Missions on Point

MoP193 Missions Paths - Inquire

Everyone has a missions path to go down.  Which one is yours?  Begin your journey by inquiring.  Ask good questions.  Find out more about missions, it's biblical basis, it's history, your church's role in missions and the missionaries you know.  Become a life-long learner of missions.  Challenge yourself to commit to missions and grow in the depth of your understanding of God's heart for missions.  Inquire!  
You can find detailed answers to the questions asked here at https://propempo.com/services/missions-paths/inquirer/
You can compile your only custom-made pdf of missions questions and answers with Propempo's handy tool: https://propempo.com/services/missions-path-pdf/

Mop192 Church Partnership in Missions - 6 Encouraging Trends

We have much to praise God for when considering how churches are increasingly stepping up to take their rightful place being responsible for global missions.  We see God growing churches to become sending churches, and there are many organizations that are teaching this and supporting this now.  Please continue to pray that this paradigm shift in thinking about missions as church-centered would grow from a groundswell into a full on tidal wave of change in how most churches and agencies do missions.  And thank God that we are already seeing that conviction take root in several ways now.  Listen to this episode to hear a run down of several organizations that are on the right track.  And leave a comment on the podcast if you can think of any more.     

MoP191 Church Partnerships in Missions - 5 The Church Partnership Agreement

The church, the missions agency and the missionary all need to work together to accomplish the mission.  Who bears what responsibility?  How can we manage expectations?  And most importantly, how can we maintain the biblical conviction of keeping the church in the driver's seat?  Furthermore, how can we resolve conflicts when disagreements about or divergence from expectations arise?  In this episode we walk through a proposed template for a church and agency partnership agreement.  Feel free to adapt it as you like, because your church and the mission's needs will vary from situation to situation.

MoP190 Church Partnerships in Missions - 4 For the Missions Agency

Over the years, missions agencies and churches have diverged from each other and often find themselves at odds.  But, missions agencies provide a unique role in fostering church partnerships.  First, agencies must recognize how they have succumbed to mission creep, no long supporting the church like they originally intended.  Second, missions agencies can equip the church for their role.  Third, they can let go of those roles that most appropriately belong under the domain of the local church.  Furthermore, missions agencies foster church partnerships too, through prioritizing prayer and facilitating the gathering of churches around the mission that they are partnering in.

MoP189 Church Partnerships in Missions - 3 For the Church

No matter what kind of church you are, there is value in establishing church partnerships in the work of missions.  Three kinds of churches are explored in this episode: the sending church, the supporting church, and the receiving church.  Each kind of church has a unique interest in church partnerships.  Churches need other churches.  Just like the Gentile churches sent support to the church in Jerusalem, we too need to be aware of and ready to help other churches in need.  And who knows, one day we might find ourselves on the receiving end of care as well.  

MoP188 Church Partnerships in Missions - 2 For the Missionary

The missionary is a bridge between two cultures and the churches in those cultures.  Church partnerships provides the framework for the missionary to understand the value of his work.  Sometimes work like raising support and writing newsletters can feel like a drudgery, and simply a means to an end.   But they're not.  They support the grand vision of church partnerships.  A vision for church partnerships can help motivate the missionary in their work to rise above the reduction of their ministry to metrics.  Brotherly affection crosses cultures too.

MoP187 Church Partnerships in Missions - 1 Biblical Necessity

What do church partnerships have to do with missions?  Isn't it enough that we see healthy churches planted and leaders developed?  In this episode we walk through the biblical account of God's plan for his glory through the unity of churches across cultures as we together worship the same risen Lord and Savior.  Ever since the Tower of Babel, our cooperation has been cursed.  But now that we share the same Spirit, church partnerships can show the world something unique about God's glory.  This is the final goal of missions.  

MoP186 Discipleship in the Church - 6 Power

We are weak, limited and frail.  Where can we find the strength to endure until the end, to accomplish the great task that Jesus has given to us to go into all the world, teaching disciples to obey all that Jesus has commanded us?  We are desperately dependent on God alone for both our justification and our sanctification.  God guarantees the success of the mission because he guarantees that his presence will go with us.  We find comfort in the powerful, personal presence of our Savior.