This Week in the Mission Blogosphere

Three posts and a poem. That is our theme for this week in the Mission blogosphere.

• How NOT to Drop a Missionary's Support - An Evangelical foreign missionary made some good comments concerning missionary support ethics. It is inevitable that missionaries will lose some support while on the field. This is accepted. However, unacceptable is the way in which support is often dropped. No notice, no call, no explanation, just no more support. The blogger gave 3 reasons why support is sometimes dropped in this manner: Cowardice, Cruelty, and/or Incompetence. What are some rules that should be followed when support has to be dropped? Follow the Golden Rule, give as much advance notice as possible, try to do it when they are back home, give an explanation, investigate to make sure it is a legitimate reason, tell if it is temporary or permanent, continue partnering with them in prayer. Overall it is a helpful post, and worthy of a read.

• Ten Little Missionaries - The same missionary posted a poem about the missionary call. Its rythm and ryme aren't the greatest, but it is a good poem nevertheless. I am sure that almost all of us know people who match the description of each of the 10 little missionaries.
  

• Lay Mission - We all know that today we have developed a 'professionalized' ministry, where only the 'highly trained' and ordained do the work. This is obviously not Christ's plan for His churches. Instead, the plan is for the whole church to be involved in the work of the Mission, the 'professionals' being there to help them in that direction. This week a couple bloggers commented on this theme. One suggested that the work of Mission should be carried out by the whole church (particularly the 'lay members'), with fewer 'professionals' needed. The other posted a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd Jones asked "Do we manifest the freedom of the New Testament church" with the giftings of all her members mobilized for ministry. "The notion," he said, "of people belonging to the church in order to come to sit down and fold their arms and listen, with just two or three doing everything, is quite foreign to the New Testament, and it seems to me it is foreign to what has always been the characteristic of the church in times of revival and of reawakening." While we certainly would not adhere to all that these two bloggers would suggest of us, there is no doubt that every 'lay' member, the whole church, should be fully engaged in the Mission. The suggestion is toward a reorganization of the way 'professionals' (in churches and mission boards) are used in missions, toward a mobilizing role, rather than doing most of the work.

Posting Here Soon:

Urgent Need: Solutions for the Coming Missionary Support Crisis (I am waiting on some numbers to get in before I post this. It will be a must read for all concerned about our world Mission.)

Mission Resource: Skype (How can it be used to mobilize churches in the Mission? How can it be used to improve local church missionary care and reduce missionary attrition?)

Building a Biblical Mission Strategy (Considering a biblical [i.e. God's] theology of Mission, what should our overall Mission endeavors look like? Where can improvement be made?)

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