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How Do You Send A Missionary?

Answering the first question might require answering another.

What will the missionary be sent to do?

Ultimately, the purpose of Biblical missions as described in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, and supported by many other verses (Mark 16:15, Luke 24:46-48, Acts 1:8, Romans 10, 1 Corinthians 15:34, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, etc.), is to preach the Gospel, baptize believers, and teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded His disciples to do. The apostle Paul directed Timothy to equip faithful men to teach others (2 Timothy 2:2), and he told the Ephesian church that the purpose of individual gifts is to equip people for the work of the ministry. In 2 Corinthians chapters 3, 4 & 5 the apostle Paul lays the work of the ministry for us as ambassadors.

Another way to state it is like this:

Our objective is to establish thriving churches of Christians among language and ethnic groups of people where there are none; to teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded us and equip others also to do as Christ commanded.

Do missionaries grow on trees?

No. Missionaries grow in local churches where God’s written word is taught. 

In local churches, people grow to know God’s character, His person, purpose, plan, people and processes. 

In local churches people are established in their faith, grow to know their own identity in Christ, learn to walk in obedience, gain experience in serving people, and learn to lead others by faith. In local churches, believers learn God’s purpose for them in the world, learn to function as a Body, and grow to take responsibility as individuals who are part of a global team.

The funny thing is,
God’s Word actually works.

Just as God mapped out a detailed plan for the Israelites to build a tabernacle as a meeting place, God also laid out a plan for people to know Him, be rightly related to Him, and learn to engage in His purposes.  This is God’s design for missionaries, too; that they follow His plan and lead people who don’t know Him to believe Him and apply His written word to their lives in the way that they teach others.

Send Qualified Church Planters

So, who do you have in your church who is qualified to establish a thriving church?  Who is spiritually mature enough to represent the church well over long distances, continue to grow in faith personally, sacrifice personal long-term ambitions for years, and teach the whole Bible to people who know nothing about it?

Are they ready to go? If not, how do you prepare people from within your own congregation to be sent to establish thriving churches of Christians among language groups of people where there are none?

Discipling People to be Sent

Being a sender means helping people grow spiritually to where they can qualify to be sent to establish thriving churches from scratch. It takes a plan and a consistent commitment of time. Are you intentionally equipping people to fulfill the Great Commission? Who do you know who may some day be sent?  https://biblestudy.ethnos360.org/

Missions Education.  What is missions? What is the Biblical basis of missions? What is the state of the world? What is the urgency of missions? Where are the needs?

Ready to Find Out More?

    • Vision Casting.  It’s not easy to send people as missionaries when no one around you knows a good reason to send someone. Nor will hard-earned resources be volunteered unless there is a well-known worthy cause.  Part of sending missionaries is preparing people to be sent and preparing people to send them. Do you need some resources to assist with casting the vision?

      — Find a Representative – https://bit.ly/2A6191h
      — Ethnos360 Videos –  bit.ly/2EMjaqX
      — Ethnos360 Mission News – ethnos360.org/mission-news
      — Ethnos360 Prayer Bulletins – https://ethnos360.org/prayer
      — Ethnos360 Magazine – https://ethnos360.org/magazine
      — Ethnos360’s Wayumi Retreats, Expedition & Courses — http://www.wayumi.com

      Bible Training. The reality is that many people who have a heart to be sent have not been around us long enough to be discipled and equipped for ministry.  Sometimes we need to delegate the equipping to others. Ethnos360 Bible Institutes are schools where a student can spend two years studying nothing but the Bible while being taught by experienced missionaries with an emphasis on church-planting missions. Do you know some people who could be sent to learn the Bible?  https://e360bible.org/

      Equipping & Sending Missionaries – ethnos360.org/training

      See “Your Church & Ethnos360” – stilluntold.com/randys-web-links/

      What You Can Do

      Five Things You Need To Know About Missions – stilluntold.org/keys

The objective of missions is shipping worth

Worship. Worth Shipping. The goal of missions is to equip people who do not know the God of the Bible to know Him, to recognize His worth, to realize that the knowledge of Him is worth gaining for themselves, to realize that the knowledge of Him is worth shipping, and to equip them to ship the knowledge of His worth to the ends of the earth; to people who have no other way to hear about Him. The goal of missions is to glorify God by acknowledging His worth to the extent of shipping the knowledge of His worth around the world and into eternity where there will be no need of missions.

Summary

If the purpose of missions is to go everywhere, teach people everything, and equip them to teach everything to other people, then sending a missionary involves equipping a person with the skills, resources, and people to complete the task. 

Among language groups of people who have no access to the Gospel, this often means overcoming the logistics of transportation, food supply, house construction, language/culture acquisition, Bible translation, Bible lesson preparation, and time to communicate the message through discipleship. 

Who can we send to be trained to plant thriving churches across logistical, cultural, language, and translation boundaries? Who can we send to be trained to support the people doing the teaching? 

Missions Keys

Training