PERSONAL INVOLEMENT
Learn
How can I get more involved in Missions personally?
Congratulations on your desire to get more involved in missions. Everyone's interests and schedules vary. If you started at the beginning of this path, you might have already viewed the video of the "Learn" section. Most of the "Personal Involement" sections began with a helpful video. You can take a short cut to those videos here:
Ask God exactly what your wisest paths for involvement might be. Consider beginning with simple options such as:
-
Learn more about God's world, and the church's role in God's mission. Some great places to start include:
• The Missions Catalyst weekly email delivers news about missions around the world. Read and subscribe at
http://missionscatalyst.net/.
• Mission Frontiers is a monthly magazine from the US Center For World Mission. It discusses topics related to reaching unreached people groups. Read it online at http://www.missionfrontiers.org.
• If you know any mission agencies that work in places that interest you, subscribe to their newsletters or read their websites for news.
• The Perspectives course, while a significant commitment of time (15 weeks and substantial reading), is one of the best overview classes about the Biblical basis, history, issues and strategies of missions. The presenters come from a variety of backgrounds; so you’ll want to be discerning about what you hear. Like all watermelon lover’s know: “Eat the fruit and spit out the seeds.” Visit
www.perspectives.org to find a class near you.
-
Pray for the world. Many great resources are available, including:
• Operation World will help you pray for every nation in the world. Visit
http://www.operationworld.org and sign up to receive a daily email.
• The Global Prayer Digest helps you pray daily for an unreached people group. Visit
http://www.globalprayerdigest.org.
-
Learn about your city’s cross-cultural community, and get involved in local cross-cultural outreach.
• Begin hanging out at ethnic markets, restaurants and coffee shops in different ethnic neighborhoods of your city.
• Volunteer at a local church or with a local ministry that ministers cross-culturally. Ideal ministries might include tutoring English to refugees, driving refugees to appointments, and helping in hospitality events for international students.
-
Go on a short-term cross-cultural trip. Go through your church or with an agency that you trust. Select a trip that:
• If possible, has a connection with a field missionary or mission work with which your church already has a relationship.
• Has a plan for preparing you before going, and debriefing you afterward.
• Is accomplishing a ministry requested by the field, and ultimately is directly connected to a longer-term church planting effort.
-
David Platt’s groundbreaking book Radical (available through Amazon.com) supplies a great year-long, five-step challenge for individuals or groups, including:
•Pray for the entire world
• Read through the entire Bible
• Sacrifice money for a specific purpose
• Spend time in another context
• Commit your life to a multiplying community
How can I get my family more involved in missions?
Families on mission together help children grow as world Christians, and can access a wider range of opportunities than men or women alone can. Before getting involved in missions as a family, gauge your whole family's interest and availability. Start at a level reasonable for everyone. Here are some first steps.
-
Begin praying as a family for nations and people groups. If your children are younger, use kid-friendly resources such as a large world map or globe, and pictures of the places for which you're praying (such as
Children Just Like Me, available at amazon.com). Prayer topics written in an understandable way for children are at websites such as Stand for Kid's website. Many fascinating books about the lives in children from other countries and cultures are available through homeschool resources.
-
Include the world in your kid's education plans. For example, If you homeschool, take your kids to a local college campus to meet with an international student who can teach your kids about the history and culture of their nation. (They gain English practice!)
-
Host missionaries for family meals regularly to learn about their location and ministry.
-
Go out to eat at the same ethnic restaurant regularly, and get to know the staff.
-
Get involved in local cross-cultural ministry opportunities such as attending cross-cultural festivals or helping refugees move in to their new homes.
-
"Adopt" a local international student and include him or her in your normal family activities. Most universities offer programs to help this happen, as international students are eager to experience American family life. Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are wonderful opportunities to invite international families over and explain the biblical meaning behind the holiday.
A great resource for more ideas is Building Missional Family, available at
http://www.vergenetwork.org/building-a-missional-family/
=====
-
Pray for missionaries and people groups and countries; with the family worship and devotional sessions.
-
Use prayer cards and letters of current missionaries and the book, Operation World.
-
Look into going on a vision mission or short-term missions trip together.
-
Do a Bible Study on God's glory amoung all nations with your children.
-
Have your children pick an unreached people group or restricted access country and do research on that people group or country.
-
Pick a missions biography for your children to read for summer reading and have discussions over the content.
-
Watch a missions film together, such as (google the names and titles)
A Cry from Iran - Haik Hovsenpian Mehr and Mehdi Dibaj
The End of a Spear
Beyond the Gates of Splendor - Jim and Elizabeth Elliot
Peace Child - Don Richardson
More Than Dreams - 5 stories of 5 different Muslims who had dreams of Jesus and then they were directed to the Bible or a person who shared the gospel with them.
Films about:
David Livingstone
Gladys Alyward
William Carey – Candle in the Dark
First Fruits
Beyond the Next Mountain
Amy Carmichael
How does my involvement in missions relate to my church?
Hopefully your church loves missions, and has helped catalyze your missions interest. Ideally, your church provides opportunities for missions involvement, and your personal missions activity can occur through your church. As a result, your church knows about your missions interest, and is helping to disciple you and your family as world Christians.
If this is not your experience, perhaps God has placed you in your current church to catalyze its interest and involvement in missions. Consider beginning the process in these ways:
-
Meet with church leaders to ask questions and learn about the church’s current participation in missions. Ask if any strategies or policies are in place for missions, and how missions is defined and funded.
-
Influence others informally by bringing them along in your missions participation.
-
Start a group to learn about and pray for missions. Initially run the group for about six weeks, with the option to continue afterwards if attenders so desire. Use a brief study guide such as God’s Heart for the World by Jeff Lewis (available at amazon.com).
-
Offer to start a team of folks that will strategize for providing missions opportunities for people in your church.
If you are considering serving as a short-term or long-term missionary, tell your church early of your interest. Your church may have a plan, or requirements, for preparing, sending and supporting you. Your church also may know of mission agencies that fit as good partners for its theological and strategic priorities.
You may find that your church seems unwilling or resistant to move forward in missions involvement. It may not be willing to give missions its Biblical priority. Or it may be unwilling to assume a scripturally informed role of being your sending church. Pray. Be patient. Try to communicate your concerns with church leaders. It may be that the Lord would use you to help your church grow in this area. If opposition persists, some people leave their church for reasons such as these. If you find it necessary to do this, leave in as positive and affirming way as possible.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What are paths to deeper involvement?
Assuming that you’ve built a solid base of knowledge and personal involvement, you’ve likely answered the question about your God-designed role in missions, whether as one who goes, sends others, welcomes the nations locally, or mobilizes others. Now it’s time to live out that role. Here are some possibilities.
1.
Begin your path to long-term service, ideally under your church’s guidance.
2.
Develop and work a whole-life plan for maximal involvement in missions. This may well involve serious changes such as moving to a different part of your city (to reach a people group or live more simply), freeing up your ability to give generously, or assuming missions leadership and discipleship roles.
3.
Lead well-designed short-term missions trips that will help others begin their journey of missions involvement.
4.
Mentor others considering their next personal moves in missions involvement.
5.
Become involved in a regional or national network committed to helping start church planting movements in a place or among a people group of great interest to you.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml
to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I find missions involvement that interests me?
The starting point for missions involvement is discovering your optimal role in missions. The Perspectives course has identified at least four possible roles in missions:
1.
Goers go to the field, particularly long-term.
2.
Senders work behind the scenes to provide resources of prayer, finances and care that help goers remain healthy and stay on the field.
3.
Welcomers understand the strategic nature of extending hospitality and a Christian witness to international students, refugees and immigrants whom God has brought to our country.
4.
Mobilizers want to multiply themselves by helping others find and carry out their global missions roles. They serve as leaders who mentor and train others, and connect them to appropriate avenues for service.
Once you’ve determined the role toward which you’re bent, other questions are worth considering.
• Are you more task or people oriented? For example, do you prefer to repair a refugee’s car, or help him run errands?
• Is there a particular nation, city, people group or religious block that most interests you?
• What skills and gifts do you most enjoy using: teaching, helps, evangelism, hospitality, etc.?
Prayerfully ask God to open doors and give you connections to the exactly right opportunities for missions involvement. Continue reading more in the “Personal Involvement” path on this website. Look for some of the helpful resources at the end of sections/articles.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Are there biblical examples for personal involvement?
The Bible is full of examples for personal involvement in missions.
•
Jesus was the ultimate cross-cultural missionary. He lived his life with a clear mission of seeking to save and save the lost (Luke 19.10). He reached out to cross-cultural people whom his culture deemed detestable and unreachable (cf. the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4)
•
Paul is a premier example of a goer. With a clear strategy of going to unreached Gentile urban centers, he planted church after church that in turn planted many churches. Western Christians trace our lineage back to Paul’s efforts.
• The church at Philippi serves as a model of sending missionaries. Paul refers to its people as “partners in the Gospel” (1.5). Their support has included prayer (1.19), personal concern for him and his team (2.19-30; 4.10, 14), work alongside Paul (4.2), and financial and material support (4.14-18).
•
The church at Antioch is a model of a sending church. It spent years preparing its best leaders for substantial missionary service, and sent them off as God directed its leaders through prayer and fasting (13.1-3).
•
Epaphras served as encourager to Paul by coming from Colossae to Rome to visit him in prison.
• The church leader John is commended for the church’s hospitality, care, and financial support for missionaries as written in 3 John.
• The church in Rome was challenged by Paul to participate in his pioneer ministry to Spain (see Romans 15).
• Aquila and Priscilla were commended for coming alongside Paul and others in helpful assistance and discipleship of missionaries.
• Paul named many people who provided special assistance in hospitality, encouragement, provision, and prayer for his missions efforts. Check out the usual greetings and lists of people at the close of Paul’s epistles.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Pray
How is prayer related to missions?
Prayer is intricately related to missions. The advancement of God's Kingdom into dark places where Satan reigns is a war that Satan will not give up easily. The mission field is one of the primary battlefronts of spiritual warfare. In many places in the Bible missionaries ask for prayer, including Rom. 15.30, Eph. 6.19-20, Phil. 1.19, and Col. 4.3.
Among the few things that Jesus mentions specifically for prayer is the command to pray for missionary workers in Matt. 9:37-38.
Prayer is unique among missionary endeavors because it is not limited in geography, language, culture, or specialized training. Any believer can pray. Pray is one of the key weapons of spiritual warfare. It is a call to heaven-sent, “laser-guided” support, assistance, protection, etc. for people and ministry taking place thousands of miles away.
God promises to hear and answer sincere and faithful prayers according to His will. And, we know that it is His will to glorify Jesus among all nations and through our instrumentality to bring some from every tongue, tribe, and nation to worship Him before the Throne of God in heaven. (see Revelation 5:9; 7:9) So, we have assurance that our prayers so directed will be effective.
Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Why should I get involved through prayer?
Involvement in prayer benefits both those who pray, and those who are prayed for.
Personally, prayer increases intimacy with God, helps develop a healthy dependence on God, and changes primarily our hearts, rather than God. Additionally, when we pray consistently for change that honors God, seeing God affirmatively answer our prayers encourages our faith.
We bless missionaries when we pray because we are actually co-laboring to break up hard spiritual ground. Missionaries have told many stories of specific times when it was clear to them that people had prayed at a specific time, or stopped praying. A particular spiritual breakthrough occurs, or borders are crossed with possessions that normally would be caught and removed in customs lines. Money and supplies last longer than they should have.
On the other hand one missionary couple in Italy went through a particularly tough term and could sense that their home church had stopped praying consistently for them. They later found out that during that specific 18-month period, the church became consumed in fighting about a doctrinal issue and ceased praying as fervently.
It’s our great privilege to pray fervently for missions!
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What difference does prayer make for missions?
The issue of prayer is not God needing His people to plead with him enough to convince him to act. Rather, the issue is dependence. The quality of our prayer lives is directly proportional to how utterly unable we (and those engaged in missions) are bring about substantial advance for God's Kingdom. The more we depend on our skills and gifts, the less we depend on God. As Ray Ortlund has said, "Doing what we can on our own with our own brilliance and savvy is the exact opposite of what God can do."
Missions is arguably the ultimate battle against powers and principalities rather than flesh and blood (Eph. 6.12). Prayer is the most critical weapon we bring to this battle.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at
https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What does it mean to be on a missionary's prayer team?
To serve on a missionary’s prayer team means committing to pray regularly (whether individually or with a group) for many aspects of the missionary’s life and ministry.
Critical elements for which to pray for a missionary include :
-
A healthy and growing love for God
-
A great dependence on the power of the Gospel and Scripture to change lives; a decreasing trust in one’s gifts and strengths for ministry
-
A healthy marriage, if married
-
Godly parenting of children (if applicable)
-
A ministry team that keeps short accounts of interpersonal problems by managing conflict through Matthew 18 guidelines
-
An ability to recognize and engage in spiritual warfare
-
Increasing ability in the local language and culture, resulting in presenting the Gospel in as indigenously effective a way as possible
-
The boldness to sow the Gospel widely and frequently, among as much good soil (receptive hearers) as possible, resulting in God’s salvation of many
-
A guard against discouragement and depression
-
Connection to a person of peace who will provide gateways of opportunity and relationship for the team
-
For the city/people group among whom the ministry is happening; for its receptivity and for a church planting movement to emerge
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at
https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What information can I use to help me pray?
Many fine resources are available to help you pray intelligently and effectively. Just a few include :
Operation World will help you pray for every nation in the world. Visit and sign up to receive a daily email.
The
Global Prayer Digest helps you pray daily for an unreached people group.
Compass Direct provides current news items for prayer.
Most mission agencies that work in places or among peoples that interest you provide information for prayer by web, email or mail.
Many books, websites and email services provide updated prayer information for prayer for specific countries or regions. Examples include :
Africa (
http://prayafrica.org/)
Arabian Peninsula (
http://www.pray-ap.info/?)
China (Operation China, available at amazon.com)
Europe (http://prayeurope.com/)
France (
http://www.prayforfrance.org/)
Indonesia (
http://www.prayingforindonesia.com/)
Kurds (
http://thekurds.net/)
Muslims during the month of Ramadan (
http://www.30-days.net/)
The 10/40 Window (
http://www.win1040.com/)
The persecuted (
http://www.opendoorsusa.org/pray/)
Somalia (
http://www.prayforsomalia.org/)
Tunisia (
http://www.pray4tunisia.com/en.html)
Yemen (
http://www.pray4yemen.com/)
Google “Pray for (name of country)” and you will often find many prayer resources.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml
to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation
Is there a systematic way to pray for missionaries?
Many methods have been developed for systematically praying for missionaries. Most methods focus on prayer about seven key topics:
1.
The missionary’s intimacy with God. As one pastor once said, “you can only give others what’s in the refrigerator.” If a missionary neglects intimacy with God at the expense of busy-ness in ministry, soon the missionary will have nothing of substance to give those he works among. Knowing God well is the starting point for any fruitful ministry.
2.
The missionary’s character. Pray for a Christlikeness that proceeds not from human effort, but from a lifestyle of humility and repentance. Pray for his insight into his sin and an unwillingness to feed it and give it life. Pray that those around him will see Jesus.
3.
The missionary’s family. The family unit is a prime object of attack by Satan. Effective missionaries have to return home often due to family members’ inability to adjust to the field, or illness that develops. Pray not only for missionaries’ families on the field, but also for their families back home who are sacrificing
4.
The missionary’s team relationships. Studies show that most missionaries return home from the field due to conflict with other missionaries. Pray for missionaries to keep short accounts of anger, misunderstanding and frustration with fellow missionaries. Pray against Satan’s ability to work in such vulnerable circumstances.
5.
The missionary’s spiritual warfare. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6.12, ESV) Missionaries are subject to personal spiritual attack, as are the many people around them who don’t know Christ. Pray against attacks by the enemy.
6.
The missionary’s ministry. Pray for the missionary’s fluency in foreign language and culture; for wisdom in developing strategy and spending time with the optimal people on the field; for boldness in sharing the Gospel; and for careful and wise use of time.
7.
Pray for the nation and people group the missionary serves. We often focus on praying for the missionary that we forget the lost people whom he serves. Pray passionately for the lost: their freedom from oppression and spiritual blindness, their understanding of the Gospel, and their willingness to forsake all to follow Christ. Pray not only for individuals’ salvation, but also for whole families and communities to come to Christ, and for church planting movements.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I get others interested in prayer for missions?
A key to motivating people to pray for missions is meeting them at their level of interest and availability. Most people need to work up to a weekly hour-long prayer meeting or monthly three-house Concert of Prayer.
Doug Christgau is a missions pastor who has successfully helped hundreds of people in his churches become a consistent prayer partners with missionaries. He starts by allowing people to define "consistent": daily, weekly or monthly. He provides prayer information based on the person's interest. Some are interested in a particular interests. For example a high school teacher finds it easy to pray for someone teaching missionary kids in Europe or Africa. Provide consistent, up-to-date information that doesn't require immense reading and is easily accessible (via email or secure website).
When a core group of people is prepared to pray together consistently, define the prayer purpose of the group and determine a regular time to meet. Pray not only for missionaries, but also the unreached people among whom they work. Integrate worship, visual aids (such as maps) and video clips that will foster engaged prayer.
Tools
Together in Prayer (Andrew Wheeler, IVP; available on amazon.com) is a book that helps prayer groups avoid common mistakes that praying groups can make.
Operation World will help you pray for every nation in the world. Visit and sign up to receive a daily email.
The
Global Prayer Digest helps you pray daily for an unreached people group. Visit .
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I influence my church to pray for missions?
Our culture, including our churches, is reticent to add more meetings and events to our schedules. One of the best ways to help a church begin praying for missions is by integrating it into situations where people are already praying. For example:
Children's Sunday School classes are a great place to integrate prayer for missions. Provide teachers with a short, simple prayer point, written in kid-friendly ways, such as the
THUMB prayer cards.
Ask what
adult small groups or Sunday School classes might be willing to pray for a nation or a missionary once a month of quarter to start.
Ask your pastor if he might be willing to
integrate missions into his pastoral prayer with some frequency.
Propempo has promoted the idea of
"Missions Advocates" for adult Sunday School classes, Bible study groups, each small group of a small group ministry, etc. A search for "missions advocates" on Propempo's site will yield several articles and resources. One of the key responsibilities of a Missions Advocate is to keep informed and remind people in their particular context to pray for the missionary or ministry for whom they are advocating.
Pastors, teachers and small group leaders are busy people who are challeneged to prepare for their groups. You will need to regularly provide leaders with relevant and timely missions prayer requests.
Hopefully consistent prayer opportunities will help a group emerge that wants specifically to pray for missions. When a core group of people is prepared to pray together consistenetly, define the prayer purpose of the group and determine a regular time to meet. Pray not only for missionaries, but also the unreached people among whom they work. Integrate workship, visual aids (such as maps) and video clips that will foster engaged prayer.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at
https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What biblical examples do we have for prayer for missions?
Here are but a few examples.
In the
Old Testament, we read prayers by the authors that God's name would be exalted among the nations, or declare that God will accomplish this as He has said.
• At the dedication of the temple in I Kings 8, Solomon prays that if foreigners pray at the temple, God would hear their prayers, "in order that all the peoples of the earch may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name." (8.43)
• "All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name." (ps.86.9, ESV)
• "Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise in the coastlands. (Is. 42.10-12, ESV)
In the
New Testament, we began to read missionaries, particularly Paul, asking for churches’ prayer for the advance of the Gospel among the nations:Eph. 6.19: Paul asks for prayer for the ability to proclaim the Gospel boldly.Phil. 1.19: Paul says that he knows that the Philippian church is praying for him.Col. 4.3: Paul asks for prayer for open doors to proclaim the Gospel.Jn. 17.20-23: Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples across the span of history, “so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Share Your Faith
What is my biblical responsibility to share my faith?
Your biblical responsibility to share your faith includes:
• Loving unbelievers to the extent of a reputation of being with sinners (Luke 7.34)
• Maintaining a sufficient presence among unbelievers so that you can sow the Gospel liberally by asking penetrating questions and sharing the hope in you (Luke 2.46)
• Being apologetically and spiritually prepared for questions and conversation about the Gospel (I Pet. 3.15)
• Being willing to play your role in the evangelism process (I Cor. 3.6-8)
• Asking God for open doors (Col. 4.3)
• Acts 1:8 is often used as a missions text. But it is really a “witnessing” text. It states that we, as believers, ARE witnesses. It’s up to us, by God’s grace and enabling, to be faithful or not to our identity as followers of Christ and witnesses for Him.
It is neither your ability nor your responsibility to convert people to faith in Christ. This is a sovereign work of God in a person’s life.
==============================
It should be obvious to any Christian who has read the New Testament, that all believers are responsible to witness to others about Jesus Christ and His gospel. When Jesus gave the great commission in Matthew 28:19, the command was to the whole group of disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations. “Go and make disciples”. Those eleven disciples made up what would become the church, so the command is to the whole church. Some will be goers to another country or culture, and others will be senders, but all are to share their faith, as God gives opportunity, in our own culture or in another culture. When Jesus said, “make disciples of all nations” and then “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you”, that includes the last command to make disciples. That is, after a person becomes a disciple, then they are also to obey Matthew 28:19 and seek to make disciples, which starts with evangelism and witnessing.
These verses speak of personal responsibility to witness and share our faith:
In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be My witnesses . . . “
I Peter 3:15 is a command to individual believers to always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within you.
Colossians 4:5-6 says that we are to conduct ourselves with wisdom with outsiders, unbelievers, and have our speech seasoned with salt – speak in a tasteful and kind way so as to make people thirsty for more!
Jude 20-23 are commands for all believers, “keep yourselves in the love of God” and “save some, snatching them out of the fires (of hell), hating the sin (but loving the sinner). That is an intense description of evangelism!
Romans 1:1-7 – Paul says he was called to be an apostle, and that the church at Rome is also called, which includes a call to salvation, to sanctification, and to serve in evangelism.
In John 9, the man that was born blind is a good model of giving our testimony when we don’t know the answer to some questions. “all I know is that I was once blind, but now I see”.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21 is also about how the fear of the Lord gripped the apostle the Paul to seek to persuade people about Christ and how the love of Christ controlled him to live for the Lord. We should also.
How does my sharing Christ help the cause of missions?
One cannot speak of missions “over there” without living it out by being willing to share their faith in their own culture first. When Jesus sent out His disciples in Matthew 10, it was a short-term training mission, as he said, “don’t go the way of the Gentiles, but only go to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6). One cannot suddenly become a disciple-maker and evangelist by going overseas if that person has not been doing it in their own culture and language first. Jesus said they would eventually go to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:17; 28:19), but they needed to start in their own language and culture first. By sharing your faith first in your culture, you show that all people need the gospel and all are sinners and you are not “being radical” just for the sake of being radical. One must be willing to be an unknown servant and not romanticize being a missionary. Being faithful in the little things builds credibility for the cause of missions as you grow and reach out and listen to your church leaders.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How do I develop skills at sharing the Gospel?
People’s giftedness in evangelism varies, but everyone can learn how to share the Gospel more effectively. Some possibilities for increasing your skill include :
Study the Bible and notice how key evangelists such as Jesus, Paul and Peter shared the Gospel. How did they present the Gospel? With what kind of people did they frequently interact? (tax collectors, Jews, Gentiles, prostitutes, etc.) What questions did they ask? What stories did they tell? What facts about the Gospel did they deem important?
Do you know someone who is gifted in evangelism? Ask them what they think is important about sharing the Gospel. Ask them if you might be present with them sometimes when they share the Gospel.
Read and study. Many materials are available for purchase on the web (cf. amazon.com), such as:
Out of the Salt Shaker (Becky Pippert)
The Master Plan of Evangelism (Robert Coleman)
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (J.I. Packer)
But most of all, engage in evangelism. Learn from your mistakes. Ask God to give you plenty of opportunities, and a gentle boldness.
========================================
The only way to develop those skills is by stepping out and doing it. Pray for opportunities and start simply. The most important skill is to know what the Bible teaches as a whole and use Scripture as you explain the gospel to people. If you have verses memorized, you can use them in speaking to others. If you know the word, you will be prepared to answer people’s questions. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it up front. You could say that you will do some more research on that issue and get back with the person. That gives you an opportunity to get together again and talk some more. Practice hospitality as the context for sharing your faith.
From my own experience with reaching out to Muslims in the USA, the first thing I did was ask others who had already been reaching Muslims, how do you start? He told me to go down the major University in that city I lived in at the time, and there was a field on a certain day that lots of Muslims were playing soccer (the “true football”), and ask if you can join them. That was great for me because I loved soccer and played 5 years in high school. Sure enough, they accepted me and also later made some interesting comments that I was the first “white guy” that wanted to play soccer with them.
Another method that I did to meet Muslims was to visit the local mosque in my area without announcing, just dropping in. When I made a phone call, they always avoided me and never called me back after I left a message. I remember just walking up to the mosque and meeting several Muslims and then it turned into a two or three hour discussion. Once I met a few Muslims and got their phone numbers, I was able to get into their lives more and have them over to our house and they invited me for coffee and meals at their homes. It was amazing.
I also learned to ask questions about their language and history and poetry. I studied the issues of the Israel-Palestinian issue, becoming familiar with events. I asked how to say certain polite phrases in Arabic, like “thank you”, “hello”, etc. Later, I learned Farsi (also known as Persian), the language of Iran. I learned some of their poetry, and even learned how to cook some of their food (even after my wife was already really good at it.) I loved their food, language, culture of hospitality, and was not afraid to make mistakes (that is really important – they love it when you try hard and don’t give up and also when you say words funny or even say a bad word – it makes for a great time of laughing and fun. Learn to laugh at yourself and your own mistakes. I learned to appreciate the Muslim’s architecture, their music forms, their contributions to medicine and science, and over-all culture of hospitality and family values, even if there are some Muslims who are terrorists. We also need to not be afraid of people. They can sense that. All the Muslims I have ever met were amazed that I wanted to “just hang out” with them. That context gave me thousands of opportunities to share the gospel and answer apologetic type questions with them. These principles are transferable into other cultures also.
In general, not just with Muslims, but with others, ask someone, “What do you think about God and Jesus and the Bible?” Get their opinion and go from there.
The way I got started in College / University years was with a campus ministry that did outreach. We would set up a table and put up a C. S. Lewis quote or Francis Schaeffer quote to get people to think. It was usually intellectual or philosophical types that wanted to talk – Marxists, atheists, skeptics, liberals, homosexuals, etc. The “party animal” type person did not stop to talk. Anyway, I learned my initial evangelism there and also by door to door outreach through my local church.
Read some good books and take a training course in Evangelism. Learning the material is helpful, but don’t be dogmatic about what method to use. But these training courses are good to give us some kind of structure on the main issues in sharing our faith and preaching the gospel to lost people.
Another amazing thing that happened after I first met Muslims through soccer and going to the Mosque was when I went to Dearborn, Michigan in 1985 and New York City in 1986, and we went door to door. The missionaries who already had years of experience had already found all the Muslims’ addresses and so we went straight to them and knocked on their doors. When they opened the door, we said, “Salaam O Alaykum” (Peace be unto you). They loved that! They were amazed. They kept saying “We have lived in your country to 5 or 10 or 15 years and no one ever came to our door to wish us peace”. Usually, about 90 % of the time we would have a 2 hour conversation and they would invite us in for coffee, or hot tea and sweets, fruits, pistachios and other Middle Eastern snacks. Then, about 50 % of those times, the husband would turn to his wife and command her in Arabic to fix dinner and he would turn to me and say, “You must stay for dinner – we are having the best shish kebab, rice, and hot pita bread with hummus that you have ever tasted!” We visited Muslims all summer and it was a great experience. They love to talk about God and religion (and politics also), and they liked to argue a little when we got into issues like the Deity of Christ, the Trinity, the crucifixion and death and atonement of Jesus, original sin, salvation by grace alone through faith alone – but it was great. You have to not be afraid of tension and some argument. The Muslims would say to me: “Mr. Ken, thank you for being willing to talk. We are not angry we are just passionate about our religion. And you are passionate also. Thank for being honest about heaven and hell. We have never met any Christian before who was willing to defend their faith. We respect that.” and “Why don’t Christians defend their faith?”
Three Training courses in Evangelism:
1. Evangelism Explosion (the book and course written by D. James Kennedy)
2. The Way of the Master (Ray Comfort)
3. Continuing Witnessing Training. (The name of the Southern Baptist Course I took in a baptist church around 1981-1983. It was basically the same content as Evangelism Explosion, but in a different format, as I recall.)
Helpful books:
1. “Out of the Salt Shaker and Into the World” by Becky Pippert
I read that book many years ago, so I cannot vouch for every detail of it anymore. But I remember that it helped me relax with people and be more personable at the beginning. Most people are turned off by a canned speech or a memorized “schpeel” one goes through.
I also read the first 3 books below about 30 years ago – they helped me in Evangelism in being better prepared for questions that would come up. There are some things in them that I don’t agree with today, but overall they are good books. Use discernment.
2. How to Give Away Your Faith, by Paul Little
3. Know Why You Believe, Paul Little
4. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
These two I have read more recently – The Case for Faith about 10 years ago. It is from an Evidential perspective and has good information in it.
5. The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel
6. Josh McDowell’s books, “More Than a Carpenter” and “The Evidence that Demands a Verdict”
7. Always Ready, by Greg Bahnsen
This one I read about half the book, a couple of years ago and it basically says don’t be afraid to use the word of God in evangelism. (From a Presuppositional Apologetics point of view.)
There is ongoing debate among Evangelicals about what is the best method of Apologetics to use with people. The Presuppositional Method says that we don’t let the other person judge God or the Bible, that we don’t give ground to them by trying to be neutral in our argumentation. Personally, I don’t think we can stop people from saying that or arguing that way. It says that God exists pre-suppositionally, and we don’t allow an atheist or agnostic to say, “there is no evidence that God exists”. How can anyone just stop someone from saying or thinking this? This method already presupposes that God, the Trinity exists and He has spoken in His word, and His word is sufficient for evangelism and that unregenerate people are in bondage to sin and they cannot understand unless the Spirit of God opens their heart and mind to understand.
8. Covenantal Apologetics by Scott Oliphant – I am reading this now (Sept. of 2013) and it is helping me understand the Presuppositional method better. Dr. Oliphant prefers the term, “Covenantal Apologetics”
9. 5 Views on Apologetics.
10. See also my earlier article here. (about the importance of combining sound apologetics with loving hospitality in our Evangelism.)
——————————
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Is the Gospel exclusive?
Christianity is the only religion in the world that claims that man is utterly incapable of doing anything to commend himself to God, and earn any merit in God’s site. Christianity is also the only religion in the world that points to a person—Jesus Christ—as being the only mediator between God and man. Every other religion in the world urges people to live as holy and beneficent a life as they can manage, and trust that being a mostly good person will be sufficient for their salvation.
Clearly both positions cannot be true. Man cannot be simultaneously able and completely unable to do enough good works for a relationship with God. Jesus’ claims of being the only way to God are either true or false. In that sense, Christianity is exclusive.
=============
Short answer: Yes, the gospel is exclusive.
All people are sinners and already condemned.
Romans 3:23 – all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
John 3:18 – whoever does not believe in Christ is condemned already . . .
John 14:6 – the solemn words of Jesus Himself. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The way the Greek article “the” is used, it means that He is the only way to be saved from sin; the only truth, the only life. No one can come to God the Father except through faith in Christ.
Mark 9:48 – hell is real and eternal and painful. (see also Matthew 5:21-30; 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, Matthew 25; Revelation 14:10; Revelation 20:10-15)
Acts 4:12 – there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
John 3:18 – the name of Jesus means His person and character; all that He is.
Romans 10:13-15 – everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
But how can they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?
And how can they believe in him in whom they have heard?
And how can they hear about Him unless someone goes and preaches?
And how can they go and preach unless they are sent?
_____________________
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I build my confidence in the Gospel?
Fortunately the Gospel needs neither our confidence for its power and effectiveness, nor our skill in telling it. Rom. 1.16-17 (ESV) tells us, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” In fact, the Greek word used for “power” in this passage is the root word for dynamite.
The Bible contains several people who were asked by God to speak on his behalf, but who feared that their weaknesses would hinder the message. Or they feared what those who heard would do to them once they spoke the message. Examples include Moses (Ex. 4.1-17) Jeremiah (Jer. 1), and Jonah (Jon. 1-2). In each case God declared that He provided the power of speaking; that He was responsible for the results; and that His people needed only be faithful to do God’s request, and receive His empowerment.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What if I encounter objections?
Sooner or later you will encounter objections to the Gospel. Objections to Christianity and the claims of Christ come for varying reasons. Some people have objections because it’s attractive in our culture to seek but never find. To continue to raise objections can be a product of a person wanting to pick and choose elements from different faiths and craft their own customized set of beliefs.
Other people who raise objections may not want to face the implications for their lives if Christianity is true. To continue to raise objections about issues that ultimately cannot be definitively decided apart from faith, this side of heaven (such as the philosophical problem of evil) puts off the need to confront Christianity’s ultimate claims on one’s life.
Still other people have authentic objections and are seeking real answers. These are the people with whom it’s reasonable to interact about objections.
I Pet. 3.15 urges us to be ready to give an account for the faith we have. Some Christians are philosophically and intellectually bent toward apologetic conversations with non-Christians. Such discussions would address topics such as “How do I know the Bible is reliable?”; “What does God do with people who have had no opportunity to hear the Gospel?”; and “How can I trust God when there’s so much suffering in the world?” You may not be one who is bent toward apologetics conversations, but it is appropriate to do some study to be prepared to give a reasonable answer to such questions. An easily readable book about apologetics would be More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell, who skeptically set out to prove that Christianity was false. Through his research he became convinced that Christianity is true.
==================
Realize that we will always encounter objections. Get a good book that explains difficult passages of the bible and
apparent contradictions. Atheists, skeptics, agnostics always bring objections. It is good to have one of the following books:
Gleason Archer’s Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
or
Norman Geisler’s When Critics Ask
and
When Skeptics Ask
on issues relating to Genesis and Creation and God as Creator:
see
http://www.answersingenesis.org
Dr. James White of www.aomin.org has lots of information, articles, books, videos, debates on:
Roman Catholicism
Church History
Reformed Theology
Islam
Mormonism
Atheism
Textual Variants issues – The King James Only Controversy is an excellent book.
_______________
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What if I encounter hostility?
Sooner or later you will encounter hostility when sharing your faith, as the message of the Gospel is by nature offensive. The Gospel declares that we are dead in our sin, and utterly incapable of doing anything that redeems ourselves in God’s eyes. Peter called Jesus “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” (I Pet. 2.8, ESV). Assuming that we’ve presented the Gospel with humility and kindness, we need not fear others’ hostility, as it is not against us, but the person of Jesus. In fact, hostility indicates some level of spiritual sensitivity or interest, which is a better response than apathy.
Other times when sharing your faith, you will encounter a positive reception, or a willingness to “hear you again about this.” (Acts 17.32) The key issue in sharing your faith, by God’s grace, is for Jesus and his claims to be the only offensive part of your Gospel presentation. We seek to be patient and kind in our words and tone. We seek to honor our friends’ current place on the path to Christ, and to not force any artificial response. We seek for our lives to align with our words, and to clearly exemplify the character of Jesus.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What if my spouse is unsaved?
If you are married to an unbeliever, undoubtedly you long for his or her relationship with Christ to begin. It’s appropriate to do all that is in your power to sow seeds toward that end. Nagging, arguing and begging are among the least effective means of grace!
Scripture would commend several ways to till the ground for your spouse’s faith in Christ:
Pray fervently for your spouse’s salvation, as the widow pled before the judge in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18.1-8.
Demonstrate Christ through your lifestyle. Peter tells wives that their unbelieving husbands may be “won without a word” by their conduct (I Pet. 3.1). And while this command was given to wives, there is no reason it can’t apply as well to husbands’ behavior toward their wives.
I Pet. 3.15 also commands us to be prepared to “make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” Be prepared for spiritual discussions when your spouse is ready.
Weave references to your faith into your natural conversation.
Demonstrate contagious Christian community to your spouse by cultivating authentic friendships with other believers.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I develop a lifestyle of sharing Christ?
Winning souls for Christ is called wise in Prov. 11.30, therefore a desire to do that is wise as well! Effective lifestyle evangelism is most often a product of:
•
A growing love for the Gospel. As we increasingly are amazed by the grace through which God pursued us, we will hunger for others to know it. And we will more likely talk about it more naturally, in a way that infuses our entire lives.
•
Getting to know your neighbors. Ask them how you might pray for them. As you build bridges of friendship and trust, God will give you opportunity to share Christ with them.
•
Using opportunities through your kids’ connections on sports teams, hobbies, Scouting, community clubs, etc.
•
A growing love for the lost. If we have little concern for the lost, we will not sense any urgency to connect them with Christ. We need to ask God to give us such a love. We should also consider what stifles such a love for nonbelievers, such as excessive busy-ness, pursuit of the American Dream, or a life that revolves primarily around family.
•
Intentionality. If you don’t naturally intersect with non-Christians consistently, you will have to be intentional about creating such intersections. (Examples would include if you are in ministry full time, or you work for a company that employs mostly Christians, or you are a stay-at-home mom whose days take place mostly at home and out on errands.The key to intentionality is not to add more events to your schedule, but to be more intentional with unbelievers in what you are already doing.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I get others involved in sharing the Gospel?
•
Model. Invite people along with you to the settings where you share your faith with non-Christians.
• Train others. Lead a small group in a study about sharing the Gospel. Potential tools include :
Classics such as Becky Pippert’s
Out of the Salt Shaker and Jim Peterson’s
Living Proof are still gold standards for personal evangelism, available through web portals such as Amazon.com.
Willow Creek’s
Becoming a Contagious Christian and
Just Walk Across the Room are both books and DVD series that have trained many in intentional relational evangelism. Bothe are available through web portals such as Amazon.com.
•
Deploy others. If a sufficient number of people are ready to take next steps in evangelism, developing missional communities (MCs) is one of the most effective current ways to accomplish that. MCs bring together people who are already friends, or who all have a passion for sharing the Gospel among a local group, such as a neighborhood, college students at the local university, or local Kurdish refugees.
A simple model for a missional community is Austin Stone Community Church’s
3-2-1 model, where members of the community commit to weekly spending at l
east three hours alone with God, two hours with an unbeliever who is part of the group that the MC is trying to reach, and
one hour of prayer for the people group you’re trying to reach. The group typically meets together once every 1-4 weeks to pray, study scripture and encourage each other.
Resources for Missional Community
The Verge Conference is a conference held annually in March in Austin, and brings together many churches and leaders who are using the missional community model in their churches. Gather friends to go together; or, if this is not possible, access past Verge Conference videos free online, and discuss them.
Mike Breen’s blog and book
Launching Missional Communities (available at amazon.com) are tremendous resources for MC’s.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I get my church more involved in evangelism?
The answer to this question depends on your level of influence in your church. If you are a member or attender who does not hold a leadership position with formal influence, at this point your most effective avenue is to mobilize others for evangelism as described in
How can I get others involved in sharing the Gospel?.
Be encouraged by the fact that often you can make the most impact in a Daniel-type capacity. Daniel had no official position, but was personally respected and had much influence without a committee membership or staff position!
If you are a recognized leader in your church charged with helping develop its vision and strategy, or you have influence with recognized leaders, getting your church substantially involved in evangelism is more an issue that relates to the wider life and ministry philosophy of your church. It is tempting for church leaders merely to adopt an evangelism program, offer training, and appendage evangelism on to your church as a program for those who are interested in it.
While this approach is better than nothing, it does not address the fact that our culture has drastically changed, and the typical American church must reformat much of how it is structured and operates before the church will see people coming to Christ through its ministry. Indeed, at the heart of the issue is how your church disciples its people. A more canned, programmatic approach to evangelism also neglects the Biblical mandate that evangelism is everyone’s responsibility.
If your leaders are uncertain where to start in thinking through these issues, resources such as the following are available:
Explore God is an example of the efforts of 370+ churches in the Austin, TX area to work together to share the Gospel vigorously in their city.
Tim Keller’s
Center Church is fast becoming a gold standard for churches thinking through and re-structuring their ministries for maximal disciplemaking and evangelistic impact in their cities. Available at amazon.com and similar web portals.
Mark Mittleberg’s Becoming a Contagious Church helps church leaders consider the foundational conditions necessary for the entire church to be effective in evangelism. Available at amazon.com and similar web portals.
The Navigators’ Church Discipleship Ministries arm will work with your church to consider how to move your church toward a greater disciplemaking purpose, which includes the church’s evangelistic outreach.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What do I do with new believers?
Should God grant you the joy of leading someone to new faith in Christ, the new believer needs some initial help in walking with Christ. In some cases, you may not be the ideal person to help the new believer. Perhaps you don’t live anywhere near the person. Perhaps a church that the person begins attending has a great process for discipling new believers, and to allow the church to play that role will help that person integrate into a church most easily.
If you are the person best suited to give a new believer initial help in walking with Christ, there are a few basic issues in which he or she should become grounded. They might include :
• The importance of taking up one’s cross daily and following Christ. (Luke 9:23)
• The importance and meaning of water baptism.
• How grace and repentance continue to play roles in our lives after conversion
• How to pray
• How to study the Bible
• The importance of being a member of a local church and submission to church leadership; and regular worshipping at a local church where one is a committed member.
• How to begin sharing your faith with others even now
• God’s grip on our lives: we cannot lose our salvation
An example of a classic guide for discipling a new believer is the Navigators’ Design For Discipleship, volume 1: Your Life in Christ. However, it is tempting to believe that simply intellectually working through lessons in a book means that the new believer is grounded. Working through a book can be good, but discipleship means working with someone until these sorts of issues above become habits, skills and convictions.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Support
What does it mean to support missions?
Just as a deep-sea diver needs a crew in a boat overhead feeding him oxygen and monitoring his safety, so missionaries need helpers back home who enable them to healthily stay on the field. To support missions involves sacrificial disciplines of giving, praying and serving for the advancement of the Great Commission.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What is a "sender"?
A sender is a Christian who is committed to personal involvement in world missions. He or she has determined that his/her optimal role is to remain at home and provide resources of time, treasure and talent that will help missionaries on the field thrive. Often a sender has made a commitment to a particular missionary, ministry, nation or people group.
A “sender” is also a “World Christian”: “A World Christian is a disciple for whom Christ’s global cause has become the integrating overarching standard, affecting his/her values, perspectives, and life decisions.”
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Serving as Senders
Are there "senders" in the Bible?
The importance of sending is mentioned by Paul in Rom. 10:14-15, when he wrote, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (ESV)
Examples of senders in the Bible include :
•
The church at Antioch, which became the first sending church in Acts 13.1-3 when they set apart the first missionary team.
•
The church at Philippi, to whom Paul refers as “partners in the Gospel” (1.5). Their support has included prayer (1.19), personal concern for him and his team (2.19-30; 4.10, 14), work alongside Paul (4.2), and financial and material support (4.14-18).
•
Gaius, urged in 3 Jn. 6-8 to “support people like [those who] have gone out for the sake of the name, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I become a supporter or sender?
If God is calling you to support or send, He wants to connect you to the people and organizations with which you are primed to partner. Begin by asking God what your specific supporting or sending role might look like.
• What resources are you best able to give: time, skills, finances, etc.?
• Do you need to research options?
• Is God leading you to join a specific group of other supporters/senders (such as a group of Phoenix businessmen who together decided to give a mission agency the funds for a new headquarters building)?
• About what missions endeavors are you passionate?
• Are there any hurdles you need to get past before beginning to support or send? Do you need to get out of debt to free up finances? Do you need to eliminate some responsibilities so that your time is freed up give your skills to serve a missionary or organization? Your next step is to work past those hurdles.
Once the answers to these questions are clear, your specific involvement should become clear and you are free to start supporting or sending.
The gold standard resource for sending missionaries well is the book Serving as Senders.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How important are "senders"?
Senders are vitally important to the effectiveness of world missions. At a minimum they provide the funding necessary to keep missionaries on the field. Effective senders also exponentially make a difference in missionaries’ quality of life that enhances their effectiveness. Some actual examples of senders’ ministries include :
• Giving missionaries who are back home usage of a timeshare that allows for some well-deserved vacation.
• Providing new clothing for missionaries returning home to a different climate and level of formality.
• Debriefing children of missionaries before re-entry on current culture and music so that they will not appear out of touch with peers.
• Sending packages of treats or important staples that are not available locally on the field.
• Serving as an advocate for the missionary in the home church, assuring that others are mobilized to pray, and supplying up to date information for intelligent praying.
• For pre-field missionaries close to leaving for the field, helping prepare their home for rental, providing childcare while missionaries wrap up last minute business, and helping them raise support through garage sales and other events.
• One southern California church periodically sends a women’s ministry team to Europe to care for their missionaries in Europe and North Africa. They offer a free 10 day retreat for their regional women missionaries where women are showered with gifts and beauty makeovers; they hear a speaker teaches about issues relevant to thriving on the field; they go on a shopping trip and day of touring in a nearby city; and they receive private counseling as needed.
If your primary niche in missions is sending, know that God can use you in many ways to significantly impact world missions.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Serving as Senders
What does a sender do?
Senders serve in a variety of creative ways, including giving financial support, visiting on the field, mailing care packages and birthday greetings, and providing or paying for services for missionaries while back home (dental visits, vacations, car repairs, financial consulting, etc.).
Neil Pirolo in his defining book on senders’ roles, Serving As Senders, poses six areas in which senders help missionaries:
• Moral support (encouragement)
• Logistics support (shipping, transportation, housing)
• Financial support (fund-raising, partnership developing/maintaining)
• Prayer support
• Communication support (basic communication, prayer letters/emails)
• Re-entry support (“furlough,” and ultimate re-settling back home)
We would add three other possible areas of concern:
• Children’s education
• Technology
• Security & contingency
You may be unsure about your role in general. Being a “Sender” is a crucial and exciting role, being a critical part of what God is doing around the world. If you are feeling unsure or unfulfilled in your direction, you might take some time for prayerful self-examination as described in this article, entitled,
“What is God’s Purpose for Your Life and How to Find It.”
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What describes a good supporter or sender?
A supporter generally refers to someone who gives financially so that someone is freed up for the propagation of the Gospel. A good supporter not only gives regularly from his/her regular income, but also thinks of creative, sacrificial ways to give above and beyond normal means. For example, a supporter may give up going out to eat twice a month so that she can send those funds to support a child in poverty on another continent. Or a supporter who is ready to buy a new car may give his gently used car to a church to lend to its missionaries when they’re back home.
A sender refers to giving financially, but the term also infers someone who is relationally well connected to a person or organization. So in addition to the type of material giving we’ve described that supporters do, a sender also gives time, services and care. For example, a sender who is a dentist may give all his church’s missionaries free dental care when they return home. Or a sending family may mail a box of dorm room start-up supplies to a missionary couple’s daughter who has just moved back to the US to start college. That same family might pay to fly the daughter back home to her parents on the field for a holiday, or might fly the daughter to their own home for the holidays.
In short, a good supporter or sender is regularly considering how to release resources so that missionaries can stay healthy and effective on the field.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What or who should I support?
A supporter typically gives most generously and authentically to a person or type of ministry about whose ministry the supporter is passionate. As examples:
• A person who significantly impacted your walk with Christ decides to serve as a disciplemaker in Europe. You are eager for this person to make the same kind of impact in Austria as he has had in your life.
• One of your best friends is a Muslim international student. You long for him to come to Christ and are enthused about a ministry that reaches Muslim international students.
In short, you’ll most faithfully support people and organizations:
• Whom you’ve observed in effective ministry.
• Who minister to types of people and places about which you’re passionate.
• Who are involved in types of ministry about which you’re passionate, such as Biblical teaching, relief and development, or discipleship.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Are there causes or people I should avoid supporting?
We’d suggest that the following people and organizations are never worthy of your missions support:
• Outreaches that do not seek to share the Gospel in any way. They function purely as humanitarian, relief, social development and social justice organizations.
• Outreaches that do not subscribe to orthodox Christian theology. Sample orthodox doctrinal statements would include the Apostles’ Creed or the Lausanne Covenant. Your personal theological convictions may lead you to develop stricter doctrinal standards within evangelical Christianity.
• Outreaches that lack complete transparency about their income, how they spend money, their standards of accountability, and who leads them.
Beyond such non-negotiable standards, we’d encourage you to consider these standards:
• Are disciplemaking and church planting the ultimate tasks of the ministry? This is the essence of the Great Commission.
• Does the ministry work in places that are more or less reached with the Gospel?
• Does the ministry actively partner with national churches and leaders?
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What guidelines should I follow as a supporter or sender?
We apologize that this content section of the “Personal Involvement” book in the “Support” chapter has not yet been posted. Please visit this page again at a later date.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I form a group of senders for a missionary?
The optimal members of a sending team are people who substantially know the missionary, are passionate about his/her ministry, and believe that their most effective role in missions is that of sending. In fact, an increasing number of churches are requiring that all “home-grown” missionaries assemble a sending team before leaving the country. This insures that the team is comprised of close friends who need not be goaded into sending the missionary.
Other ideal sending team members have specific skills for providing the care and support that a missionary needs. For example, if the missionary would prefer not to be creating and sending emails to supporters from within a closed country, someone with talents in writing, graphic design or secure website development would be an ideal sending team member.
Once such a team is assembled, it is important to clarify requirements for being on the team, through job descriptions. How often will the team meet, and what will happen at team meetings? What do team members do between team meetings? What specific roles will each team member play? (cf. , prayer coordinator, communications coordinator, etc.)
Finally, train the team. While training should not be burdensome, at team meetings the team could occasionally read and discuss web stories or books such as Serving as Senders, and discuss what best practices the team could begin.
What should a "sending team" do?
An effective sending team does many if not all of these types of tasks:
• Prays consistently both for the missionary as well as the unreached people he/she works among.
• Communicates regularly with encouragement, news from home, and requests for information that will fuel specific, effective prayer.
• Financially supports the missionary.
• Cares for the missionary on the field by sending gifts and visiting on the field, if possible, to provide counseling, childcare, or encouragement.
• Cares for the missionary when he/she is back home. Examples would include loaning a car, securing housing, or giving access to resources for rest and recuperation, such as frequent flyer miles, timeshares, or counseling. Care might also include providing services for free such as financial planning or dental work.
• As requested by the missionary, assists in the ministry on the field, both from a distance and on the field. As an example of assistance from home, the team may attend networking conferences in the US organized to advance the Gospel in the nation of the missionary’s work. As an actual example of assistance on the field, a church might send a team to teach a course on auto mechanics or carpentry in a technical school led by a missionary in a closed country.
Neil Pirolo’s defining book on senders’ roles, Serving As Senders, poses six areas in which senders help missionaries:
• moral support (encouragement)
• logistics support (shipping, transportation, housing)
• financial support (fund-raising, partnership developing/maintaining)
• prayer support
• communication support (basic communication, prayer letters/emails)
• re-entry support (“furlough,” and ultimate re-settling back home)
We would add three other possible areas of concern:
• children’s education
• technology
• security & contingency
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I become a more effective sender?
What changes are needed for me to become a committed sender?
Committed senders are looking for ways to free up more resources, and to serve missions more sacrificially and creatively. Here are some strategic questions to help you increase your sending effectiveness.
• Is debt or other personal spending habits holding me back from giving freely? How can I systematically eliminate debt or free up more finances?
• Is busyness robbing me of time that could be freed up for sending? What changes could I make in my use of free time and commitments?
• Is a group of people already working to help send the missionary or organization I serve? Could I multiply my effectiveness by partnering with that group?
• What might I research or learn or read that could better inform me or stimulate creativity in me for better sending?
Pray consistently for God to give you wisdom, creativity, and connections with others that might boost your sending effectiveness.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can a sending team help our church in missions?
A sending team is an invaluable aid to a local church’s missions ministry. This is most true when the sending team is comprised of people who have known and been committed to the missionary long before he/she left. Some churches ask Sunday School classes and small groups “adopt” missionaries, but often such classes and groups do not know the missionary well, and are not passionate about serving as senders.
The sending team, when led well, provides a proactive champion for a church’s missionary. It ensures a regular stream of prayer and care for the missionary, and a regular flow of communication back to the church. The presence of an effective sending team does not release the rest of the church from serving as senders. On the contrary, if the sending team is doing its job, it is finding creative ways to mobilize as many in the church as possible to take part in sending. As a result, another benefit to the church is the mobilization of more people to play their roles in missions through sending.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Go Short Term
What is "Short Term Missions" (STM)?
Short-term missions is defined in many different ways, but commonly refers to trips lasting between one and eight weeks. Usually involving overseas assignments, they may also occur in the United States, particularly in cross-cultural settings. Such trips originate through local churches and mission sending agencies. Participants are usually required to apply for service, and pay or raise the costs.
Short-term trips most frequently include learning about the language and culture of the host country, and performing humanitarian ministries (e.g., construction, painting, medical care, teaching English, running programs for children, etc.) that assist long-term missionaries in some way.
American short-term trips have become a $2 billion industry annually, with 1.5 million people going on trips annually. Two-thirds of the trips last two or less weeks.[1] Recently the effectiveness and financial stewardship of such trips has become a topic of debate.
[1] http://www.missiondiscovery.org/researchers-weigh-value-short-term-missions
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Maximum Impact Short-Term Mission: The God-Commanded Repetitive Deployment of Swift, Temporary Non-Professional Missionaries
What are the Pros and Cons of STM?
Short-term missions assuredly has both pros and cons. Your experience will be greatly determined by making careful choices in light of the following:
Advantages include…
• STM helps people to make intelligent decisions about future service, including place of service, mission agency, field leaders and type of ministry.
• STM can accomplish tasks that help long-term teams achieve even greater effectiveness. For example, one missionary business in the Middle East claimed a unique niche by providing the only business consultation and English training by Americans. Churches sent seasoned business people to do ten days of business training, which earned clients and kept the team on the field.
• STM provides a laboratory for observing potential future missionaries in action.
• The vast majority of missionaries who go to the field long-term today have first gone on an STM. STM’s are an invaluable recruiting tool.
Disadvantages include…
• STM can cost significant money that might be better used to employ nationals or be used by the team on the field.
• STM participants, if immature or untrained, can make mistakes that destroy trust and set back the long-termers’ progress.
• STM trips can create dependency. For example, one US denomination offers to send men’s teams to roof newly built churches in an African country. Churches in this country no longer finish their churches.
• STM’ers can believe that an occasional trip completes their contribution to missions.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself
How does STM relate to long-term missions?
Sadly, many trips have minimal connection to long-term missions, except for orienting possible future missionaries and exposing them to another culture. Both of these objectives can also be accomplished in trips designed for long-term missions impact. In deciding on a short-term trip, choose in favor of trips that will make a tangible contribution to long-term church planting in some way.
Short-term missions trips impact long-term missions in the following ways:
The short-termer:
• May return to the field as a long-term worker.
• Becomes a resource for sending and debriefing future short-termers from his church.
• May become an advocate back home for the long-term ministry he visited, by recruiting future workers, giving or raising money, caring for the long-term missionaries, and mobilizing prayer.
While on the field, the short-termer can accomplish the following for long-termers:
• Provides care for long-term workers, thus helping them to continue effectively (cf., a pastor who counsels a couple about their marriage).
• Accomplishes a task that would risk long-termers’ expulsion (cf. mass distributing Jesus Film DVDs in bicycle baskets in China).
•Accomplishes a task that enables the long-term workers to be more effective. (cf., if a missionary’s business on the field provides business consulting or English for business, key business people could travel to the field for two weeks and provide these services.)
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How does STM relate to my church missions ministries?
The wise local church has clearly considered short-term missions’ potential benefits and shortcomings. If it sends short-termers, it does so likely for the following reasons:
• Short-term missions is part of a larger process of discipling its people as “world Christians.”
• Short-term missions is a strategy for raising up long-term missionaries, and others who will mobilize and send them well.
• Short–term missions directly serves the church’s long-term missions strategy, and its long-term workers’ field strategies.
• Short-term missions allows people who will not serve long-term, to bless the nations with their skills and gifts.
Poor reasons for a local church to engage in short-term missions include the following:
• Exclusively accomplishing its missions ministry through short-term missions.
• Reactively channeling money to short-termer workers who request it.
• Seeking to engage in trendy ministry.
• Accomplishing humanitarian work with little or no proclamation of the Gospel.
We would strongly encourage the purpose and design of a Short Term Missions trip to create a win-win-win situation: win – the participants are well trained and discipled; win – the hosts on the field are blessed and encouraged, not simply used and exhausted; win – the recipients of the STM ministry gain some value-added ministry result that probably would not have occurred without the STM ministry.
See agreed-upon criteria for excellent short-term trips at
http://www.soe.org/.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Why should I get involved in STM?
Not everyone should serve on a short-term trip, but many should. Several good reasons for getting involved in excellent short-term missions include :
• A well-designed short-term trip can play a significant part in helping a team of missionaries achieve its long-term church planting goals.
• Your unique skills can be an important part of helping a short-term team succeed.
• Regardless of what role you eventually play in missions (goer, sender, welcome, mobilizer, etc.), you will catch a glimpse of life in a country that will teach you about how God is working in the world.
• A short-term trip may confirm where God wants you to return long-term.
• A short-term trip may clarify that going to the field should not be your long-term role in missions.
• A short-term trip should increase your commitment to living a World Christian lifestyle back home.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Maximum Impact Short-Term Mission: The God-Commanded Repetitive Deployment of Swift, Temporary Non-Professional Missionaries
Who is qualified to go on STM? (and who is NOT?)
Different churches have established varying criteria for appropriate short-term missions team participants. For example, some churches insist that any short-termers be mature Christians who are equipped to share their faith. Other churches are willing to allow non-Christians as team members, viewing it as part of their pre-Christian discipleship. Churches should set clear criteria for appropriate qualifications for short-term participants.
Questions to consider: who is an appropriate short-termer?
• What is the purpose of the trip? Does the purpose require that one be a Christian or be able to share one’s faith?
• Will the team serve in a security-sensitive place that will require maturity and discretion?
Seeming minimal guidelines for any short-termer would include :
• As healthy a spiritual life as is necessary to accomplish the purpose of the trip.
• Demonstration of a willingness to serve however asked in one’s current context.
• No current angst or upheaval in one’s personal life. C.f., a teenager in current rebellion against her parents will likely rebel against trip leaders.
• Old enough to benefit rather than hinder the team’s daily life and ministry.
• Flexibility.
• The posture of a learner.
• The skills necessary to carry out the tasks of the team.
Additional guidelines might include :
• Demonstrated interest and participation in local cross-cultural ministry.
• Willingness and/or desire to serve long-term, should God lead.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How do I select a STM opportunity?
Your optimal short-term missions opportunity will align with as many possible of following short-term trip quality benchmarks as possible:
• The trip offers excellent pre-field, on-field, and post-field training.
• Those with whom the short-termers will work on the field have actively requested short-termers to come. The trip has not been forced upon field workers by a mission agency’s home office.
• The trip will perform ministry that as much as possible directly contributes to fostering church planting movements.
• The trip works among as least-reached people as possible.
• Where a national local church exists, the trip seeks to serve and accomplish ministry through the local church.
• The trip will neither foster financial dependence on the field, nor introduce ministries that cannot be duplicated or sustained by the national church.
• The trip will not replace employment opportunities for local nationals.
• The trip’s cost aligns as economically as possible with the trip’s purpose. For example, if the trip seeks generally to evangelize Yemenis, this can be accomplished in Dearborn, MI. If the trip seeks to provide upgraded IT capacity for a technology training school in Yemen, run by missionaries, the trip must occur in Yemen.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How is STM financed?
We apologize that this content section of the “Personal Involvement” book in the “Go Short Term” chapter has not yet been posted. Please visit this page again at a later date.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Is STM a waste of money, time, and human resources?
Recent discussions questioning the validity and effectiveness of short-term missions have centered on issues such as:
Is STM a wise stewardship of funds that could be used in other ways?
How distinctly Gospel-driven are many of the humanitarian project trips that we increasingly send? Are0 churches truly being planted because of such trips? One missions pastor in Indianapolis is receiving an increasing number of short-term applications for funds, for trips with secular organizations that have no intentions of presenting the Gospel.
Would it be more effective and efficient to send short-term trips to cross-cultural sites in the US?
Here are but a few articles discussing the pros and cons of short-term missions:
Short-Term Missions: Is the Price Tag Worth It?
Are Short-Term Missions Trips Worth The Trouble?
Re-Thinking the $3,000 Missions Trip
Short-Term Missions: Are They Worth The Cost?
In Praise of Short-Term Missions
Churches Re-Tool Mission Trips
Short-term missions trips can be either a waste or an effective use of money, time, and human resources. The answer depends upon several factors.
•
Does the project have clear goals? Do all parties involved understand the purposes of the trip and how they will be accomplished?
•
Are the right people participating? Are field missionaries receiving the team eager to do so? Does the team have a qualified leader? Are team members qualified and eager to learn and serve, or are they anticipating a vacation? Do the team’s skills match the needs of the field?
•
Will the sending church, short-term team, mission agency and field all benefit from the trip?
•
Will the team receive appropriate training, before, during and after the trip?
•
Will the trip avoid typical pitfalls such as creating financial dependence? Assuming roles that nationals can, should or need to play?
•
While anticipated results depend on God, do they align with God’s heart as revealed in scripture?
• I
s the trip a good stewardship of funds? Or might giving the cost of the trip to the field be a greater benefit?
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Maximum Impact Short-Term Mission: The God-Commanded Repetitive Deployment of Swift, Temporary Non-Professional Missionaries
How should we prepare for a STM trip?
Whether your church is sending its own team, or sending individuals through mission agencies, pre-trip training should prepare those going in the following areas:
1.
Spiritual. Pray together as a group. Learn about what spiritual challenges you may face on the field, such as engaging in spiritual warfare, processing extreme poverty you’ll see, maintaining a walk with God while on the field, etc.
2.
Travel plans. Cover what paperwork is necessary, when it’s due, and what are the deadlines for passports, plane tickets, immunizations, etc. What should you (not) bring, and how should you pack? How will the team move together in transit to the field (staying together, what to do if someone gets lost, etc.)
3.
Culture. What do you need to know about the host culture—basic language, food, religion, standards of modesty, men/women relationships, what is culturally rude or taboo, etc.?
4.
Ministry. You should be prepared to share your testimony, in brief and longer formats. If your team is going to sing or perform drama, rehearse and go prepared. If your team is going to do construction, pull out all the tools at one meeting and explain how to use them.
5.
Fundraising. How will you raise support, and what are the deadlines? Will you raise support as individuals or as a team? Can you approach individuals in the congregation if the church is giving you money?
Resources for short-term trip preparation
Dearborn, Tim,
Short-Term Missions Workbook.
Elmer, Duane,
Cross-Cultural Servanthood.
Livermore, David,
Serving With Eyes Wide Open.
Ragan, Larry,
Help! I’m Going on a Short-term Trip is a multi-week training event. Having taken the training is strongly suggested before one leads it. The website also shows where Culture Linc is offering the training around the country.
http://www.culturelinkinc.org/
The Essential Guide to the Short Term Mission Trip
Before You Pack Your Bag, Prepare Your Heart
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What do we do when we come back from a STM trip?
Post-trip debriefing makes the difference between the trip being a life-changing experience, or a mere memory (whether good or bad).
Debriefing seeks to help short-termers to:
• Process what they saw and learned while on the field
• Decide what next steps are best for continuing their participation in God’s global mission
• Give feedback as to how future trips should be run, what mission agencies are good and poor future partners, etc.
Short-term debriefing specialists agree with the above key goals for debriefing, but vary in how and where debriefing should occur:
• In the country of service or back home
• Written or verbal
• Individual or group
• Duration of debriefing
Here’s a list of ten solid questions to use in debriefing short-termers, adapted from
questions from Tim Dearborn and David Livermore:
1. What did I learn about myself on my short-term mission?
2. What did I learn about God?
3. What did I learn about the people, the church, and the Christian community in the area
where I served?
4. What did I learn about how culture impacts the ways people live and understand the Gospel?
5. What did I learn about justice, economics, poverty, and politics during my short-term mission?
6. As a follower of Christ, what did I learn that can help me be a more fully devoted disciple?
7.How might my faith be different if I had grown up where I was serving, as opposed to in
my home community?
8. What did I learn or experience that will change the way I live and represent Jesus in my home community and church?
9. What have I learned about my own Christian calling?
10. How can I continue to support the ongoing work in the area where I served?
A qualified leader who has substantial short-term missions experience and has successfully mentored returning short-termers should lead debriefing ideally.
Most churches that have sent short-termers will ask for a report when they return.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
The Essential Guide to the Short Term Mission Trip
How can we transfer all the benefits of the STM to the church?
A short-term missions trip ideally impacts not only those who go, but also the church that sent the team. To maximize a trip’s impact in the life of the church will require some advance planning. Here are some avenues for helping a sending church fully benefit from a short-term trip it sent:
•
The team should report on the trip as widely as possible, not merely at the worship service. Send team members to classes and small groups open to hearing from the team. Post information through the website, blogs and emails as appropriate, while judiciously reporting on security sensitive details.
•
The team should report about the trip creatively, not just verbally. When possible, include media, sounds, food, games and clothing from the host culture. Include host culture games and toys for kids.
•
Develop an advocacy group for the people group/area where your team went. Such a group would continue to disperse prayer items, and might be the group that recruits and screens future workers to the area.
•
Debrief team members for feedback on improving any future trips to the area. Is a repeat trip a good idea? How could the sending process be improved? Should the purpose and goals of future trips be changed or refined? Should future teams work with the same host team and mission agency in the future?
•
Call or Skype the field a few weeks or months later and ask the hosts about the ongoing impact of the last team. This could be used as part of recruiting the next team.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How often should I go on a STM?
Stewardship of time and money calls us to ask this appropriate question. Some people return to their favorite short-term site frequently to continue ministry in an ongoing way. Others like to serve on a wide sampling of short-term trips around the world. Here are some suggestions for how to determine whether or not to serve on your next potential short-term trip.
Go on the trip if…
• You are seeking a first-time exposure to a new culture, or to learn what God is doing around the world.
• You are considering serving longer-term at the site of the trip.
Return to the same site if…
• You’re serving as a leader of the trip.
• You provide a unique and necessary service to the team that will go unfilled if you don’t go.
• The trip is accomplishing the next stage of an ongoing partnership. (C.f., don’t go to continue construction on the same Mexican church building.)
Go to a new location if…
• You are considering serving longer-term at the site of the trip.
• You provide a unique and necessary service to the team that will go unfilled if you don’t go.
Don’t go on the trip if…
•
You simply like going back to the same place. If God is calling you to impact a particular place from a distance, move into a role of greater impact, such as mobilizing others to go, leading teams, getting involved in a regional advocacy network for a people group, etc.
•
You view short-term involvement as a replacement for longer-term involvement to which God is calling you.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Reach Internationals
What is "welcoming"?
Welcoming is the process of intentionally extending love, service and hospitality to the foreign-born immigrants, refugees and international students God has sovereignly placed in our midst. Some come temporarily; others settle in the US permanently. Many Americans fear overcoming language and culture hurdles, and never engage with these folks. Others are simply afraid of people different than they. As such, many of these new residents and guests never develop a relationship of depth with an American.
Most foreign students and immigrants have never had the opportunity to develop a friendship with a Bible-believing Christian. Even living in the United States, most of them will never see the inside of an American Christian home. Most of them don’t really know the Christian meaning and roots behind national observance of Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
English tutoring, community orientation, legal immigration advocacy and assistance are all big areas of need. Foreigners really appreciate extension of “welcome” and aid in just finding out things we take for granted:
Where are the best grocery stores?
How can I get my car fixed reliably?
Where do I go to get medical help? Regular checkups?
How do I get a library card? Drivers license?
What are reasonable and secure banking services?
Helping (or not helping!) our foreign visitors, friends, students, and immigrants can leave an indelible impression for the sake of the Gospel and the cause of Christ. Students, especially, will go back to their home country and become leaders in government and industry. Lovingly sharing life and the Gospel with them here can have huge dividends in potentially reaching into their home cultures, without you ever leaving home.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Why is "welcoming" important or strategic?
Welcoming is one of the most strategic avenues for personal involvement in missions.
•
The Old Testament is full of commands for Israel to love the foreigners in their midst and treat them with kindness and justice. Such treatment is commended as a way that God’s glory will be extended to the nations. (Lev. 23.22; Deut. 27.19; Ex. 22.21; Ex. 23.9; 2 Chr. 6.32-33; I Kings 8.41-43; et. al.)
•
Refugees, international students and immigrants frequently come from countries where it is difficult to acquire a visa for entry and stay long-term. This makes a consistent witness difficult.
• These
guests in our midst often return home to visit relatives, or re-assume residence. If they return home with a faith in Christ, new churches may begin in their countries of origin.
•
Ministry to internationals does not require completely learning a new language. Our guests already speak sufficient conversational English, or are eager to learn English in order to thrive in the US.
•
Substantial numbers of internationals are accessible in the United States, many from nations difficult to access by many westerners. The US is host to 262,000 refugees, with most refugees coming from such “closed” nations as Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.[1] More than 700,000 international students study in the US currently, with most coming from China and Saudi Arabia.[2]
•
Many international students in the US have been sent by their nations because they are anticipated to assume influential positions in government and business when they return. By welcoming, we are influencing future national influencers. See such a list of government leaders
here.
[1]http://unhcr.org/globaltrendsjune2013/UNHCR%20GLOBAL%20TRENDS%202012_V05.pdf
[2] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/12/record-number-of-international-students-enrolled-in-colleges/1698531/
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Why should I get involved in welcoming?
Apart from the strategic reasons already described at
Why is “welcoming” important or strategic?, several personal reasons may encourage your involvement as a welcomer.
•
You may find outreach to internationals easier than same-culture outreach. Internationals are eager to learn English and learn about American culture. Most come from cultures that don’t consider discussions about faith to be offensive; indeed, to not discuss one’s faith would be considered odd.
•
If you have children, bringing them along in a welcoming ministry models a missional family for them, and helps them feel comfortable around people of different cultures. It’s also a great way to teach your children about other nations’ languages and cultures.
•
Ministry as a welcomer is perhaps the best possible training for future short-term and long-term cross-cultural ministry. Your church can send you more confidently when it has seen you proactively and fruitfully minister to internationals locally.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What does it take for me to become a "welcomer"?
Get involved! If your church does not offer ministry to refugees, international students or immigrants, some other possible avenues for engaging internationals include the following:
Some campus ministries have international student specialists who seek to mobilize local churches for ministry. Examples would include
IFace ,
ISI ,
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and
Reformed University Ministries.
Crescent Project helps Americans form Outreach Groups to reach Muslims locally. Go to such organizations’ websites to find contact information, and inquire about volunteer opportunities.
Several organizations help re-settle refugees in the US. Examples would include
World Relief and Catholic Relief Services. Go to such organizations’ websites to find contact information, and inquire about volunteer opportunities.
Where do concentrations of internationals live in your city? Begin to shop and eat out in those neighborhoods. Find a “third place” such as a coffee house in such neighborhoods to meet friends or work on your laptop. Begin conversations as appropriate with those who work there.
Do you know of nearby missions-minded churches located downtown or near universities? These churches may offer avenues for your personal involvement with internationals.
Large urban community colleges are frequent, inexpensive starting places for refugees to learn ESL. Contact the international student department at the local community college and inquire about opportunities for working with ESL students as a tutor or conversation partner.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I become a better welcomer?
• One of the best ways to stay encouraged and engaged in cross-cultural ministry is to
find like-minded folks and do it together. As internationals come from cultures that value community, they typically are more attracted to groups of strong community rather than to individuals. Such groups are increasingly called
missional communities.
Some great resources for learning about and forming missional communities include :
Austin Stone Community Church (Austin, TX) is arguably the most fruitful model of missional communities in the US. They post videos explaining missional communities and showing them in action.
Austin Stone’s pastor of missional communities, Todd Engstrom, blogs regularly about missional communities at
http://toddengstrom.com/.
Soma Communities in Seattle offers
good videos that teach about how they conduct missional communities.
Helpful books about missional communities include the following, all available at online portals such as Amazon.com:
Breen, Mike,
Launching Missional Communities.
Halter, Hugh and Matt Smay,
The Tangible Kingdom.
Timmis, Steve and Tim Chester,
Total Church.
•
Get training as needed.
Need to learn more about a particular religion or culture in order to understand the people to whom you’re ministering? Materials and courses especially have been developed for outreach to Muslims, such as Bridges and the Oasis Conference.
Encountering the World of Islam is a 15-week event for learning about Islam. ISI produces several
resources for understanding cultures and religions.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I get my family involved in "welcoming" ministry?
The answer to this question depends on many factors, including your family members’ ages, interests, and schedules. For example, on one hand, young children are flexible: they can be brought along in almost any activity two spouses do. On the other hand, young children require more logistical help and attention wherever they are, and as such can detract from what two spouses are doing.
Ideally a family engages in a welcoming ministry together. Local internationals come from cultures that highly value family, and they are interested in understanding how American families function. Some internationals have come to know Christ in part by watching Christian families interact, particularly husbands and wives.
Start by engaging together in activities of exposure. Go to local cross-cultural festivals (such as Chinese New Year). Eat at cross-cultural restaurants. Attend a local class on Islam at a mosque. Gauge how open your family is to wading in deeper to welcoming. In this process, get to know potential cross-cultural friends.
Next, begin bringing cross-cultural people in to what your family already does naturally. Invite them over for a meal. Go to a park together for a picnic. Go to a baseball game together. Develop natural relationships.
Finally, if your family does well at these levels,
proceed to more proactive cross-cultural ministry. Help a refugee family move into an apartment, or teach them to shop at the local store. Some families rent or give a room to a local international student.
Through experimenting, determine what level best fits your family’s life stage and abilities.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I get my church involved in welcoming?
First consider several factors.
•
How interested are people in your church about interacting with people from different cultures? Are they afraid or apprehensive of the idea? Or are are they already doing it?
•
How close to your church are people of different cultures? If you live in a largely homogenous, isolated or rural community, it will be more difficult for people to intersect with other-culture friends.
•
Are partnerships in place or possible with local organizations that can serve as gateways for your church to enter local cross-cultural communities? For example, has World Relief or International Students, Incorporated placed a staff member near your church?
The answers to these questions will determine how much foundational work must be done for your church to become a community of welcomers.
Assuming your church is sufficiently close to a cross-cultural population, here are serveral stages of helping a church begin welcoming. Where is your starting point?
•
Begin praying for your church to develop a welcoming culture.
•
Identify what cross-cultural people live in your city. What group might your church begin serving?
•
Identify potential partner chruches and organizations in your city that could serve as bridges into local cross-cultural communities.
•
Begin personal engagment with local cross-cultural people. Bring people along with you who might also be interested.
•
Begin looking for people in your church who might join you. Get your church’s permission to use the newsletter and website to find such people to form a team.
• Once potential team members have surfaced,
begin praying for and engaging in outreach. You may all reach the same people group, or you may individually reach different people groups, gathering to pray for your individual outreach.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Mobilize
What is "mobilizing"?
Mobilizing is the process of motivating and encouraging maximum involvement in world missions. With individuals, it refers to helping and mentoring people find their optimal role in missions (goer, sender, welcome, mobilizer, etc.), and helping them order their lives in such a way that they are freed up to pursue their calling as fully as possible.
With churches, it refers to helping a church understand the centrality of missions in the local church’s Biblical purpose, understand and implement God’s strategy for its unique missions handprint, disciple and deploy all members as World Christians, and remove obstacles hindering missions from flourishing as a primary purpose.
Here are two quotes from wise missions leaders on the importance of mobilization:
“Suppose I had a thousand college seniors in front of me who asked me where they ought to go to make a maximum contribution to Christ’s global cause. What would I tell them? I would tell them to mobilize [i.e. – be instrumental in sending out others]. All of them.”
–Dr. Ralph Winter founder of the US Center For World Mission
“Someone must sound the rallying call. Those who desire to see others trained, prepared and released to ministry are known as mobilizers. Mobilizers stir other Christians to active concern for reaching the world. Mobilizers are essential. To understand the role of mobilizers, think of World War II as a parallel. Only 10% of the American population went to the war. Of those, only 1% were actually on the firing lines. However, for them to be successful in their mission, the entire country had to be mobilized!”
–Phil Parshall missionary to the Muslim world
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Why is "mobilizing" necessary?
Mobilizing is a necessary missions activity because historically the corporate Church and its individuals have often lost sight of the Biblical primacy of world missions in the life and purpose of the church. Mobilizers can act at different times as prophets, servants, encouragers and resources. They call the church back to its missions mandate, and practically help churches and individuals find practical avenues for obeying that mandate.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What is involved in mobilizing?
Mobilizing is a highly relational endeavor that requires developing trust. Foundational to successful mobilization is first living a life both of intimacy with God, and of modeling the missions involvement to which the mobilizer calls others to live. Mobilizing also involves constant learning about what God is doing around the world, and the many avenues through which people can get involved. An effective mobilizer is also consistently networking with missionaries, agencies, and churches that are effectively engaged in world missions. This exposes the mobilizer to best practices that (s)he can pass on to others, and also creates contacts that the mobilizer can connect to new contacts.
Effective mobilization is done with a posture of love and servanthood. The effective mobilizer has a “Kingdom” mindset, rather than an agenda, which leads to helping people to obey what God is telling them to do in world missions.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I get started in mobilizing?
•
Start by regularly asking God to use you to influence others toward greater missions involvement.
•
Begin widely reading about the world and how God is advancing his kingdom around the world. Take the
Perspectives course if you have not already. Read mission agency websites to learn about God’s work in particular regions. Begin praying through Operation World regularly.
•
Ask lots of questions of missionaries and mobilizers you know. Learn what they know about missions. Ask missionaries to include you on their prayer letter mailing list.
• Begin to offer your services for regional mobilization events. Serve on a planning team for a local
Perspectives or
Encountering the World of Islam course. Several cities, particularly on the US west coast, host annual Missions Fest events that need volunteers. (Example:
Missionsfest Seattle,
• If you have significant connections with several churches in your area,
offer service to a parachurch ministry in your area (cf. international student/refugee ministry) to connect people in these churches to volunteer opportunities with the parachurch ministry.
•
Offer to serve in any events at your church designed to mobilize your church. Examples would be missions prayer meetings, short-term trips, or a missions conference.
• Once you’ve begun to gain experience and credibility in helping mobilization events, ask your church to consider allowing you to serve as a mobilization specialist. This would involve counseling people who express interest in missions, and editing/publicizing missions opportunities in church publications (website, social media, newsletter, etc.)
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
What do I have to know to be a good mobilizer?
An effective mobilizer is a veritable database of wisdom and resources. Some key important areas of competency would include :
Missions issues and trends
World religions and the key challenges they present to world missions
Major current world events and how they effect missions
Potential mission agencies with which people can serve; key differences between them (type of ministry, theological stance, locations they work) and what types of missionaries best fit in those agencies.
Current issues and trends in the American Church, particularly pertaining to evangelism and missions
Some key books, periodicals and guides to read (regularly) would include :
Operation World
Christianity Today
Evangelical Missions Quarterly
Leadership
Brigada weekly email
Missions Catalyst (Marti Wade)
Missions Catalyst (Ellen Livingood)
Radical
Radical Together
The Church is Bigger Than You Think
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Are there biblical examples of mobilizing?
The Bible gives several examples of people mobilizing God’s people to accomplish God’s purposes, including the following:
After a spying expedition, Caleb was one of only two who believed God’s promises and urged the taking of the land despite its daunting inhabitants (Num. 13-14). While the immediate battle was not successful due to Israel’s disbelief, eventually Israel did take possession of the land.
Joshua mobilized Israel to move into the Promised Land (Josh. 1).
Gideon mobilized 300 to defeat the Midianites (Judges 6-7).
Jesus mobilized twelve disciples who in turn started a church planting revolution that swept the world.
Paul mobilized the Corinthian church to give generously toward Jerusalem’s famine relief (2 Cor. 8-9)
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I encourage others to help me mobilize?
As you become more involved in mobilizing, your network of contacts will widen. In this process you will likely find others in your church or area who want to mobilize as well. Possibilities may open for groups to mobilize together.
Such
group mobilization best occurs when all share a clear and common vision for the results of mobilization. Bring folks together for a season of prayer and planning to determine if God is leading you together to mobilize. Some examples of group mobilization occurring in the US now include :
Teams that plan regional training events such as Perspectives classes
Teams that plan multi-church events such as a summer Vacation Bible School that focuses solely on teaching children about the Great Commission and unreached people groups.
City networking events such as current ones in
Dallas and
Minneapolis. Such monthly and quarterly events help mobilizers do their jobs better. Sometimes these groups lead to multi-church short-term trips, assisting ministries in the city, and hosting training events.
Within individual churches, sometimes a missions leadership team will develop
a subcommittee devoted exclusively to mobilizing in the church. This team might have responsibilities for leading missions education, and recruiting and training the church for short-term missions trips, cross-cultural ministry opportunities, and missionary care.
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I enable my church to mobilize for missions?
It depends on whether your influence in the church is more formal or informal. If your influence is more informal (meaning that you don’t hold a leadership position), you can engage in the activities described in [HYPERLINK TO HOW CAN I GET STARTED IN MOBILIZING].
Be encouraged by the fact that often you can make the most impact in a Daniel-type capacity. Daniel had no official position, but was personally respected and had much influence without a committee membership or staff position! Steps you could take would include :
•
Begin talking with the pastor(s) and missions committee members at your church. Ask to meet with them to learn more about how missions is led, and what the church does to mobilize its people for missions.
• If the church has an effective plan for mobilizing,
ask leaders if you might begin to help in the mobilization process and events.
• If the church does not have a plan for mobilizing people for missions, and you’re respected as someone who’s informed about missions,
you might next:
Ask if you could serve as a point person for publishing missions opportunities on the church’s website, social media, or in any printed publications.
Ask if you could start a missions interest group that would meet monthly or quarterly. Such a meeting would feature prayer for missions, and possibly a speaker to discuss topics of missions interest.
Offer to pass on to the missions committee samples of other churches’ mobilization practices.
If you are on the church staff, or on a missions/outreach team, you have the power to help lead the church in the process of mobilizing others. Assuming that other pastors/leaders object to developing a mobilization process, you can:
•
Determine your sphere of mobilization. Are you mobilizing for the mission field, for local cross-cultural ministry, etc.?
•
Develop guidelines for how to engage major types of people in your church: homeschooling moms, downtown businesspeople, college students, youth, etc.
•
Develop tiered avenues for involvement (crawl, walk, run).
•
Plan for how you will engage people and bring them into the mobilization process, such as:
Through the church’s website, bulletin and social media
Through personal conversations
Through an interactive website such as is available at http://www.onthecity.org/.
Through a monthly or quarterly missions interest group which would feature prayer and a speaker
First and last, pray for God to raise up people from your church for active involvement in missions!
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
How can I measure the results of personal mobilizing efforts?
It’s wise to determine what results you’re seeking to accomplish by God’s grace, and to periodically gauge if your methods are succeeding. Potential gauges might include :
• People entering short- and long- term missions service
• People who are engaging in local cross-cultural ministry
• People who are identifying and engaging in their optimal Great Commission role (goer, sender, welcomer, mobilizer)
• People who are re-ordering life decisions and priorities in order to be maximally involved in missions
• Increased personal or church giving to outreach efforts
• People who are interested in learning more about missions and are engaging in learning activities (cf. Perspectives)
• People coming to faith in Christ due to efforts of those who were mobilized
We’re excited about this new online resource! Content is in the process of being created and ported. Please check back often and subscribe to our feed at https://propempo.com/rss.xml to be notified of updates. Interact with the content. Post links in email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Recommend Propempo.com to friends. Prayerfully support Propempo.com and consider contributing to its content.
Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.
Advance to Local Church Mobilization
Advance to Local Church Mobilization
The next path-book, “Church Mobilization,” on Propempo.com will help you walk through seven stages of growth and development in building an effective local church missions ministry. These steps include learning how to plan, organize, celebrate, inspire, focus, and train for strategic missions outreach. Every biblical and committed local church can learn to grow in effectiveness, can change from a unprincipled “shotgun” approach to a custom-fitted rifle focus on your church’s part in the Great Commission. You can learn about the practical nuts and bolts of each role and pray about how God might have you and your church further your corporate goals and ministries in world missions. Look for resource links to documents and resources in each section.
Walk on!
Please prayerfully consider supporting Propempo.com and the ministry of Propempo International