This is the introduction to a series of articles based on the book, Detours: 10 Roadblocks to the Great Commission, by Paul Seger. Join us on social media in December for a chance to WIN your own copy of Detours.
It may surprise you to learn that most churches have never sent a missionary out from their congregation. This is ironic since these same churches love missions and missionaries. They have a missions budget and support missionaries. They have a missions committee. They are likely to have a missions conference or missions emphasis weekends. They pray for missionaries and decorate the walls of their buildings with pictures of the missionaries they support. Yet despite all this, they may never have launched an international worker from their pews, or it may have been a few decades since they last did.
Understanding the Barriers
To better understand why this inconsistency exists, we recently conducted five focus groups with pastors. The discussion topic was how churches could identify, train, and launch missionaries from their congregation. One of the questions we set out to answer was, “Why would a church NOT want to send missionaries from their congregation?” This series of articles will outline those pastors’ answers to this question and summarize the most common themes we heard.
It was with utmost respect and appreciation for pastors that we addressed this topic. Not to critique, but to help provide clarity. In fact, each article title comes directly from these pastors as they critiqued themselves. The goal of this series is to help churches – pastors, leaders, and members alike – to discover why this may be the case in your church. We will offer thoughts on overcoming some of the roadblocks that are creating detours – particularly concerning the Great Commission.
Removing the Barriers
Join us as we explore themes that rose to the top with our pastors, such as congregational expectations, inexperience, insecurity, and perfectionism. With the Lord’s help, we can identify where we may be getting detoured and make some adjustments to get back on the main road of “preaching the gospel to every nation.”
Connect with us on social media for a chance to win a copy of the book, Detours, by Paul Seger – Global Consultant to Biblical Ministries South Africa and former Director of Biblical Ministries Worldwide and missionary in Africa.
Click here for more information on the contest and connect with us on social media!
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To read about how one pastor set out to transform his church into a sending church, check out our article, “Whose Work is it Anyway.”
