"Evangelism is a church growing where it is.  Missions is a church growing where it isn't."

"If we in the West insist on keeping our blessing instead of sharing it, then we will, like other nations before us, have to lose our blessing for the remaining nations to receive it."

It takes a healthy church to do missions. Smart churches encourage the members to take "Vision Trips" (short-term missions trips). It's like an inoculation as far as getting people to look on the fields and step up in their commitments as global laborers.

Logistical preparation should include travel arrangements, visas, passports, lodging, packing information, currency conversion and acquisition, and the coordination of scheduled events.

Cultural preparation should seek to acquaint participants with known differences in language, acceptable customs (as well as things that may be taboo), differences in perceptions concerning greetings, time, pace, culinary etiquette, etc. Instruction should address tendencies toward ethnocentrism and highlight God's glory as the purest motive for mission.

Spiritual preparation will emphasize prayer for the ministering group and the target people on the field. It should provide regular times of group devotions which are designed to prepare every member to seeing God's heart for the world as well as examining His method to build relational bridges with people through loving humility. Team members should embrace an attitude to work, which is coupled with a dependence on God's power through His Holy Spirit.

Ministerial preparation will rehearse the specific tasks which the team will need to conduct on the field. It will include training in individual tasks as well as group tasks. It usually includes the preparation of some form of evangelistic literature.