Table of Contents
Preface:
Why This Tool? 2
W.O.R.L.D. Christian Process 3
Foundational Principles 5
Personalizing, Resourcing, and
Coaching Churches 5
Healthy Missional Milestones 9
Barrierw and Bridges of
Missional Coaching 10
W.O.R.L.D. Christian Coaching Guide: Shaping Missional Values 12
Seven Steps in Coaching toward
a W.O.R.L.D. Christian Strategy 15
Appendices 30
Tea
sipping is a global ritual in most cultures. To visit a home without sipping a cup of tea is a great
offense throughout Asia. For
a businessman in Central Asia to talk business before the ceremonial cup of tea
is absolutely unacceptable, even when dealing with ones enemies.
Now,
short of my informing you about this important custom, our North American
culture sets us up to automatically offend much of the worlds population.
The
greater problem with that tidbit of information is that unless one has spent
significant time living day in and day out among cultures that honor such a
trivial tea ritual, we dont really – I mean actually – believe
its significance. We might humor
our cross-cultural friend by sipping some tea, but its difficult for North
Americans to value that cup of tea.
Why
do I mention tea as a preface to this missional guide? Because hot tea, prepared, served and
sipped in very particular formulas and rituals represents a worldview, which is
foreign to most North Americans.
Just as worldviews vary globally regarding
the preparation, serving and sipping of tea, three distinct worldviews
influence a North American churchs strategy for engaging international
unreached peoples.
The
first worldview is actually the central biblical worldview. The biblical
perspective is the outlook that should guide the entire process. Worldview
is not even the correct word in this case. We should call this the divine
view, the view from the perspective of God, or the missio-dei. Too often,
our needs, our preferences and our self-centeredness guide the process of
engaging the lost, our neighbors and the least reached with the Gospel. The place to start is Gods view.
The
second perspective that obviously comes into play is the view or the need-based
motivation of the local church. What
do we as a unique church believe WE NEED or can sustain, knowing our churchs
strengths and weaknesses? How can
our church be obedient to Gods desire for us in missions, and pull it off,
without totally disrupting the congregation? That doesnt sound like a very
godly question but if church leaders are honest, its closer to reality than
wed like to admit.
A
third perspective that is too often neglected is the worldview of the global Christian worker, the missionary
or the indigenous field partner.
This third perspective is the most difficult to bring to bear on a North
American local church-based global mission strategy. Why? Because no
matter how many mission trips a Western, church mission leader has participated
in, there is a great chasm of understanding that can only be fully overcome by
personally planting ones life in a foreign culture, learning a language and
personally partnering in indigenous strategies on the ground.
This
guide was created to provide a practical, handles for churches who seek to
build their global mission strategy on the three-legged foundation of local church, global strategy, and Gods
heart for all peoples. Great resources exist to guide a
churchs study of Gods heart for the nations. Great resources abound for effective missional
strategy. Good tools have been
created to assist churches in establishing traditional mission systems
including committees, mission trips, and prayer walking journeys.
This
tool, is distinct in that its goal is to provide practical handles for bringing
the three worldviews together into a biblical, church-based, local and global
strategy.
W.O.R.L.D. Christian Process
The impetus for this
process is to mobilize, equip and go
locally and globally as W.O.R.L.D. Christians into our neighborhoods and among all nations with the gospel, contextually
communicated, and relevantly lived out.
The W.O.R.L.D. Christian Process is a helpful framework to assist a church
with a Western worldview to bring three worldviews together in a local-church
mission strategy.
Step One is the evaluation process. I have yet to find a church that is at ground zero when it comes
to missions. The church may be brand new, but there are notions about missions, assumptions about missions and biblical foundations that are either
correct, errant, or seriously lacking.
In many cases, church leaders over-estimate their missional activity. Church
leaders generally admit, we are not doing
enough missions, but we tend to give ourselves too much credit for our missional effectiveness. We also give ourselves too much credit
for mere activity as opposed to
strategic activity.
Evaluation
involves the visional leadership staff of a church walking with her core leaders
through a process of viewing, admitting, and addressing the current realities
and benchmarks of their churches State
of the Mission. Evaluation
involves answering the question: What do
we say we are doing in missions, and are we doing what we allege we are doing in
missions? Why or why not? The process involves
a clear look at finances, leadership, equipping, geographic involvement,
systems, and the decision-making processes in missions. The end of evaluation is reframing missional values, systems
and practices.
Reframing involves
clarifying biblical principles and priorities for Jerusalem, Judea &
Samaria and Ends of the Earth Ministry.
You as a church already have a desire to refine, expand, and retool missionally
or you would not be looking at this guide.
Assistance
in the process of evaluating and reframing is what this tool offers, but the
best assistance comes through a missional
coach. See www.missionleader.com.
Key
church leaders must invest time delving into Gods Word and comparing biblical
principles with their unique church history and character. In addition, the
churchs decision-making process needs to be evaluated. The evaluation and reframing grid is
outlined below.
WORD Biblical
Principles for Missions.
OBJECTIVES Local
church-based biblical objectives.
RIGHT
PRACTICES, REGARDLESS
Permission to say no. Disciplined to say yes. With time and
repetition, right practices are institutionalized as effective systems and
guidelines.
LASTING
VALUES
Right practices become DNA, which formulates missional
values. Moving from this is what
we believe to this is who we are.
DREAMS
We live and die to involve our entire
congregation in making God-sized dreams a reality.
Foundational Principles
Several foundational principles should guide church
leaders in influencing their church toward W.O.R.L.D. Christian living. Missional catalysts within a
local church must become engaged in a process of influencing the missional
transformation of church leadership. The following serve as truths, which guide our missional
thinking.
1. God
desires that all peoples worship Him. His desire to be worshiped among all peoples is the primary
motivation for our involvement in local and global missions. Revelation 7:9-10
2.
The Great Commission and the Great
Commandment were given to every believer and every church; therefore, every
Christian and each local church is central in Gods plan for local and global
gospel ministry and cross-cultural missions. Matthew 28:18-20; Mark
12:28-31
3. Spirit-led,
prayerful mission leaders are the difference-makers for catalytic missional
change within the local church.
Pastors and respected church leaders are the natural and most effective
influencers in the cause of local and global missions impact. I
Peter 5:2-3; II Timothy 2:2
4. A
North American church is more likely to fulfill Gods purpose for her when she
intentionally develops a corporate missional purpose, a clear strategy and
personalized plan with systems that facilitate effective communication,
equipping, and implementation. Isaiah
32:8; Proverbs 19:21; Psalms 127:1
5. Local
and global missions must be approached from appropriate biblical, strategic and
cross-cultural perspectives. A
W.O.R.L.D. Christian church lifestyle is not simply another program of church
life, but a pervasive process of leading, equipping and deploying the whole
church through a comprehensive strategy. Hebrews
13:20-21; I Corinthians 9:19-23
6. The
church and the global Christian worker must increase their esteem for one
anothers role in fulfilling Gods global mandate. II Corinthians 10:15-18
Personalizing, Resourcing, and Coaching Churches
The role of misson leaders
is to influence others toward W.O.R.L.D. Christian living. Our job is to serve
as ambassadors for Gods global cause of missions. This involves more than praying
for, funding and sending missionaries. Its more than raising and managing
mission funds. A biblical vision
catapults each of us into a role that requires maximum life-on-life missional
discipleship. As followers of
Christ we are His ambassadors unto a lost and dying world. As mission mobilizers and influencers,
we engage in at least three roles as we interact with church leaders.
Personalization
Either intentionally or unwittingly mission
leaders are viewed in a certain way among church leaders and church members. When we interact with local church
leaders we provide, to a certain degree, a face of missions. Our face becomes the only image that
some will ever have of missions.
Personalization happens with each phone
conversation, each lunch visit, and each Sunday that we sit in a pew at a local
church. There is no avoiding the
personalization that occurs when Christians learn that we in some way are
connected with a people group or mission effort.
From the perspective of most Christians, international
missions is beyond reach. During
the last ten years the word personalization has become a buzzword to encourage
missionaries to address a great weakness. Local churches do not know or understand the worldview
of missionaries. Pastors do not
see missionaries as normal. Perhaps they are viewed as a threat. Many Christians have never met a
missionary or, for example, an Indonesian Christian. Many young people cannot relate to life in the two-thirds
world.
One of our most important roles as mission
leaders, no matter what title we bear, is to become a face of missions.
Personalization is a constant role played by each of us. A constant and most basic role that we
play among church members and church leaders is to personalize missions.
Resourcing
Providing a book, a pamphlet, or information
about a volunteer opportunity can all serve the process of resourcing a pastor
or potential volunteer. Most of
our interactions with local church leaders will never get as far as coaching
toward a missional strategy. However, each time we personalize missions, we
have the opportunity to resource the same church leader. In fact, every
face-to-face encounter could be paired with a resourcing opportunity. Whether we encourage someone to read a
particular scripture with fresh vision; whether we pass on a book or pamphlet;
or whether we share web links or phone numbers, we are in a position to
resource that leader as a result of the personalization experience.
Moving
Toward Coaching
Unfortunately, most of our
encounters with church leaders do not progress into a coaching relationship.
Part of the problem is that many church members and church leaders have no
interest or vision for missions. As
mission advocates, our problem is that we become so focused on missions that we
forget how to cross the barriers that once inhibited our own involvement in
missions. If we are to
personalize, resource others and coach people toward missional living, we must
be listening learners.
Churches are not
single-issue institutions. Missionaries
and mission agency staff tend to be single-issue advocates. Church growth tends to be the main
issue of church leaders. When our single issue is global missions, and pastors
and church leaders are largely focused on church growth, the end result is a
barrier in communication. Right or wrong, most local churches do not
perceive themselves as existing primarily for missions. We can argue
biblically that they should, but most churches view missions as one department
of a multi-department mega-mart for
church consumers.
Missions has become an
appendage of an institution that is driven by broad constituent demands. If we are to make a difference in the
North American church environment, then we will have to be willing to enter
into relationships that seem to hold little promise for coaching. As we
personalize missions for church leaders, and provide information and tools to
help open their hearts to missional thinking, we can pray that God moves the
relationship toward a coaching environment.
Coaching Toward What?
If churches are to become missional,
then they must posture themselves to be more than a Christian Country Club. We as missional coaches must join God
as His instrument in performing heart surgery on congregations. Gods heart for all peoples must
replace a selfish heart whose passion is to add more season ticket holders to
the local church arena.
The dilemma of mission
leaders is that we limit our ability to overcome barriers as long as we are
single issue mission influencers.
We must be willing to get involved with all the stuff of church life.
Since church leaders juggle multiple issues, we as missional coaches need
to step into their skin and learn what it means to juggle those issues and also
be an effective W.O.R.L.D. Christian.
If we effectively serve the
church, we ultimately assist church leaders to become:
biblical in mission teaching,
missional in lifestyle,
global & local in praying,
bold in giving to missions,
aggressive in going and sending for missions,
personally involved in reaching local and global unreached, and
mentors who multiply.
Learning to Coach
In the sports arena, the
most effective coaches perceptively evaluate a teams strengths and weaknesses.
Coaches bring vision, direction, and equipping that lead to success. The most effective coaches were at one
time players, so they are practitioners who are players-at-heart. Effective
coaches have the capacity to lead individuals to work together for a greater
purpose than can be achieved alone.
Are you ready to be an effective missional coach of church leaders?
This Missional Leaders
Guide is not intended as a magic bullet or a one-session seminar to
massage each churchs mission psyche.
What we are advocating is a healthy process in which we influence and
equip church leaders; in other words, a mentoring process. The implication is that we who
influence others on a missional journey must also be mentored. If we intend to lead the church, then
each of us needs to be led by someone who is further along than we are missionally.
Many times a missionary and church
leader make a great team. The missionary mentors the North American-based
church leader in global culture and effective global ministry. The local church
leader mentors the missionary in communicating their passion within the North
American context. Both work
together to mobilize, equip, send and support teams, tools, and projects, which
result in global church multiplication.
So where do we begin in
mission leadership? We begin and
continue our influence as listening learners. For this
process to be effective, self-learning and mentoring must begin now in each of
us. The desired end-result is that
an experienced missional coach will walk with another less-experienced
missional coach on a journey of growing together as church coaches.
As mission leader and mobilizers
our job is more than maintaining the flow of mission giving and sending. Its more than maintaining a consistent
pool of potential missionaries.
Southern Baptists, for example, are generally doing an outstanding job
keeping the coffers full and incrementally adding to the numbers of
missionaries and mission volunteers.
The success of our missional influence will be seen in more than our
ability to add funds and missionaries.
Our success as mission
leaders will be seen through a dramatic multiplication of individuals and churches
becoming fully engaged in missional transformation.
The churchs unfinished task is to engage all peoples with the gospel.
The role of mission leaders today is to be Gods catalysts to fuel a
vigorous movement of church leaders who lead their congregations to the
unfinished task.
How is progress measured toward becoming
W.O.R.L.D. Christians? Since each church is unique and each church mindset
takes on a different shape, there must be some universal building blocks toward
moving churches along a measurable path.
During missional coaching, maturational progress can be measured by the
following milestones. Eight
milestones, along with identifiable barriers and bridges for each, enable the missional
coach to sequentially mentor toward attainable coaching objectives.
Missional
Milestones
In order for a church to grow toward lasting
missional values, each of the following building blocks must be developed
through a healthy missional coaching process.
Biblical Visionary Leadership: broad-based, deep and
effective leadership toward a biblical vision for missions.
Systems and Structures: effective decision-making
processes and accountability structures, as well as appropriate mission
strategy.
Equipping and Mentoring: missional multiplication as seen through the equipping and sending
of mission volunteers - missions
education.
Prayer: consistent,
church-wide praying for the lost, for missionaries, for nations and for the
peoples of the world.
Giving:
sacrificial, bold, church-wide, pastor-led, cheerful missions giving.
Sending and Going: Sending her church members is
a priority, both as short-term volunteers and as long-term missionaries (ISC,
Journeymen, Masters, and Career.)
Unreached People Group Engagement: The church is mobilized to engage
with the gospel a specific unreached people or city.
Personalization: deep and personal connection
with missionaries, indigenous Christian workers, unreached people groups and
the IMB.
The
Barriers & Bridges of Missional Coaching
Accompanying each milestone is
a major barrier, as well as a primary bridge for overcoming that barrier.
Equipping and coaching is about overcoming those barriers to healthy mentoring.
Biblical Visionary Leadership: broad-based, deep, &
effective leadership toward a biblical vision for missions.
Barrier One: lack of a trusting relationship with missionaries or
agencies.
Barrier Two: lack of a biblical theology of missions on the part
of the pastor and church leaders.
Bridge: The
missional coach must build a relational bridge in order to begin mentoring
church leaders toward solid biblical, missional foundations.
Systems and Structures: effective decision-making processes and
accountability structures, as well as appropriate mission strategy.
Barrier: unclear handles for implementation. How does my
church develop a missional lifestyle?
Bridge: The missional coach must provide very
practical, hands-on advice. This
means walking alongside of church leaders and mentoring them as they deal with
the specifics of their missional issues.
Equipping and Mentoring: missional
multiplication as seen through the equipping and sending of mission volunteers
- missions education.
Barrier One: scriptural ignorance or refusal to apply the
teachings of scripture.
Barrier Two: the lack of cross-cultural ministry exposure or
equipping.
Bridge: Exposure to scripture and to the world is
needed, as well as equipping for specific mission projects and trips. The missional coach must provide very
practical tools for training and a process for mentoring.
Prayer: consistent, church-wide
praying for the lost, for missionaries, for nations and for the peoples of the
world.
Barrier: Prayer for the nations is undervalued and underpracticed.
Bridge: Strategic prayer requires discipline and occurs
naturally in response to global exposure, through mission trips, in equipping
for and practice of strategic prayer, and in worship experiences to celebrate
answers to missional praying.
Giving: sacrificial, bold, church-wide,
pastor-led, cheerful missions giving.
Barrier: a self-centered lifestyle, a lack of biblical vision,
personal greed, and a lack of trust toward the mission agencies and
missionaries.
Bridge: Personalization of missions occurs through
connecting church leaders to specific faces (yours) and relationships
(missionaries and mission partners).
Sending and Going: Sending church members is a priority, both as
short-term volunteers and as long-term missionaries (ISC, Journeymen, Masters,
and Career.)
Barrier: disobedience to God, the lack of teaching from His
Word, as well as fear and ignorance of the world.
Bridge: Sending and going increases through exposure
to Gods Word (biblical, missional teaching), partnership with missionaries, as
well as by personal experience in global missoins (mission trips).
Unreached People Group Engagement: The church is mobilized to engage
with the gospel a specific unreached people or city.
Barrier: Easy and accessible mission opportunities compete
with more costly, more distant, more dangerous, and more spiritually
challenging work among the least reached.
Bridge: Mission trips provide awareness and exposure,
which enables volunteers and church leaders to learn that God is at work even
in the darkest places, and that strategic involvement is possible.
Personalization: deep and personal connection
with missionaries, indigenous Christian workers, and unreached people groups.
Barrier: lack of personal connection and involvement in
global missions, as well as contentment with a passive missions-light approach. (We
give our money, you do missions on our behalf.)
Bridge: Relationship makes the difference, which
means a personal involvement with mission personnel and mission projects.
W.O.R.L.D. Christian Coaching Guide: Shaping Missional Values
The
focus of this section is to navigate missional leaders through a healthy
biblical process of discovering and developing their local church W.O.R.L.D.
Christian strategy.
Pastors and church leaders tend to rightly focus their
attention on worship, preaching & teaching, as well as church management
issues. The issue of missions
generally falls somewhere far behind the priorities of children and youth
ministry, and building and grounds.
The end result is that some kind soul from the pew is eventually asked
to help the church figure out her missions ministry. Seldom does this process begin with staffing for missions as
a priority.
Denominational consultants, missionaries, local and
global agencies, as well as friends and family members of church leaders,
eventually coax the pastor and mission committee members to adopt certain
ministry opportunities. Since few
can find a bad missions opportunity, the church mission leaders become inundated
with wonderful opportunities.
Before long the pastor and staff wake up to recognize that the missions
budget is spread remarkably thin, across 20 to 100 causes. Each mission
project receives a diminishing piece of the missions pie, some causes receiving
only $20 per year. Missions leaders are struggling to find a frame of reference
for decision-making. The staff is struggling to appease the dozens of internal
and external lobbyists, each vehemently and enthusiastically campaigning for
their special missions cause.
A bit frustrated and concerned, a pastor or missions
leader approaches you and the following conversation ensues.
Hey. I was wondering if
you could help me with my churchs missions thing? (Pastor of XYZ Church)
Sure Just what is your churchs missions thing? (Missions Coach)
Were really missions-minded. We give to the denomination and to the
special missions offerings. We also support a bunch of missionaries and our
citys local evangelism causes. We sent a team to Barankulu and we sent teams
to help the tornado victims.
So whats the problem?
I dont knowwe are just
overwhelmed. There are so many opportunities. Were not sure how to make good
decisions? Do you have any suggestions?
If you have ever been on either end of this
conversation, then what follows may be helpful. By coaching, were not talking basketball or football; we
are talking about coaching that can transform a church from mission-concerned
to mission-mobilized, mission-equipped and mission-activated.
The following section has been adapted with permission
from materials produced and developed by Mission Leader www.missionleader.com,
a missional church and consulting organization. The unique background of the
author has shaped the bias of these materials. The following experiences bring
together a Biblical, International Missions, and North American church
worldview:
Traditional Missionary – Church Planter in southern Africa and North
America.
Non-Residential
Missionary (Strategy Coordinator) among an
Unreached People group in central Afghanistan.
Central & Southern Asia Mission Administrator (Associate to the Area Director and eventually Regional
Leader) with the International Mission Board, SBC.
Pastor for Missions and Ministries in a transitional mega-church.
Pastor for Unreached People Groups at Saddleback Valley Community Church, CA (Rick Warren).
Mission
Consultant coaching and mentoring church
leaders through a biblical process of discovering and developing a
congregations unique missional strategy.
So what about the Process?
There are numerous approaches to evaluating and
consulting churches on missions structure, missions goals, and missional
strategy. There are just as many mission manuals and systems that might help
you structure the missions programs of
a local church. Westerners
like structure - we expect structure to solve our problems. Too often we let structure drive
strategy, rather than yielding structure to biblical principles.
More often
than not we attempt to avoid the painful process that God takes his children
through on any path of growth. We want to avoid the battle of the moth and his
cocoon. A moth struggles with the
cocoon for a reason. It strengthens the wings and prepares the moth for his
first flight. On the contrary, we
look for pills to pop and magic bullets that will solve our church missional
needs. We want flight without the struggle.
Take this
mission widget. Plug it into
your churchs structure. Turn it to autopilot and watch your mission soar into
eternity!
Unfortunately, the magic
missions widget seldom brings about foundational transformation. Ive
discovered that there is no greater magical impact from one evaluation tool to
another. Each do-it-yourself guide to missions merely reflects the experience
and bias of the author.
The genius of Rick Warren
is not found in applying his Orange County solutions to becoming a Purpose
Driven Church. The genius will only be duplicated and multiplied when a church
leader struggles, as did Rick, to apply universal biblical principles in his
own setting within a particular local context.
Success is not found in the magic bullet
but in the struggle to apply biblical solutions within our unique context.
Theres one thing that
needs to be clear – this coaching guide is not a quick and easy,
plug-n-play guide to Velcro-ing
together your local church mission structure. This is not mission-minded
church-in-a-box or family sized bucket-a-missions. No square pegs are being forced into
round holes.
This tool is a coaching
guide for a biblical process to discover Gods unique missional plan for you
and your church. The focus of this
guide is not a particular end result. Our method is not about models. We
dont advocate a particular best-practice, but we encourage the sharing of
specific answers from specific churches in particular contexts.
The approach is to examine
Gods Word; listen together to what He tells each church. Constantly ask ourselves as church
leaders, What has God already told us, and are we implementing those
instructions? Ultimately coaches
help church leaders implement the Truth from His Word.
As coaches, our role is to navigate missional leaders
through a healthy biblical process of discovering and developing their local
church W.O.R.L.D. Christian strategy.
Seven Steps in Coaching toward a W.O.R.L.D. Christian Strategy
The
goal is to lead churches toward a biblical worldview and live out that biblical
perspective locally and globally. The follow acrostic serves as our guide to
building a W.O.R.L.D. Christian strategy.
WORD Biblical Principles for Missions.
OBJECTIVES Local
church-based, biblical objectives.
RIGHT
PRACTICES, REGARDLESS
Permission to
say no. Learning to say yes to the right stuff. With
time and repetition, right practices are institutionalized as effective systems
and guidelines.
LASTING VALUES
Right practices become DNA, which formulates missional
values. Moving from this is what
we believe to this is who we are.
DREAMS
We live and die to involve our entire
congregation in making God-sized dreams a reality.
Step One - Evaluation
The Premise: Obedience to Gods Word leads to local
church-based biblical objectives,
which bolster right practices that
over time contribute to lasting values,
which ultimately enable God-sized dreams
to be fulfilled.
Since numerous approaches exist to evaluate mission structure, goals, and mission
parameters within a church;
and since there is nothing
magical about one evaluation tool over another;
and since each tool merely
reflects the experience and bias of the author;
lets just be honest and
talk about the bias and perspective
that drives this guide.
Our Purpose is
NOT to:
v help churches develop more structured committees
through cookie-cutter manuals and policies for every aspect of mission activity
v provide an orthodox missiology, a denominational
missions agenda, or a mission agencys plan to harness the churchs support for
their organizations missionaries and projects
v build a strategy that is church-centered or
people-group centered
v help churches adopt the coolest and most popular
terminology and trends in missions
v simply generate mission activity more efficiently and
effectively.
Our Bias is:
v The Triune God desires to be worshiped by all the
peoples of the earth. When this
world ends, a remnant of all peoples will spend eternity celebrating and
worshiping Him.
v Jesus, the God-Man, is the self-proclaimed, singular
path by which any person from any people group can enter into an eternal
relationship with the Triune God.
v The Church today exists to glorify the one true God
and to point all the peoples of the earth to Jesus. Most churches fail to point even their lost neighbors to
Jesus. Statistics demonstrate that most church growth occurs through transfer
of church people from one church to the next. This trend is a foundational missional
problem.
v Missional coaches must help churches equip this
generation and the next for strategic, cross-cultural ministry among the lost
and downtrodden nearest to them, but local ministry is not enough.
v Coaches must only be satisfied to lead churches on a
journey that results in proactive, local and global, cross-cultural ministry
among the least reached peoples.
v Denominations, mission partners, mission agencies and
city-wide alliances all have a great deal to offer your church in implementing
your mission strategy. Our bias is AGAINST the independent-minded notion that
you can reach your city or your world alone. Churches who are serious about missions should get serious
about doing missions in cooperation with their denomination, the churches in
their city and other great organizations that facilitate churches seeking to
serve Christ globally.
Evaluating Church Behavior and Church Objectives
Remember the question that started this conversation?
I was wondering if you could help me with my churchs
missions thing? (Pastor of XYZ
Church)
You
wouldnt be having that conversation if there were not a certain level of
concern, frustration or tension that led your pastor friend to ask for
help. When the question is raised,
the missional conversation has begun. When the question is raised, its time to
posture oneself for coaching.
So what do you say? Where do you take the
conversation? The answer to that question depends on
the relationship and the level of trust established. Multiple conversations may be required
to move toward a coaching opportunity.
In whatever manner the
conversation progresses, the goal is to move from trust to influence and
ultimately toward coaching. Its also essential to enter the relationship with
a clear understanding of the coaching direction?
Since it is not about
building a better mission gadget,
what are we trying to accomplish in coaching?
The first stop on the coaching path is a process of
evaluating and coaching church leaders in Missions.
Our impetus
in missional coaching is to facilitate the churchs efforts to lead her members to become W.O.R.L.D. Christians. So what is a W.O.R.L.D. Christian? And how do we get there?
The evaluation process is the place to begin. The most effective process of evaluation must include
the visional leadership staff, as well as lay-mission leadership. Evaluation
should involve more than the person with whom you entered this conversation; in
most cases, more than one staff member or church leader is involved in shaping
vision, strategy, and church policy.
Evaluation includes walking
several church leaders through a process of developing common understanding, declaring the current mission realities, and establishing measurable missional benchmarks.
Evaluation is about answering the following questions:
What do we say we are doing
in missions?
What are we actually doing in missions?
What patterns do we observe through an objective look
at our mission spending, and our mission activity?
How do we compare our behavior with our expenditures
of time and resources, mentoring & communication efforts, preaching and
teaching?
What criteria is used to get to the answer NO? How
do you say no to good opportunities in order to say YES to the best?
Tough questions! The process of evaluation involves a
transparent look at finances, leadership, equipping, geographic and people
group involvement, as well as the decision-making processes in missions.
Coaching is
limited if the budgets and
behaviors of a church are not laid bare to an objective analysis. Great missiology can be taught. Excellent philosophy can be espoused. Biblical teaching can be presented.
But coaching is the result
of a player (in this case a church) getting on the half-court line and
running ladders. Running ladders on the first day of basketball practice
demonstrates which players are somewhat conditioned for playing a game. Without a true picture of the level of
conditioning a player brings to practice, a coach cant provide assistance in
building a potential athlete into a fit and effective team player, much less a
team leader.
The equivalent of running
ladders in missional coaching is found when a church leader says to you as a
coach, Enough church talk. Im willing to let you see what we are really doing
in missions.
Until church mission
leaders are willing to face the churchs true condition, coaching isnt the
operative word. Teaching,
training, even mentoring might be occurring, but no coaching. Teaching and training are great things,
but a coach is interested in facilitating foundational change.
If were not coaching, we are not facilitating
foundational change.
A great coach is known for
rolling up his sleeves and loosening his tie. He bends his knees and
demonstrates a good defensive stance.
He takes the ball in his hands and demonstrates the fundamentals he
desires in his players. A great coach is interested in getting sweaty around
the collar, and he actively COACHES.
The most often repeated
comment we have received about our type of church missions coach is,
What we
need is not more principles and tools.
We need someone to roll up their sleeves and help us.
If youre not interested in
coaching, then develop missional talks.
Write some sermons on missional principles. Teach all you can teach about missions. But if you are going to coach, get
ready to perspire!
Possible Outcomes of Evaluation
A sample survey (Appendix
1) should lead to some of the following results:
A pile of existing mission documents: manuals, rules
and regulations, priorities, financial policies, mission budget, and total
church budget, etc.
A spreadsheet and pie charts (which you create) of
mission budget, church budget, and mission spending.
Lists of mission trips and projects.
Step Two - Retooling:
Reframing Behaviors around Biblical Priorities
When evaluation has
occurred, then the stage has been set for coaching toward W.O.R.L.D. Christian Strategy. A good coach takes the data and puts it
across a grid for evaluation. The data does the initial talking and lays the
foundation for step two of coaching.
Reframing is the second step. Reframing involves clarifying biblical principles and
priorities for Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria and Ends of the Earth ministry.
In most cases, when a church leader initiates the conversation that
began this coaching opportunity, there is a pre-existing desire to refine,
expand, and retool for missions.
Most mission leaders are
capable of looking at the raw data and learning a few lessons themselves. A
good coach asks more questions than he provides answers. How did Jesus teach? By rolling up his
sleeves, living life with his disciples, and asking troubling questions.
As a coach part of our job
is to stir up the status quo and turn it into troubling questions. Part of our job is to let God do His
work in leading churches to their own biblical answers through a healthy process.
Tough Questions
What
does your mission spending tell us about what is important to this church?
What does your mission
activity tell us about what this church values in missions?
What does the budget
compared to actual spending reveal about your values?
Do your mission policies and
systems reflect your values?
When was the last time you
said no? What criterion led you
to no?
Coaching is about providing assistance in the process
of evaluating and reframing. As a
coach I need to provide some helpful handles and tools for guiding mission
leaders through a biblical process.
What is an effective reframing tool?
Since many excellent tools
exist, how does someone choose an effective tool? Whats the difference in a
good tool and a second rate tool?
Can we be honest? Everyone
likes his own tool better than the other persons. So, choose the tools that serve you best; but choose them
for the right reasons.
The
following are questions to ask about mission guides and tools.
Does the
tool ask tough questions or does it give simplistic solutions? Such a
tool is focused on a plugnplay template designed to give every church the
same answer to the same questions.
My church is different from yours. How can your mission solutions be
identical to mine?
Does the
tool lead me to data that will result in self-evaluation? If the tool doesnt help you to see your own blind
spots, then perhaps it doesnt treat you as a self-learner, and as a missional
mentor. A church mission leader
must be involved in learning, self-evaluating, teaching and mentoring other
mission leaders in the church. A
good tool draws mission leaders into the critical process of self-learning.
Does the
tool lead mission leaders through a healthy, biblical process? Does
the tool lead mission leaders into Gods Word? If not, then it might just be a
secular leadership tool. Where is
Gods Word in the process?
Does the
tool lead mission leaders to discover unique local church, biblical priorities?
If the tool just points to systems and manuals, which focus
on structure, theres a critical step (the struggle of the moth and the cocoon)
that is missing.
Does the
tool guide mission leaders to design systems that grow out of the churchs
unique biblical priorities? Priorities should drive policies,
manuals and structure. Too often manuals, policies and forms are put in place
without a process of discovering biblical priorities.
Step Three – Take a Look at the Big Picture
Key church leaders and
missions leaders must invest significant time delving into Gods Word and
comparing biblical principles with local church history and local church
character and values. In addition,
the churchs decision-making process needs to be evaluated. W.O.R.L.D. acrostic serves as an
outline for evaluation and reframing. While other great tools exist, this tool
is designed to guide church leaders through the process outlined below.
The third step in building
a W.O.R.L.D. Christian strategy is to look at the big picture. Our process began with a dose of
reality – looking in the mirror to see exactly what is important to this
particular local church.
Having laid all the data across evaluation tools, it is now time to
begin walking through the process of change. Coaching, at this point, is not about putting in a new last
second play to win the game. Now
is the time to begin doing the slow, hard work of building a team. It is time to step back and to
take a look at the process of transformation that is ahead of us.
WORD Biblical
Principles for Missions.
OBJECTIVES Local church-based biblical objectives.
RIGHT
PRACTICES, REGARDLESS
Permission to say no. Disciplined to say yes. With time and
repetition, right practices are institutionalized as effective systems and
guidelines.
LASTING
VALUES
Right practices become DNA, which formulates missional
values. Moving from this is what
we believe to this is who we are.
DREAMS
We live and die to involve our entire
congregation in making God-sized dreams a reality.
Step
Four - Exploring Biblical Principles for Missions
The
question to ask at this point is,
What does Gods Word say about what we are currently
doing and not doing in local and global missions?
WORD Biblical Principles for Missions.
There is no time like the present to look at what the
church is doing in missions as viewed through the template of Gods Word. Gods
Word forces us to focus on the imperatives and principles that drive our
activities and vision. What
normally drives a churchs mission practices is something other than biblical
imperatives.
Too often a church makes mission
decisions based on 90% personal issues,
and 10% strategic and biblical priorities. Seldom does a church
develop both a biblical frame of reference and an intentional decision-making
grid.
Its Aunt Gertrudes cousins nephew to whom we give
mission funds, because Gertrude is the organist and a founding member of the
church. Our mission trips are all
to Napa Valley because thats where Pastor Ralph grew up – he loves
taking teams to see his family and to do clinics for the poor Mexicans that
do the labor on his familys farm. Personal stuff is not a lasting
imperative for obedience to Gods mission mandate.
How do we lead people to
search the Word with fresh missional eyes?
This is about the basics of
getting missions leaders to begin in the Bible. There are many ways to draw
church leaders into His Word. But it must lead to a fresh encounter with the
Holy Scripture. Gods Word and the
work of His Spirit is the beginning place for foundational transformation.
Numerous resources can contribute to the exploration
of Biblical Missional Principles.
Inductive
Bible Study – Key missional
passages that should be explored:
The Abrahamic Covenant The
Great Commission
The Great Command Acts
Revelation
Reading Mission Resources – develop your own preferred reading list.
Bible Study
Guides – See Appendix.
The
Perspectives Course - See Appendix.
Missions Mentoring – A helpful mentoring guide is known as G.R.A.C.E. Net Training –
See Appendix.
The Tough Missional Questions are the application
questions:
Am I looking at
scripture through the correct lenses?
Do our churchs
current practices reflect biblical values?
Do I reflect biblical
values in my personal behaviors?
Step Five
- Toward Biblical Objectives
& Right Practices
OBJECTIVES Local
church-based biblical objectives.
Often its not local church based objectives and
strategic thinking, its the etc.
factor outside the local church that forces churches on a path of what
they talk about and what they do in missions. It may be the latest denominational propaganda, secular
trends or popular Christianity that lead us to whatever we do in missions. Its the etc. rather than local church-based strategic/intentional praying,
thinking, and planning that drives mission objectives. Too often our objectives
are neither our own, nor are they born out of biblical foundations. Gods Word
must lead this local church to her own World Christian objectives for her
unique local and global mission strategy.
RIGHT PRACTICES, REGARDLESS!
Permission to say no. Learning to say yes
to the right stuff.
Gods Word leads us to
Gods objectives, which gives us a passion that drives us to just do whats
right, regardless. There must be a
passion that fuels our hearts to do what we know is right, regardless of the
objections of good and godly people. Right practices fuel passion and push us
to press on during the challenging days in which Satan and people within the
church attack Gods best. Good things, very good things become the barrier to
Gods best in missions. Good
things are impossible to argue against.
The only way to win the battle of good versus best is just doing whats best
regardless. The only way to do the best is to create parameters that force an
unequivocal no in certain situations.
The Process of Refining W.O.R.L.D.
Christian Priorities
The next step is to draw the Evaluation Process down
to a small number of priorities, which
will facilitate the establishment of processes that will get the church to her
dreams.
The
question that must be asked at this point is,
Based on our
study of Gods Word, and our evaluation of where we are as a church, what is
important in missions?
Explanation: The purpose of this step is to develop a handful of
priorities that make it simple when Joe Missionary asks the church for a
million dollars to reach the Patuga Indians of Timbuktu. The church wants
to help but they only have 2 dollars left in the Mission Fund. Priorities
enable good decisions.
Priorities protect the
church from Slick Willie Scheister who poses as a missionary asking the church
to fund his aquatic mobile Gospel video chapel to North American Anglo-Saxon
Indians of Long Beach.
Priorities enable church
leaders to decide what to do with a dozen great, mediocre, and poor requests
all sitting in front of the mission decision makers.
The Tough Missional
Questions:
What are my
priorities? Based on my
understanding of Biblical Principles and my unique church history and values,
list your churches priorities in missions.
From the above list,
cluster those items, which share common traits or overlap.
From the above refine my
list to 5 – 7 priorities, which answer the question, Whats most
important to this church regarding missions?
Lasting Values Emerge Only as a
Result of a Healthy Process
LASTING VALUES
Moving from this is what we believe to this is who we are.
Every church, every person
has values that they cant always recognize, even when those values are right
in front of ones nose. Churches
have good values and bad values. Values are not what we say we believe; theyre
what we do.
Christ-centered,
lasting values will enable your church to find her unique place in her
community and in the world. Lasting values need to be articulated over and
over, especially during times of resistance and spiritual warfare. Just as the people of Israel were
instructed to use stones from the Jordan River to build a reminder of Gods
faithfulness, churches need to build reminders of Gods values. Values need to
be stated and restated in order to remind us of Gods heart. The measuring rods of mission success
need to be designed and documented to help monitor success. Lasting values make saying yes and
no like inhaling and exhaling. But it takes practice and a deep sense of
responsibility to habitually say no to good things, in order to say yes to
local church-based, biblical priorities.
Step Six
- Dream the Impossible Dream
DREAMS We live and die to make this dream a reality.
Dreams are the "if
only this could happen" blessings that would match your wildest imaginations.
We begin by whispering the dream until God gives us the faith to shout out
loud. Eventually we challenge the congregation to trust God for His God-sized
dreams for His Kingdoms sake.
Pastors enter ministry for
a higher calling, to live or die for. We enter ministry because we are
dreamers. Yet somewhere along the way, ministers seem to give up the dream and
fall into mediocrity. God despises mediocre churches filled with mediocre
Christians. He wants to spew us out of His mouth when we live lives without the
audacity to dream His wildest dreams.
As we rebuild for missions, lets rekindle the dream for which we are
willing to die.
What is it that this church
is dreaming? What dream is worth it for God to be willing to risk the very
existence of this church? What dream is so big that it requires church members
to lay down everything? What is
the one thing that this church could do to change her city and her world?
Dreams are fulfilled when
churches develop biblical objectives and relentlessly say no to good things
in order to say yes to the extraordinary values that turn the world upside down?
The Final Step
Step
Seven - Building a W.O.R.L.D. Christian Strategy
With the dream in mind,
with biblical objectives in hand, and with some disciplines (right practices)
in place we can Build It! This
is where the fun begins.
God is the most creative
being in the universe. As a reflection of Him, we create. He needed nothing in his hands to
create everything.
Were a bit more limited.
We need the right environment, the correct tools and medium, and we need
inspiration to create in His glory.
Having walked through steps
one through six, it is now time to build the strategy and put the systems in
place to make dreams become reality.
To sum it up, coaching for
missions is about a biblical process of seeking God, responding to His Word,
disciplining ourselves to put biblical objectives in place to dream His dreams
for the local church.
Obedience to Gods Word
leads to local church-based biblical objectives, which bolster right practices that over time
contribute to lasting values, which
ultimately enable dreams to be
fulfilled.
W.O.R.L.D. Christian Worksheet
Use the
following worksheet to guide the process.
Based on the churchs biblical priorities build a W.O.R.L.D. Christian Strategy?
WORD Biblical principles in missions.
(Biblical principles we have
learned to value.)
OBJECTIVES Local church-based
biblical objectives.
(List of our biblical
priorities in missions.)
RIGHT
PRACTICES, REGARDLESS!
Permission to say no. Learning
to say yes to the right stuff.
(What minimal systems are
needed to facilitate nos that lead to yess?)
LASTING
VALUES
Moving
from this is what we believe to this is who we are.
(Benchmarks that will demonstrate
that beliefs have become values.)
DREAMS We
live and die to make this dream a reality.
(Paint a picture of your
wildest dreams.)
Appendix 1
Local
and Global Ministry Questionnaire
Thank you for taking the time to diligently complete the following
questionnaire.
Strengths &
Passions
1. What do you consider to be
your churchs strengths and passions in local and global ministry?
2. How can your church share its
strengths and passions with other churches?
Equipping &
Multiplying
3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being
highest), how effective is your churchs approach toward equipping and
multiplying her membership for local and global ministry?
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
4. What missions opportunities
and ministries does your church offer?
5. Does your church have an
annual missions emphasis, conference, or fair?
7. Who provides the primary
leadership for the missions emphasis? (check one)
8. List below all age-related
training opportunities for local & global ministry.
Children:
Students:
College:
Singles:
Young Adults:
Median Adults:
Senior Adults:
9. In your opinion, how would
your church more effectively equip its members for local and global ministry?
Engaging
10. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being
highest), how effective is your churchs approach toward outreach and evangelism?
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
11. Describe your churchs
ministries within your community.
List strengths & weaknesses.
12. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being
highest), how effective is your churchs approach toward local cross-cultural ministry?
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
13. Describe your churchs
involvement in local cross-cultural
ministry. List strengths & weaknesses.
14. On a scale of 1-10, how
effective is your churchs approach toward global
ministry?
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
15. Describe your churchs
ministries among peoples, cities, and nations in:
Evangelized Gospel Hubs
(where Christ-centered teaching, God-exalting worship, and mission sending
abounds. For example: South Korea, Dallas, South Brazil, South Africa, etc.)
Christianized
Hubs of Confusion (where the under-evangelized and
un-evangelized lost are the majority. A faade of Christianity as found in
Roman Catholicism or state religions give indigenous citizens a false sense of
salvation. For example: Dominican Republic, Cuba, Seattle, Mexico, etc.)
Hubs of Spiritual Darkness (where
little or no gospel witness occurs and where persecution of Christians
prevails. For example: China, North India, unreached peoples of Brazil,
Afghanistan, etc.)
16. Which unreached people group,
unreached city, or unreached nation has your church chosen to engage and
embrace?
17. In your opinion, how would
your church more effectively engage in:
community outreach and evangelism?
local cross-cultural ministry?
global ministry?
Cooperating/Partnering
18. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being
highest), how effective is your churchs approach toward partnering with your
denomination and with other churches in local and global ministry?
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
19. Within the past year how has
your church partnered with your denomination or with another church/es:
in local ministry? Describe
& evaluate the effectiveness of that partnership.
in global ministry? Describe
& evaluate the effectiveness of that partnership.
20. Describe a positive example
of a specific church that you perceive as effectively partnering with another
church or churches.
21. Use the space below to dream
about your churchs role in mentoring, and influencing other churches toward
effective service and cooperation in local & global ministry?
22. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest),
how effective is your churchs approach toward praying for missions?
Local/Regional Concerns 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
National Concerns 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
International Concerns 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Missionary Needs 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Unreached Peoples Concerns 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
23. In your opinion, what are the indicators
of an effective prayer ministry?
24. In your opinion, how would your church
more effectively pray for:
the community?
the nation?
the world?
missionaries?
unreached people groups?
other needs?
Missions Leadership &
Decision Making
25. Who provides primary leadership in vision-casting for missions in the
church? (check one)