This is the fourth article in a series based on the book, Detours: 10 Roadblocks to the Great Commission, by Paul Seger. Real pastors were asked, “Why would a church NOT want to send missionaries from their congregation?” “Detours” explores the roadblocks these pastors have experienced and seeks to provide solutions for the church to fulfil this vital role in the Great Commission.
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When we asked church leaders in our think tank why pastors don’t train and send missionaries, a common reason given was they didn’t have a broad enough aspiration to do so. When the pastor or church leadership only has a vision for the local church, it’s like having tunnel vision regarding the Great Commission. They’re focused on the needs of the church body but don’t have their eyes on the world beyond their own city. With a narrow focus, they won’t see the need to send missionaries from the congregation. They are Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem and perhaps Judea but lack the vision and drive for Samaria and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8.) The local church needs to have a broad missional vision.
INWARD OR OUTWARD MOVEMENT
Foundational to a sending church must be a centrifugal movement that thrusts the church’s focus outward. It takes deliberate energy to reverse the default direction for a church – which is centripetal, or inward-focused. In the Old Testament, Israel’s stance was: We are here as a light. You must come and see us to learn about the glory of the one true God. We have special leaders and a building that is the house of the Lord. Come and join us. The New Testament completely reversed this concept. The emphasis is on go-and-tell more than come-and-see. Every Christian is a believer-priest, called to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9.) The glory of God is in the believers, not in a building.
When a church builds great programs for every age and demographic, there is a tendency to increasingly pull the congregation into a vortex that can create a consumerism that we must reject. Equipping the saints for ministry is an essential duty of the pastor and church leadership, but we cannot forget the “why” behind that. Centrifugal force is caused by a vision outside yourself. Not only Jerusalem and Judea but also Samaria and the ends of the earth. When the church grasps and acts upon this larger cause that focuses on others, they will be compelled to be a sending church. They simply must send.
WHO SHOULD BE THE VISIONARY?
Being visionary is not necessarily an intrinsic trait of the average pastor. Pastors tend to be exceptional at guarding, feeding and supporting the congregation. However, they may not have the training or natural ability to set goals and articulate a broad vision for the church. Seminaries train pastors to exegete a passage and prepare a good sermon but have traditionally spent little time on biblical leadership. This type of training and experience is essential since shepherds are called upon to provide direction and to keep the sheep moving in paths of righteousness to new pastures.
Being visionary doesn’t mean the pastor must be the one to set the vision. He only needs to understand the need to have one and ensure it’s met in the church. He doesn’t have to be able to do everything, and it’s likely there are those in the church who are naturally wired to help set the direction for the church. The manager-type shepherd becomes visionary by gathering the big-picture thinkers of the congregation to help develop and drive the outward direction of the church. Together, they must create, articulate and activate a vision.
THE FIRST STEP
Casting vision is the first step. To develop an effective vision, you must begin with the end in mind. What do you ultimately see as the future state? That becomes the target. Once you’ve set the target and have the bull’s eye in view, then the planning, preparation and action begin. You string the bow, pull the arrow out of the quiver, nock it, draw the string, aim effectively and let it fly. There is no reason to perform all those actions if there’s no bull’s-eye.
THE PROCESS
The next critical step in casting the vision is communicating it. If only the person or team that developed the vision knows about it, it’s not likely to be accomplished. Communicating it with all the passion it took to create it will not only bring the rest of the church body into the loop of information but will also drive excitement, ownership and engagement. The vision is accomplished through the body. Think of this in terms of a waterfall. The water in the pool at the bottom cascades from the top. How do we know what to do today? That is guided by what needs to be accomplished this week. This week’s priorities flow from monthly goals, which flow from annual aspirations which ultimately come from right at the top of the waterfall which is the overall vision. There is no pool below if there is no waterfall above.
All of this distils to one simple idea: if a pastor has a vision for training and deploying missionaries from the church, it will happen. If that idea is not at the top of the waterfall, it will not be in the pool at the bottom.
FOCUSING ON A MISSIONAL TARGET
One approach to broadening your church’s scope of view and casting vision for international ministries is to identify where the unreached people groups are. In the missions world, an unreached people group (UPG) is a cluster of people with a common language having less than 2% of that population claiming to be Christian. 2% is the tipping point where a church could potentially evangelize the rest of their group. Missiologists also talk about unengaged people groups such as a language population in which there is no active church planting taking place. Both groups need help from outside to create a church planting movement.
Estimates vary that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 of these language groups that are still unreached. Because these exist, we have not yet completed the Great Commission, which includes taking the gospel to every person on earth.
This framework makes it simple for a pastor to cast a vision for his local church. Why not take on the responsibility of one of these groups? It is easily defined, and success is measurable. The average believer can get excited, take ownership and engage in taking the gospel to those who have never heard. Participation isn’t limited only to those who actually go. There’s a whole variety of roles, activities and funding that is needed to send!
Some churches have an ambition to support a missionary in every country worldwide. They want pins on every region of the map in the church foyer. However, it is potentially expecting too much for the congregation to focus on 180 different places around the world. It makes excitement, ownership and engagement more daunting. Narrowing the church’s ambitions to only a few specific targets will concentrate and intensify awareness and interest. One local church cannot reach the whole world, but they can do something. It is the role of leadership to identify those places. This is one key reason why pastors and church leaders need to visit the mission field.
VISION TRIPS
Many evangelical churches spend a large portion of the mission budget on short-term mission trips. Some pastors and church leaders go along with these teams, but many don’t. Imagine the difference it would make if pastors became the chief missiologists of the church. What if it were our pastors and church leaders who knew where in the world the needs exist and could speak intelligently and passionately about a specific people group?
It ought to be part of the missions budget to regularly send church leaders overseas. These are vision trips and need not be ministry trips. Rather, pastors can scout the world to identify and adopt unfilled gaps in the Great Commission and learn about international ministry.
No business would start a branch office or build a new factory in a place that the management had never visited. Due diligence is to visit the place and determine the viability of extending the business to that location. In the same way, the pastor and church leaders should scout the land to determine where they might want to start a remote ministry. Vision flows from the pulpit. The heart of the pastor shows up in his sermons and what he talks about on a regular basis.
A PASTOR WITH A VISION
In Gaining by Losing, J D. Greear describes how their church became a sending church. One chapter heading is “Your Church Doesn’t Need a Missions Pastor.” Larger churches with multiple staff members often designate one of those assistant pastors to lead the missions outreach. Greear argues that the senior pastor ought to be that missions pastor. The reason is that the Great Commission is THE mission of the church, and this shouldn’t be delegated to someone else. Missions is not the concern of a few cloistered in a committee; it should be the all-consuming occupation of the church. Everything it does and every program it runs should contribute directly to equipping the church to reach the world.
YOUR TURN
How are you and your leaders doing with casting vision for your church? Do you have tunnel vision that’s centred on the local church only, or do you have a vision that’s broad enough to include the ends of the earth? As a missions agency, we’re dedicated to supporting local church leaders as they take on this role and seek to plant churches all over the world. It would be our joy to come alongside you and assist with this process.
Contact us to learn more and to book one of our free workshops, “Charting Your Course.” This workshop is designed for church leaders who want to cast a vision for the church based on the Lord’s leading. In this workshop, we come alongside you and your leadership team as you determine your course and set strategy for the coming years of ministry.
If you are a pastor or church leader in South Africa, you can also receive a free Church Missions Profile which will give you a snapshot of where your church is right now in relation to the Great Commission. Click here for more information, or book our workshop, “Mobilising to Light the Globe.” This practical workshop provides the training and tools that will help your church leaders evaluate the present status of missions in your church and clearly identify where the gaps and opportunities are. We use this snapshot to help your leadership team chart a course to become a “sending” church.
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