The Greek verb “apoluo” (to send away) is used in a positive sense in Acts 13:3 when the church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. This blog is designed to help churches select, train, and send missionaries to the harvest fields of souls.
Dear Missionary, pastors are not obstacles to ministry, they are your enablers. I know that the form of ministry has created a false dichotomy between both. Somehow the created perspective is that purposes of both are different enough that they must ‘compete’ for the same resources in order to complete God’s will. The mindset has…
I don’t celebrate Christmas any more. I decided to stop when I walked into the home of some Muslim friends and discovered the Christmas tree in their living room. “If Muslims can celebrate Christmas,” I said to myself, “I can’t.” TAKE CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS I reject the secular and capitalist trappings of Christmas, and…
There is a trend in USA missions that suggests we should stop sending missionaries and support national workers instead. Here are a number of thoughts about this topic: 1. One argument is that you can get more bang for the buck by supporting locals. The assumption of course is that you can “hire” a…
Most churches have never sent a missionary from their own congregation. This is in spite of their high level of interest in missions that is evidenced by budgets, missions conferences and missionaries supported. What if a church wanted to send one of their own to the mission field? That would raise a lot of questions,…
We have tended to define a missionary by their source of income. In other words, a person is a missionary who gathers support from churches and individuals and goes to some other country. However, this is a financial model of doing missions that has been used over the past couple hundred years. For 1800 years…
On a warm Georgia October day in 2007, an 11 -year-old boy rolled down his car window, and for the first time heard the shrill of countless bagpipes echoing through the trees. He had no experience with Scottish culture, but one must think God was at work that day – warming a young heart to…
The sudden death of a friend caused Martin to stare out across the Black Sea and contemplate his own life as he sipped some strong afternoon coffee.* Martin was a successful importer of furniture from Thailand into Verna, Bulgaria for distribution all across Europe. Growing up as a missionary kid in rural Thailand, he would…
A Metaphor You can’t stop water with a fork. The water will get through, but it will look different than it did without the fork; the straight pour will be disturbed but the water will get through. You can’t stop missions with government interference. Missionaries will get through, but missions will look different than it…
When I was in Vietnam last year, I had the privilege of teaching in a Bible School for a week. The class was “How to be a Sending Church” – the topic that is my passion for national churches worldwide, including the national churches of America and the local church where you minister. The class…
The stresses that missionaries face necessitate a unique skill set that is both broad and deep. One manual I know of simply gives a five-page checklist of skills and character traits to evaluate in every potential missionary while others have written complete books on the topic. While some catalogs have more value than others there…