Waking up each morning, I grab my phone and check the latest updates. What has happened the the last seven hours I have been asleep. We all have our routines that we do when we wake up and for many of us, it is looking at different news and info sites to learn what has or is about to take place in our world. Looking at the stock performance of the previous day and the projections for the current day. Or how the basketball game turned out the previous night. I’m a morning guy, these 9:55PM tip offs are killing me!
When we are looking at what is going on in our world, we are measuring. We are measuring the things around us that matter. Looking at the recruiting class for your favorite sports team, you measure the future seasons success rate. You keep an eye on a specific part of our world because you want to know everything that takes place there. You measure your childs progress in growing by marking their height on the door frame.
What are the points, as a church, where we need to measure our Missions?
I had a great conversion the other day with Paul at Eastview Christian in Bloomington, IL on this very subject. Shoutout to Paul for spurring on this post. I wanted to share with your some of that conversation about the three things your church needs to be measuring in missions.
Praying
In Matthew 9, Jesus shares with his disciples, and all of us, what the greatest mobilizing tactic is in order to raise up disciple makers locally and globally. That tactic is prayer. We are the beg the Lord of the Harvest to drive out harvest workers into the field. Are we praying as a church for harvest workers? Can we spend time trying to figure out how to track if we are doing that? I know the idea of tracking your prayers sounds odd but hear me out.
If this is the single most effective way to raise up missionaries, why wouldn’t we want to track how we are doing as a local body of believers?
How do we know that we are being effective for the Kingdom if we don’t have a way of placing our finger on the pulse of our churches effectiveness. We desperately need more disciples who make disciples. As a church leader, how can you determine a way to measure if you are praying the Matthew 9 prayer to its fullest?
Giving
When it comes to missions, giving is the nature of the beast. As an individual that chooses to live as a missionary here in the states, giving is a must for us. We rely on individuals, churches, and businesses to faithfully give financially to us so that we can impact as many churches as possible. However there is one financial stat that bugs me daily.
Collectively, evangelical churches give 1% of all designated missions money to missionaries working directly with unreached people groups.
That 1% equals out to be $450 Million dollars. In comparison, the National Trade Federation shows that American’s spent $3.2 Billion on Halloween costumes alone in 2019. No this isn’t a sappy plea at your heartstrings, just an awareness opportunity. It is clear, we are not giving in a sustainable way for all to hear. As a church, how can you audit your missions spending to see how you stack up to the national average?
Sending
This is a broad term and category to track. How are doing in raising up disciples who make disciples? Are we sending them to the local harvest fields as well as the fields outside our culture? The same report that gave us the 1% of missions spending going to missionaries working with the unreached gives us another statistics that is equally worth taking time to measure.
Of the individuals leaving the United States to live cross-culturally as a missionary, only 3% go to countries to work with unreached people. 3% to the front line.
At first, this area of measuring may seem hard to track. Most ministers that I have a conversation with, their minds jump straight to sending their people overseas as missionaries. I think the areas we need to measure happen way before that moment. Sending starts by creating a pipeline for your people to learn how to serve. Spending an hour making rice meals for Feed My Starving Children. Taking a day to have a work team complete needed repairs in the homes of foster parents and elderly church members. Allowing plenty of opportunities for teens and adults to serve side by side for a “Missions Week” in one of the poorest drug ridden parts of the Appalachia’s with Howell’s Mill Christian Assembly. This is the start of a missions pipeline, this is how you start to measure your effectiveness.
Hey pastor, we can do this! What you are doing to teach your church how to pray like Jesus, give like Jesus, and send like Jesus is making an impact. Let’s partner together to place our fingers on the pulse of your church’s missions effectiveness and take it to the next level! The best way to do that is by clicking on the Let’s Connect tab on the upper right hand side of this page and fill out the dialogue box. Then, we can get to work together!
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