For Local Churches

Updated June 2011

Missions

Toolkit

For Local Churches

A missions manual

for independent Baptist Churches

serious about global outreach

Dr. Bill Smallman

and others at

Baptist Mid-Missions

Cleveland, Ohio

Baptist Mid-Media

2012

A Missions Toolkit for Churches

By William H. Smallman (and others of Baptist Mid-Missions)

All Bible quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible, in the public domain, unless clearly allusions to the content of the text.

Some of these materials have previously been published by Baptist Mid-Missions in its Candidate Seminar Manuals and other publications, used by permission with appropriate modifications.

A Missions Toolkit for Churchesis a work in progress, intended for eventual publication by Baptist Mid-Missions. This working draft is presented as classnotes in a formative stage of the editorial processing of the book. Any use or citation of the work should recognize this as a pre-publication edition which may later appear with modifications under a different title.

All rights are reserved to the owner of this work,

Baptist Mid-Missions,

Box 308011

Cleveland, Ohio 44130-8011

Table of Contents

For

A Missions Toolkit

for Churches

Chapter Page

1. The Church: Foundation of World Missions 1

2. Why Have Mission Agencies? 16

3. Missions Policy for a Baptist Church 33

4. Promoting & Praying for Missions within the Church 45

5. Developing New Missionaries in the Church 60

6. Short Term Missions 81

7. Missionary Conferences: Planning and Execution 99

8. The Missionary Career in Seven Crises114

9. What Missionaries Do132

10. Women in Missionary Ministry142

11. Deputation: Getting to the Field156

12. Financing the Missionary Venture174

13. Furlough: Active Ministry away from the Front Lines 187

14. MKs: A Treasured Resource202

15. Bible Translation: Passing on the Word213

16. Compassion Ministries230

17. Partnerships in Missions248

BIBLIOGRAPHY265

INDEX268

A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT

FOREWORD

Missions is serious business. The Lord of the Harvest has raised up churches around the world that seek to perpetuate the ministry of the gospel by multiplying churches that will multiply themselves. Churches have struggled to fulfill their mandate by all legitimate means at their disposal, and have combined efforts by establishing mission agencies for the specialized work at hand. This does not undermine the involvement or authority of the local church. The mission agencies facilitate the engagement of pastors and church members in the partnership of Great Commission efforts.

Let’s define the focal points of this particular book,

We look at missions from the vantage point of the local church, whether a sending or supporting church. What can its members do to enhance the quality of their global missionary involvement?
We look at missions for independent Baptist churches in traditional fundamentalist orbit. In today’s journalistic jargon the word “fundamentalist” suggests fanaticism and exclusivism, while we continue to use the honorable term in its original (1920) sense of defining and defending the fundamentals of traditional orthodox Christianity in a socio-religious environment which has turned hostile toward such a stand.
We look for practical solutions to the “how?” questions, more than to theoretical bases for the “why?” questions. Both are valid approaches, but this work is designed more as a how-to manual for church missions committees than as a theological tome for the missiologists who already have libraries of worthy (and unworthy) works to chew on.

Keep in mind the purpose for the missionary program at your church: to reproduce the biblical convictions of this church around the world with appropriate cultural variety. Missions is the DNA of the church as it reproduces its essential features by various means. So the very selection of what missionaries to support involves a decision as to just who and what you are as a church, since your missionaries represent the convictions that you want to perpetuate around the world.

This book emerges from years of ministry in churches, dealing with issues that arise in the real world of missions in and from the church. It also comes from the seminary classroom for the training of pastors seeking strong missions programs, rather than training the missionaries themselves. The primary author has been a church planting pastor, field missionary doing church planting and seminary training, a mission administrator, and adjunct instructor in Missiology. The many others consulted for enriching chapters in their areas of expertise have mostly also been field missionaries, several with pastoral experience in the States as well as overseas. Thanks go to Glenn Kerr of Bibles International, Steve Fulks in Enlistment and Church Relations, and Larry Beckman of the Baptist World Relief program for their significant contributions to the chapters on their ministry areas within Baptist Mid-Missions. Many others have reviewed and clarified chapters in their realms of responsibility, so this is truly a shared effort as the mission offers this resource to pastors and missions committees in churches we serve.

This is a great adventure. Our primary objective is to expand the territory where Jesus Christ is exalted as LORD and Savior. That begins at home by deepening the quality of Christian character and witness among church members, increases through the support of missionaries, and reaches its highest realization as God calls members of your church to serve at the uttermost parts of the earth.

So this simple Toolbox is offered to facilitate that process: Glorify Christ as churches multiply themselves around the world. Let us know how we can improve the Toolbox for you in future editions. Write to us at with your input, critiques, suggestions, and case studies.

Rev. Bill Smallman, D.Miss., 1st V.P. (Ret.), Baptist Mid-Missions

Chapter 1

THE CHURCH: FOUNDATION

OF WORLD MISSIONS

THE CHURCH AS THE SENDING AGENCY

When Jesus stated, “I will build my church” He set the pace for focus, fervor, and future of the coming age, the age of the church. This was His declaration of the First World War which continues to this day. During this present time, between the time of the Law and of the Kingdom, God’s instrument on this earth is his church. The church is both the sending agency and the outcome of successful missionary work for yet another generation. The church is the locus of God’s main activities, the agency of his coming Kingdom even as He reigns today. As someone observed, “the mission of the church is missions; the mission of missions is the church.”

The missionary enterprise is based on sending churches, so we turn our attention to the model sending church in Acts chapter 13. Today’s churches need the same outreach mentality and mindset that drove that church to multiply itself, even at the cost of sending out its own pastor to do again what he had done so well with them.

THE SENDING CHURCH

Acts 13:1-5 & 14:26-28

These key passages provide a model for all churches in the sending out of their members as missionaries. Antioch, not Jerusalem, was the key hub of missionary activity in Acts. The churches founded by such missionaries have always had biblical power to set up their own missionary program, building on what the founding missionaries began for them. What Antioch initiated was never in rebellion from the Jerusalem church, but was the fulfillment of their purpose for sending organizational help to the Antioch church. Still, there were tensions over the readiness of the Antioch group to bring in changes, changes, changes - from new cultures encountering Christ and worshiping Him in their own ways, different from the Jerusalem tradition. Since Antioch was on the frontier of the predominantly gentile world those believers already had the advantage of being more culturally adaptable than the traditional Jewish Messianic believers.

Note what this key passage identifies as primary roles of the church, their missionaries, and the Holy Spirit, as they work together in great commission synergy.

THE ROLES OF THE CHURCH

1. Inventory its human resources, v. Acts 13:1, 5. The quick introduction to the leadership of the church demonstrates that they were well enough developed as a church that the surrender of two key leaders to missions would not cripple the church. It could continue its present ministry while reaching out to reproduce itself elsewhere. People are always the primary resource in missions.

2. Worship with fasting, v. 1, 3. The church with its eyes and heart on God is in condition to sense His heartbeat for the lost. Missionary strategy must begin and end with worship and service for the glory of God.

3. Separate the called workers, v. 2. Those whom God has earmarked for worldwide ministry are somehow set apart within the congregation for the onus and honor of being their ambassadors. They will never again be the same.

4. Release called workers to go, v. 3. The verb in the original underlying “sent them away” is “release” or “set loose.” The implication is that Barnabas and Saul were eager to go out and do elsewhere what they had accomplished well at home. They were not shoved out the door, reluctant to face the challenge, but were like stallions champing at the bit, seeking liberty to charge onward. The church is not to restrain and frustrate those who are eager and prepared to go, but is to set them free for ministry and bear their costs.

THE ROLES OF THE MISSIONARIES

1. Work faithfully for Christ, v. 1. Those whom the church may send out are the ones with proven ability to produce fruit for Christ. Here was no “zeal without knowledge,” but productive proven experience.

2. Listen to the Spirit, v. 2. Missionaries are to be sensitive to the voice of God the Spirit within them, able to discern the difference between receiving enlightenment from God and just being struck by a good idea.

3. Obey the church leaders, v. 3. God’s method is the church, so the leaders of the church become His mouthpiece in giving direction to the new missionary movement.

4. Preach the Word, v. 5. Essential ministry activity on the mission field is the same as at home, even as local tactics may vary. They will evangelize, develop disciples, and establish churches which will perpetuate that process. They are to reproduce their sending church in a culturally-appropriate form.

5. Give account of their service, 14:27. The missionaries are accountable to their sending church, so they return to report on their ministry struggles, successes, and failures. During their extended leave at home they participate in the ministries of the church.

THE ROLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1. Communicate the will of God, v. 2. The Messenger of the Trinity is the agent of revelation, whether inspiring writers of Scripture or directing the personal ambassadors of the church. God is eager to make His will known to his servants.

2. Call the missionaries, v. 2. The summons to serve in the great commission can only come from God. People are to offer themselves to the Lord of the Harvest, but the call to serve is God’s prerogative alone. Not all who are willing are called. The local church plays a vital role in discerning the reality of a call from God (or from the called one).

3. Send out the missionaries, v. 4. The Spirit is the ultimate Sender, now through the agency of the local church.

4. Empower missionaries for their work, v. 5. The power of the Spirit, seen in the signs and wonders which were then still legitimate, vindicated the preaching of the Word. The completion of the New Testament rendered such displays of power unnecessary, but the power to penetrate the unregenerate heart is still exercised by the Spirit through the Word in the mouths of godly witnesses.

Antioch serves as a model for what has come to be called in some circles “a missional church.” This is a local church which sees itself as God’s witness in the world, and will do all that is needed to make the gospel clear to the surrounding community. This Antiochian prototype demonstrates the underlying authority of the church in the entire missionary enterprise. Still, the specifics of field planning and tactical approaches were left largely to the initiative of the body of missionaries as they went out and served in accountability to their sending church.

THE AUTHORITY QUESTION

One of the hotly debated issues in missions today is “who controls the missionaries?” No one seems to state the question quite so blatantly, but churches want to know where the real decision-making power lies. There are a few sub-issues that are foundational here:

Has the mission agency usurped the authority of the local church over its missionaries?
Can the pastor direct the ministries of his missionaries on the field?
Are mission boards biblical, and necessary? (See Chapter 2 for this question.)

Let's set up a continuum, stretched from extreme to extreme, and figure out what ought to lie between the extremes.

Pastor –
directed / Mission –
directed

Pastor - Directed. Let's face it; there ARE pastors who want to directly supervise the ministries of their missionaries on the field. Missionaries are looked upon as members of his church staff who just happen to be at a greater distance than the other associate pastors in the church. Such pastors resent the intervention of the mission agency between the church and its missionaries, whether in the person of an administrator or embodied in a field council of missionaries who govern themselves. While there is talk of the authority of the local church it is often the pastor who speaks for the church without further consultation. Does this work?

CASE: Three missionary families are working together on one project: say, starting a large church with varied ministries, or teaching together in a seminary, or running a radio station. A strategic decision is needed as to whether to do Plan X or Plan Y next month. Missionary A's pastor wants him to opt for Plan X, but Missionary B and C's pastors want them to opt for Plan Y.

There are some questions which underlie the situation. Whose pastor rules there? Where did those pastors get their information for the decision but from their own missionaries, each with their own prejudices and preferences? Is there a Plan Z which is really better? What is the forum for negotiation of strategy? Should the pastors all go to the field to see the reality of the situation firsthand before rendering a decision? Are the pastors at home communicating with each other to offer an informed consensus on the issue? Should the sending churches not entrust such decisions to their missionaries to resolve together as the called and involved group?

Mission - Directed. Let's face it, there ARE mission agencies that seek to supervise directly the ministries of their missionaries with no thought given to the authority of their sending churches over them. They think of themselves as autonomous ministries independent of any church authority or pastoral guidance, and think of the missionaries as THEIR missionaries.

Another set of questions comes into play.

Aren't those missionaries really under the authority of their sending churches?
Isn't the pastor the responsible leader of the local church?
Do missions hide information from pastors to keep them from "meddling"?

There are cases where the church hands its missionaries over to a mission board, and essentially relinquishes its meaningful relationship with them. In cases of denominational missions where this is the more common pattern, the board has denominational support and direction, so the mission does not need to worry much about the churches. The board provides all the services instead of the church, and the church carries little sense of responsibility for the missionaries. They now belong to the mission.

Church authority through the mission. Let's look at a more balanced view of the exercise of authority.

Pastor - directed / Church authority directed
through the Mission / Mission - directed

Churches have founded missions like Baptist Mid-Missions to enable them to focus the load on specialists among them who do that work more efficiently. We who are mission administrators do not see ourselves as functioning apart from the will and vision of the churches which called this organization into existence back in 1920 as the world’s first independent Baptist mission agency. Such agencies are a healthy function of the church, an arm of the churches. The mission is not some independent organization that can act apart from the authority of the sending and supporting churches. So the church exercises its authority by commissioning their missionaries to work under the guidance of the mission agency. The mission is an agency selected by the church to represent them in missionary functions.

Rather than using “parachurch” to describe missions working “beside” the church, one has coined the term “metachurch,” as an organization working “in the midst” of the church. We seek a middle ground that can describe the mission agency as an organization “through which” the church exercises its sending authority.