Missions on Point

The Charter might be a stand-alone document that frames the most key principles for why, how, and what your church Missions Team does. It is a core piece of orientation for any church member, but especially for new Missions Team members. This episode uses a great model Missions Team Charter to walk through its elements and the significance of each part of it.

Few churches really think, pray, and lead their church in adopting a world missions focus and strategy. Those that do so, excel in missions ministry and launch their congregation to a higher level of understanding and involvement in missions. It takes work and time to pray through to the right focus for your church. But, it is worth it!

Building Your Church Missions Handbook will require you to think about key definitions which will guide your church for years to come. A side benefit is that good definitions, accepted by all in leadership, prevent a lot of misunderstandings and future wrangling over the same issues. Think well about these key definitions. Then, communicate them well to all concerned.

The first two keys for defining the Scope of Authority for Your Missions Handbook or Your Missions Team are: clarifying the differences between local outreach ministries and overseas, cross-cultural missions; and, getting your Elders or highest board of authority to conceptually mark the Guiding Principles or Guiding Values within which the Missions Team ministries will operate. This helps all concerned. Then move on to the standard questions of chain-of-command, scope of authority, reporting, and approval of key decisions. Let's write or review our Missions Handbook together!

As we begin building our Church Missions Handbook, the very first major element should be the biblical basis. We always start with the Scripture as our authority for life and ministry. Remember your audience: keep it simple and relatively short. It isn't a theological treatise or comprehensive. It is representative and builds a case for the priority of missions and the local church's role in missions. Blessings! Hey, if you want more resources, check out the Propempo Guidebook on Missions Policy.

Missions issues, problems, misunderstandings, and conflict can be avoided by developing a "handbook" or "manual" that establishes the pattern for missions in your church. Church leaders regularly encounter questions about tough situations or from people sincerely seeking support for their ministry or some ministry to which they are related. Every church is unique. But every church should have guidelines for the biblical basis for missions, philosophy and policies guiding missions in your church, and the basis "nuts and bolts" for how it operates. Taking time to think about it, having good reasons, and focusing on priorities pays off in satisfaction, higher level of ownership, and freedom. Saying "no" to many good things allows us to say "yes" to the best things. Check out the Propempo Guidebook on Missions Policy and the Church Missions Profile on SendForward.org

This is a rare personal view of Propempo new dynamic partnership with MissioServe - the Why, How, and When. As of Jan. 1, 2023, Propempo and MissioServe have merged and blended God-given strengths to better focus on a biblical, local-church-centered philosophy of missions. We're trusting God for great things. This vision includes having an impact on the entire evangelical church and missions complex of the West to step up to a stronger biblical view of the local church as the heart and harvest of our Great Commission ministries.

This episode reflects on the basis of the biblical concept of the centrality of the local church in missions and muses about the potential results if all stakeholders apply it together. It would be radical! It would also be a massive boost to missions effectiveness on all sides. It seems obvious, but why wouldn't we obey and apply this foundational principle?

Bible schools, seminaries, and missions specialty schools also need to be consistent in understanding and teaching the centrality of the local church in missions. Yes, even making practical the church's centrality for fulfilling God's purposes. If and when this happens, the schools and the missionaries they produce will be more effective, stay on the field longer, and bear more lasting spiritual fruit for their labor. We can do this together!

This is a sensitive topic. We hope to inform and guide your thinking towards being a more effective and satisfied donor to missions. We'll present six areas of thought and practical questions to help you be better biblically and strategically focused in your giving. May the Lord be pleased to use this for His glory.

This is a tough one! Missions agencies have developed a thick hide protecting their independence. It's hard to consider changing their mindset to allow the rightful biblical place of the local sending church in their enterprise. If done well, it promises incredible benefits to their administration, their missionaries, and the fruit of their ministries on the field. May God give overwhelming grace for missions agencies to understand, embrace, and change to become fully "Propempo certified."

Wow, I wish I had heard this episode before I went to the mission field decades ago! I wish that every missionary candidate could have heard this when they first started preparing for the field. This concept put into practice by missionaries and sending churches could lift the joy and effectiveness of missionary work worldwide! Having a biblical "propempo perspective" will encourage and sustain solid missions work as much as anything other factors. Prayerfully affirm and implement it for God's glory.

Propempo Certification for the local church missions Leader means understanding, accepting, and practically implementing the primary biblical and church principles of local-church-centered missiology. There are crucial, paradigm-shifting insights that will make your church and your leadership more effective in your role. This episode crystallized key concepts and foci to enable you to become that "Propempo Certified" kind of local church missions leader.

"Propempo Certification"? What is Propempo? What is certification? This series is a concept series on what it takes to be biblically local-church-centered in understanding the role of the local church in missions. It will rock your world! Understanding the biblical basis and the practical application could, Lord willing, revolutionize your church, your participation in missions, and your understanding of how to get the Great Commission done!

This is one of the most difficult issues to deal with emotionally for the church. The tangled web of relationships and motivations is hard to untangle. The intentionality of circumstances and diligence press us to do a good job of evaluation, prayer, and communication to get through to the best answer on the other side of the tough decisions. There are lots of legitimate reasons to reevaluate the level of support given to a particular missionary. Let's be realistic, gracious, and generous of spirit in the process while honoring the missionary, as well.

Oft-neglected, the issue of how best to communicate missions in the church is a key to mobilizing your whole congregation in missions. This doesn't mean that the goal is for everyone to become a missionary! It does mean that every church member should know and live out their personal role in the Great Commission. However, this doesn't happen without good, consistent, solid communication from and through the church. Missions communication should be fresh, memorable, and well-connected to your church's vision and connections for missions. These best practices can be used in many contexts, including your small groups, your homeschool, your prayer or Bible study group.

The term "missions junkies" refers to people who are hooked on missions - sometimes for the good, sometimes for the not-so-good. This episode helps you identify a missions junkie in your church or among your friends. Ultimately, the key to helping a missions junkie is to encourage them to focus on their local church and the biblical goal of the Great Commission. This might force them to focus on others more than accumulating a record of their own personal feel-good missions experiences. Missions junkies CAN be guided in positive ways in your church.

The critical junction of a long-term missionary coming back off the field "permanently" to retirement years is too often neglected as a special opportunity to help and shepherd them well. The past generation of missionaries retiring over the last 20 years or so were sadly ill-prepared to face the cultural whiplash and financial burdens of living back "home." We need to ask probing questions and stand ready to minister to them with honor and respect. We should include the missionary's extended family in the conversation. The retiring missionary can be a great asset to the ministry of the church.

It's a privilege and joy to visit a missionary on the field. It's also a solemn responsibility, especially when done on behalf of the sending church. That visit is a crucial interface between the sent missionary (family) and the sending church. So many things can only be learned with a healthy personal visit. Learn how to do it, what to do when you get there, and how to best advance the cause of Christ through your visit to the field.

One of the realities of contemporary missions is that many of our missionaries, particularly in unreached areas of the world, are at greater risk to their personal safety. Hostile governments, religions, and factions can cause a missionary harm or get them kicked out of the country. The wise missionary and sending constituencies take care to live with an alert and security mindset. We all have to adjust in order to have a lasting and effective Gospel presence.

It's surprising to many that the average termination of service of a missionary on the field may be less than five years. This is especially true for missionaries in fields of higher stress, greater antagonism toward Christianity, or more challenging living conditions. We can help! Awareness and prevention of preventable attrition can go a long way toward keeping our valuable missionary personnel on the field for long-term faithfulness.

A key to avoiding preventable attrition on the field is having a strong sending-church-to-mission-agency partnership agreement. The local sending church must not abrogate its continuing responsibility to shepherd and guide their missionary on the field. The mission agency must not divest the sending church of the responsibility to shepherd and "own" their missionary's ministry on the field.

Too often mission leaders and supporters take for granted the need for language proficiency in missions. Many of us come from a mostly monolingual society. We short-circuit language learning or press for minimal time and effort so that, in our view, the missionary can get on with the program. Little do we realize the significance of a higher level of language proficiency in order to teach and explain and proclaim the glorious intangible truths of biblical truths, theology, and the Gospel. We must change our attitudes and minds in order to encourage and insist that the missionary learn the language or languages! really well.

International commerce and opportunities abound. Christians are sometimes persuaded that going for overseas employment can be an effective means of witness for Christ and the Gospel. Maybe so; maybe not. Digging into the details will help temper expectations toward realism. It's possible that the job proposed doesn't allow for much, if any, evangelistic or ministry opportunities. Count the cost. Qualifications and job performance are also of high importance. This is not a vacation! Not a lark! Your presence and performance need to leave a lasting testimony that makes your message believable.

So many institutions are established by mission agencies with well-meaning intentions. The natural compassion of Western affluence sometimes provides an outlet for humanitarian concerns and goals. However, institutions too often become an end unto themselves over time. They lose sight of the original goal - that is, to establish a platform for Gospel ministry toward indigenous church planting. Institutional workers feel burned out and disconnected from any spiritual purposes besides fellowship within their own staff team. How can we help? Challenge, question, and redefine the time, structure, and purposes of the institution. Connect with the local church/es. Disciple and train for indigeneity to replace the Western workers and Western control.

It's no surprise that there is opposition to the Gospel and Gospel messengers. Jesus said it would be so. Paul said it would be so. History teaches us that it is so. How then do we prepare ourselves for the challenges of resistant culture in our world? Ignore?, Deflect?, Neglect?, Disobey?, Hit and run? None of these weak, selfish, sinful responses will do! Listen to this episode. Pray. Ask what God would have you do to be involved in going or sending to the last bastions of resistance to our Almighty King Jesus.

It seems simple. Yet, the simple process of planting a church can be distorted or muddied by modern pragmatism and the pressures of fadish methodologies. The end goal is a biblical, healthy, indigenous local church. It takes time, prayer, sweat-equity, relational skills, and no small amount of administrative and logistical attention. We start with biblical models and build goals and priorities which reflect the right ends.

Wildly diverse and unbiblical definitions of "local church" continue to infiltrate contemporary trends and field practices. We MUST start with and expect a solid, biblical definition of a local church in order to plant solid, healthy churches. The implications are HUGE. Wrong goals produce wrong results. Fuzzy targets yield a lot of misses. Inappropriate altruism only helps people feel good about something that is less than true and reproducible. We must ask these questions in order to actually fulfill the Great Commission. Nothing less, nothing else will suffice.

One of the most dramatic streams of trends in missions over the past decade and the present is the methodologies represented by DMM ("Disciple Making Movements"), CPM ("Church Planting Movements"), T4T ("Training for Teachers"), DBS ("Discovery Bible Studies"), and others. The statistics are mind-boggling! While we can learn some essential things about the power of God's word, presently plainly, simply, clearly, we also can see the seeds of a kind of legalism that breeds flawed concepts of salvation and the local church. Be careful! Ask questions. Stick close to a truly biblical understanding of conversion, Christian growth, and biblically qualified church leaders.

Literally billions of people around the world, especially in the remaining people groups unreached with the Gospel, are strictly oral learners or oral communicators. Though various kinds of media may be used, often technology limitations require that a person go and teach the Gospel to them orally. Recent emphasis on this means and refinements of methods have improved and helped to spread the Gospel through orality. Still, church planting and leader development is aided by literacy being an intentional follow-up to the harvest of orality ministry.

Contextualization is a key concept in the communication of the Gospel and its application in the field. It has been often exaggerated in application to the point of heresy. Understanding and communicating in an understandable way within a language and culture is essential. However, losing the moorings of key doctrinal anchors will result in a highjacked version of healthy contextualization. Don't let the modern trends of highjacked contextualization and the vaporous pragmatic results sway you from holding to more time-testing methods and long-lasting results based on biblical truths.

Churches and "investors" are getting inundated by proposals and requests from those wanting to start a business overseas under the banner of "Business As Missions." Just like any business proposal, the hearer needs discernment and should ask hard questions. Among those questions for missions must be questions from a Christian missions perspective: who? what? where? why? when? and how? are all legitimate. The missionary must be a missionary! But the missionary must also be a good business leader.

Business As Missions (BAM) is not only a large issue in missions today, it is an inescapable necessity. Many countries do not allow religious workers. So, Christians must have a legitimate business reason to obtain a long-term residence visa. Missionaries today must be prepared, in these contexts, to either take a job contract or create a business of their own. There are lots of sticky issues related to these opportunities, and the missionary and their supports need to be prepared to navigate those waters.

We highly recommend having a written partnership agreement with your missionary's missions sending agency. But it's more than just the paper. Making a good partnership work requires time, effort, relationship, and prayer. This episode explains some of the challenges and tips for making an effective partnership agreement that really works to the advantage of all involved and to the ministry on the field.

No one talks about this! We should talk about this. Your church, your people, the family members of your missionaries, and the missionaries themselves need to have right and realistic expectations about their accountability, focus, and communication while on the field. It should not be a surprise to anyone that the missionary has a lot of pressure and change to cope with on the field. They also have more expectations of them in accountability, focus, and communication than ever before in their life. We can help now by learning right things about these areas and by building a mindset and tools to help them.

Even before your missionary departs for the field, it's good for you and for them to have realistic expectations for a healthy, pastoral accountability field visit. This episode will help prepare for the wholistic scope of interests for the sending or supporting church field visit.

So, your missionary is fully prepared and qualified. Now what! Celebrate! Give God glory publicly! Invite friends and family and all those supporting your missionary. Send him/her/them well. Also, be aware that de-commissioning is no light matter. Learn how to navigate those reefs and help your missionary, if necessary, understand the gravity and significance of leaving the field. Help them re-acclimate and re-integrate to the home side.

Though it is a challenging topic, it must be discussed with your prospective missionary. It's a good thing for every Christian to think about! Missionaries, though they say they are willing to sacrifice and to suffer for Christ on the mission field, have a very hard time putting into practice the humility and servant spirit required to life in another culture. We all fight against giving up our personal autonomy and independence. Yet, we must do so, under the Lordship of Christ and the constraints of the host culture, for the sake of the Gospel.

It's not all classroom work! Missionary candidates need to embrace and be self-motivated to do some research on their target group before they leave for the field. They need to lay a foundation of practical understanding of the Bible, theology, culture, history, language, and more! You can facilitate and encourage them to dig deep. Lastly, the field or vision trip to the target area is a significant capstone of their studies.

Let's take the mystery out of a training sequence for your candidate. This episode gives an overview of a 40-week curriculum which includes most of the content and experiences you will want to build in to your own curriculum. You won't be able to do all of it in-house; plan on outsourcing or bringing experts in to fill out the course. The capstone is a field visit that exposes your candidate/s to real life on the field.

Starting the training and development process, we encourage assigning a mentor, or a series of mentors, to the missionary candidate. Begin with an inventory of personal spiritual disciples, discussing in-depth and candidly the major areas of life in which they may need attention, help, counsel, and qualification. The purpose is not to disqualify them. Rather, the intention is to identify areas and concerns in which the mentor and the church can come alongside them to help them qualify for missionary ministry. It will take time and some intense effort. Everyone will be pleased in the end with the results!

Every missionary candidate has a similar sequence of steps in preparation that must be taken to get from HERE, at home, to THERE, on their target field. Every church should know those steps and walk that pathway with them, guiding them along the way. This little book, available on Propempo.com and Amazon, is a great little primer of practical priorities, counsel, and resources to help all those involved.

Let's demystify the "missionary call." This thing involves both a subjective inner compulsion but also requires the external validation of the local church. How do you go about evaluating it? Take your time. Get to know your candidate well. Remove the most common and obvious barriers to missionary qualification. Walk with them through the preparation process. In the end, it should be apparent to the whole congregation that God has His hand in leading and equipping on them to to the work of missions.

The most important biblical qualification for a missionary is character. The scope of character includes integrity and reputation. Biblical qualifications for church leadership apply to missionaries, as well! It takes time and conscious effort to observe, mentor, examine and evaluate a missionary candidate's character. Don't take short-cuts! These qualifications are great goals for any mature Christian. We can all learn and grow in the process.

Very significant to your missionary training process will be defining some basic concepts which will serve you well. Not only does this work in developing new missionary candidates, but it frees your church leaders to be more discriminating, in a good way, and more focused in all the missions ministries your church supports. Learn how to distinguish priorities in relationship to the church, access to the Gospel, and priorities of ministry.

Discovering a new missionary candidate from your church should be as glorious as finding a new diamond. That diamond may still be "in the rough." But, it is the joy and privilege of the church to cut and polish that diamond specifically for cross-cultural service to the King of Kings. How do you inculcate a local church culture that produces awareness of missions and develops people willing to give their lives to this great Cause of Christ? Listen to this and the following episodes of this series to find out.

Church-based missionary training is both exciting and scary! Yet, it's nothing to be afraid of. If a church wants to send its own, it should be willing to invest in training them to be as fully prepared as it takes to give them every expectation of being long-term, effective missionaries on their appointed field. You can do this! Stick with us as we walk through Introduction: benefits, basic concepts, and the joy of church-based missionary training, as we begin this series.

OK. Our missionary is ready to be sent out to the field. We're done, right? NOOOO! This is where the true sending church steps up to ongoing responsibility and ownership of the missionary, their ministry, and the goals for which they were sent. It is still a team sport! There is plenty to do in full-orbed support, partnership in several levels, and a heightened sense of shepherding care for them "across the water." Listen and go for it.

Somehow churches freeze when a young person comes back from college or some spiritual experience and announces that they are going to be a missionary. Sometimes they are absolutely confident that they are going to do a particular ministry in a particular place with a particular goal. AND, they expect their church to foot the bill! Wait a minute! The missionary's direction and guidance are a function of the relationship and spiritual oversight of the sending church. Step up and learn how to do that in a way that is best for all concerned.

So many missionaries dash to the field without a loving check to assure they have the training and qualifications for effective long-term service. They come home dashed to pieces in avoidable attrition. We are passionate about training churches and their candidates to build the right mindset, skills, and expectations to survive and thrive in cross-cultural ministry. Get your church and mission leaders to grasp this essential commitment, for the good of the work and the glory of Christ.