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Is Missions Hurting Your Church?

If you want your church to grow then missions isn’t the first department you’d think about. In the church growth books I’ve read you might not think about missions at all!

Why is it that missions is so blatantly absent from the advice of many church growth gurus?

Maybe it’s because missions isn’t really that good for the local church!

My first trip to Ukraine was in 1994. It was at a time when our own church, Discovery Baptist in Gig Harbor, Washington was not doing well. We were in a rented facility and had just learned that the owner was going to sell the building. We had nowhere to go and no money to buy anything, attendance was down, things were looking bleak!

That’s when my dad and I decided to leave behind the struggling church to serve for a month in Ukraine! We had never done anything like this before but it seemed the Lord was leading us in that direction.

Some, however, resisted. They asked,

“Shouldn’t we focus on fixing our problems first?”

They believed that missions was hurting our church.

From a practical and business perspective missions really does hurt the church.

  • Missions takes money.
  • Missions takes time.
  • Missions takes the best people away.

Those are all resources that seem to be in short supply in nearly every church, not to mention small struggling church plants!

We decided to go to Ukraine despite these things. Then we went again about 9 months later! I continued to travel back and forth until moving there full time in 2007.

Did missions kill our church? Not by a long shot!

After we got back from our first trip in 1994 things started to come together for our home church. Attendance increased, we found a new facility, purchased it and the church took off!

We learned some important lessons from that experience.

  1. The church is much more than a business. Certain business practices can be helpful to the church but ultimately it is Jesus who builds the church not man! Matthew 16:18
  2. God has called the church to do missions, it is an inextricable part of her DNA! Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8
  3. The Church that serves and sacrifices will thrive! Serving the larger Body of Christ is part of this and will ultimately help bring greater spiritual health and life to the church. 2 Corinthians 8:1-4

Question: How have you seen missions worked out in your church? What lessons have you learned through missions?

20 Responses
  • Jon Stolpe
    November 21, 2013

    Timely. I posted on my blog this morning about 5 Reasons The Church Should Engage in Short Term Missions. It’s not the full answer to the question, but it could definitely be a side conversation.

  • Ngina Otiende
    November 22, 2013

    I come from a missions-focused church, my church at home, nairobi lighthouse church, is a planting of a missionary couple and they’ve raised up missions-centered church. There;s something about living for others, living for something bigger than yourself (the local congregation) that transforms and energizes the local church.

    • Caleb
      November 23, 2013

      I wholeheartedly agree Ngina. Now some of the greatest missionary churches are not in the West anymore. It’s great to hear that your home church is a great example in this.

  • floyd
    November 22, 2013

    That’s a great story and truth. Doing the will of our Father despite what the physical world would tell us and even what would seem to make sense. This is His creation, He is above the laws that He created to control the world, He is not bound by His laws or creation. Awesome reminder, Caleb. It’s about faith in action.

    • Caleb
      November 23, 2013

      I think you’re right Floyd, it is faith in action. It takes faith because if we just used business principles to run our churches we wouldn’t need that much faith, we would just trust the process instead of trusting God.

  • Kari Scare
    November 22, 2013

    My pastor has basically said what you said in this post many times. I am in complete agreement. I believe my church prospers because of its focus on missions. In fact, the reason we switched churches 10 years ago was because our old church was not at al mission focused and was seriously declining in many ways. Your work as a missionary and in promoting missions is to be commended, Caleb! You are truly one of my heroes.

    • Caleb
      November 23, 2013

      The sad fact is that the more inward focused we become the quicker we die. We must turn to God and to others in order for growth to happen personally and in our churches.

  • TCAvey
    November 23, 2013

    Well said.
    I think far too many see church as a business. They seem to focus on numbers and money flow and less on God moving and working. But not every church is like that. Growing up I attended a small Baptist church that focused on teaching the youth to live out the Great Commission. We went throughout the US doing revivals, teaching VBS and doing community service.

    Missions doesn’t have to be overseas…there are people right here in the US who need the message of Jesus to come to them.

    Thanks for sharing your experience.

    • Caleb
      November 24, 2013

      Well said TC! The business of church is to do the Father’s business! Thanks for sharing how your home church was active in doing that.

  • DS
    November 26, 2013

    Living for others and sharing a message of hope transforms thinking, and function. Thanks for sharing how your story transpired – it’s not all “glamorous” and there is “risk” involved. Awesome to see how ya’ll are still serving.

    • Caleb
      November 26, 2013

      Thanks for the encouragement David! You’re right, it’s not glamorous but in the end it is glorious!

  • Dan Black
    November 28, 2013

    I especially like your #2 point and passages. God calls the local church to support missions (and send people out). The church spread because of missions. Great post!

    • Caleb
      November 28, 2013

      Exactly Dan! You can even see the mission effort in the early church. Thanks for dropping by!

      • Dan Black
        November 28, 2013

        Glad to share. Sadly many churches have forgot this Biblical principle.

  • Mia
    December 5, 2013

    Dear Caleb
    Oh, our Pappa has no problem by what we think or don’t think. I think it is in Act 10 somewhere that Paul assures us that God is not served with human hands. What we see as terrible problems, He see as fractals to create a beautiful creation. When Jesus is behind something He asks us to do, He will provide. But as you know, we needs extra big doses of faith at times to believe this when everything we see around us is “falling” apart.
    Blessings XX
    Mia

    • Caleb
      December 11, 2013

      Very well put Mia, thanks for sharing.

  • Engel Jacobs
    May 20, 2014

    Morning Caleb, where can I find you on Face book? I AM 56 YREARS OLD WITH TWO CHILDREN AND 5 GRAND CHILDREN FROM SOUTH AFRICA. My problem is that here are so many churches with different opinions that believe in Jesus. I don’t go to church
    anymore I have an eye problem and can’t drive but that’s no excuse. Holy Communion
    is important to me and at the moment I struggle because I was baptized as a
    child. Do I need to baptize myself again under water? If I die I need a church
    to bury me but have no idea which church to go to seeing that all disappointed
    me in the past. Please will you make this clear for me if possible? God bless
    you and your wife for what you do in Ukraine and your children. You are angels
    send from above!!

    • Caleb
      May 20, 2014

      Thanks so much for your comment Engel. You have a lot of questions and that is good. I won’t try to answer them all here for you because there’s not enough space. I did connect with you on Facebook just now so you might want to check that. Also concerning baptism I recorded a podcast about that some time ago. You can check it out here.

      https://sukofamily.org/06-eight-fallacies-about-baptism-and-three-truths-podcast/