This is Part 3 of a 4 part blog series on the 5 Marks of a Faithful Sending Church.
Is your church passionate about reaching the lost around the world? Have you sent out missionaries from among your congregation? How are they faring? This is part three in a series on how to be a faithful sending church. So far, we’ve seen that a faithful sending church should be gospel-centered, she should develop young couples to be sent out and faithfully pray for them. Part three will focus on how a church should support their missionaries.
A faithful sending church supports
I’ve divided this broad sounding category into three parts – A faithful sending church supports their missionaries by 1. Encouraging, 2. Advising, and 3. Advocating.
Let’s look at the first characteristic – Encourage.
When our family first arrived in Northern Asia, we were plunged into a culture, language, and city that was entirely new to us. We were forced to adapt every aspect of our lives in order to become relevant so we could share the gospel. There were many highs, lows, laughs and cringes over that first year. There were times when we wanted to pack it all in and go back to what we knew in the USA. In those dark moments, the Lord used our sending church to encourage us to keep going, to remind us why we came and for what purpose we were living there.
How did they encourage? Through emails, Skype calls, packages and even visits. They encouraged us by knowing us well, which translated into knowing the best ways to specifically encourage us. Also, we saw the whole church get behind us. It wasn’t just a handful of people, it was different ages, it was different small groups and Sunday school classes, it was the pastoral staff, not just the missions team.
If the church really knows its sent missionaries, then it will be equipped to effectively encourage them.
Secondly – Advise.
“Churches should not feel they are intruding by lovingly monitoring their missionaries work.” – N.T. Wright
Being sent to minister cross-culturally does not release the church of its responsibility to advise, counsel, teach or rebuke her missionaries. We’ve seen a type of “hands-off” approach that happens when a church works with a mission agency. An unspoken attitude that says “they’re in your hands now, you take care of them.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. The sending church is the missionary’s final authority. They are still under the elders’ authority, and Biblically based mission organizations will respect the local church’s decisions. The church has a responsibility to stay connected with the mission organization and they must work together to enable the missionary to effectively minister.
Third – Advocate
In scripture, we see many examples of how God advocates for us (Psalm 68:5, 1 John 2:1, Romans 8:34, John 14:26). The church is to follow this example and advocate for its missionaries. A practical way to do this is to not only send people out but to create advocacy teams to support them. Our sending church commissioned one of the small groups to “adopt” us, and we felt their love time and time again as we were overseas.
Another great example of this comes from Bethlehem Baptist Church. This church, under the leadership of John Piper and others, became a very influential sending church in America. They created what they call “Barnabas Support Teams” which are “small groups of committed people who come together to care for a particular global partner in a variety of ways, striving to help meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.”
Those in your church that step up to meet this need will also be blessed, challenged and motivated in ways that maybe you didn’t expect. God will be glorified at how the body functions in unity and love for one another!
If your church isn’t supporting its missionaries by encouraging, advising, and advocating, consider how you could start this in your church regularly and practically through your small group or Missions Committee.