How-to Tuesday - Missionary/Sponsoring Church Connection

Once the sponsoring church and the missionary are prayed up, the missionary has announced his call to the mission field, and the sponsoring church has expressed a burden to be a part of the work, steps will need to be taken for the sponsoring church to send out the missionary. Certain things need to be settled before the missionary is sent out by the sponsoring church. Few things are worse than having a rift develop between the sponsor and the missionary once the missionary is on the field.

1. The sponsoring church and missionary need to be settled on doctrinal soundness. That is, the sponsoring church should be satisfied that the missionary is doctrinally sound, and the missionary needs to be satisfied that the sponsoring church is doctrinally sound. This goes above "yeah, I agree with the ABA doctrinal statement." This means that sponsoring church and missionary are on the same page concerning ecclesiology, which Bible translations are acceptible, scriptural mission practices and so on.

2. There needs to be a missionary agreement, and one in writing is best. The agreement needs to line out the responsibility the sponsoring church has toward the missionary, and the responsibility the missionary has toward the sponsoring church. The agreement will need to spell out the procedure for funds raised (send them to the sponsor, or the missionary?), and what those funds should be used for (salary and financial resources for the missionary, funds for the mission, etc?) Furthermore, if the sponsoring church expects to have a say in facility purchases and rental, that needs to be spelled out in the agreement, as well as whether that missionary can switch cities without first getting approval from the sponsor.

I recommend an agreement that gives the missionary as much latitude to work as possible without sponsor approval. In other words, the missionary ought to be able to do the work without waiting on a successful business meeting from the sponsor. On the other hand, the missionary needs to give detailed reports to his sponsor on a regular basis (I recommend monthly). A blog to track updates helps. My recommendation for the sponsor's role is not to manage how the work is carried out, but rather to make sure that the missionary is carrying out the work in a SCRIPTURAL manner.

Once an agreement is reached that satisfies both the missionary, and the sponsoring church, it is time for the church to vote to send the missionary to the mission field. In most cases, this should be a joyous time, though it may be marked with some sadness if the missionary has long-standing ties to the sponsoring church.

Next week, we'll discuss administrational structure for missions. I'll give my recommendation, but it is up to the sponsor and the missionary to determine what works best in their scenario.

I'm a missionary

There seems to be a lot of discussion about missionaries vs. church planters vs. missions vs. church plants.

Church planters are quick to point out that the word, "mission" is not found in the Bible. To that, I reply, neither is church planting. We go, make disciples, and churches are organized as a result of that effort... or as Bro. Crocker said, "Paul wrote, 'I have planted, Apollos watered.' The seed that was planted was the Gospel."

Now, before I go any further, I do not have any objection to the church planting method. To be honest, I don't really have a problem at all. I just don't want to see us wasting time and energy on arguments over word choice that will ultimately turn up to be meaningless.

Those who want to replace the term missionary with church planter usually want to do so as a backlash against the tendency of missions to stay at mission status for 10-20 years before organizing into a church... all for the sake of paying off a building. I understand the frustration. If it had taken Paul 20 years to organize a church in Salamis, we probably would not have the Gospel in America today.

So, as a result, brethren in our associated work are researching and trying ways to get churches organized faster. As we move boldly forward into this new frontier, may we not be guilty of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water. There is still room for missionaries and missions.

Missionary - A person sent on a religious mission, especially to promote Christianity.

Mission - An important assignment carried out for ... religious ... purposes. (Online dictionary)

I am a missionary. I am sent by Rocky Springs MBC of Jacksonville, TX to carry out the Great Commission (Discipling, Baptizing and Teaching) in Brownwood, TX and the surrounding areas. My mission is to organize at least one New Testament church there. Those who are first reached become part of that mission... to organize at least one New Testament church. When the membership is there, the church will be organized.

We have several missionaries in our work who are working on a similar mission. We have church planters who are doing the same. If your technique is different than mine, so be it. That does not bother me.

You want to be called a church planter? I'll honor and respect that and pray for you, because I believe God has called you to a great work. Do you want to be known as a missionary? I'll honor that all the same.

Let's not get so bogged down in a war of words that we fail to spread the Word.