73. A Missionary Church
With Jesus in their lives people faraway will have hope, dignity and purpose.

In Your Bible Read This
nz05/zDeani11.htm#19">Acts 11.19-30; nz05/zDeani20.htm#1">Acts 20.1-6

Here Is Your Memory Verse
While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
"Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which
I have called them." nz05/zDeani13.htm#2">Acts 13.2

Meditate Word By Word On These Verses
nz05/zDeani08.htm#4">Acts 8.4-8.

Spend a Minute to Change the World
Pray For Pakistan - Nearly 145,000,000 Asian people
97% Muslim, fundamentalist bias, huge social, economic problems
Persecution of 2-3% Christians, many unreached peoples

Missionary enterprise is best born in the local church, supported by an envisioned congregation and plants new churches wherever it goes. Your local church can be a world changing church with a world class ministry, and here is how.

What Is The Church?
Timothy Chen is the pastor in lesson 1 who taught 15 men every 2 months and together they saw over 100,000 new believers. He says that his churches in China are, "reservoirs of people in preparation for the Great Commission."

A. What Do You Need To Do To Launch The Church Into World Ministry?

A Church Needs vz20/zPritc29.htm#18">Proverbs 29.18 Vision
because without a vision the people perish. Above all the senior leader needs to pick up God's heart for a world of different people, and go see for himself, every year. What impresses him or her will impact the whole church.

You Need Leadership And Ownership
Recognise those who God is raising up for world ministry in prayer, giving or going. Give them responsibility and release them from all local work. That's what "sent away" means in nz05/zDeani13.htm#1">Acts 13.1-3.

1. The top leadership in a church sets the example for the whole congregation regarding missions.
True / False.

You Need Wisdom For World Ministry
Pray like Paul in nz19/zKolos01.htm#9">Col. 1.9 for ongoing 'sunesis' which means the ability to put pieces together like a puzzle with Godly understanding and knowledge.

Partnership Is Wisdom
Involving the whole body on one hand, and working in partnership with other churches and missions is good 'sunesis,' because in unity the blessing is commanded. No one church can change the world or even an unreached people by itself.

2. Many churches working together for missions is beneficial because...
you need worldly wisdom for ministry.
it helps to synthesise the answers to problems.
it provides 'sunesis,' the wisdom to put all the pieces together.

You Need To Set Goals With Dates.

Goals release energy and set direction. If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time, and decisions without dates are surely delayed. You need goals for ~

• Prayer cover for missions, say a special hour or so once a week.
• Pastoral contact and care for vulnerable frontline missions workers.
• Awareness training for the church, say an information slot every Sunday.
• Giving and the creating of funds, with definite targets. The faith offering has proven very effective. This is where each member pledges a certain gift for missions to be paid over the following year as God provides in answer to their prayers, over and above their normal income. Business and missions have always been two peas in the same pod.
• Short-term mission trips, for visiting other cultures each year
• Missionary sending, say at least a tithe, 1% of the church might go.

3. Some important tactics for missions are...
(Choose the best answer:)
raising missions awareness every Sunday.
setting goals with dates to accomplish them by.
pastoral care for missionaries in vulnerable frontline areas.
setting aside one hour a week to pray for missions.
all of the above are correct.

B. You Need A Spirit-Led Strategy

In nz14/z1Kori03.htm#10">1 Cor. 3.10, Paul said he is a wise Master Builder, a "sophos architekton," that is, a wise architect or planner who gets wisdom from God through the Word and the Spirit. What was that wisdom?

4. A 'sophos architekton' is a wise Master Builder.
True / False.

Paul's Strategy For Mission
Paul's missionary strategy was to go down the main roads to the main idolatrous cities, discover where and amongst which people group God was moving and work with them till they were saved, and mature and ministering themselves. His model foundation for missions had only two major parts ~

World-Minded Mother Churches
In the Bible the only differences we see between churches are geographical ones like the churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Philippi and Ephesus, who gave birth to and supported local and missions activities to spread the gospel. Antioch was Paul's mother church. He was sent out from there and he returned there for much of his missionary career.

Apostolic Teams
"Apostolic," means sent by God, not necessarily led by an apostle as even Paul was not recognised as such at this time. When God called him to go on his mission he formed a small apostolic team of three with its own clear strategy for the unreached: nz05/zDeani13.htm#1">Acts 13.1-2. This was his practice from then on, and in nz05/zDeani20.htm#4">Acts 20.4 men from different churches are working together in his mission.

5. What was Paul's mission strategy, as a wise Master Builder?
Linking mother churches together with apostolic teams.
Tying down missionaries to worldly-minded churches.
Apocalyptic teams go off with unclear strategies.

C. Twins Of Church And Mission

The church was the church, and the mission was the mission, right from the beginning. The missionary team had the authority of a local church, in fact they were a travelling church. Once away Paul was very much on his own, supported by, but not controlled, by Antioch, Jerusalem or Philippi. The team had to be economically self-sufficient. Once on the road, they were self-governing, self-funding, and self-propagating as they in turn formed new churches, schools and mission teams. One goal, two approaches.

6. The two twins here are...
Andronicus and Diogenes.
stationary church and travelling mission.
external control and self-government.

Suggested Steps As God Guides.

• A team goes, sees, gathers information and returns.
• The team prays a lot, then goes again, worships on site, talks to people, learns about them, and returns.
• The team now goes and stays. First of all the members learn the local ways and slide into to the new culture, adapting their message so locals understand. They begin to witness and win the new believers who they form into a church.
• The team disciples the new believers and as soon as possible appoints local elders. Then the church sends a team of locals to the next village and so the new church is a missionary church from day one.
• The last step is to hand over the new church to the local people and for the original team to go to the next place.

See also lesson 63, The Harvest Church

Match these words with the definitions shown below:
A. short-term mission trips,   B. cultural adaptation,   C. discipleship,   D. hand-over.

7. The mission team adapts the gospel message to the local language and culture.
A, B, C, D.

8. Committed missionaries go abroad to gather information about their target people group.
A, B, C, D.

9. The mission team turns the new church over to local believers, and moves on.
A, B, C, D.

10. The mission team trains local believers to reach out to nearby towns and villages.
A, B, C, D.

Something To Do Before Next Time
Form a team, appoint a leader, and quickly organise for yourselves
an event which will make use of the all the gifts and talents among you.
Pray, plan and go out and do it.

Written Diploma Work
Imagine yourself to be a pastor with a church of 80 people and you want to see
world ministry beginning. Write your goals in a detailed paragraph for each one.