Church Plants and Missions: A Framework: Mission Sunday; Evaluation; Vision

Mission Sunday

• The church will approve no congregational fundraisers in the 90 days before Missions Sunday other than in the case of natural disasters and similar emergencies.

We’re a big church, and we have requests for very good, very needed fundraisers throughout the year. But if we don’t fully fund the missions budget, we have to call missionaries home. It’s important.

Therefore, we refuse to allow any other fundraisers for the 3 months preceding our once-a-year Missions Sunday effort. But there are, of course, exceptions. And Haiti was a recent one. You can’t turn your back on disasters like that — and our congregation has always responded well to the challenge.

Evaluation

• All mission efforts will be evaluated at least annually in terms of these standards and effectiveness, but we will always remember the importance of patience and will not place unreasonable demands on the missionaries we support.
• Members of the mission team and elders will regularly visit missionaries in the field, both to evaluate and to assist in their work. Visits will be no less often than twice every five years.
• We will evaluate our own effectiveness at least annually by these same standards

This is tough. It’s just plain hard to evaluate the work of missionaries, and yet it’s irresponsible not to. We are fortunate to have retired missionaries on our missions team, but even they struggle to evaluate the work of someone half a world away. This is one area where we lean very heavily on the experts at Missions Resource Network and similar organizations.

Therefore, it’s critical that we regularly visit the missionaries in the field. When we do that, we send people who will help with the mission. You can’t just show up with clipboards and questionnaires. Rather, the way to learn about the missionary is to work beside him or her for a week or two. This has the advantage of helping that mission team member or elder become very empathetic to the work. He’ll return knowing the names of the local church members and with a deep understanding of the dynamics of the culture. Moreover, the missionary will know that we care enough about the mission to roll up our sleeves and help.

And it’s only fair to do self-evaluations. If the missionary gets evaluated, so do we. Are we being effective in God’s mission? It’s important to ask.

Vision

• We pray fervently that God will, within three years —
  • Help us transition all missions to works that meet these principles
  • Bring us at least one domestic church plant to support
  • Bring us at least two foreign church plants or mission efforts to support
  • Bring us at least one mission work that is close enough for us to support with annual short-term mission trips by adults, college students, and teens, and where the adults especially take passionate ownership of the mission, going for the sake of the mission rather than for the sake of the experience
  • Greatly extend and build his kingdom through these missions
  • Transform us into ever-more mission-minded, kingdom-hearted people who passionately support these and many more efforts through prayer, contributions, short-term visits, and other encouragements, taking ownership of each mission as an extension of the University Church
  • Raise up missionaries and church planters from among our own children and students