Since the Brazil mission team is preparing lunch for us today, I want to deal with an issue that typically comes up when a team is going on an overseas mission trip. I heard this same issue when I was at FBC Florence and from other Pastors in their churches. The issue is spending large amounts of money sending a mission team when work needs to be done in our community. For some people it is an issue of money --- thinking how restricted the church budget is and yet we are giving thousands of dollars to send these people on a mission trip. For others it is an issue of time/energy and that we should focus our attention on needs here and let people somewhere else take care of their own needs.
I think I am a good person to respond to this question because I have been on both sides of this issue. I have been on the sending side at FBC Florence and here and I have been on the receiving side at our church in Vermont.
Here are my points to the question: What is the value of sending a mission team to the mission field?
I. Value to the receiving church
1. Helps that church do things it cannot do for itself.
When we first arrived at Baptist Fellowship, Randolph, Vermont we had 45 people in the morning worship service. They had dropped down to 25 and were hanging on trying to keep the church going. We needed help! We could do the basic ministry things, but nothing extra. We had two children under the age of 12 and one of them was our son, Jeremy. Mission teams helped us provide sports camps, VBS and backyard Bible clubs to get things started.
We had mission teams conduct our VBS for the first 6 of the nine years we were there. We finally had enough people and training to do it our self.
The mission team going to Brazil is going to accomplish more in one week than the leaders there could do in six months.
2. Impact on the community.
The very first mission team we had come to the church while I was Pastor was from my brother, Merle’s, church, FBC Trussville, Alabama. They came in this big bus with 40 senior high teenagers and 10 leaders and took Randolph by storm! They had as many people on their mission team as we had in the whole church.
It was incredible! The local newspaper felt it was newsworthy and interviewed the team leader.
The mission team going to Brazil is going to make an impact on that community. When 37 Americans arrive in that community they will create a tremendous impact on the people. I can imagine the natives asking the same question people did in Vermont, “Why did you come so far to help us?” They will be in shock and disbelief that someone would do that for them. Then when they respond, “we have come because God led us to --- to help you know about the love of Jesus to forgive your sins”, they will listen.
3. Provides resources that we didn’t have.
Soon I developed a network on people and churches that were willing to help mission churches. As we had specific needs for curriculum they would ship it up. If we wanted a training conference in a certain area, they would send a trainer.
I can imagine the mission team going to Brazil is going to have people with skills in building or ministry that those in Brazil don’t have or can send later.
4. Encouragement to the church and leaders.
Being on the mission field is hard work and very discouraging. Sometimes the most important thing a team could do for us was just love on us and build us back up.
For those of you old enough to remember or have played the Pacman games, you remember how in certain places on the screen there were power balls that once Pacman or Ms Pacman ate them, they could move faster and were larger and stronger. After the mission teams came and worked with us, that is how I felt. I was renewed and strengthen and ready to fight Satan and his kingdom of darkness once again.
I believe the mission team to Brazil is going to make a difference for Jesus as they encourage and build up the leadership and lay people.
II. Value to the sending church
1. Helps people see the real need for mission work firsthand.
When I made my announcement to FBC Florence that I had accepted the call to go to Vermont, Pat Matthews was the Sunday School Director. He became mad at me for leaving the church. He felt he needed me to run the SS there.
It was two years later Florence brought a mission team to work with us and conduct VBS. Pat Matthews was on that team. During the course of the week, Pat’s eyes were opened to what life was like on the mission field. If Pat told me once, he told me a hundred times that week, I didn’t understand how different ministry is here. He was no longer mad at me and vowed to pray for Jane and me to be successful in reaching the people for Christ.
Most people who criticize mission trips don’t understand ministry on the mission field is different than where you are. Here we have a wonderful facility to work with. We have skilled and talented musicians and singers. Here we have committed and gifted SS teachers and on and on. Most churches on the mission field do not have these things. Our church in Vermont became stronger than most because of the help we got from the mission teams.
Mission and evangelism is not supposed to be either doing it here or there, it is to be done in both places. READ Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8.
We are “go” to the ends of the earth carrying the gospel of Jesus. In Acts the Lord tells us to be His witnesses in all of these places not just locally. In Acts 16:9, 10 we have the story of Paul receiving the Macedonia call “come help us!” In our case, it is Brazilian call. I want us to plan a mission trip somewhere every year and fan the flames of missions and evangelism in our hearts. It doesn’t have to be overseas --- I would love to take a team back to New England and try to help reach the lost without Christ there.
2. Pushes people to do things they wouldn’t normally do in ministry.
It is the same premise as when we do the men’s day emphasis, we are trying to help some of our men to be stretched and see what it is like to prepare and teach a SS class.
When people go on a mission trip they are called on to do things that might be out of their comfort zone, but that experience causes them to grow in their walk with the Lord. Because when we are out of our comfort zones, we depend on the Lord more.
Sometimes in our situation we get such a professionalism mindset that only those who are the best should teach or lead, which the rest of us should just sit and watch. On the mission field you don’t have that luxury. Our son Jeremy began learning to play the guitar when he was in the 9th grade. We could never get him to play for the congregation because he felt he was not a good enough guitar player. We were using split track cd’s to give us the contemporary sound for the praise songs we were looking for. Finally, six months before we moved here, Jeremy comes to me and tells me he was ready to play the guitar and lead the praise songs. I asked him what changed his mind. He said “I may not be the best there is, but I am the best this church has.”
Remember the point I began making --- mission trips push people to do things they wouldn’t normally do in ministry. I can hardly wait to hear the stories of what God is going to do through our team.
3. Helps churches see God do something God-sized.
Too often churches never put themselves in a position or need for God to do a God sized task. Raising thousands of dollars for a mission trip is definitely a “God sized” task.
Consider what happened with Jason Haycox in his fundraising efforts. Jason sent 88 letters to family and friends outside our church and within 3 weeks they received the money he needed for the trip. Matter of fact they received over $600 more than he needed and they gave it to our other team members. Sometimes God wants us to look to Him and expect miracles.
4. Creates deeper fellowship among the team.
I am fighting the feelings of envy because I have been there and been part of what God does in the life of a team in breaking down barriers and building relationships and creating a bond between people. The level of fellowship that will be created between ya’ll will be wonderful.
5. Helps a church from becoming selfish and self centered.
When a church does not have a missions and evangelism viewpoint, they become self-centered and self-focused and that is not healthy.
I know of one man who felt those going on mission trips were taking a vacation at church expense. He was jealous. I can’t speak for every mission team, but of the ones I have gone on and of the teams that came to help us in Vermont --- they worked! They usually took one afternoon to sight see and the rest was ministry.
Conclusion:
While I was at FBC Florence as Minister of Education, I became a Sunday School specialist and taught conferences all around Mississippi. I was also enlisted to teach those conferences in Colorado, Wyoming and Alaska. It was through my exposure to those difference places of ministry that God used to create within my heart an openness to leave the Bible Belt and move somewhere else to do ministry. If I had never gone on those mission trips, I am not sure I would have ever had the vision and courage to leave the deep south and do ministry in Vermont for nine years.
We don’t know what God is about to do in the lives of Andrew, April, Lisa or Jason and we need to support them in their call from God to go.
Now that you understand the value of mission trips, I know you will be more supportive of them financially and prayerfully.
Prayer
