Introduction
We elders have been working with our missions team to establish a set of guidelines for missionary and church plant support. The congregation raises funds for missions once a year through a special contribution, and the mission work has lately received around $130,000 per year from the congregation, by God’s generosity.
I remember when our mission budget was zero! But our mission work has grown steadily over the years. And for many reasons, this seemed like a good time to do some re-visioning. You see, it’s human nature to do this year what we did last year. But as the program got bigger and the world changed and the mission experts learned better ways of doing thing, well, you just have to take a lot of time and rethink the whole thing.
And so we have a document listing principles for how we intend to manage mission work and church planting, called a “framework.” It’s a “framework” because it’s not the completed product, just what you have to build to build the completed product.
The framework we came up with is based on a lot of things, but we owe a special debt of gratitude to the Missions Resource Network and Kairos. We’ve had meetings with good men and women from both groups over the last two or three years. And we’ve learned a lot from our missionaries. In fact, some of the most detailed, particular language comes from proposals received from missionaries that we support. So don’t accuse us of micromanaging. The missionaries have asked to know what our policies are, which is only fair.
You see, over the last couple of decades, experts in missions — missiologists — have done a great deal of research on what approaches work best in foreign and domestic missions. The world is changing very fast, and methods that were extremely effective in the 1960s don’t necessarily work today. Indeed, in most denominations, there was a huge surge in foreign missionary activity after World War II, and we are now in a position to evaluate those efforts and later efforts and draw some conclusions.
But most church leaders are like me. If you know anything at all about missions, what you know is how we did it last year — which is the same as how we did it the year before that. Today, most churches are following 1950s models of missionary work just because no one has taught them any better.
So here’s what you do. Call up the good people at Missions Resource Network, Kairos, or other missions or church planting organizations, offer to pay for training, and have an expert spend a weekend training you and your missions committee. It’ll be the best investment of missions money you make all year.
There are, of course, other missions and church plant organizations that are worthy of your consideration. Rather than trying to make a list, I encourage the readers to make their own endorsements in the comments. These are just the ones I’m most familiar with personally.
The Framework
POINTS OF COMPASSION
Framework
This document is a statement of principles governing the Points of Compassion ministry. This statement may be revised from time to time by the elders of the University Church working with the Points of Compassion ministry. This is not a contract.
“Points of Compassion” is what we call our missions/church planting program, which is overseen by a team of members with a passion for missions.
We recite at the beginning that this is not a contract because, as you’ll see, there are a lot of terms in here that define our relationship as sponsoring church with missionaries and church planters. But this is a policy statement, not a contract. It can change as we learn more and circumstances change.
Doctrine
- We will not support any mission that teaches doctrine we would not want to be taught to our own children here. There are no exceptions.
Doctrine matters. A lot. And yet many very progressive Churches support ministries that teach legalism and divisiveness. Why? Well … it’s what we did last year. Those missionaries need to be gently and lovingly either re-trained or removed from the budget. It’s just nuts to support someone whose theology you’ve rejected just because his church has “Church of Christ” hanging on the door.
This is not about supporting a denomination. It’s about teaching Jesus.
- We will impose no doctrinal restrictions that aren’t imposed by the scriptures.
- We will encourage missionaries to present the gospel in terms of the culture in which the mission work is done, which may be different from how the gospel is presented in West Alabama.
Missionaries shouldn’t be expected to impose traditions or American cultural values that aren’t found in the Bible. I know of a Church of Christ in Africa where villagers walk for miles and spend their life savings to buy a suit just so they can go to heaven when they die! The missionaries confused American church culture with the Bible. They are not the same.
Just so, in many lands, moderate, responsible use of alcohol is part of the culture — as it was in Biblical times. If Jesus can make wine for a wedding banquet, Christian missionaries can “lift a pint” in Ireland or sip a brew in Germany — if it helps bring the lost to Jesus. Jesus did not die on the cross to defeat responsible, moderate alcohol consumption.
Churches in Angola or France or Singapore or Tokyo may not be like church here. I mean, it’s just not essential that the meetings be on Sunday morning, that they last an hour, or that Sunday school classes precede services. Some missionaries may find that a two-hour service without classes is better. Some may prefer to meet at night in a homeless shelter. Who knows? The task isn’t the creation of clones of who we are.
Jesus appeared to the Jews as a Jewish rabbi — because a rabbi could speak in the synagogues and teach on the streets. If he came to the USA today, it would be in a different form, I’m sure. The gospel doesn’t change. The culture of the church does.
Jay,
Thank you for sharing the work of your elders and mission committee on a matter that is too often neglected among "our" congregations (whoever "we" are).
Certainly better methods and preparation for missions are available today than in 1963 when I went to New Zealand – or in 1967 when I returned there. Yet, too many churches are still following the same basic methods we used then with the same meager results.
A missionary (or team of missionaries) get excited about a particular place, sometimes without even knowing if it is possible to get a visa to go there for the purpose they intend. Then they scour the brotherhood looking for a "sponsoring church" that may (or may not) be as interested in that work as the missionary (team). If there is any success, the work of the missionary soon becomes that of pastoring a small flock, which is incapable of standing on its own.
Often (usually?) the people on the field decide that they just have to have a building to reach the people – so the home folks oblige by providing one. They also want to be able to leave someday to return home, so they almost immediately begin to train a replacement – who, of course, must be supported by someone back home.
Then for years, even decades, the home church(es) are locked into payment for a building and support of a local "evangelist" who is really a pastor of a single congregation.
This does not seem much like the mission activity of the church in the New Testament. I have seen a better model, which I have described here.
One reason I enjoy my work with Eastern European Mission (www dot eem dot com) is that this organization does not "control" the efforts we assist, though we do (when asked) provide advice based on the nearly 50 years experience of the organization. A wide variety of methods are used in different fields as we function as "the logistics branch" of the Lord's army in Eastern Europe.
Jerry
The addresss for eem should be http://www.eem.org, not .com.
Jerry
Jay, you have me and (maybe) others confused. you have just spent hours, and thousands of pixels trying to convince, we have the greatest most powerful decision maker ever, living within each and every Christian. How come the elders at AU church need outside help to make a decision, on how to spend the church's money. Maybe you need to have a talk with your fellow elders and convince them, that it is God's money, let him decide. Or is this (Missions Resource Network and Kairos.) the name the Holy Spirit is using now, after all you did say things change. If the message was written on the wall "let MRN & K do it) then forget what I just said.
Yeah, I know maybe this is where "The Holy Spirit " led you, but I seem to recall where it is said "God is no respecter of men" (and their ideas)
confused in Texas
"'Points of Compassion' is what we call our missions/church planting program, which is overseen by a team of members with a passion for missions."
jay, what does "overseen" mean in this context. is this a committee that's given its funding for the year and told to get to work? or do they make recommendations to the elders on which missionaries to support or which locations to place servants? or are they largely told what to do, and simply in charge of carrying out those "orders."
honestly, i think this is one of the biggest difficulties facing us missionaries when seeking sending churches and the like. with whom should we speak, and who is making decisions? and even then, you wouldn't believe how often the "authority structure" is changed because of someone's family member or the like.
oh, and i should offer a really big thank you for the following:
"Missionaries shouldn’t be expected to impose traditions or American cultural values that aren’t found in the Bible."
and i'd ask that we go a little further to say those missionaries might even need to present the gospel in a different fashion. ie instead of starting with Jesus dying for our sins, which made us all guilty… God is all-powerful and able to defeat evil spirits, curses, and even death itself.
Missions/planting is something I know little about so I am excited to read more on this. I'm hoping this wasn't a stand-alone post and is actually part of a bigger series!
Laymond,
I hope that your reference to Jay and the "AU" church was accidental. I'd hate to think that you deliberately insulted a fan of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide by associating him with the Auburn University War Eagles, their cross-state rivals! That, in Alabama, would be worse than mixing up Texas A&M and Texas would be in Texas. (I've lived in both states, so I think I know.)
Jerry
Yeah Jerry, I noticed that, but didn't think it worthy of a disclaimer, or reprint 🙂
When I write the Uof A I naturally think of Arkansas 🙂
Laymond,
The Spirit is in all Christians giving us gifts. When we combine our gifts, the result is better than when we separate the gifts on some theory of autonomy.
(1Co 12:14-18 ESV) 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
James Brett,
Normally, our missions committee is given its funding and it oversees the program with minimal elder involvement. Lately, as we've been working with the team to re-envision the program, the elders have been more involved, but that's a temporary situation. We are in the process of working ourselves out the missions program, now that we have an agreed framework within which to work.
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