Starting or Restarting a Missions Team - Part 1

It’s a great thing when church leaders recognize that the church needs a Missions Team. The old term was “Missions Committee.” Some churches may call it something else. Whatever name it is called, the Missions Team is a specialized group of people who, under the leadership of the church, help manage and promote global missions ministry in and through the church.

Starting (or restarting) a Missions Team is often one of the first things churches ask us about. To be clear, we’re not talking about a short-term mission project or ministry team. We are talking about an ongoing core ministry of the church to elevate, educate, and engage the church in healthy cross-cultural missions ministry.

KEY PREREQUISITES:

We must mention some key prerequisites for starting (or restarting) a Missions Team. Your church should be able to affirm each of these before proceeding.

1. Does the church/leadership have a clearly articulated understanding of the Gospel?
2. Does the church/leadership have a clear understanding of the role of the local church in global missions? If you want more help with this, read the biblical case presented in the book: Missions on Point.
3. Does the church/leadership want and need assistance with the time-consuming ministry of wisely maintaining missionary relationships, managing the priorities and communication of the church’s support partnerships, and mobilizing the congregation in personal and corporate engagement with sound missions ministries? Occasionally this is a hard thing for church leaders to admit and relinquish.  It is an important segment of ministry for which the Elders are responsible. Realistically, it is better to wisely delegate these functions to a Missions Team, than to be distracted from their main role of teaching, shepherding, and leading. Jealously insisting on doing it all often results in failure in the details. See Acts 6.

KEY PRACTICES:

If you can answer “yes” to those questions. Let’s think about how to start (or restart) a Missions Team.  Our process of consulting and coming alongside churches rising to the challenge unfailingly follows these key practices:

1. Get clear and strong agreement from your church Elders or Leadership Team to form (or reform) a Missions Team. The Elders stipulate basic priorities and values for your church’s global missions and guidance for missions financial concerns. They also should be in agreement about limits to the authority of the Missions Team; i.e. - what liberty the Team has to make decisions of their own and what decisions require the Elders’ formal approval.
2. Select one Elder representative and several, not too many, people who are avidly missions-minded. Make sure that individual Missions Team members understand that they are there to serve the best interests of your whole church using the guidelines given by the Elders in #1 above. No personal agenda allowed!
3. Begin the first several Missions Team meetings focused on prayer and team-building. Study a good missions books together. Talk together about what differences your church’s view, definitions, values, and priorities make for this church’s missions vision and involvement. Don’t think about making missions decisions or “work” yet. Just figure out the scope and personality of the team’s ministry to be on the same page. Meet to pray together, to learn about the particular missions strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations of your church in your time and given your church’s relationships.
4. Communicate well with your church congregation about the exciting launch of a new (or renewed) Missions Team. If you already support missionaries and missions ministries, let them know, too. Let them all know that the Missions Team needs prayer for the ministry work ahead. They will be evaluating and reevaluating current missions opportunities. They will be eagerly and prayerfully seeking to train and send people from the congregation into missions.

This is an amazing opportunity for your church to seek God’s help to clarify your church’s missions ministries for the future. The tone and trajectory forged now will propel your church’s missions ownership and commitment for the coming generation. We pray that vision includes sending your own as long-term missionaries to the least reached.

MissioSERVE stands ready to come alongside your church in this process. We long to see the local church rise up and fulfill its biblical role in sending so that every people group on earth will have healthy, indigenous local churches worshiping our Lord Jesus along with us. We have the tools and experience to help you do that.

Give me a shout if you would like to know more or would like to pursue a re-boot process for global missions in your church. You can contact me at:  David.M@MissioSERVE.org

There is more detailed information answering common questions about the form and function of Missions Team on MissioSERVE’s Propempo.com website. Use this link to jump to those articles.