Developing a Missions Culture in Your Church

Welcome back to week 2 of missions ministry with Pastor Mike! To listen to today’s Deeper Devo click HERE. Or check out my latest Revive Our Hearts post: Are We Taking Our Kids to Jesus?

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If you were to go to our church’s website and click on the tab that says, “Missions Convictions,” you would read this:

“Missions is a culture, not a program. Every believer is called to play a role in fulfilling the Great Commission.”

Now, I have to admit, this statement is more aspirational than descriptive. We, like many churches, have a long way to go in this regard. But the sentiment holds true. If missions is just another in a long list of programs at your church, it will always be crowded out by the tyranny of the urgent. It’s much harder to get people excited about the needs of people far away when there are always plenty of needs nearby.

But like we saw last week: from Eden to eternity, scripture reveals that God’s heart is for the nations. And if God’s heart is for the nations, our churches must have a heart for the nations as well.

But growing from a church that has a missions program to a church that makes missions its culture is not easy. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of prayer.

If you’re a Pastor wanting to develop a missions culture in your church, or if you’re a church member hoping to see your church grow in its love for missions, by God’s grace there is much you can do.

For Pastors:

Preach the Thread

Probably the most important thing you can do is preach God’s heart for the nations whenever you see it in scripture. That doesn’t mean every sermon has to be a missions sermon. It means you need to clearly and consistently show people God’s missionary plan as you come to it in your exposition of the text.

A missions sermon is great, devoting a month to missions is even better. But to bridge the gap between program and culture, you need to have an eye for the thread of God’s heart for the nations woven throughout scripture, and preach it when you see it.

Have a Sending Plan

As Pastors, we must be ready to test, train, affirm and send our people into missions. If God is calling someone in your church to the mission field, it’s the church’s job to get them ready and send them out.

If someone asked to meet with you and told you they wanted to become a missionary, what would you say? I think one of the reasons churches struggle to develop a cohesive missions strategy is because they leave everything up to the desires of the person who feels called.

If someone told you they wanted to plant a church, you wouldn’t just write a check and say, “Go for it!” You would test their character and gifting in your church, make sure they had the proper training, and then send them out only with the affirmation of the Elders. Don’t take sending missionaries any less seriously!

Be proactive. Develop a plan to test, train, affirm and send missionaries from your congregation into the world.

Bring People to the Nations and the Nations to You!

Short term trips are an incredible opportunity for developing a missions culture in your church. Don’t waste them!

Be very intentional about where you go, whom you invite, and whom you ask to lead. Be intentional about training your leaders to see what you want them to see. Go with them when you can to help shepherd your people through the things they experience overseas.

And bring the nations to your church! Pray for unreached people groups in your church services. Invite missionaries and people who grew up in different cultures to speak about their experiences. You could even bring a small group of people to a mosque in your area to observe prayer.

For people to become passionate about the nations, they need to see it with their own eyes. Be intentional about bringing people to the nations, and creatively figure out how you can bring the nations to your people.

Make It Personal

I don’t know about your church, but our church is incredibly relational. Because of that, the best way to inspire people to action isn’t with a slick program or call to action, but through relationship.

Does your church currently support missionaries? Celebrate them! Could the average church member name the missionaries you support and where they serve? Help them get to know your global partners. It’s hard to be passionate about people you can’t even name. Do everything you can to put names and faces to your global missions strategy, and watch your church start to care for your missionaries in amazing ways.

For the Church Member:

Start Small

If you’re a church member who is passionate about missions, it can be frustrating to have a Pastor who doesn’t share that conviction. But don’t despair! There is much you can do as a church member to help your church become more obedient to the Great Commission.

My first suggestion is actually a caution. If you want to be effective, start small. Have grace. Realize that it’s going to take time.

Don’t come to your Pastor with 15 different suggestions about what he needs to start doing. His plate is already full! Make your requests rare and meaningful. Better yet, ask him if you can do the work of implementing your idea, rather than tossing it right in his lap. Trust me, he’ll be much more likely to agree!

Culture change doesn’t happen overnight. Start small and have grace.

Champion your Partners

One of the key things you can do is champion the missionaries that your church already partners with to your Pastor.  Learn who they are. Read their updates. Email your Pastor and let him know when there’s something worth celebrating, because he might have missed it. As a Pastor, I would love to receive an email like this from someone in our congregation:

“Hey Pastor Mike! Not sure if you saw the Smith’s recent update letter, but they just saw someone in their ministry give their life to the Lord! Love that our church is able to partner with people sharing the gospel all over the world!”

And you never know…you might just hear your update shared by your Pastor on a Sunday morning!

If you celebrate the work that your current missionary partners are doing, it shows your Pastor that you care about your church, rather than your idea of what you think the church should be like. To change the culture, champion your partners.

Use Your Ministry

Before you start to think about what programs your church needs to add, you need to think about what opportunities you already have in front of you.

Are you an adult Sunday school teacher? Ask if you can take a month out of the year to teach on missions.

Are you in a small group? “Adopt” a missionary family as a group, and commit to writing letters and sending care packages, as well as praying for them whenever you meet.

Are you a Jr. High girls group leader? Teach them about the fact that there are over 3 billion people in the world who have no access to the gospel, and pray for the unreached people group of the day on the Joshua Project app before you meet.

Are you a 2nd grade Sunday school teacher? See if any of your missionary partners have a child in 2nd grade, and develop a pen pal relationship as a class.

The list could go on and on. There are any number of things you can do. Be creative about using the opportunities the Lord has already given you to enlarge your church’s heart for the nations.

Pray For Your Pastors and Elders

Finally, you need to pray for your Pastors and Elders. Pray that they start to see the importance of the Great Commission. Pray that their hearts break for the 3 billion without access to the gospel. Pray that the “missions thread” leaps out to them as they read their bibles. Pray that they have opportunities to go to the nations themselves to experience it firsthand.

As a Pastor, there’s nothing more meaningful to me than when a church member tells me they’ve been praying for me, and I can tell they really mean it. We need your prayer!

Conclusion

If missions is just another church program, then the tyranny of the urgent will always crowd it out. It needs to become a culture. But a culture takes time to develop.

Pastors, don’t lose heart! Your consistent voice reminding your church of the importance of the nations can make a world of difference.

Church member, don’t get discouraged! Missions is near to God’s heart. Which means that over time, through much prayer and intentionality, it can be near to your church’s heart as well.

Next week we’ll talk about the work that still needs to be done, and how you and your family can play a vital role in fulfilling the Great Commission wherever you are.

God Bless,

Pastor Mike