This week the blog is sponsored by Propempo International which invites you to explore a revolutionary take on missions on today!
What would happen if the local church took its rightful role in global missions?
Providing a refreshing look on missions, “Missions on Point,” written by experienced church planter and missionary David Meade, proposes this simple thesis:
- The Bible teaches that God has always planned to declare His wisdom and glory through local churches.
- The New Testament shows local churches as the quintessential means and ends of His design for proclaiming the Gospel to every people group on earth.
- Missions ministries on the field and all stakeholders of the global missions enterprise would be more effective if aligned with this understanding.
This thesis encourages the repatriation of missions to the biblical local church-centered framework. “Missions on Point” presents the biblical defense of church-centered missions. Then, it outlines principles for implementation by local churches and all those involved in missionary training and sending.
On earth, our goal is for believers to worship Christ together in healthy, indigenous churches.
“Missions on Point” will include some anecdotes of churches we’ve helped to become aligned with this teaching. Woven through the book is an illustrative, composite serial narrative of “Hopewell Bible Church” based on real experiences. It is all based on real-life situations, anonymized for privacy and security purposes. That story fleshes out the highlights of applying the principles presented. The book also has plenty of resources in the Appendices for further study and development. The goal is to align missions with its core priority. Missions begins and ends with local churches.
On earth, our goal is for believers to worship Christ together in healthy, indigenous churches. The way to achieve it is through the sending church’s ownership of missions ministries, which results in better-equipped missionaries, less attrition from the field, and more effective, long-term field ministries for the glory of God alone.
The position proposed by “Missions on Point” does not imply that local sending churches do all the equipping, sending, field management, and shepherding on their own. It does, however, awaken and challenge church leaders, missions leaders, missionaries, and everyone involved in the support and administration of missions to align with God’s plan for His glory in and through the local church. All stakeholders are offered suggestions for adjusting practices to a more biblical local-church-centered reality. These principles have been proven by a thoughtful examination of biblical values, decades of experience in the missionary field, cross-cultural missions leadership, and local church pastoral experience.
Though most missions organizations founded their organization to serve local churches in the missions’ geographical, cultural, institutional, or technical specialty, they typically become independent in operation and in calling, which they unashamedly protect, promote, and propagate. Yet, they expect churches to support the agency rather than vice versa. Rarely does the agency enable and facilitate the local church’s missions ministry. Vision, field strategy, personnel management, and accountability have become the agency’s exclusive realm. Missions agencies may too easily show little or no respect for the rightful role of the local church in missions.
Local churches bear some blame here. They have too easily given up their biblical role and responsibility to missions agencies (even to denominational entities). Local churches should reclaim their ownership. It’s prime time for them to repatriate world missions to the local church while seeking appropriate partnerships with sending agencies to lend their particular expertise. This book aspires to provide a pathway to corrective change in this state of affairs.
Buy your copy of this revolutionary take on missions on Amazon today!
