This text is a part of the 7 Tips sequence.
Hold Missions Forefront
Each church needs to prioritize missions. Whether or not you reside in India or America, Russia or Venezuela, in case you are a Christian, you’re keen to your church to have interaction faithfully within the Nice Fee. Sadly, it’s simple to prioritize every thing however missions. We are able to put the numerical progress of our church above missions. We are able to put caring for the poor above missions. We are able to even put theological depth above missions. After all, this needn’t be the case! Devoted church buildings can concurrently care about progress, mercy ministry, and doctrinal constancy whereas nonetheless prioritizing missions. I urge you and your church to all the time preserve missions within the crosshairs of your ministry.
However how? Listed here are seven suggestions for serving to your church prioritize missions:
1. Have a biblical definition of missions.
Missions is church planting throughout important boundaries. On this sense, missions differs from evangelism and, in a technique, is tougher. It’s best to evangelize members of the family, which may be extraordinarily difficult. Nonetheless, generally, there aren’t any important boundaries to evangelizing an unbelieving partner, mother or father, or little one. You communicate the identical language, reside in the identical area (or not less than nation), and revel in a shared historical past.
In distinction, Paul and Barnabas made a harmful trek to Asia once they started their first missionary journey. Although they spoke the identical language, due to the prevalence of Greek, they confronted steep opposition (Acts 14:19–23). Later, Paul deliberate to go to Spain the place he would have needed to be taught a brand new dialect (Rom. 15:20, 28).
When you think about the New Testomony instructions and examples collectively, I agree with Jonathan Leeman, Brooks Buser, and Scott Logdson who argue that “missions includes church buildings sending certified employees throughout linguistic, geographic, or cultural boundaries to start out or strengthen church buildings, particularly in locations the place Christ has not been named.” Earlier than making it a precedence, your church must know what missions is.
On this transient, insightful information, pastors Aaron Menikoff from Atlanta, Georgia, and Harshit Singh from Lucknow, India, share their journeys main their church buildings to be extra missions-centered by taking the gospel throughout geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries.
2. See missions as strengthening church buildings.
It’s placing that Paul each began and strengthened church buildings throughout his missionary travels. That is vital. It means missionaries (and the church buildings that ship them) must commit to making sure the church buildings they begin are outfitted to face up to the take a look at of time. This may increasingly make missionary endeavors slower initially, however in the long term, wholesome church buildings will ship out extra and higher missionaries.
It’s instructive that the apostle selected to revisit the church buildings he and Barnabas began (Acts 14:21–23). Paul knew these younger congregations wanted encouragement and strengthening within the religion. Missions just isn’t solely about beginning church buildings but in addition about supporting established congregations in strategic components of the world that want help.
3. Be a trustworthy church.
Everyone knows the apple doesn’t fall removed from the tree. Fathers who play cricket elevate sons who play cricket. Moms who sew elevate daughters who sew. The exceptions solely show the rule—our kids are loads like us!
So it’s with missions. Church buildings ship out pastors and missionaries dedicated to “doing” the ministry they’ve witnessed. Due to this fact, the church buildings that prioritize missions most successfully are these with a ministry worthy of copy. In different phrases, the DNA of the church should be robust and trustworthy.
At minimal, a church able to ship missionaries shall be ruled by Scripture, have a heartbeat for God’s glory, be led by clever and cautious elders, prize non secular progress as a lot as numerical progress, and be filled with members who’re keen to hold their cross and comply with Christ.
The Crossway International Ministry Fund helps e-book and Bible distributions to help pastors and believers in want of theological sources. Would you be part of us in equipping fellow Christians all over the world? Learn More.
4. Preach, pray, and sing the Bible.
It’s one factor to prioritize missions for one week a yr, however it’s one other factor altogether for missions to be woven into the material of your congregation. A give attention to missions shouldn’t be a fad. It must be a part of the very essence of the congregation.
Church buildings that prioritize missions constantly preserve the Bible’s storyline entrance and middle. From youngsters’s and grownup training to the weekly sermon, from company prayer to the songs sung, church buildings should emphasize God’s grand plan to make a reputation for himself amongst all nations. This calls for a correct understanding—from the pastor to the nursery employee—of the Bible’s overarching narrative.
As a result of missions is a central theme of the Bible—from the decision of Abram in Genesis to folks from each tribe, language, folks, and nation gathered across the Lamb in Revelation—missions shall be prioritized because the Bible is proclaimed.
5. Be considerate within the little issues.
Your church, large or small, has many alternatives to beat the drumbeat of the Nice Fee. Small selections add as much as a church that wholeheartedly prioritizes missions.
For instance, when missionaries go to, take wonderful care of them—do every thing you’ll be able to to, spiritually talking, put wind of their sails. Achieve a popularity for loving missionaries properly. Work to allocate an rising share of your finances to Nice Fee ministry, since “the place your treasure is, there your coronary heart shall be” (Matt. 6:21). Lastly, arrange significant short-term journeys. Not all short-term mission journeys serve the identical objective, however the overarching objective must be to help the long-term missionaries within the discipline.
Church buildings that prioritize missions constantly preserve the Bible’s storyline entrance and middle.
6. Ship strange Christians to the mission discipline.
In a single sense, missionaries actually do must be extraordinary. For this reason I so recognize Elliot Clark’s e-book, Missionary Affirmed, which raises the bar of excellence.
By “strange” I merely imply that these you ship ought to exemplify the fundamentals of the Christian life—fundamentals that, sadly, are sometimes ignored. Discover members who mannequin a love for God, his phrase, folks, hospitality, holiness, and the church. So simple as this sounds, these are the women and men who can persevere for many years on the mission discipline.
7. Be affected person.
Pricey reader, that is essential. We reside in an impatient age. We wish to microwave our meals, learn our information in bullet factors, and use AI to jot down our emails. On the subject of missions, high quality can’t be fast-tracked. William Carey’s church informed him to pause earlier than they have been keen to ship him out as a pastor. He wanted time to develop and mature.
To make sure, everyone seems to be completely different. However church buildings that prioritize missions care extra about sending the suitable missionary than sending many missionaries. We consider the parable of the mustard seed applies to mobilizing Christians for Nice Fee work: “Although it’s the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows, it’s the largest of backyard vegetation and turns into a tree, in order that the birds come and perch in its branches” (Matt. 13:32). Ship mustard seeds abroad and belief the Lord to develop timber!
We pray that church buildings worldwide, from all trustworthy denominations, would prioritize missions, and that by means of their faithfulness, the twenty-first century would expertise an excellent, God-given revival.
Aaron Menikoff is the coauthor with Harshit Singh of Prioritizing Missions in the Church.
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