by David Parker

"How Can We Win the World to Christ with the Minimum of Fuss and Bother?"

What do young men who are coming out of Bible colleges today know about leading a church in missions? What are they being taught as future pastors and leaders of the church?

Every pastor says, "The Great Commission was given to the church!" But how many of these pastors really believe this? Where's their church's plan to reach the world? Do you ever hear about it? I wonder if we really believe we're supposed to reach the world if we don't have a plan and never talk about it. How about the church's mission statement. Does it simply allow, or does it require us to do cross-cultural missions? I think pastoral students need to be taught that the church is responsible before God to look on the field - all of it - and to formulate a plan to reach those who've never heard. If a young man comes from a church that is weak to moderate in its missions emphasis; and he doesn't get these things in college, where will he get them? I think we need to mentor pastoral students in these areas on purpose.

Students seeking training for the pastorate need to be required to visit the mission field. If these same men are going to making decisions which affect the lives of missionaries, it should be done with some degree of perspective and respect for what a missionary faces. Students also need to be taught to define missions in their church. I know many of us like to say, "We're all missionaries. I'm a missionary; you're a missionary." I understand what we are trying to say; however, if I'm a missionary, living in Bible-saturated America in a comfortable home, (and I do not consider myself a missionary according to my definition); then, who's going to Tibet? If everything is missions when we start putting our hand into the missions budget, then nothing is missions. Before one realizes what's happened, we're actually using "missions" money to support circus evangelism and Bible colleges in our own country. We all know what it means to guard a budget where we are trying to be careful about accomplishing something in a specific, measurable way where funds are not overly abundant. We seem to have an unusual tolerance (or apathy) for the elasticity of the missions budget and what constitutes missions. If everything is missions, then nothing is missions.

Pastoral students need to sit in on meetings where prayer and discussion are held among church leadership concerning potential missionary candidates, their qualifications and fields of service, and how these candidates fit the church's missions strategy. Students should have at least a familiarization with the behind-the-scenes leadership tasks which will comprise a significant portion of their future ministries. Students need to observe pastors who mentor their own people and converts to fill church staff vacancies rather th ways observing leaders who import their church staff from institutions of formal education. Otherwise, where will these future pastors learn how to mentor others? Will they ever learn that they ought to be mentoring others?

At BSWE, pastoral students are taught different purposes for putting on the church missions conference; they're required to visit the mission field; they're taught about how to care for their missionaries who are on the field; they're taught how to develop a church missions strategy, missions budget, and missions policy; they sit in on church leadership meetings as observers, after which, they have an opportunity to discuss what they saw and heard with church leadership; they're taught how to implement missions education throughout every aspect of the local church ministries; and most importantly, they're shown missions in the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and they're taught that it's not just a command - it's a promise!

If the pastors of tomorrow are going to lead churches in missions, they must be taught missions; they must be mentored in missions - TODAY!

Cross-cultural Church Planting in Teams taught by Missionary Paul Pritchard

Missionaries need to be trained by active, veteran missionaries! Missionaries need training on the field. BSWE offers a two-semester field internship as the fourth year of our Missiology program.

In addition to this necessary internship, BSWE includes a third year (thirty-seven hours) of missions training here in the States. This is conducted in modules with active, veteran missionaries like Paul Pritchard.

Don't miss his five-day course, "Cross-cultural Church Planting in Teams." It's biblical, practical, relevant, proven, and cutting-edge!

Pastor Duttry of the First Baptist Church of Milford has announced a God-sized vision in missions. He has encouraged four-hundred members from FBC Milford to go to the mission field in the Summer of 2006.

The church has accepted the challenge and over four-hundred have signed up and are preparing to make this vision-building, heart-enlarging trip in 2006. The effort is divided up into twenty separate teams who are communicating with twenty host missionaries for coordinated ministry impact.

A website has been setup to keep team members current on training events in language, travel updates, and cultural and religious awareness of their peoples and destinations. The teams are meeting regularly for prayer, language training, and integrated ministry training.