Missions Blog for Churches

GO GLOBAL!

Missionaries know that in order to reach people with the gospel, we must be willing and able to speak their language.

The upcoming generation in our culture speaks a different “language” too, a language shaped by media sound bites, dynamic video, action-oriented extreme sports, and fast-moving technology like social networking, mobile web surfing, or texting.

We believe it is our responsibility to speak to this generation, to help them catch a vision for the world around them and begin to focus outside themselves.

In an effort to connect with them by speaking their language, MTW has created a new micro website, “Go Global,” showcasing young people who are engaging in missions. Read their comments about what God has taught them. Hear and see their stories in videos about missions and missionaries. You’ll even find a little humor if you look for it.

But, we need your help to spread the word: share it with leaders in your church’s youth ministry, post a link on Facebook, and mention it to your friends. Feel free to use your imagination.

http://GoGlobal.MTW.org

Thanks for your support. And Go Global!

MTW has just launched a new micro-website called GoGlobal. This is an online effort to effectively connect with and communicate to the upcoming generation. Check it out and share with others: goglobal.mtw.org.

This is a great article in ByFaith about Plains PCA in Zachary, LA. Read the entire article here.

Robert J. Tamasy

“From little acorns big oak trees grow,” the saying goes. Over the past couple of decades, a small church near Baton Rouge, La., has been faithfully growing missional “oak trees” that have taken root and are ministering across the United States and around the world.

Nestled in a community of 13,000 people in Zachary, La., The Plains has just under 400 members, with about 260 people attending worship services on a typical Sunday. Founded in 1832, the congregation had seen only five of its members directly engaged in missions work over its first 140 years. Since the mid-1990s, however, it has sent more than a dozen men and women to seminary and on to vocational ministry roles across the United States and around the world.

Today, The Plains members are planting churches in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., and Eugene, Ore., and its international reach extends from Taiwan to Peru. In addition, since 1982 hundreds of its young people have participated in dozens of short-term mission trips to Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, Haiti, Ukraine, Scotland, Portugal, and France. (Click here to continue reading this article)

Second medical team just after they landed in Haiti — having left Ft. Lauderdale at 4:30 a.m. There are two more members of this team who stayed over from team one and are not shown in this photo. The team will be working in Dikini camp. Please pray for them and for those whom they treat. How thankful we are for these willing servants whom God has called and equipped for this work!

So far, we have seen primarily rescue and medical work in Haiti. But the work that is before this wrecked nation is much larger and will last many years. MTW now has a form you or your church may use to indicate your interest in going to Haiti to help continue the rescue and rebuild. I say “rescue” because there are still thousands trapped by homelessness, improper wound care, and disabilities. On top of that, thousands of jobs were obliterated. And then there is the emotional entrapment of so many. Children who have lost parents, parents who have lost children, and all who have seen more than any human would ever want in the way of pain and death.

Yesterday, we heard an update and discussed how so many Haitians are afraid to go into buildings. Esaie is still sleeping in the back of his pickup truck. I’m not sure how many building I’d want to hang out in after seeing this. So there is a huge need for people to go and love on these hurting people in the process of rescue and rebuilding. Churches should seriously consider getting folks into Haiti to help. Use the form to indicate your interest even if you don’t know how you will do it or if you have enough people. MTW can coordinate and help with that. The form is located on MTW’s website here.

The financial needs are tremendous as well. Currently, the cost centers around medical supplies, tents and other temporary shelters, and clean up. That will expand into the rebuilding process. By supporting MTW, you are committing to working through the church, Christ’s body in Haiti. This will create true meaningfulness to our kind acts because body of Christ is the ordinary means by which the Gospel is proclaimed. And working through the church establishes sustainable help that will continue, even after we Americans have forgotten or are distracted. You can donate online by clicking here.

Team is healthy and well.

On Sunday, they were able to assess Dikini Camp, a tent city outside of Port-au-Prince. With this new information, they feel that medical teams should serve there. At Dikini Camp, team will run a full-fledged clinic rather than wound care only. Therefore, there is a need for a full team of 14. Recommend for first team to stay 9 days followed by a second team for 9 days. The first team will be led by Dennis Hamilton, the second team leader will be Dan Jenny.

The team will be based at Quisqueya School, which is now the Quisqueya Earthquake Crisis Center (QCS). They will most likely sleep in tents and eat meals there. Because of safety, they cannot stay overnight in the unofficial refugee camp. Tom was able to make a contact with American Airlines, who are helping get medical teams into Haiti. There is room for a 14-person medical team on a relief flight out of Chicago at 7 am on January 29 that the office is researching for a possibility.

Please pray for the team that they can get a flight out of Port-au-Prince today, for safe travel, and continued logistical planning.

Please also pray for the DRM staff as they coordinates the logistics, travel, and medical supply procurement for the medical teams.

The first choice in any journey is determining the direction. When that decision is not a deliberate one, the journey is really more like a stroll: there is no clear destination. But when the goal is clear and the journey is underway, the group looks to the leaders to set the pace.

Similarly, a church’s mission ministry may or may not have a clear direction. If not, the articles in Laying the Foundation and Setting Your Sights will be helpful. Once churches have determined the direction for their missions ministry, they will want to mobilize their members towards that goal. However, many churches find that the number of members engaged in world missions is relatively few. Perhaps missions is seen as a distinct department, an annual event, or a ministry to be started in the future. The challenge facing these churches is inspiration. The articles in Setting the Pace are designed to help missions leaders engage their members in the Great Commission. While there are many ways to motivate members in missions, they will include efforts to educate, involve and focus your members.

The Great Commission is also a Gracious Commission. Some have incorrectly concluded that Reformed theology is a discouragement to missions, with its emphasis on God’s initiative. A proper understanding of Reformed theology, however, has had the opposite effect: countless numbers of Christians have committed their lives to missions, in response to the gracious love God has shown them and in the security they have that God is working in the lives of the people they serve. The article on Global Missions encourages Christians to stand on the theological foundations of the Great Commission.

Do not limit missions education to formal teaching, however. It has often been said that the gospel is more caught than taught. Thus, create opportunities for members to talk with missionaries, hear of the power of the gospel to change lives, and learn more about other cultures and what God is doing there. The article in Laying the Foundation on planning a missions conference may also be helpful.

PARTICIPATION
A critical element for missions mobilization is congregational participation. Church members cannot be allowed to drift into the error that missions is for a select few or a department of the church. Missions leadership must encourage every member to see missions as their personal responsibility, through praying, giving and going.

Praying: Help your members understand that through their prayers, they are sincerely and meaningfully engaging in world missions. The article on prayer will help you encourage prayer for missions throughout your church.
Giving: Your members should also be challenged to support missionaries financially. Giving through faith promise or other means will deeply connect your members to world missions.
Going: Short-term missions projects can have a transforming effect on your entire congregation, as participants return with stories of how God worked in and through their lives. Select projects in keeping with your overall vision, as the participants will develop a heart for the people and ministry. And in keeping with Acts 15:4, be sure to create ways for returning participants to tell the congregation how God worked in and through their lives.

FOCUS
Missions is all about relationship. And the more lasting the relationship, the more members will get behind efforts to develop those ministries. To that end, missions ministries have increasingly discovered the motivating power of selecting one or more sites for on-going emphasis and involvement. Many missions leaders desire a greater impact for their efforts and have found a long-term focus helps accomplish this goal. This direction can take many forms. For example, churches may choose to send members on short-term trips to the same site for several years. Missionaries and national leaders from these sites may be able to visit the church, increasing the direct relationship. Giving and education may be more concentrated. Finally, many churches are joining with other churches to coordinate and collaborate their efforts towards a shared vision. The articles on partnership will introduce your ministry to such initiatives.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Under the titles of the following articles, the “theme” refers to one of the essential elements of successful missions ministries listed in Window to the World. This list is included in the following pages. A fruitful exercise for your missions committee would be to evaluate your ministry according to each of the twenty themes and begin to strengthen undeveloped areas.

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

The Dayspring Camp in Fairmont, WV, a ministry of Mission to the World, has launched a new blog. You can follow upcoming happenings at the camp and plan your next trip. I worked a week at this camp this past summer and can say that this is an ideal setup for youth groups (as a former youth pastor myself). If you’re not ready to take the whole group on a plane and across the pond, introduce them to cross-cultural ministry through Dayspring. You’ll work during the day, have a debrief time each evening, along with a corporate worship time together with the other groups there. It allows you to not only provide ministry opportunities for your participants, but gives you the opportunity to minister to them as well. The blog address is http://mtwfairmont.blogspot.com/.

The following is a book review of When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor…and yourself. You can find out more about this book at www.whenhelpinghurts.org and can order it online here.

When Helping Hurts is a compelling book that will be a significant help to the Church for years to come. The first chapter alone is worth the cost of the book and ought to be read by every church leader in every ministry category. This is not just a book for the missions committee (although it ought to be required for everyone involved in missions) or the Outreach Director, or the pastor. I think every Christian in America would benefit. Most evangelicals would be rattled.

There are several benefits from this book. Since most people read book reviews to try and determine whether they want to buy and read the book, let me mention those benefits.

It doesn’t just pick on the Church or her leaders. This book is personal; it will pick on you. It was deeply convicting to me as I read it. I realized that as many times as I have been moved by stories about the fatherless and the widow, the poor and the sick, I am not purposefully living for my life, and leading that of my family, to intersect with these members of society. I have forsaken the needy by my enslavement to convenience and stuff. My house is conveniently situated away from poverty. I hardly see the needy. And then there is my busyness. All my important tasks that keep me far away spending myself on “behalf of the hungry” (Is. 58:10) are often where I find my own significance and worth. I am convicted that although I hold to the position that all humans are created in the image of God, I don’t live as such. And I realize that I do have a god-complex (although every time I read that phrase in the book, my first reaction was, “No I don…..okay, I do. I do.”).

The authors are not writing from lofty chairs in academia. They pen their own confessions. One of my favorites is, “I confess to you that part of what motivates me to help the poor is my felt need to accomplish something worthwhile with my life, to be a person of significance, to feel like II have pursued a noble cause…to be a bit like God…I sometimes unintentionally reduce poor people to objects that I use to fulfill my own need to accomplish something. it is a very ugly truth, and it pains me to admit it, but ‘when I want to do good, evil is right there with me’ (Rom. 7:21).” [p. 65] They also give a number of examples that show where they blew it. This communicates not only humility, but also a sense that there’s a bit of a journey involved. Helping the needy will never become neat, clean and orderly.

This book is highly biblical, both in its use of Scripture for application as well as in developing a theory of poverty that serves as the framework. You won’t be able to get past a few pages at any point in the book without being confronted by biblical truth (and a helpful reference). And it does not do what many books on this subject do, namely, present steps and practices for alleviating poverty dissected from the Bible as the source of these truths or from the Holy Spirit as the source of divine power. Rather, the authors continually remind you of the authority of Scripture and our dependency on the Holy Spirit for power and guidance in the journey. One good example is early in the book, as the authors lay the groundwork for the importance of relationships in assisting the poor and sick. They take the reader back to the relationship in the Godhead, the Trinity. And from there they expand and explain how ministry flows through relationships. The poor are not going to be helped, without hurting them, if we just conduct drive-by ministry.

This book is also highly practical. The authors not only explain best practices and steps to take, but they give examples of what they might look like. And they also offer gracious critiques of benevolent practices that many of us have followed. The strange thing is that while reading many of the critiques, the thought ran through my head, “That always seemed a little unwise to me.” You’ll finish with not just new techniques, but will actually have an understanding of why some things work and some don’t.

Many in the church will want to read this because of their local outreach. But this book is just as important for global outreach. In my job, I am continually laboring to help churches understand the importance of their short-term trips not becoming drive-by (or fly-by) ministries. Feeding the poor is wonderful. Caring for the orphan is beautiful. Both are biblical. But to be the best these ministries can be, both need to be in the context (connected to) a sustainable ministry. Biblically, you can’t escape the fact that this is the church. Ministries that are conducted apart from the church die when their leadership dies (or moves, or changes strategies, or gets new vision, etc…). They are simply not sustainable. But when ministry is conducted in and through the church, there is lasting fruit. New believers are folded into that work. And when the US worker (or partnering church) leaves, the church will continue the ministry.

I don’t get to read a ton of books, but this is one that has so impacted my thinking and stirred my heart, that I am encouraging everyone to read it. It’s one of those books. I’ve got a stack of copies with me for my next journey to share with folks. I think it will disturb you too, in the best way possible. Order When Helping Hurts online.

There are a few presbyteries in the PCA that are doing things with missions that I’ve become aware of. In particular, and I think I’ve writeen of this before, Missouri Presbytery has created their own website to promote missions among each others churches. I’ve also recently come across the North Texas Presbytery’s site, which is using the web to keep everyone updated about their own missionaries.

Presbyteries working together just makes sense. But it takes leadership to make it work, and that’s where MTW’s Church Resourcing folks can help. We are focused on equipping leaders to lead in missions locally. We can help you with strategy as well as ideas to challenge and motivate the missions leaders to collaborate within your presbytery. Everyone doesn’t have to do the same thing at the same time to work together. Here are some ideas of what may work in your presbytery:

1. If you don’t have a missions or MTW committee at the presbytery level, get one established.
2. Establish a common priority (e.g. church planting, missionary care, helping our home-grown folks raise support faster to get to the field faster, etc…) or two. Get buy-in as you decide and then afterward get commitment.
3. Work toward that priority(s) through specific opportunities. For example, if your priority is to mobilize as many people to short term missions (knowing that it changes lives and builds passion in the hearts of participants), begin collaborating on trips, extending an open invitation for any participant within the presbytery to join your team. Recruit from new church plants and other churches that do not have an established missions ministry. It’ll probably be the ones that go on the short term trip who are the future missions leaders in those churches (or even future missionaries).
4. Use media and technology to extend and collaborate. If you produce a video, share it with other churches in the presbytery. Churches that support the same missionaries, or even a missionary who is on the same team as one they support, can gain great value from the media that you’ll use just a few times. If you have a report/presentation from the field that you can share electronically, doing so will extend your ministry and the field’s.
5. Create and foster creativity. There are gifts within your church which people have that you may not have thought of being tied to missions. Look for ways to make that connection. And then share that idea with other churches in the presbytery. Even better, share your person with their gift. You’ll foster a sense of creativity, helping others to discover creative ways they can assist and support the global church. Focus especially on gifts that demonstrate redemption. An individual act that demonstrates redemption is powerful…a collaborative act is astounding.

There are many more ideas that I could write or even that you could share (feel free to in the comments section below). But here is the key. You have to share and be open to others sharing with your church. This involves risk, and we in the PCA like to calculate quite carefully to avoid any and every risk. That’s not a bad thing. But be willing to trust and demonstrate some faith in our sovereign God, who is doing some pretty incredible things in our churches and around the world, but also in our presbyteries!