Missions on Point

Now we get to the Elevation Phase. Elevation is where the church and missions leaders begin to bring the whole church along into this new biblical awareness of what it takes to be a sending church. The leaders may be running down the track, excited about where they are going. The church members are probably still in the starting blocks, waiting for the gun to go off.  Teaching is a big part of it: for the church as a whole, as well...

A huge part of educating your church to grow in becoming a Sending Church is taking the initiative to ask for help! Key life lessons apply here: 

1. Don't be in a hurry
2. Commit to self-assessment using metrics outside of yourself
3. Learn from other churches that have been in your position
4. Realize that God can use any "need" as an opportunity for growth, change, and positive movement in the right direction.

Find the Church Miss...

With a body of information from the Evaluation stage, we enter the Education stage. We will revisit some fundamental biblical truths as a priority to gain unity and clarity among the leadership. The episode highlights the most basic elements and draws some contrasts with fuzzy truths known, promoted, or accepted in our present day. We'll discuss a few key principles for funding missions, including some initial thoughts on church mi...

The completion of our consideration of evaluating your church's potential as a good sending church includes thoughts that will ultimately help your church rise to that challenge. Start with prayer. End with prayer. Pray throughout the process. Ask lots of probing questions. Understand that you must win the participation and ownership of your church leaders. Seek to find the right resources and partners to become the good sending ch...

Assessment or evaluation of the local church's sending church potential is essential. This episode discusses some dynamics facing the person or entity doing the evaluation. We cover key questions that will reveal doctrine, desires, and design affecting the evaluation. This can be very helpful in discovering strengths and weaknesses. The process accelerates direction and solutions toward seeing the local church prepared and equipped...

Churches have two kinds of ministries they operate: essential and support ministries. In this episode, we talk about how to make a distinction between the two and why that is important, along with some potential dangers and some helpful implications. Did you ever consider that your church operates parachurch ministries from within? Perhaps what your church has considered really important should be viewed as a non-essential parachur...

Once we understand what the essentials of the church are, then we are able to define a parachurch ministry. The definition proposed in this episode will help us to keep the priority of ministry on the local church. It will help us understand why missions is important for churches as we compare and contrast all churches everywhere. And hopefully, you will be motivated in your own ministry to not exceed its mandate and see how it rig...

Christians do a lot of things, most of it on their own as an act of faith that God has given them a ministry. Yet, Jesus warns us that many will claim having done many things in Jesus' name, but Jesus will reject them because he never knew them. How can we sort through what is a Christian ministry and what is not? Before we can answer that question, we must first understand what ministry the church does. Getting the church right wi...

The final history books of the OT, lead us to think about the hard work of building God's temple and kingdom. Clearly the old temple's glory would not be restored, but God's glory is worth our efforts because we look forward to a better temple. The book of Esther too teaches us about the limitations of man. Yet, we are responsible to do what we can, and God may use our works if he pleases. God will build a dwelling place for himsel...

These three prophets each have a unique contribution to the biblical message. And, with as believers today rightly interpret and apply these books, they are led to be mobilized for global missions. God shows us his compassion for the nations. He fills us with his Spirit so that we can preach the good news to all nations. And He promises to defeat every enemy raised against him, especially those who were once his enemies but have no...

Even though Judah was not like the apostate nation of Israel in the north, they had wandered from God. They too needed to be warned of impending judgment. But through this we learn about the prophetic hope in the judgment of God against every evil, which oppresses all mankind. The day of the Lord will be terrible, for God's wrath is not to be taken lightly. But in wrath, God remembers mercy, so it will also be a day of salvation fo...