How to develop healthy, mission-focused churches
A serious attempt to learn from successful practitioners
DOUG
KOOP
CW Editor
– Toronto –
What will it take for Canadian churches to become more focused and effective in Christian outreach both locally and around the world?
A desire to answer that question prompted Geoff Tunnicliffe and fellow members of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s task force on global mission to send out a survey to more than 5,000 Canadian churches in hopes of discovering what actually works in local congregations.
With more than 900 lengthy responses now tabulated, Tunnicliffe is beginning to collect a few clues about how to develop healthy, mission-focused churches in the years ahead. He shared some of the early results with 53 delegates at conference sponsored by EFC and supported by Peoples Church in Toronto, May 6-9.
The pastor’s personal support for mission is a key factor in a successful mission program, the survey revealed. It is very unusual for mission to thrive where the lead pastor does not consistently teach and promote it as a priority.
Churches that depend on bulletin boards and missionary letters to educate about mission are unlikely to send out missionaries. On the other hand, most churches with growing mission programs promote short-term missions and involve youth in mission projects.
“The best thing a church can do if wants to send long term missionaries is to send short term missionaries,” observes Tunnicliffe.
The research indicates that congregations are taking greater control over their mission programs. Denominational guidelines are a low priority in churches with expanding programs. Similarly, doctrinal compatibility with a mission agency is increasingly less a factor than accountability and quality of missionary care.
Once the research is fully analyzed, Tunnicliffe expects to publish a book outlining best practices of global mission for local churches.
“Missional” models
Portions of the EFC conference were held at Peoples Church, giving delegates opportunity to see first hand how a congregation renowned for its mission program presents its annual conference.
Outgoing pastor John Hull emphasized the importance of church leaders. “We begin with a biblical conviction about lost people around the world and in our city,” he says. “We have a senior pastor who believes and lives out global mission, taking a lead role in the annual conference and ongoing promotion. We have a church board and staff who believe the same.”
Other models were also presented. Spring Gardens Church in Toronto, which continues its long mission-sending and supporting legacy, is working with a less executive model. “The day of the professional minister is over; the day of missional pastors is here,” insists missional team leader John McLaverty.
Spring Gardens emphasizes every-member ministry and encourages Christian leaders to understand and engage culture more intentionally. Urging pastors to maintain an outward rather than “congregational maintenance” focus, McLaverty says that churches must change their focus from “missionary” to “missional.”
“You don’t do mission because you send missionaries. We need to understand that all are sent out,” he says.
Cause for concern
With stories from around the world, World Relief president Clive Calver spoke of the importance of listening and responding to the needs of local churches. “Our problem is that we often think in terms of what we can do rather than what we can help others to do,” he says. “We must think in terms of genuinely serving and empowering through the local church.”
EFC president Gary Walsh also spoke of his “bias for the congregation” and expressed two major concerns about evangelicalism in Canada–ecclesiology and theological drift.
“New generations of Christians won’t forgive us for deferring to agencies, concentrating on infrastructure and building barriers between groups,” he says. “Doing our own thing lacks accountability and causes confusion.”
And observing that it is no longer possible to assume that people in evangelical churches believe “Jesus is the only way,” Walsh pondered the challenge of building effective outreach programs. “We’re working against a bias that questions the very legitimacy of global mission,” he says. “In our efforts to be more relational than dogmatic, we may be undercutting objective truth.”