Home David Mays July 23, 2008
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Introducing
Missions Strategy David Mays Why Strategy? Several years ago a movement among churches was
initiated by the assertion of a well-known West Coast pastor, “It’s not
enough to be faithful, a church must be effective.” This movement has been titled by Rick
Warren as “The Purpose-Driven Church.”
Purpose-driven means that all activities,
programs, and efforts are designed, carried out, and evaluated to fulfill the
church’s purpose. In other words, a
church should be organized around its purpose or purposes. Similar thinking has pervaded mission
efforts. The church is a steward of
the resources entrusted to it. Church
leaders have a responsibility to invest those resources effectively. Perhaps we sometimes presume upon God to make us
effective, even if we don’t work to become effective. And God, who is the master planner, has
accomplished much more than we could have dreamed. However, because we know so much more about
the world than previous generations, it is reasonable to think that God may
expect us to apply the knowledge available to us and to work toward becoming
as effective as possible. As church
leaders we are responsible for wise use of the resources entrusted to us. God doesn't leave it up to us. He will guide us as we seek His wisdom. Local church missions
leaders have been aware for some time that they have increasing
responsibility to be effective with their missions resources. The aiming for effectiveness often takes
the form of developing a missions strategy. In the past church leaders have mostly supported
the visions and strategies of a variety of mission organizations and
individuals and trusted them to do what God called them to do in the
world. But during the 1980s and 90s,
mission and church leaders began to discover that much of what God wants done
in the world has been omitted or neglected.
Church leaders began to ask about their responsibility to direct their
resources toward accomplishing God’s purposes in the world. Hence strategy. Every church has a strategy. Every church has a missions
strategy. They may have a written
strategy that they faithfully follow.
They may have a written strategy that is largely ignored. Or there may be nothing written. In any case there are reasons and values
behind the decisions that are made to invest missions
resources. Someone has a “strategy.”
It may be the denomination, a pastor, a missions
enthusiast, the elder board, parents of missionaries, or someone with a
strong voice. Someone takes the lead
in deciding where missions resources go and such
people have reasons. These preferences
and values may be commonly known and shared or they may be unknown or not
understood. An important part of developing a missions strategy is to clarify how missions decisions
have been made in the past and how they are being made now. What are the values and priorities
that drive the decisions? It is
important that the decision-making group clarify, openly and honestly, why
they make the decisions they do and why their predecessors made the decisions
they did. Do we follow historical
precedent? Do we favor people we know
or those a key person knows? Do we
vote the partly line with our denomination?
Do some of us have vested interests in particular missionaries or
organizations? Do we tend to agree
with an individual we respect? Do we
accept a proposal because it is uncomfortable to disagree? The true reasons for making decisions must be
expressed and acknowledged openly, so that covert values will not undermine a
future strategy. Definition of Strategy A missions strategy is an
intentional plan developed and implemented by a local church that seeks to
maximize its impact on the world as every member of the congregation moves
toward becoming world Christians. [Blake McDaniel, ACMC]
Note that a missions strategy consists of two dimensions: ·
External – the deployment of your people and
resources into the world, and · Internal – the
development and mobilization of those resources. This material deals only with the External or
Deployment dimension of strategy. A Strategy is a Road Map. It is a how
document. It helps you get from where
you are to your destination, to your goal.
It is a road map. A road map
requires two things to be helpful: 1) You must know
your destination. 2) You must know
where you are. Your Location You can find out where you are in missions in a
broad overall sense by using the ACMC Missions
Assessment Profile (MAP). The MAP
helps a church evaluate the commitment and effectiveness of its mission
efforts in twelve key categories. See
the catalog on www.takeitglobal.org You can find out where you are in regard to
deployment by doing an analysis of your current missions
involvements using one or more of the budget grids in the supplemental
files. We will deal with this later in
the process. Your Destination
A strategy helps guide you to your goal. It is useful if you have a goal. It assumes that you know where you want to
end up. To use a road map, you need to
know where you are going. Your missions
destination – your goals or priorities – is the first issue dealt with in
developing the content of a missions strategy. It is the foundation for a strategy. I call this the Key Question: What
does God want to accomplish in the world Note there are three parts to this question:
The strategy
development process will help you ask and answer these questions. 56565656565656565656 |