In Your Bible Read This
Acts 11, 19-30; 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 to. Acts 13, 2.
Afterwards Talk About
This
If you have a vision from God, less people will perish.
What vision for the lost is there among you ?
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.
Meditate Word By Word On
This Verse
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
-
Be sure to
teach this lesson to others.
-
Always pray
and prepare well adding
-
your own verses and stories to
bring it to life.
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."
What Do You Need To Do
To Launch The Church Into World Ministry?
A Church Needs
Proverbs 29.18 Vision
because without a vision the people perish. Above all the
senior leader needs to pick up Gods 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. Thats what "sent
away" means in Acts 13.1-3.
You Need Wisdom For
World Ministry
Pray like Paul in 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.
-
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. See the next
lesson.
You Need A Spirit Led
Strategy
In 1 Cor. 3.10, Paul said he is a 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?
Pauls Strategy For Mission
Pauls 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
Pauls 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, Acts 13.1. This was his practice from then
on, and in Acts 20.4 men from different churches are working
together in his mission.
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.
-
Suggested
Steps As God Guides
-
A team goes, sees, spies 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 64 The Harvest Church
See also lesson 74 part 2 A Sending Church
Taken from the
Joshua Project Unreached Peoples List
these people have no church and as yet
no cell, church or mission has committed themselves
to prayer, adoption or church planting among this people.
Uganda
|
People Name |
Language |
Population
|
Lulba |
Luluba |
15,000
|
See all of the
lessons