{"id":31824,"date":"2022-09-10T15:45:29","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-shifts-to-mobilize-your-church-for-global-mission-involvement\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:45:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:45:29","slug":"5-shifts-to-mobilize-your-church-for-global-mission-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-shifts-to-mobilize-your-church-for-global-mission-involvement\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Shifts to Mobilize Your Church for Global Mission Involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"
NASA photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Lori McDaniel<\/em><\/p>\n

It was nothing I expected, but it was everything I needed. Sitting on a dirt floor with makeshift coverings of miscellaneous fabrics, I listened as members of the small, South Asian village church gave testimony to how God had been working.<\/p>\n

In a prior gathering, these new believers had been challenged to share the gospel with 30 people in one month.<\/p>\n

They held each other accountable to this task and shared personal stories with varying results, but all sounded something like, \u201cI shared the gospel with 18 people, seven became Christ-followers, four were baptized, one was healed of demon possession, and now five are meeting every night in my home for prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

I sat in awe. This small group of 15 believers shared the gospel in one month with over 300 people.<\/p>\n

I admired the tenacity of their obedience in making Christ\u2019s name known. They believed God had given the Great Commission to the church. As believers in Christ they were part of the church, therefore, it informed their daily lives.<\/p>\n

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God\u2019s mission was their mission. They owned it.<\/p>\n

The flood of admiration I felt for them capsized leaving me drowning in personal conviction. While their obedience seemed radical, it was simply normal, New Testament behavior for believers.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t my church\u2019s normal. It wasn\u2019t my<\/em> normal. But why not? Why shouldn\u2019t it be?<\/p>\n

I knew something needed to shift. My church needed to shift. We needed to identify areas where we were stuck concerning our missions involvement. Consider these five shifts we made from being stuck to taking next steps in participating in God\u2019s global mission. <\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Identify and disrupt the \u201csomeday\u201d mindset regarding missions.<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h3>\n

A church that finds it difficult to take a next step in mission involvement may be stuck in the sludge of \u201csomeday\u201d thinking. A \u201csomeday\u201d mindset impedes movement and ultimately alignment with God\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

Dangerously, this \u201csomeday\u201d thinking morphs into a \u201csomeday theology\u201d that sucks you into believing that God can only use you if some perceived limitation is removed.<\/p>\n

We believe God will use our church to engage in global missions someday<\/em> when our church is bigger, or someday<\/em> when we have more staff, or someday<\/em> when we have a bigger budget, or someday<\/em> after the building is complete\u2014and so it continues until it becomes a habit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday\u201d thinking is a delusion; a slippery slope to no day at all.<\/p>\n

The consequences of \u201csomeday\u201d thinking is that it affects more than just the collective mindset of your church, its result is evident in how individuals integrate the Great Commission, or rather don\u2019t integrate it, into their daily life.<\/p>\n

A church that thinks with a someday mindset shapes individuals who model the same kind of thinking\u2014\u201csomeday when I get older, someday when I’m not so busy, someday when I get married, someday when our kids move out of the house, or someday when I make more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disrupting this pattern of thinking requires shifting to the reality that the Great Commission isn\u2019t on pause until someday. The invitation to make Christ\u2019s name known in all the earth is active today, regardless.<\/p>\n

2. Shift from a one-off-mission-project approach to strategic mission partnerships.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our portable, new church plant was three years old when we were asked to partner with a missionary in West Africa to plant churches among 4 billion Muslims.<\/p>\n

We were still wiping dried milk and bread crumbs out of the plastic chairs each Sunday to set up for worship in the school cafeteria. How in the world could we be an ongoing partner in missions?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that we weren\u2019t involved in missions. We were. Our missions involvement consisted of short-term projects with no cohesive direction. Our missions approach was scattered rather than strategic.<\/p>\n

Without a global missions strategy, there is no identifiable objective, which means the church doesn\u2019t have a clear vision for what it\u2019s accomplishing.<\/p>\n

Shifting to a strategic mission partnership didn\u2019t mean we stopped taking mission trips or contributing generously to projects. Creating a mission strategy simply tethered our short-term involvement to a long-term aim.<\/p>\n

Developing a long-term mission strategy clarified where our church placed priority, cultivated a unified urgency to get the gospel to unreached places, and concentrated our collective effort in praying, giving, and going for the purpose of seeing churches planted among unreached people.<\/p>\n

3. Amplify the missions conversation into more than a special announcement or sermon.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Missions isn\u2019t a special announcement and it\u2019s not a message dusted off and preached behind the podium once a year. The Great Commission is the engine that drives forward everywhere the church goes and everything the church does.<\/p>\n

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See also  3 Practical Steps for Reaching the Mission Field in Your Neighborhood<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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We need to level set the conversation regarding missions by teaching people not only to love the Word of God, but also to understand His love for the world that compels us to participate in His mission to the world.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 command to go into the world wasn\u2019t a special sermon or an announcement about a mission team the disciples were invited to sign up for. Jesus integrated the missions conversation into their entire understanding of the Scriptures by opening their eyes to the whole narrative of God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n

He opened the Old Testament\u2014the law, the Prophets, and the Psalms\u2014and He helped them see that from the beginning God had been on mission to make His name known and that this gospel would be preached to all nations beginning right where they were sitting (Luke 24:44-47).<\/p>\n

They were invited to be part of something historical, something biblical, and something eternal.<\/p>\n

4. Identify and leverage your church\u2019<\/strong>s unique global mission contribution.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Your church has its own unique shape and personality informed by the demographic of its people. Most certainly we can learn best practices from the church down the street that is strategically mobilizing its members to participate in God\u2019s global mission.<\/p>\n

But let us also recognize that in order to activate people to leverage their lives for God\u2019s glory, we need to help them understand their skills, their education, their careers, and the resources God has purposefully given to them.<\/p>\n

He has \u201cblessed them\u201d so that His \u201cway may be known on earth, [His] saving power among all nations\u201d (Psalm 67:1-2).<\/p>\n

What your church can contribute to missions with its tech-savvy-entrepreneurs (or its retirees or its construction workers or its educators, etc.) will be different from the city church packed with college students.<\/p>\n

Assess your church’s unique mission contribution and then equip them to think like missionaries. Don\u2019t dumb down global missions or dismiss their participation in it.<\/p>\n

Rather, challenge their thinking concerning their careers or season of life and lead them to consider where in the world they could live and use their career or season of life to further God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n

5. Shift the gathering on Sunday morning to a launch pad for going. <\/strong> <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Sunday morning church services aren\u2019t the final destination. Sunday morning is the launching pad.<\/p>\n

Did you know that once a rocket is launched it takes eight minutes for it to reach orbit? Consider, however, how much time and effort goes into inventing, building, training, equipping, and prepping for that launch day.<\/p>\n

Yes, there\u2019s a lot of work and effort that go into Sunday church services. But gathering isn\u2019t intended to be the end result. Peter and John, after being arrested and released, returned to a gathering of believers.<\/p>\n

In that gathering, their prayer revealed their intention to continually go: \u201cAnd now, Lord, \u2026 grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness\u201d (Acts 4:29).<\/p>\n

Shift the intended purpose of your gatherings to launch people to go.<\/p>\n

Is your church stuck in your global missions involvement? What needs to shift?<\/p>\n

Jesus is always reshaping our misguided notions, challenging our assumptions, disrupting our thinking, and interrupting our plans, but it\u2019s always for one reason\u2014so we experience Him and His glory which fuels a passion to participate in His mission.<\/p>\n

Dare to imagine today how God may want to lead you beyond what you\u2019re already doing today.<\/p>\n

LORI MCDANIEL (@LoriMMcDaniel) <\/strong>worked as a leader in mobilization with the International Mission Board for six years. She and her husband, Mike, and their three children served as missionaries in Zambia, Africa, before returning to plant Grace Point Church in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Mike is senior pastor.  Lori is a starter and builder of several ministries locally and globally. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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When Mission Shapes Mission: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group<\/h2>\n

David Horner<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
5 Ways Your Congregation Can Meaningfully Connect With the Global Church 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA photo – Unsplash By Lori McDaniel It was nothing I expected, but it was everything I needed. Sitting on a dirt floor with makeshift coverings of miscellaneous fabrics, I listened as members of the small, South Asian village church gave testimony to how God had been working. In a prior gathering, these new believers … Continue reading “5 Shifts to Mobilize Your Church for Global Mission Involvement”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}