Maximizing You Church's Mission Engagement

Maximizing Your Church’s Mission Engagement A Resource for Mission Committees

GLOBAL MISSIONS

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Using

this Resource This booklet will help you maximize your investment and engagement in God’s mission in the world.

Congregational mission leaders, mission committees and church staffs will find this booklet helpful with:

BECOMING

STRENGTHENING

better stewards of God’s resources

discipleship in your church

DESIGNING

SHARPENING

a consistent approach to decision-making about mission engagement

your impact on the mission field

IN THIS GUIDE: Making Decisions in Your Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Grounding Your Church in Best Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Leading an Effective Committee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Evaluating Your Mission Commitments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Creating Your Mission Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Raising the Mission Profile in Your Congregation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Growing Your Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 | Maximizing Your Church’s Mission Engagement

Making

Decisions in Your Church The decisions facing congregations are becoming much more complicated in today’s context due to: • • • • •

Growing desires to participate directly in service Unending funding requests Shifting generational expectations Heightened awareness of needs and crises Evolving denominational structures

While these changes can be frustrating, they also provide leaders with great opportunities. Let’s leverage the drive for hands-on ministry to renew our mission committees and leadership teams.

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Grounding

Your Church in Best Practices Effective congregational mission leaders move teams from budget planning to hearing and responding to God’s call:

PRAYER. How does your committee, leadership team or congregation pray for God’s mission in the world? Your leadership group should be engaged in regular prayer for work near and far.

Join field personnel around the world in prayer with Prayers of the People, Prayer Associates and your weekly mission thought through Mission Bites.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION. When your group gathers, establish basic ground rules: • • • •

Acknowledge the potential difficulty of your tasks Commit to learning and listening Confess your assumptions and agendas Stay focused on your purpose and goals

EXPLORE DISCIPLESHIP.

Does your group need more information about mission engagement opportunities, your community, biblical and theological knowledge, or heritage of the church?

TRUST. Create an atmosphere of general confidentiality among your group while you’re exploring options to allow for honesty and vulnerability.

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Leading

an Effective Committee Different committees and leadership teams have different purposes. Establish clear boundaries by articulating your values and objectives.

ASK: • • • •

What are your guiding principles and goals for mission?

What is your committee’s central concern?

What are your congregation’s guiding principles (values, beliefs and purposes)?

What biblical stories/themes/passages and other images of mission are important to your church?

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship articulates its mission, values, beliefs and purpose through the Mission Distinctives summarized here: Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we cultivate beloved community, bear witness to Jesus Christ and seek transformational development among people and places otherwise forgotten or forsaken. CBF field personnel work alongside CBF congregations within the contexts of global poverty, global migration and the global Church.

DISCUSS: How do you think these Distinctives may help guide your congregation’s missional commitments?

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Evaluating

Your Mission Commitments After setting ground rules and articulating your values as a congregation and leadership group, you are ready to talk about commitments past, present and future.

ASK: • •

What are your present mission commitments? How did you come to have these commitments?

Do your present mission commitments match your congregation’s present values and passions?

The most difficult tasks in which mission leaders must engage are narrowing their focus and saying “no” to worthy requests. Narrowing your focus as a congregation allows you to deepen your impact.

ASK: • • •

Is each of your mission activities the best it can be?

Which ministries seem the least and most viable for your church in moving forward?

Imagine sitting with a friend who doesn’t go to your church (or who doesn’t go to any church) and explaining your church’s mission engagement. How does it sound when explaining it to a friend?

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Creating

Your Mission Profile Create a mission profile for your church that organizes and develops a visual presentation of your mission engagement.

HEALTH: In most healthy situations,

OFFERING: Offering goals should push

funding going outside your congregation should be 20-30% of your total annual church budget.

the bounds of what is both a realistic and sacrificial amount for your congregation.

One church realized that for the past 10 years, they had been slowly shifting funding away from missions.

FUNDING: Funding spent traveling to the mission endeavor should not be the biggest slice of your missions spending!

A church recently discovered this was the case. They spent $14,000 to get to Ghana and only invested about $800 locally.

Last year a church set a missions offering goal at $8,000 and listed the additional mission projects that would be possible if they raised $11,000.

DENOMINATION: Know your denominational giving proportions.

One church was surprised to find that the support they sent to their denomination was mostly used to support administration.

There isn’t one right way a church’s mission engagement should look.

TIPS: • • • •

Partnerships with organizations and individuals should represent long-term commitments from your congregation.

Seek to fund fewer partners well instead of supporting many causes with token amounts of funding.

Should you decide to end a financial commitment to a ministry, communicate in advance the timeline of your support plan and decrease funding gradually.

Communicate, communicate, communicate! It is vital that you keep the lines of communication open between your church and your partners.

Even if your mission renewal is birthed out of stress, be sure to celebrate your decisions and missions with a cohesive voice!

Go to cbf.net/engage for videos, tips and profile samples.

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Raising

the Mission Profile in Your Congregation Discover creative ways to help your congregation celebrate missions.

Include mission moments in worship year-round or include mission impact story videos in your e-news.

• Mission videos can be found at www.cbf.net/ogm.

• Mission Bites, a weekly mission moment, can come to your inbox every Tuesday morning.

• Use the Prayers of the People on Wednesday night and in Sunday school classes.

• Invite CBF field personnel to speak on Sunday or Wednesday.

Host banquets, lunches and other high-energy events to highlight and raise money for missions.

• Host fair-trade stores at your church leading up to Christmas.

• Write missions-themed Advent devotionals or blogs and ask CBF field personnel to contribute.

• Host video conferences with field personnel during worship and other programs, such as VBS and seasonal offering kick-off events.

• Host a Mission Collective and offer your congregation as a mission resource to your community.

• Launch mission kick-off events, giving each generational group a part in planning.

Use mission-focused Bible studies for children, youth and adults.

• Witness Transformational Community is an outstanding six-session study for adults.

• Global Missions focused Bible studies through each year’s offering campaign can be downloaded at www.cbf.net/ogm.

• Enjoy Spark, Form, and E3, featuring the animated hit characters Sparks and Glow, with your children and youth.

Brand your Opportunity!

• Use the same font, one or two colors and icon in your publications to indicate to your congregation special mission opportunities.

Go to cbf.net/engage for videos, tips and profile samples.

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Growing

Your Engagement Growing mission participation in any congregation is an important goal. By leading your congregation to commit to long-term presence, you will enjoy the benefits of mutual growth locally and globally.

Become a CBF Encourager Church and partner directly and closely with CBF field personnel.

• Many churches form formal relationships locally, regionally and globally. CBF can help you establish these relationships so they enrich your entire congregation.

• Grow in your knowledge and expertise in a completely different community.

Make recurring short-term mission commitments.

• Focus on long-term impact rather than short-term gratification.

• Be a learner rather than a teacher and be a servant rather than a director.

• Engage with partners who use an asset-based approach to ministry.

• Plan multi-generational as well as age-specific projects.

• Involve the entire community with your church in volunteer opportunities and events.

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Growing Your Engagement — continued Commit to Sustainability.

• Sustain CBF field personnel through the CBF Offering for Global Missions (OGM). Your budgeted and congregational offerings directly support field personnel presence.

• Gifts toward mission projects directly fund mission programming budgets of CBF field personnel.

• Grow your involvement and giving commitments rather than re-slicing the same size pie.

• Give sacrificial amounts in order to lead people into deeper levels of commitment.

Commit to Deeper Discipleship.

• Pivot • PilgriMission • Witnessing Transformational Community • Create a rhythm of activities along with your church’s passions and patterns of giving. For example, give up electricity for a night in solidarity with those affected by natural disaster.

Commit to Prayer.

This guide begins and ends with prayer. Prayer is an integral part of any congregational strategy for mission engagement.

•

• •

Matthew 9:37-38 (Luke 10:2) reminds us that we have a responsibility to be faithful to the Gospel. Prayer is the beginning and end of that responsibility. Join your team, Sunday school classes, small groups and entire congregation in praying that more will hear the call to mission engagement near and far.

Prayers of the People — CBF’s yearlong guide to prayer Prayer Associates — Monthly personal updates and prayer requests from field personnel around the world

For more resources, go to cbf.net/engage or call 800.352.8741.

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Resources

for Your Church Pivot: Turning Teams Towards God’s Mission Near and Far

GLOBAL MISSIONS Small Group Bible Study

BEARING

WITNESS TO JESUS CHRIST TRANSFORMATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CULTIVATING BELOVED COMMUNITY

SEEKING

By Carol Younger and Kevin Pranoto

The Short-Term Mission Handbook by CBF

Summersalt: Missional formation lessons and activities for children and preschoolers

PilgriMission: Transforming by being Transformed

Mission Collective: Regional, church-based training events that gather collective wisdom for collective action

FormTM: Missional formation curriculum for preschoolers

Witness Transformational Community: Adult small-group Bible studies on mission

Become an Encourager Church: partnering with field personnel and the work around the world

SparkTM: Missional formation curriculum for children

Discover more church resources, visit cbf.net/resources or call 800.352.8741.

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Maximizing Your Church’s Mission Engagement Helping you with • • • • • • •

Making Decisions in Your Church Grounding Your Church in Best Practices Leading an Effective Committee Evaluating Your Mission Commitments Creating Your Mission Profile Raising the Mission Profile in Your Congregation Growing Your Engagement

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