In twenty-five words or less, describe what this initiative is seeking to accomplish...

“What indicators might identify particular mission engagements as being strategic? What questions could you ask about mission initiatives to help decide if they are strategic?”

Indicator #6: In twenty-five words or less, describe what this initiative is seeking to accomplish and how it fits into our church’s comprehensive strategic mission vision.

This indicator makes a wonderful assumption…that our congregation has a very clear sense of strategic mission vision. That vision will incorporate all of our mission engagements into a comprehensive framework driven by God’s invitation to our involvement in His mission. A number of churches have found this indicator to be an eye-opening experience as they have asked all teams making budget requests to complete this statement as they make request for congregational funding. Others have used this statement as they add activities and events to the church calendar.

“What are we trying to accomplish in this mission ministry or event? How does this ministry “fit” into what God is asking us to accomplish as His Body?”

If a church is not clear about its comprehensive strategic mission vision, the utilization of this indicator will reveal that absence and provide opportunity to seek a fresh direction from God regarding our role in His mission. That is a healthy exercise in itself!

How long have we been involved in this mission endeavor?

“What indicators might identify particular mission engagements as being strategic? What questions could you ask about mission initiatives to help decide if they are strategic?”

Indicator #5: How long have we been involved in this mission endeavor? Do we have en exit strategy?

Building on our thought from indicator #4, we seek to create independence rather than dependence through our mission strategy. One way to offset the tendency toward creating dependence is through acknowledging the duration and impact of our ministry engagement. Where there is not an exit strategy that empowers a local Body of Christ, congregations will tend toward increasing the dependence of others on our mission engagements.

One of the strengths of partnering with excellent mission agencies is their commitment to wrestle with this issue. Mission agencies of excellence are keenly sensitive to their long-term impact among people groups. They seek to empower indigenous churches to minister in the name of Christ.

Once we have been involved in a mission engagement, it grows increasingly difficult to exit that initiative. The longer we are involved, the more we have invested in the ministry, the more people we will have who highly value the ministry and want to see it continue. But our desire is to facilitate local mission expression. We must deal with the issue of exit strategies.

Does the initiative create dependence or empower the target population?

“What indicators might identify particular mission engagements as being strategic? What questions could you ask about mission initiatives to help decide if they are strategic?”

Indicator #4: Does the initiative create dependence or empower the target population? What local Body is empowered?

Across years I have watched congregations adopt communities to which they return year after year in mission engagement. Although they mean well, sometimes those congregations create situations of dependence. I know a community not too far across the Rio Grade Border in Mexico that has grown dependent upon a particular church’s benevolence as, each year, the church comes to the village with clothing and building materials. The well meaning church built a nice “church building” whose design was perfect for the suburbs of North America. Every year, they do maintenance on the building. They also build “homes” for families of the church.

It feels good to do for the poor what they might never be able to do for themselves. But we must be careful not to allow our feelings to be the rationale for our ministry activity. In some instances, our actions become an inhibitor to local initiative rather than a facilitator of the same. A major concern in our mission engagements should be what happens after we leave. Have our engagements helped a local body of believers to more effectively minister in their own context?

As result of our efforts, are disciples being born and matured among the target population?

“What indicators might identify particular mission engagements as being strategic? What questions could you ask about mission initiatives to help decide if they are strategic?”

Indicator #3: As result of our efforts, are disciples being born and matured among the target population?

The ultimate goal of mission is not simply human comfort, but spiritual transformation. The Gospel is Good News that affects quality of life as well as spiritual security. Jesus did say, “I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” He is concerned about liberating captives, caring for the oppressed, lifting the impoverished. Still, the ultimate reason for His coming was not just to make life better now, but to invite all to bring Him glory throughout eternity. We care about making life better now…and we care about seeing individuals find their way in the journey as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Are other Christian groups serving the same target population in similar ways?

“What indicators might identify particular mission engagements as being strategic? What questions could you ask about mission initiatives to help decide if they are strategic?”

Indicator #2: Are other Christian groups serving the same target population in similar ways? Is our initiative a duplication of effort, or are we doing something no one else is doing among this group?

Churches know how to do what they know how to do. Consequently, more familiar ministries are often duplicated in communities because churches know how to address those concerns. Strategic mission engagement might require churches to find ways to address concerns on which other churches are not already focused. Creativity will be required as will sensitivity to the broad based needs of a community. However, it is well for us to remember that ministry is not first driven by needs to be addressed, but by the gifts and skill sets that God has given our congregation. Applying insights of Frederick Buechner, we would identify ministry as “…the place where deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” We need not duplicate the ministry of others. We can live out of our own unique capacity in serving those in our mission field.

Is the initiative bringing the Gospel to those who might have no other access to the Gospel?

Over the next days, I want to post a series of considerations, each having a brief video, designed to help churches in making decisions regarding strategic mission involvement. It is fact that most churches in North America are mission supportive. They give money to enable missionaries to carry the Gospel to the unreached people groups of the earth. Many congregations are mission active. They not only give to mission causes, but they are also directly involved in hands-on mission expressions locally or globally. But relatively few congregations have structures to assist them in making strategic mission decisions. Moving from support or action to strategic mission engagement is not something that will just happen. It will require new ways of thinking and managing the distribution of congregational resources.

For almost two years, I have been working with congregations in articulating a series of questions or statements that can be used to judge the strategic nature of mission engagements and expenditures. Please let us know your reactions to these questions and statements. Would they help your mission team, budget preparation team, or other decision making groups in your church to more strategically determine how you will steward the resources God has entrusted your congregation?

In six posts, we will seek to answer the questions, “What indicators might identify particular mission engagements as being strategic? What questions could you ask about mission initiatives to help decide if they are strategic?”

Indicator #1: Is the initiative bringing the Gospel to those who might have no other access to the Gospel?

When you and I go to bed this evening, 1/3 of the people in the world will never have heard the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In our day of explosive information exchange, two billion people remain unreached. While there is nothing wrong with ministering to those who have heard but not responded to the Gospel, strategic consideration should be given to the issue of access to the Gospel. We must be concerned for those who have never heard, and that concern should inform our decisions about mission engagement.

Old Churches – Great Kingdom Worth

I thank God for old churches. Conversations demeaning older churches have become routine and many have very little confidence in the capacity of older congregations to have significant Kingdom impact. Clearly it is easier to establish new forms of ministry in newer congregations. Perhaps there is even a greater motivation to connect with the “outsider” in that congregation. Few lifelong friendships exist in new churches; the kind of relationships that require long term investment and personal attention. Older churches do invest more time and energy on internal relationships; consequently they exhibit less focus beyond themselves.

But, I am not willing to discard older churches as either irrelevant or incapable of Kingdom impact. In fact, I think it is past time for a balanced dialogue on the value and strengths of newer and older congregations. Both have a place in the Kingdom of God.

Most church planters are the product or by-product of older congregations. Unfortunately some church planters communicate disdain for older congregations, seeing them as incapable of connecting in substantive ways with unchurched people; more committed to caring for those in the family of faith than seeking to introduce new persons into that family. Again, statistics validate that newer congregations tend to be more effective in guiding new believers toward faith and community.

At the same time, older congregations often evidence deep commitment to intercession. They pray for the destruction of strongholds that prevent persons from coming to faith. They ask God to raise new leaders for a new generation. They are often greater contributors toward denominational funds used to underwrite costs associated with starting new churches. They may well be the greatest supporters of educational scholarships given to prepare next generation church leaders. In some instances they provide space in which new churches and ministries begin.

If we could back away far enough, and look through the Father’s eyes, I wonder if we might see more clearly how the actions of older churches are influencing new churches as well. If we could stop the “us verses them” mentality, perhaps we could see ourselves as truly being on the same side; a Kingdom side of Righteousness and Truth.

Older congregations often have small subsets of members who are vibrantly and vitally active and interested in helping their congregations to be missionally relevant in the community. Those subsets often long to see their congregations more involved in ministry to their neighbors and in hands-on international involvement. At the same time, they know the physical, financial, and cultural limitations that limit or prevent many members from engaging the world. In such congregations, these small missional cells may serve as representatives of the larger congregation. This is not a cop-out. It is reality. And it should never be despised.

Not every congregation will see a majority of its members directly involved in hands-on mission ministry. There are legitimate limitations that may prevent such. However, every congregation can be filled with those who are growing in their awareness of what God is doing and seeking to do both at home and across the earth. Every congregation can be active globally as they pray; accomplishing spiritual victories through intercession. Many older congregations would welcome the opportunity for partnership with a new church start. They would participate in blessing new churches in intermittent ways, even though they may not engage in the new church start at an every week level. Like grandparents, they are blessed to care for the grandkids for short periods, although they are no longer up to full-time parenting. I am reminded of Paul’s word to Timothy, “Let no man despise your youth…” and wonder today if it is perhaps time to add “Let no man despise your years…” as well.

Impacting Nations with Kingdom Values

The Gospel is Good News. It changes people from the inside out by the power of the Spirit. Equally true, when changed people find creative ways to elevate Kingdom values they can dramatically impact nations. I am not talking about a militaristic attempt to mandate morality, rather a concerted effort to communicate the wonderful effects of living Biblical values, and sharing the source from whom those values come.

Evangelical churches in South America realized the potential impact of peace-making in cultures of pervasive violence. They sensed God’s call to impact the most popular national venues in which acts of personal violence were common and in which the masses wanted that violence to stop; professional soccer. They prayerfully asked what followers of Christ could do to make a positive difference in a culture where crowd violence by gangs often resulted in injury and death as rivals faced off before, during and after soccer matches.

The journey of those churches has resulted in No Mas Violencia: un Mensaje de Dios (No More Violence: a Message from God) an organic movement that has grown from simple beginnings to impacting nations in less than a decade. I spent some time this week with Richard Gomez, Executive Director of NMV and we talked about how the movement started.

Church members first volunteered to help in crowd control, maintaining peace among fans awaiting entrance into soccer stadiums, soon No Mas Violencia (NMV) volunteers became the provider of wholesome entertainment between periods at matches. As their influence grew, the movement developed an educational curriculum to introduce students to Kingdom values, trained believers as curriculum instructors, and offered the curriculum without charge to public schools.

This year members of the Body of Christ taught Kingdom values to more than 175,000 students in public schools of Argentina. They did so at the request of the federal government’s ministry of education. Why? Because Kingdom values are transforming the lives of students as they commit to be persons who value life and reject violence. That commitment impacts issues of self-care and management as well as treatment of others in family and community.

And as the church ministers in stadiums and instructs in schools, and as it continues to develop other creative Kingdom initiatives, it is finding favor among the nations of South America. The values of the Kingdom of God; patience, love, peace-making, hospitality, encouragement, sexual purity, etc. make life better for all. And as those values are taught, individuals are coming to faith in Christ. Live are being changed. Futures filled with hope are being fashioned. The church is being blessed and it is being a blessing to the nations.

My friend David Balyeat, President of NMV International challenged me when he said the best report card for the church is the newspaper of society. As the transformational impact of the Gospel makes a difference in what is reported in the news, the church accomplishes its Kingdom purpose of bring Good News to the world. It is discipling nations.

To learn more about this organic movement among churches in South America visit http://www.nomasviolencia.org/nmv/index.php. Click here to visit Missional Church Center's video resources and watch our brief video.

Therefore…Make Disciples

A week ago we enlisted responses to an Effective Disciple-making Survey. The survey is one in a series of steps designed to help us learn what systems or processes churches are using to make disciples.

If one agrees that disciple-making is the central command of the Great Commission, then we might assume that churches have carefully developed their processes for making disciples. Whether formal or informal, they would be able to say, “This is our process for helping followers of Jesus grow to live as His disciples.”

In fact, the first hundred plus responses do not indicate that churches have a clear understanding about their processes in this important area. In responding to the question, “Does your church have a formal process for making disciples?” the following answers were given:

As members and leaders refer to their own congregations, only 4 in 10 indicate that they have a clearly defined process to develop followers of Christ as disciples. In subsequent blog posts, we will share what leaders in those churches told us about their defined disciple-making processes.

When it comes to rating their “…congregation's effectiveness in developing authentic disciples,” 30% of those responding rate their congregation as either excellent or good. One third rated their congregation as fair in this area. One in ten respondents rated their church’s disciple-making process as poor. And one of every three respondents chose not to respond to the question. My intuition tells me that “no response” means things are probably not going real well in disciple-making! The responses look like this:

The good news is that one third of the responses do indicate excellent or good effectiveness in producing disciples. In our next blog post, I will share what some of those church leaders shared about the processes they are employing in this important role. All of us can do better in this task as we learn more about the gaps that exist between the command and its fulfillment.

I encourage you to invite friends to add their insights to the survey which can be found by clicking here.