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.
JD Grear’s book, “Gaining by Losing” he has a chapter entitled “Your church doesn’t need a missions pastor.” His argument is that the senior pastor should be the missions pastor. After all, the church only has one mission and surely the pastor should be leading in the direction of the church. For too many churches,…
There are two approaches to “doing” missions in a local church. Some churches seek to support a missionary in every country in the world so they take on support for dozens of missionaries at $25 each. Other churches are more targeted in their approach and choose a specific people or nation and they take on…
Someone has said that if your church doesn’t hurt when sending you as a missionary… they probably shouldn’t send you. There is a caricature of missionaries that they are people who couldn’t get a ministry in the States, so we send them “over there” where the natives will not realize they are incompetent. That…
We recently conducted five THINK-TANKS with pastors in four different states. The topic being discussed was how churches could identify, train and launch missionaries from their congregation. One of the questions we asked was: Why would a church NOT want to send missionaries from their congregation. Here is a summary of the pastor’s answers: …
This article was originally posted April 2014 and is being re-posted to a new set of readers–Editor Deputation is a word that strikes fear into the heart of many people looking at the missionary enterprise. Some have said, “I wouldn’t go around to churches and people begging for money.” Others look at missionaries as people…
Most mission agencies have a recruiting department and aggressively seek to find new missionaries to join them. Historically, they have sent representatives to Bible Colleges and Seminaries to enlist those who may be heading to the mission field. Agencies are highly motivated because we regularly see the needs and opportunities around the world. Missionaries desperately…
What does it take to be a missionary? Books have been written, sermons have been preached, and evaluation tools have been created. All are oriented towards assessing a new missionary’s capacity to meet a minimum level of proficiency to do the work of one who is sent by God. Missing from those prerequisites is a…
There is a fascinating phrase in 1 Corinthians 9:9 where Paul asks the question: “Is it for oxen that God is concerned?” He is talking about giving and uses oxen an illustration in which they can rightfully be fed by the very wheat they are thrashing. But he makes the surprising application that giving is…
Self-evaluation is critical in the Christian life, and it is also good to periodically stop and take a snap-shot of how things are going in our church. One of the areas that deserves evaluation is how your church is doing in international ministries or mission outreach. The key to self-evaluation is to address the…
Editor’s Note: Originally published March 2014. When it comes to leadership, most of us think in terms of moving a group of people or an organization forward toward an end goal. Leaders have vision, and they like to think big. That is a good thing, but leaders also need to be able to think small….