So you want to begin a work in world missions? What exactly would you like to see happen at your church? What kind of call or challenge do you sense from the Lord?
Mick Smith told a group of about 100 people who gathered for a workshop during the Global Missions Health Conference held last month in Louisville, Ky., to put pencil to paper in answer to those questions.
The workshop entitled, "How to Mobilize Your Congregation for Mission Outreach Locally and Globally," enumerated specific ways for churches to find a missions vision. Realizing a vision for your church is the beginning of missions outreach, according to Smith, the senior director of the international office of MAP International, a non-profit medical missions organization, headquartered in Brunswick, Ga. Smith said reflecting on your calling and writing it down is a practical way to begin to see your vision for ministry.
"God can use you to make a difference in your church," Smith said. "But it starts with your heart."
Smith and co-presenter for the workshop, Ian Stevenson, outreach pastor at The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa, Calif., handed out vision worksheets to participants.
The second item on the sheet asked participants to: "Describe how you sense God's leading in this. Where does your faith fit in with this?"
Stevenson said listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is critical in developing a vision for missions. "I think one of the things that hinders missions and the advancement of it in our churches is people aren't listening to the Holy Spirit."
That inattention can be either intentional  ignoring God's leading and failing to act  or a failure to hear God's voice in the first place due to a lack of prayer and Bible study. But even when people attend to God's leading there can be trouble. Often what happens in churches, according to Stevenson, is a clash of visions.
One body with many members often means different views of what missions outreach should look like in a church. Stevenson said there is no doubt that missions ministry is an integral part of the church. "Fire is to burn as missions is to the church," he said. But the way specific programs and partnerships develop varies widely from congregation to congregation.
Stevenson and Smith encouraged church leaders to write a draft of their vision statement for missions outreach and not to worry too much about how it differs from other church visions. "Don't be disheartened if it's not an exact fit with what your church has set out," Stevenson said, "Realize, there's a need to lead."
Dr. Russ Summay, a key volunteer with the missions ministry at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, spoke about the way the vision for missions outreach grew along with his congregation and the budget of the now 20,000-member church.
According to Summay the vision there began with funding, as church leaders decided to raise more funds for missions ministry along with fundraising for new facilities.
"The money came first, then the vision," Summay said. The former church elder, now retired, said that was a "kind of backdoor approach and I wouldn't recommend it, but that's the way it happened."
What he did recommend for churches new to missions outreach, was to organize a committee of like-minded people and to listen to God, asking where to go and how to be involved. "We looked to see where God was working," Summay said.
He also advocated prayer and education for missions committee members as well as short-term trips. "I can't underestimate the importance of that," Summay said. "Take [the missions committee] to Masaai land in Kenya and let them live in a mud hut. Take them on a two-week tour of Afghanistan where they're completely dependent on God." Those are both trips Summay himself took. Now in his late 70s, he continues to travel with multiple short-term teams from his church each year.
But even with site visits, prayer and education, a vision for mission work may still fall flat for some members of a church. "Everybody in your church is not going to get the vision," Summay said. "You may not have leadership on board. I don't think that's an excuse."
Smith recommended missions "visioneers" pray for others in church leadership and the pastor, "that God will create in them a genuine heart for the world."
Ken Casey of World Vision's HIV/AIDS HOPE (Hope, Orphans, Prevention, and Education) Initiative also spoke during the November conference. He encouraged church leaders to become intentional about becoming aware of missions needs and to make a point of learning and exploring for the church.
"Once they're made aware of the reality, hearts get softened really quickly," Casey said. "I would encourage church leaders to become aware."
Research is the first step the MAP organization recommends for churches looking to mobilize for missions. They recognize six steps church leaders can take toward building a missionary congregation:
1. Personally live out the missionary heart you want for your congregation.
2. Work and pray for the pastor and key leaders to develop a genuine and transparent heart for the poor, the blind and the broken.
3. Build a missions leadership team.
4. Form strategic partnerships with a congregation or agency outside your own cultural context. Partnerships should be centered around shared goals and fueled by God's love.
5. Engage the whole congregation with hands-on service, missions communications, and involvement  both locally and globally.
6. Don't try to go it alone  use available resources such as books, agencies, classes, grants, etc.
Resources for beginning work on a missions vision:
ACMC - Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment provides an assessment for churches and their missions involvement, as well as resources to help churches in various stages of missions ministry.
The Interdenominational Fellowship of Mission Agencies provides links to more than 100 sending agencies; information on field opportunities; news; conference opportunities.
Mission Handbook - the yellow pages of more than 800 North American-based mission agencies working overseas.
The Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organziations - Information on nearly 50 partnering mission organizations.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies - works in partnership with ACMC.
Books:
"Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America," Darrell L. Guder, editor
"Go and Make Disciples!: An Introduction to Christian Missions" by Roger S. Greenway
"Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission" by David J. Bosch
