The following is an excerpt from the Global Missions Podcast on October 16, 2017. Paul Seger, Managing Director of BMW SA shared some practical ideas about how local churches can identify and prepare new mission workers.
GMP: Please tell us just a little bit about your role at Biblical Ministries Worldwide.
PS: I’m the CEO of the organization. We help missionaries to get to the field from North America. My role is to provide the overall vision and direction and leadership for this family of missionaries. Everything we do revolves around establishing local churches. That could include starting from scratch or enhancing existing churches. It’s all local church oriented.
GMP: At the beginning of your book you talk about a company called “Coca-Cola.” You said, “They beat us. They did it first.” What do you mean? What did Coke do that the church hasn’t done?
PS: They set a vision that everybody in the world taste a Coke, and to a large part they’ve succeeded. A secular company actually got out there and reached everyone before we did.
GMP: This book that you’ve written is Senders: How your Church Can Identify, Train and Deploy Missionaries. You referred to local churches as “ground zero.” Tell us what you mean by “ground zero”.
PS: This term was coined way back in World War II. It’s called the Manhattan Project. They created the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The spot where it was dropped was labeled “ground zero.” Waves rolled out from that one spot. I use that as an illustration or a visual of what the local church could and should be. From the local church there needs to be waves of reaching outwards. That is the core of the great commission. The local church is really the way God designed things to happen. If every mission agency, Bible college and seminary went out of existence the local church still has that responsibility for the great commission.
GMP: You go on to say that “Missionaries should be considered as draftees and not volunteers.” What is the difference between a draftee and a volunteer?
PS: We take this idea from Acts 13 where Paul and Barnabas were sent out from the church in Antioch. The spirit of God was communicating to somebody, but it wasn’t Paul and Barnabas. It was somebody in the church or maybe the leadership team. It seemed like in that early church, the spirit was communicating to the other members of that body. We see this elsewhere in scripture. Maybe the church could be more proactive in drafting some people into missions.
GMP: Do you think either can be true? Can someone feel a personal call first and bring that to the church?
PS: It needs to be a combination – whether which one is first. Someone may draft me but if I’m not willing to go I’m not going. On the flip side, I may be saying I’m ready to go, but the congregation or the church may say that I’m not ready to go. It needs to be a combination of both.
