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.
Recently it was my privilege to take the APOLUO seminar that BMW provides to North American sending churches to a group of leaders in Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina. There were three church leaders in attendance due to conflicting schedules for some of the ones originally scheduled to participate. Two of the men were national missionary…
If a person walked into your church building for the first time, would they know that missions is important even if they did not talk to anyone? That can be accomplished by the way you decorate your church building. Does the decor of your facilities “scream” missions? Most churches have at least a missionary…
We continue to say that the Great Commission is monumental. It is monumental in its calling, in its equipping, and in its function. If that is truly the case, then our calling to ensure the continuity of the Great Commission is of the utmost seriousness. With that seriousness comes an ongoing question: Where are our…
There is a current concern in evangelical churches about where the next generation of missionaries will come from with the demise of so many of our recruiting grounds. This is the third part in a series addressing that very topic. The Great Commission is monumental. It is a monumental in its calling, in its equipping,…
There is a current concern in evangelical churches about where the next generation of missionaries will come from with the demise of so many of our recruiting grounds. This is the second part in a series addressing that very topic. As a missionary, I am a frequent recipient of the lament about the crisis of…
This is the first of a four part series on raising up missionaries within the local church. The Great Commission is monumental. It is a monumental in its calling, in its equipping, and in its function. Yet, we are in grave danger of converting the Great Commission into the Great Omission and so this article…
I recently met with a group of pastors to ask them one question: “What do you think is the reason why so few churches (perhaps one in twenty) are senders who send out one of their own as a missionary despite the clear teaching of Acts 13″? Their answers are instructive to all of us…
A second primary factor is a shift in thinking among donors and potential donors. Many younger donors in particular dislike giving institutionally. Giving to an institution, be it a church or an organization, seems very impersonal and takes the control for how donations are used out of the hands of the giver. Therefore, a growing…
It takes money to do missionary work. It takes money to get to the field, stay on the field, work on the field and return from the field. This is true for both short-term missions and career missions. Since the dawn of the so called modern missionary era in the time of William Carey, most…
Note: Originally posted October 2014. 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 who can’t make it anywhere else so they go looking for well-meaning…