Summary
SELECT: Have the local church participate in selecting members of their church who are called of God.
SUPPORT: Do whatever is necessary so that your missionary has the support he needs to do God’s will.
SEND: Make sure the missionary has a measurable plan before he leaves you to do God’s will.
SUSTAIN: Never forget Sending Church that your care for your missionary is essential for his completion of God’s will.
LET’S REVIEW
Do you see the need for selection over volunteerism? It requires that the local church get involved.
Can we simply restore the true purpose of short-term mission trips to seeing the world through the eyes of different cultures and burdening the souls of American believers for the lost (whether they become missionaries or support those who do)?
The problem with newbies may not be the lack of call, but the lack of experience and fortitude to fulfill the requirements of leaving home and entering the battlefield of missions without having fought the good fight at home first.
Sending experienced evangelists, disciplers, educators, and church planters would carve ineffective years off the total missionary experience.
Let American/western churches return the focus of missions to church planting and teaching/training.
A genuinely called man of God will do whatever is necessary to fulfill his calling, including appropriate support estimate. Having a committed and zealous sending church family will not only inspire the man of God as he raises his support but will also assist him to reach his destination in a timely manner.
Our Commission is Great, our resources are limited, costs are increasing, time is short (or so it seems but really unknown), and the population of the world exploding. The challenge is to step back, look at what we are doing, consider what needs to be done, and choose the wise stewardship of our limited resources.
Addition is another couple for Spain, one for Australia, one for Canada, maybe one for Cambodia. Multiplication is hundreds of national missionaries reaching their country and their world; some or a majority of them crossing borders into countries we as Americans may never enter.
What is our strategy? How do we know if what we are doing is achieving our goals? Does everything we do move the mission forward? Does our mission multiply?
Staying in one place for an inordinate amount of time should be off the table. Time to move, then move, then move…let’s get moving! There is a world to reach for Jesus Christ to whom we owe a debt.
We can do so much more (and write home about it) if we are willing to put to work the people of Jerusalem and challenge them to send their missionaries to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost of their world.
As Bible translators work diligently with local people to select the best words to translate the Scripture accurately, let our teachers work with local people to ensure that the most accurate teaching is then being presented, understood and applied by students who will then go out and change the world.
Instead of sending Americans to do the work, why not send experienced trainers to train nationals (in multiplied locations) to do the work?
There is every reason to provide support for such institutions (orphanages and Bible colleges) in the short-term. However, long-term preparation for local and national self-support should be a priority.
Put back on the sending church the responsibility for their missionary and impose upon them the necessity of maintaining their missionary doing their ministry on their mission field (with a significant investment of their money). Greater accountability will follow the investment; greater investment will invigorate accountability; greater involvement will provide the proper care of the missionary and sustain him in the darkest times.
The objective is always the same. The indigenous principle is preeminent. Every missionary is expected to work in an area for a season and leave behind trained leaders who bear the full responsibility for the work that is resourced locally as well.