A Nicaraguan hammock sways between two trees in my backyard. It’s from a recent trip I took with two missions team members and my husband, Ron Barnes, who is the Community and Missions Pastor for Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, Colo. We were looking for partnership opportunities for our church to be more involved in making disciples all over the world.
Nicaragua is a tropical beauty that ranks second only to Haiti for poverty in the Western hemisphere. But while the physical needs of the people there are numerous, so are the needs of people elsewhere. So what would compel a North American church to get involved there, or anywhere in particular?
A Global Vision
Perhaps because more Christians today are interested in short-term mission trips, direct missions involvement, and missional ministry, an increasing number of congregations are discovering a need for a global outreach philosophy. A vision for reaching out to the world is imperative to guide good decision-making processes for churches. Churches must understand both their own ministry and how they can make disciples elsewhere in the world.
David Mays of The Mission Exchange consults with churches specifically about mission commitment and effectiveness. He offers guidelines for churches interested in pursuing the Great Commission.
“It’s important to make decisions wisely,” Mays writes in his article “A Global Vision for Your Church” in Mission Maker Magazine ’09.
He writes that churches should first thoroughly examine their own identity, resources, processes, values, and connections to answer the question: What unique role could your church fill in reaching the world with the good news of Jesus Christ?
Next, Mays says churches should consider how and where God is clearly at work in the world, and what opportunities are being neglected by others. He encourages churches to write a vision statement to serve as a guide to forming strategies.
Shared Vision and Values
The Nicaraguan hammock makes a nice metaphor for global outreach partnerships. One church is the tree on one side of a geographic, cultural and spiritual gap; another church, or possibly a missions organization or development group, is the tree on the other side.
The trees that hold up our hammock are similar in size and age. A sapling on one side and an aged oak on the other would obviously not be a great partnership. Likewise, churches interested in working with other churches or organizations around the world should consider only those that can agree with the vision and values of the church. Statements of faith that are similar at the core area good starting point. In addition to theology, values such as service, community, and evangelism are important points on which solid partnerships are built or broken.
The missions partnership statement from Flatirons reads: “Our desire is to partner with like-minded organizations to be used by God in his work of transforming lives.” Agreement with potential partners on values such as biblical authority, authentic community, and relational evangelism are also important.
Other churches narrow their missions focus to church planting, unreached people groups, communities in the 10/40 window, or individuals sent from their church or having some connection to it.
Sustainable models
Even for groups of individuals that started strong with an immediate connection to a church, writing support checks ad infinitum is often as unhealthy as continuing to support ministries that are no longer effective. Some churches require frequent reporting from supported missions partners, in order to keep them accountable. Other churches are funding missions with an end in mind by shifting the missions paradigm to community-owned and sustainable models of ministry and development. The focus is on equipping nationals. This is a better model for both sending churches and for ending dependency in communities where relief and development are focused.
“From the moment we begin working in a community, we are already planning our exit strategy,” Food for the Hungry’s informational packet states. “Our goal is to help people reach their full potential as human beings created in God’s image, not to make them dependent upon our assistance.”
Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. plan implements this type of model. Missions becomes a ministry of one church building up another church. The resources brought in must also be sustainable for this model to function well. Where money and material goods are used up, teaching, training, and encouragement to a community to draw from its own resources can lead to a longer lasting impact.
Other models of sustainability include economic development. Fatima Medina is a young mother living in El Limonal, Nicaragua, a village started on government land given to people displaced after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Some 450 families live here, between the city dump, a prison, a cemetery, and a sewage treatment plant.
Medina recently learned to make jewelry to supplement the meager income her husband brings in as a welder.
“I feel like the Lord has blessed me a lot,” she says. Her house has changed from a makeshift shelter made of plastic and cardboard to a stronger structure of tin and wood.
Mike Saeli has helped Medina plant gardens on her lot, too, to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to her family. A retired organic farmer, Saeli and his wife Marie began working with Food for the Hungry several years ago in nearby Léon, Nicaragua.
“We teach them how to compost,” Saeli says. Food for the Hungry uses transformational development programs that include agriculture, health, water and sanitation, church development, and child development—each according to the community need.
However, Food for the Hungry’s position is that only meeting physical needs cannot break the cycle of poverty in a community. “True transformation happens when community members and leaders embrace a biblical worldview.”
This is the same sort of transformation church leaders should be looking for within their own congregations. So finding it in a global partner is like finding the perfect second tree to hold up the global outreach hammock.
By Rebecca Barnes, © 2009 ChurchCentral.com
