To be a Sending Church

"Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,

I am sending you.'"John 20:21

With this mandate, Jesus authorized His disciples to be change agents for the kingdom of God on earth! Yet Jesus did not call His disciples to do anything that He had not prepared them to do. He assured them of His comfort, presence, and empowering through the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:1, 13, 14, 16, 18). He had spent three years pouring His life, character, and teachings into His disciples.

Just as Jesus sent out His disciples to be His official ambassadors, so the local church sends its missionaries to be its ambassadors overseas. Yet the preparation and nurture that was evident in Jesus and the early church's sending process often is neglected in the church today. Is your church a sending church? If so, scripture indicates that your church will exhibit the following characteristics:

The sending church sends its own.

Acts 13:1-3 tells us that the church at Antioch released Barnabas and Saul, two of its key leaders, to be missionaries. Does your church want to send its members to the mission field? Is your congregation seeking out or at least noticing the people who want to serve overseas, and then urging them into cross-cultural service? Is your church praying that the Lord would call people out of your congregation to go overseas? Any church that wants to advance the kingdom of God on earth surely wants its own people to be a part of that process. I am a product of the Stone Church Yakima, WA. Renton "New Life" was the place where the board laid their hands on me and released me for mission's service. As time goes by the ties to my home churches has been shaken by time itself, by distance, by not having accesss to the people.

A sending church trains the people whom it expects to send overseas.

The local church is responsible for sending out men and women who know God intimately and are capable of discipling nations. Jesus discipled the men whom He chose to be His ambassadors. Sadly enough, many local churches today believe that once candidates are channeled into mission agencies, the agency can teach them how to "be missionaries". Missions agencies can prepare missionaries for culture shock, language learning, and new living situations, but they can not build spiritual character into missionaries and prepare them to be disciple makers. I was a participant of being caught, brought, discipled and sent.

Potential missionaries need to contribute to the ongoing life of a local church. If your church can not set up a formal internship program for potential missionaries, then it can at least channel them into positions of leadership. Let them teach Sunday School, or disciple small groups of youth. Paul and Barnabas spent a year teaching people in a local church before they were sent as missionaries (Acts 11:26). They proved to be effective makers of disciples. Does your church send out missionaries who are unproven at disciple making in their own culture? Many problems can result from uprooting potential missionaries out of the ideal training ground, the local church, to be trained somewhere else.

A sending church significantly supports its missionaries, financially and materially.

Scripture indicates that Paul and Barnabas depended on the local church to anticipate and meet their material and financial needs, even though they could be self-supporting missionaries. Perhaps the church at Philippi provides a good example, as Paul thanked them in Phil. 4:16-18: "When I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. The gifts you sent...are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God."

A sending church does not wait to be begged for money and material assistance. It seeks to quickly meet the practical needs of its missionaries. Furthermore, it seeks to contribute a sizable part of each missionary's budget rather than forcing a missionary to raise support among a number of churches that do not even know him.

It is very tempting for a local church today to want to scatter as many pins as possible across the world map in the fellowship hall, denoting the many, many missionaries that it supports. But if your church's goal is to nurture its missionaries and to maintain a relationship of accountability, it should plan to assume at least 25% of its missionaries' support budgets.

The sending church diligently, passionately prays for its missionaries. (See again Acts 13:2-3)

The church at Antioch was a church committed to prayer. This goes without saying, as prayer is the lifeline for any missionary. The sending church is committed to more than "bless the Joneses" prayers. It aggressively seeks to keep abreast of the details of its missionaries' service. It realizes that the missionary is engaged in spiritual warfare and prays accordingly. The sending church is alert to current events and news around the world and prays when it sees political, religious, and cultural events that affect its missionaries.

The sending church takes the responsibility of nurturing its missionaries.

The sending church seeks to nurture its missionaries when they are on the field or at home on furlough. The sending church provides a spiritual, emotional, and material lifeline to is missionaries overseas, and joyously welcomes them back home, intent on refreshing them, meeting their needs, and learning from them.

In short, a sending church does not see missions as another item on the business agenda. Its missionaries are not burdens or obligations. There is much more exchanged than paychecks and prayer letters, because the church sees its missionary as a living extension of itself.

A missionary to send to the nations of the earth will result when a local church will have a vision to join God on mission to see the lost come to Christ and the nations respond to the need of Salvation-that none would perish.