Church-Centered Missions in Everyday Life

For some churches, being involved in missions means sending money to missionaries or perhaps planning a short-term mission trip. 

While these are worthy endeavors, they aren’t the total sum of missions. Instead, missions should permeate every aspect of congregational life.

A healthy New Testament church must be devoted to advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. And the goal of gospel advance is to establish gospel communities—churches.

Biblical missions is church-centered: It’s done by local churches, with the goal of establishing local churches. For a local church to be devoted to seeing other gospel churches planted, they must cultivate a culture in the church where the Great Commission is part of everyday life, not something in a separate category. 

MISSIONS DOESN’T BECOME CHURCH-CENTERED AUTOMATICALLY

If every member is to be devoted to missions, churches must be intentional about it in at least three ways.

First, churches must be devoted to advancing the gospel by having a clear plan. In Romans 15, the apostle Paul shares his ambition and burden to see Christ proclaimed where his name had not yet been proclaimed. 

Planning helps churches answer the how of missions, not just the why, and ensures they have a real strategy rather than good intentions alone. Clear planning ensures churches answer the questions: Who will we send? Where will we send them? How will we send them? Who will we partner with?

Second, churches must strive to partner with other churches in advancing the gospel. The mission will not be accomplished by one local church acting alone. Churches must seek out like-minded churches and partner with them strategically in the advance of the gospel.

Third, churches must be devoted to prayer. Praying for open doors. Praying for boldness in gospel proclamation. Praying for protection. Praying for conversions as the gospel is proclaimed. This is a spiritual task, and a church that plans and partners without praying has forgotten whose work it actually is.

WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE PRACTICALLY

In the ordinary life of a church, the church’s missions plan and strategy should be known and shared in church meetings, not tucked away with a committee, but visible to the whole congregation. In our own church, we have a missions corner, where information and plans for missions are shared with everyone. However you do it, the mission and plan must be known by the congregation. 

Church members will participate in the plans and strategy by going and by giving toward the work. If your church has planted another church, that means members should visit to encourage and support both the work and the workers on the ground. Sharing the planning and the needs increases both the individual and corporate burden for missions for the church. 

The work of other churches should be shared and prayed for. Regular prayer will be woven into the life of the church, not left to chance. One helpful practice is having a missions prayer time during the Sunday service, and asking different members to personally contact missionaries to gather their current prayer needs. Families can also commit to pray for missions and missionaries during their family devotions. 

For missions to be part of the everyday life of the church, there must be a clear plan, active participation, and devoted prayer. 

A missions-minded church actively engages with the world and is deliberate to take the gospel where it is needed in obedience to the command of Christ to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19–20).