Many local churches are beginning to realize that the Bible teaches, models, and anticipates that local churches should take the lead in world missions. What does it mean when we state that “the local church is the beginning and end of missions”?
Making the change from a traditional role to being local church-centered is a huge paradigm shift! This paradigm shift affects everyone in the process. Practices and processes have to change. It may be a challenge, but it is so worth it! We have helped many churches across the US and beyond to make the shift.
Consider this example of radical changes created by a paradigm shift in the watchmaking industry. This story was popularized by Joel Arthur Barker in Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future (New York: Harper/Collins, 1992). A paradigm shift brings a new set of rules for that field of work. Barker overwhelmingly demonstrates that a paradigm change resets all the rules to zero for all players.
In 1968, Switzerland dominated the production of watches around the world. The Swiss were the world’s best at gears, bearings, mainsprings, waterproofing, and self-winding mechanisms. By 1980, their market collapsed. 50,000 Swiss watchmakers lost their jobs. The watchmaker moguls were stuck in the mechanical watch paradigm. The new paradigm was electrical quartz watches that were more accurate, less complex, and cheaper to produce. Ironically, in 1967, a prototype quartz watch was created in Switzerland and rejected because it didn’t conform to the old rules for that field of work.
When we’re faced with good change, however uncertain that future may be, it’s good to go back to basics. For Christians, we go back to the Bible.
Missions begins and ends with the local church.
It is almost startling to realize that the Great Commission, objectively, as found in Matthew 28, cannot be fulfilled without planting local churches. God designed the local church to be the beginning and the end of missions. The whole New Testament is evidence of God’s plan for His glory worked out through local churches. Missionaries are raised, equipped, and sent out from local churches. The biblical result of their ministry is directed toward planting and strengthening healthy, indigenous local churches to do the same.
Local churches should grow in awareness of their rightful engagement in missions, to take ownership and initiative back from missions agencies and parachurch “missions” organizations. Local missionary-sending churches want to be engaged in missions, from candidate training to involvement in their missionary care on the mission field.
Church engagement is a rediscovered frontier in missions practice today. MissioSERVE is committed to helping and enabling churches to embrace and practice this paradigm shift. MissioSERVE is pioneering this shift among sending agencies. Our local church-centric vision statement is:
To lead the way in aligning the sending church and missionary
to accomplish their mission together.
The rules are resetting. All players in the Western missions enterprise must adjust. If Barker is correct, the failure of mission-sending agencies to adapt to the coming paradigm shift will result in their organizational frustration and ultimate demise. There is a coming groundswell of local church engagement in missions, which will bless those who embrace it. Will your church be one of them?
We have resources to help you and your church realize and practice this new paradigm. We want to help your church take the lead to become a missionary-sending church.
- The Church Missions Profile, a church missions self-assessment tool
- The book shows the biblical apologetic and practical application of the local church-centered missions philosophy, Missions on Point: The Local Church at the Heart of Ecclesiology and Missiology.
- The Sending Church Readiness Inventory, an online form for us to get to know your church and how we may help you grow as a missionary sending church.
- Contact us through the MissioSERVE.org website and ask questions or ask for help. We would love to hear from you!
Author
David C. Meade has been the founder, C-level officer, and consultant for a number of non-profit organizations. He has nearly fifty years of experience with church planting, pioneering field ministry among UPGs, and leadership in international and domestic NGOs. He has a strong biblical local-church-centric ministry philosophy and commitments, serving as an international outreach leader, pastor, and elder in local churches throughout his adult life. He loves teaching and mentoring church leaders and global workers preparing for service to meet the greatest need of the neediest places on earth.
David is an international business consultant, NGO executive, and international leadership trainer. He has a weekly podcast and has authored hundreds of insightful and practical blogs, articles, and several books. David is a well-received speaker and teacher. His experience in non-profit leadership and international NGOs informs his counsel for leaders and workers in challenging areas of service, analyzing corporate strategies, conflict resolution, crisis management, and event leadership. David is passionate about core values based on timeless principles, valuing people, and leadership training. He is an avid family man, reader, fisherman, and world traveler.