possible in the planning of the conference. Mission to the World can be a resource for your conference by recommending speakers and missionaries, providing displays, and supplying you with other materials to help you communicate about world missions.

Choose a leader for each subcommittee. The conference chairperson will lead the subcommittees.

Program:

• Determine theme
• Determine overall schedule
• Plan events in accordance with theme
• Recruit coordinators for each event
• Arrange for speakers during worship, classes, etc.

Publicity:

• Make posters and banners
• Design and produce a conference brochure
• Coordinate publicity with other church workers to promote the conference among their groups
• See that the announcements are made from the pulpit as appropriate
• Include conference information in the church paper or newsletter
• Send press releases or set up interviews with local newspapers and radio or TV stations
• Produce and place posters in local public buildings
• Promote conference in Sunday school classes
• Ensure church follows security guidelines for missionaries working in sensitive contexts
• Produce response cards that ask for commitments on such things as praying for missions, giving to missionaries, learning about missions, serving on the ministry committee, going on a specific two-week project, or expressing interest in becoming a missionary.

Finances:

• Determine the costs of the conference
• Establish a detailed budget (income and expense)
• Arrange for tickets where needed
• Collect funds for events where needed
• Make sure bills, honorariums and other charges are paid
• Keep good records
• Design and produce response cards; final totals may be presented at the closing meeting

Hospitality:

• Arrange housing and meals for incoming speakers
• Work out transportation for speakers
• Arrange housing and meals for missionaries
• Buy or make name tags for all speakers and missionaries
• Coordinate coffee breaks and fellowship times
• Send information packets to all program participants (conference brochures, schedules, maps, housing arrangements, etc.)
• Provide encouraging seminar just for missionaries

Facilities:

• Plan, produce and put up decorations for all sessions
• Arrange for facilities as needed for special events
• Provide signs for clear direction to and in facilities
• Reserve or arrange for necessary equipment
• Reserve and decorate display tables
• Coordinate set-up of facilities as needed for each event

Missions Displays:

• List organizations which should be contacted
• Write a letter inviting the organizations
• Arrange for display area, table, etc.
• Arrange for a book table with missions books and periodicals
• Arrange for workers to staff the book table

Follow-up:

• Keep attendance records of all events
• Record conference evaluations (you may design and distribute evaluation forms to your congregation)
• Provide for response cards if there is a call for commitment to missionary service
• See that financial commitments are acknowledged when appropriate
• Inform the church as to the results of the missions conference
• Send thank-you notes to all volunteers and missionaries

PLANNING THE CONFERENCE

An effective conference requires significant preparation. Planning should begin as early as possible, with foundational decisions made even a year or more in advance.

12 Months in Advance

1. Choose optimum conference dates considering
   • Church calendar
   • Social calendar
   • Community calendar
2. Determine length of conference
3. Begin consideration of conference purpose and theme
4. Plan to use conference as a time to target any new focus areas
5. Invite main speaker(s)
6. Invite church-supported missionaries (usually those on HMA)
7. Invite special musician(s)
8. Work on conference budget

9 Months in Advance

1. Invite missionaries/nationals from focus areas
2. Invite other missionaries
3. Invite mission board representatives
4. Invite nationals
5. Select theme
6. Select subcommittee chairpersons
7. Determine special events

6 Months in Advance

1. Develop subcommittee heads, personnel, responsibilities and six-month assignments
2. Begin work on publicity
3. Research missionary candidates’ applications
4. Arrange for speaker and special events
5. Plan “Theme Display” for sanctuary and other decorations

3 Months in Advance

1. Arrange for hospitality
2. Distribute hospitality cards to potential hosts
3. Develop master chart of visitors and potential hosts
4. Mail letters to hosts
5. Choose candidates and notify them of support policy
6. Review conference budget
7. Confirm candidates’ conference participation and interviewing process
8. Discuss veteran missionary support and interviewing process
9. Develop sign-up board for prayer commitments

2 Months in Advance

1. Prepare pastoral letter to be mailed to congregation with Faith Promise devotional
2. Secure Faith Promise devotionals
3. Evaluate committee functions and conference preparation progress
4. Set Faith Promise goal
5. Plan contents of guest packet (include information about your geographical area, your church, etc.)
6. Send final confirmation letter to conference guests
7. Finalize speakers for special events
8. Develop a spreadsheet or database of all events and missionary schedules

1 Month in Advance

1. Evaluate progress
2. Finalize hospitality procedure
3. Master chart
4. Send out meal letters
5. Send out lodging letters
6. Establish schedule of conference assignments
7. Review conference schedule, programming and personnel with the pastor
8. Prepare conference guest packets (include information about your geographical area, your church, etc.)
9. Mail pastoral letter with Faith Promise devotional
10. Finalize theme display for sanctuary
11. Finalize sign-up board for prayer commitments

3 Weeks in Advance

1. Begin distribution of conference publicity brochures to congregation on Sunday to advertise the missions conference
2. Encourage church leaders to participate in the conference

2 Weeks in Advance

1. Check with subcommittees on progress
2. Assemble conference guest packets

1 Week in Advance

1. Set order of services
2. Check with subcommittees on final details

Conference Week

• Orientation meeting for missions conference personnel prior to launching the conference

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