discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University
discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University
discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University
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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 190<br />
190 Mobilizing the Local Church<br />
burnout in which high levels of stress cause deterioration in both ministry and<br />
personal spiritual life. Missionaries sometimes need help with housing during<br />
deputation travels or with finding a car to use on home assignment or in locating<br />
special supplies or equipment for their ministry. Individual believers can<br />
help with all kinds of logistics problems, such as collecting and getting materials<br />
to missionaries, driving a vehicle to a shipping point, or pulling together a<br />
meeting of potential supporters for a meal when a missionary is in town.<br />
A well-functioning local <strong>missions</strong> committee is a plus, but even when there<br />
is not one, individual believers can provide global mission flavoring for a congregation<br />
by what they do with music, in children’s ministry, with the youth<br />
program, or by material put up on bulletin boards. Individuals can pass on<br />
copies of missionary e-mail letters to Sunday School classes or Bible study<br />
groups, helping a missionary communicate with entire congregations. Members<br />
of churches where the rest of the congregation is not giving much to <strong>missions</strong><br />
can still get very involved in funding global outreach. To be sure, they must<br />
guard against feeling superspiritual when other believers do not share their passion<br />
or do the same things they are doing. World Christians must understand<br />
their need to be cheerfully giving in sacrificial ways regardless of what others do.<br />
People also can get very involved in praying for specific missionaries even if<br />
there is not a lot of prayer support for global mission in the rest of their church.<br />
Helping missionaries may mean supporting them as they go through reentry<br />
upon coming home. Missionaries often need someone to talk to, whether they<br />
are simply coming back in for a time of home assignment or are returning permanently<br />
from the field. Sometimes missionaries need someone they can open<br />
up to without fear that what is said will be repeated. Believers will do well to<br />
sense when something is amiss for a missionary and be willing to listen without<br />
telling the whole world things for which a missionary just needed a listening ear.<br />
As I traveled around and saw whole nations of people where there<br />
were only 50 or 100 believers in the whole country, what I saw was<br />
it’s either God’s will for it to be this way (and we know that’s not<br />
true) or it’s somebody else’s fault. 13<br />
Goals for Local Churches<br />
—Keith Green<br />
Some local churches set very audacious global mission goals for themselves.<br />
An example is the West Covina (California) Christian Church, whose<br />
leadership came up with the following goal statement: