IN SEARCH of NEW MISSION FIELDS

Alvin Tan, MMS ExCo Chairman. He worships at Grace Methodist Church. He believes that going on mission trips keeps one grounded.

The MMS Strategic Directions 2025 paper penned by MMS Executive Director, Rev Derrick Lau, envisions the enlargement of “the Tent of God through the process of actively engaging our Methodist churches, and being resourced by them, to reach the lost, the last, and the least in our region for God’s glory through church planting and community development.” It captures well the intent and the process involved, but the obvious question is “Where?”

MMS is now in seven fields, some more tilled than others but nevertheless have missionaries on the ground with ministries initiated. Amongst the newer fields, concerted effort over the last quadrennium has been put into establishing the pioneering ministries in Timor-Leste, which are making good progress. In this new quadrennium, it is time to shift our focus onto a neighbouring country in SEA which has been on our radar screen for a few years to explore, expand, and establish ministries. The potential for ministries needs to be scoped and the strategies defined. Whilst focusing on our under-served neighbour beloved of God, we also need to be looking beyond into possible new fields. So, how do we decide on “where”?

We are of course guided by the MMS Mandate “to establish indigenous churches where none currently exist.” (The latter part of the statement, “where none currently exist”, is not to be misconstrued as meaning there are no indigenous churches at all of any denomination. This phrase written into the MMS Mandate serves as a caution to prevent duplication of efforts and conflict of building upon earlier missions works, especially of other Methodist agencies.) We should take advantage of the good work done by various agencies in highlighting Unreached People Groups (UPG). The Joshua Project (https://joshuaproject.net), for instance, provides a useful global picture of UPG for missions agencies throughout the world to target their initiatives. We also need to consider our own capacity and effectiveness. A practical approach is to focus on accessibility to countries within a radius of a certain number of travelling hours from Singapore.

The search for new fields can be led by MMS: in identifying the field, exploring the ministry potential, and defining the entry strategy. It can also be a field, not led by MMS, where the local church or Annual Conference already has a ministry. The field may be adopted as an MMS field, to the extent it fits in with the MMS criteria, and MMS can collaborate with the local church or Annual Conference to rally wider community support to make further ministry inroads into that field.

The role of MMS as a denominational agency goes beyond identifying or adopting new fields, rallying support, and leading the work in these fields. It should also serve to promote missions, generally, and enrich the experience of the Methodist community in heeding the call of the Great Commission. Where we cannot take a lead in any field, as the field does not fit within MMS’ criteria, we can play a collaborative role – in the provision of training and equipping, advice, resources – in support of our local church and Annual Conference in their missions initiatives.

So, one conversation we can look forward to having in our church engagement programme would be to rally interest in new fields we may have identified, and also to hear about initiatives and ministries the local church or Annual Conference may have in countries outside of the MMS fields. And this is so that as a Singapore Methodist community, we may be collectively guided in reaching out to fulfil the vision “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)