I’m excited about a meeting coming up in a few days in which some friends and I will dream and scheme about starting a missions team for a really cool church I love!
Would you give me the gift of responding to these two questions?
- What pitfalls should I watch for as we begin this process?
- What should we definitely do early on?
Even if you’ve never commented before, I’d value your thoughts and your time to record them below.
If you’re in a remotely similar situation, you’ll love the brief, insightful ebook, How to Operate an Effective Missions Leadership Team in Your Church. It was written by my hero, mobilization master David Mays, who’s now resting with Jesus.
I’m not sure what your goals for the “mission Team” are, I’m assuming this is another name for “missions board” and is to help propagate “missions” inside the body. Here are my thoughts: Education, always be reading something or discussing something and learning new things; Read the T4T book by Ying Kia and start doing it inside the team. Train everyone to share their testimony and Gospel and don’t assume they know how to-just do it together. Learn about what is working by subscribing or sharing Mission Frontiers Magazine and Perspectives Course. Look around your church and ask “how can we as a group help?”, this may mean going to your church Pastor and asking directly. Take some of the things you have learned like sharing your testimony out into festivals, malls, parks etc. and do what you have been studying. Pray, don’t just talk about it and end with “lets pray real quick” Support one another, you have the potential to be a church real quick so act like one and help each other. Everyone lead, not just men but women to and children if you have them. Teach the T4T model along with the Discovery Bible study then do it. Be doers of the Word not just hearers. Everything you do is setting up the DNA of the group, what they see you do or don’t do communicates and gets transferred to them. Hope this helps.
Two comments on developing and starting a church missions team/committee:
1) we joined a denominational church that already had a missions/outreach committee. While all the members had a great heart for missions, most were not that informed of the broader missions world, and basically supported denominational efforts. Part of the development of the team was education of the broader context of mission needs and possibilities via specialized mission agencies that were in addition to the national denomination. Also, the church had a reputation as being a “community chest” for various local charitable organizations, and developing missional priorities, guidelines and policies helped in the development of the outreach arm of the church and its budget planning process.
2) as the church developed its mission component and launched a daughter/
“mission” church-plant that we unintentionally helped to start, we served as the initial mission committee leaders of the new church plant. It was a natural process to initiate a missions team since we came from the mother church that had a thriving missions ministry.
Here’s another David Mays book that includes some of the same content as the one you shared and has some additional content. http://www.davidmays.org/Stuff%20vol%20I.pdf Blessings!
The whole process, tasks, and challenges are outlined on Propempo.com’s “Church Mobilization” path. The topic question articles include many downloadable resources. http://propempo.com/book/church-mobilization
Hi Shane. See what you can glean from, “Establishing a Global Outreach Team”, a 7-step online tutorial I’ve been updating for the Mission America Coalition. It recommends and links to key resources from various mission mobilization ministries, many of them online. Find it at: mac-global.wikispaces.com/Establishing+a+Global+Outreach+Team
What pitfalls should I watch for as we begin this process?
Coming with a “mission” rather than a Kingdom and Servanthood agenda
Discover what the needs are first.
Align your missional strategy, mission and vision with your church’s strategy, mission and vision. Seamless local/global impact in all regions
What should we definitely do early on?
Discover the current world dynamics – where is the Church growing and what needs they have to become healthy and fruitful (my guess is Leadership Training).
Ask foreign church leaders what they need – and respond to those needs.
Don’t create dependency. Sometimes giving hurts (ask Tom’s shoes who changed their give-away strategy. (http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-08/toms-shoes-rethinks-its-buy-one-give-one-model-helping-needy)
Do whatever you do with all your heart. Give generously. Learn from others’ mistakes.
DO NOT send your teenagers. They take too much effort to take care of overseas. Send your pastors.
Have all the team read three books: “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert; “Serving As Senders: How to Care for Your Missionaries While They Are Preparing to Go, While They Are on the Field, When They Return Home” by Neal Pirolo; and “Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence” by David A. Livermore. Then find a multi-week “Perspectives” course that the team can attend.
Pitfalls? Rememebr God is already at work wherever the mission teams chooses to support. And all mission service should be about those being served not those serving. That’s why I recommended the books first.
The only thing I can recommend as a non-negotiable is that you pray. Before any other decisions are made, pray. Before trips are planned, before people are approached to join, before before requests for help are considered, before ANYTHING – Pray!
Some tremendous suggestions, already. I will add only one: Clearly communicate to the whole church that ALL the ministries of the church are equally important. I know! I know! This is hard for us missions folk to do. But it is vital. It is too easy for us to run rough shod over the other ministries, because Missions is now the MOST VITAL of all! Of course, also let them know they can do “missions” in their own home town! The Internationals of the world are at the doorstep of every church in the world!
Lorena: Thanks for reading and for the great thoughts. I appreciate your emphasis on learning and modeling implementation for the rest of the church.
Leiton: Thanks for reading Missions Catalyst and for your comments. I’m very hopeful that God will give us the honor of spawning some daughter churches along the way and that missional dna will be a strong component in them.
Pete: Thanks for linking to David’s “Stuff Vol. 1.” What a treasure trove!
David: Thanks for reading Missions Catalyst and for the link to Propempo. You’ve invested tons of hours into that site, eh? Great info. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Dave: Great work there, Brother. Thanks for the investment and for pointing me to it. I think we’ll find it helpful and pray that many others will as well.
Rich: Thanks for taking the time to weigh in. I appreciate the advice to align mission efforts with the rest of the church’s strategy and direction. Good word. I also liked the admonition to take pators, not teen agers! Made me smile.
Greg: Thanks for reading Missions Catalyst and for the book and Perspectives recommendations. Very helpful.
Rick: Thank you for the reminder to pray early and pray often. I appreciate that.
Neal: Thanks for reading Missions Catalyst and for the wise counsel that all the ministries of the church are equally important. It’s easy to lose sight of that, eh?