
One of the biggest issues facing us in the US is international missions. How do we do international missions in the 21st century? How do we think of missions as a community of faith in the 21st century?
In my denomination, the way we do international missions is simply by giving money. It has been that way for years. Your church gives money to a central planning group who distributes that money based on a formula. International missions gets the largest chunk of that money and uses it to hire professionals to go overseas as missionaries to people groups. This makes missions a money issue yet leaves the church otherwise uninvolved in impacting a world for Christ.
Threfore we need to rethink how we do international missions. Rethinking how we do international missions requires us to rethink international missions in general. Our country is becoming an international mission field itself and that opens the doors for international missions to occur on our own soil. Therefore, there are ways for us to do international missions in our own community as well as overseas. In this post, I want to talk about doing international missions on our own soil.
Adopt a people group. There are easy ways to do this. One option is see what people groups are in the area in which you live and your church operates. Chances are there are a large Hispanic population or maybe a Chinese population. However, there may be other people groups. Large cities offer a great opportunity to adopt a people group. New York for instance has at least 88 distinct people groups. These are people who are in New York for education or business or whom have immigrated to the US. They may be first, second or third generation visitors or immigrants. If you live in a large, diverse area, find out what people groups are around and consider adopting one.
If you don’t live in a large, diverse area, begin to pray that God would give you a heart for a particular people group. Look through the website Peoplegroups.org. Regardless of where you live and the type of community you live in, you can adopt a people group.
One you have targeted a people group, think internationally.
1. Begin to host exchange students from that people group or country. Use this as an opportunity to learn about the culture, beliefs, and practices of that people group. Imagine the potential impact on the world that could be made if 50% of your church families would host an exchange student each year from your target people group.
2. Sponsor a child from your targeted people group. Using services like Compassion International, each of your small groups could sponsor one or more children. This offers an opportunity for a long-term investment in a child who could be used of God to impact the world around him or her. With Compassion, you can even arrange visits with the child you sponsor. Therefore your small group could help send a different couple once or twice per year to visit, love, and invest in that child.
3. Adopt children from that target group. My wife and I have mentioned this ourselves. Families in your church could adopt a child internationally. As they acclimate to your own culture, you could encourage and help them to maintain the language and customs of their own culture. In doing so, they can walk in (at least) two cultures, offering an opportunity for them to be a missionary back to the culture of their birth.
4. Encourage your members to find jobs with companies that have a presence where your people group is located. Volunteer for trips to that country and learn the culture and customs which you can then share with your church.
5. Get involved with groups on a college campus that focus on your people group. There are all kinds of diverse groups on college campuses and you could volunteer, build relationships, host parties and even do ESL with them.
If your church adopts a people group who has a local presence, and your church has applied one or more of those ideas, it gives you a great entrance into that local community. Your church can host a meal for the exchange students, adopted children and those who are local. This allows you to build relationships and make the investment of Christ into that local community of immigrants.
Yet it also allows your church to make an international investment. As these exchanges students return home, as those college students return home, as those migrant workers or immigrants go back to visit or even return home, you have sent a part of yourself, your church, and your Lord back with them. This can have a great impact on their families and friends back home.
Don’t just send money. Impact the world globally with your love, presence, and Faith.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Recent Comments