THE GREAT COMMISSION
A focus for every local Church
Missions experts have listed eleven important strategies that a local church can focus upon to help finish the Great Commission. Of course, not every church can realistically adopt every one but several churches working together could put many of these suggestions into action.
Here they are - beginning with the easiest things to do and ending with most difficult.
1. Direct intercession and spiritual warfare to focus upon unreached peoples, people in mission and their projects until specifics become clear.
2. Enjoy networking with churches in other lands which will inevitably lead to priceless short-term visits in both directions.
3. Being open to the gifts of the Spirit and God-guided sermons for direction into God's wider agenda. Release and encourage creativity.
4. Create awareness in the church by appointing focused leaders, platform mentions, education by missions conferences and short-term visits so everyone can find a place in the Great Commission.
5. Take local evangelism over local geographic, language and cultural barriers, ie. welcome and support lonely refugees and immigrants.
6. Insist that church support for overseas social action and overseas evangelism is married into support for one ministry that does social work in an evangelistic framework, rather than perpetuate the folly of separate ministries.
7. Send men, money and materials to help the children of the world. In many nations 50% of the population is under fifteen.
8. Send men, money and materials to help outreach in the mega-cities of the world, where over 50% of people live.
9. Send men, money and materials to help native church leaders overseas. Visits teach, help, mobilise and equip them to reach their own unreached peoples nearby.
10. Send men, money and materials to help into the adoption of an unreached people group, in partnership with a church or agency to establish a first viable, worshipping and witnessing church.
11. Send men, money and materials to help re-evangelise the most difficult and indifferent, gospel-resistant place of all: 'post-Christian' Europe.
- Prepared by Les Norman
- with material adapted from David Shibley
- © DCI Trust, UK, 19th April, 1999
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