We pastors and local churches have certain obligations to our missionaries that we should not take lightly. Many do, to our undying shame. Here are a least six:
What A Local Churches Expects From Her Missionaries
Your job is to evangelize, disciple, plant churches, train leaders for those churches, and then repeat. We have no control over the job description and we dare not tamper with it. It’s God’s master plan and the only one that works. Expectations are another thing altogether.... We as your supporting churches don’t think our expectations are unrealistic, but neither do we want you ignorant of our expectations. That’s where relationships break down.
The Biblical Realities of the Missionary Enterprise
The Continuation Of The Great Commission
For the most part, church members do not engage in the great commission at a personal level but rather by contributing resources so that the corporate body can send out a “Great Commission Expert” (missionary) to do it for them. However, this is a far cry from what the Lord intended when He issued the Commission.
The Consequence Of The Great Commission
Modern believers have convinced themselves that spiritual maturity is based on information and that it takes a long time. However, if one follows the New Testament pattern, mature disciples were made in short order. They were tested by persecution and stood! The secret was the absolute insistence on personal obedience to the demands and expectations of Scripture. This is the forgotten side of the Great Commission in many churches today.
The Content Of The Great Commission
Many contemporary approaches to the Great Commission have focused on the Lord’s instruction to go to all nations. In other words, for them, the dominant responsibility of the commission is to go to the nations. However, the grammar of the Lord’s statement makes clear that the central imperative of the Commission is the making of disciples. That central imperative will be accomplished by three accompanying activities – going, baptizing, and teaching.
The Context Of The Great Commission
Great Commission Living Is A Way of Life
Five children seems an extraordinarily high price to pay for any ministry, much less one that seemed as fruitless as the Goforth’s appeared at the time. What could possibly have motivated Jonathan and Rosalind to suffer such devastating loss and count it but a small thing in their service to Christ? Perhaps the answer lies in the words Jonathan would later inscribed in the flyleaf of his bible. “In all things seek to know God’s Will and when known obey at any cost.
Parenthood & Discipleship
By our example and teaching, we desire to cultivate a love for God's Word and the understanding that it stands far above all else. For us in America, this is often fleshed out as "Scriptural Truth over Psychology." For the Third World citizen, this could very well be fleshed out as "Scriptural Truth over Indigenous Spirit Beliefs." What is important is the heart assuring belief and trust in the sufficiency of Scripture.
2014 IBMGlobal Conference Announcement
How To Plant A Church
We are 30 and growing!
Adjusting To A New Culture
IBMGlobal Annual Conference
The Candidate Conference is a time for missionaries, candidates, pastors and church leaders involved in the mission programs to come together to discuss issues pertaining to mission outreach, strategy, current trends in missions, relationships, cultural adjustment and the primacy of the local church in missions.
IBMGlobal Welcomes New Candidate Secretary & Field Director
Deputation And The Local Church
We hadn’t meant to fall in love with this church plant; we’d meant to come to Denver, get some church planting experience and leave for the mission field a year later. God’s way was different, and the first thing that our new pastors did was slow us down. Actually, they told us we weren’t ready three different times. Those delays were critical for the development that we needed, but they were hard. First, the pastors invited me to become a pastoral intern so that I could be developed in leading a church and then be sent out as a pastor if God wanted me to plant churches.
Explaining the African Phenomenon of Rented Crowds
Empowered Non-Staff Leadership Marks Church Planting Movements Around the World
Top Five Lessons from a One-Year Deputation
This month, our family leaves for an Asian country that doesn’t openly welcome gospel witnesses. Deputation took one year. Our full-time deputation process kicked off when I, Mike,* quit his job in January 2012. We’d had 5-6 meetings with churches and shared with some families/individuals before this; but our commissioning service this January is scheduled for exactly a year since I quit my job. Because of the rarity of this timeframe, we’ve been asked to share our experience. Because of our destination, as well as the difficulty of leaving the glory to God, our real names are withheld, but we’d like to share how God worked.
Realizing Biblical Outcomes When Planting Churches Cross-Culturally
The Church Planter's goal in leadership development is to see God-exalting independent Baptist churches with trained national leadership. This outcome is not realized by chance. The church planter must demonstrate openness, communicate, and have the humility to give and receive correction and criticism. (Phil. 2:1-18)