How Can I Help My Church Become More Effective in Missions?
Les Dearlson

Here is a short checklist typical of churches that are ineffective in missions:

1. We never hear about missions
2. We don’t know any missionaries
3. We support missions (or missionaries) but we don’t know why
4. We support missionaries by we don’t see the connection with our church
5. We support so many missionaries we can’t keep them all straight
6. We support missions work all over!
7. We’re working on our Jerusalem before we go to the uttermost parts
8. We don’t even know how to begin to be involved in missions
9. We let our denomination (or association) handle that
10. We just don’t care. We have enough needs in our church to take care of.

Here are basic categories of way to help your church become more effective:

1. Get some resources to help people pray for missions.
2. Submit prayer requests reflecting God’s heart for the nations.
3. Build relationships with real missionaries.
4. Put up some excellent graphics of the world, or unreached people, or cross-cultural needs.
5. Give John Piper’s, let the Nations Be Glad, to your Pastor.
6. Attend another church’s mission’s conference or emphasis event and take notes.
7. Provide overnight hospitality to a missionary or missionary family.
8. Find out the census demographics of your community.
9. Get Operation World and use it to pray and encourage others to pray for the nations.
10. Ask about getting a Missions Team (or Missions Committee) started, if you don’t have one.
11. Ask about serving on the Missions Team.
12. Help plan and execute a Missions emphasis event or conference.
13. Find out how and how much your church supports missions financially.
14. Give more to missions, however your church supports it, through designated giving or project giving or other means.
15. Write a missionary or missions organization asking for critical or strategic projects your church can support.
16. Become a prayer partner for someone from your church preparing for missions.
17. Get involved with (or initiate!) a short-term mission team from your church in support of a ministry the church supports or is related to in some way.
18. Pledge support to someone from your church going on a short-term mission�s trip.
19. Become a mentor for a missionary candidate from your church.
20. Encourage your pastor to use illustrations from missionary work in his sermons.
21. Read missionary biographies and share them with your church friends.
22. Offer to teach a class on missions.
23. Create a fund-raiser for missions.
24. Start a missions/missionary newsletter for your church.
25. Add mission’s books (Bible studies, biographies, etc.) and other mission’s resources (CDs, DVDs, etc.) to your church lending library.

From: www.worldmissionstoday.org February 2015.

The above article, “How Can I Help My Church Become More Effective in Missions” was written by Les Dearlson. The article was excerpted from www.worldmissionstoday.org.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”