Missions
Helping churches take their next missional step.
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Georgia Baptists increase missions efforts
While on a 2021 Partnership Trip to the Lima Region of Peru, a team of church leaders from Northeast Georgia met with Peruvian Baptist pastors and an IMB Team Associate at a church plant in one of the Human Settlements in Jicamarca. Pictured from left are Pastor Johnny Cubas, Rick Howard (Summit BC, Loganville), Johnny […]
Churches to Churches: The Church Planting Network
Working in collaboration with associational mission strategists around the state, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is launching a new church planting network designed to meet the needs of our church planters. The demographic landscape of Georgia’s population has changed drastically over the last decade, and the percentage of lost people has increased, according to the […]
PORTFOLIO
IDENTIFY
INITIATE
INCREASE
Identify
According to Acts 1:8, the church has been given four fields for missional activity: local, regional, national, and international. Your regional Missions consultant can help your church develop a plan called the Acts 1:8 Missions Portfolio in which you can identify the four locales for your missions involvement over the next decade. An integral part of this planning will be excitement about the specific people groups you’ve identified. For example, local projects with your Associational Missions Strategist, the most lost zip code in your region, a sister church in another state, and the country you can adopt for long-range impact. A natural result of the Missions Portfolio will be an increase in participation among all age groups in your church and their individualized global prayer focus for the next decade of their missional discipleship.
Initiate
The best laid plans are only as good as their execution. The first step in initiating an Acts 1:8 Portfolio is to put into motion the most needed actions first. We have an Acts 1:8 Missions Assessment Profile (MAP) that will reveal your church’s strengths and weaknesses in a holistic fashion by measuring your progress in mobilizing your church. The MAP will help you reflect on your missions identity in comparison to what a fully missions-mobilized church looks like. All churches are in a growth process, so you can always strengthen your missions effectiveness and commitment. The MAP can be used as a diagnostic tool or as a group assessment to help initiate “baby steps” for moving from missions activity to missions identity (DNA). Click here to download the MAP
Increase
The Great Commission is not a one and done activity. It is a matter of discipleship with living out the gospel in every aspect of our lives. Acts 1:8 is not a checklist of “been there, done that” fields with missions T-shirts at the end of the trips. It is an ongoing lifestyle of witness that pervades every location we find ourselves going. The Acts 1:8 Missions Portfolio is more than a geographic plan. As a matter of fact, just as every church should be able to put places in their portfolio, every church member should be able to put faces in their prayers.
Did you know that missionaries make the best church members? Maybe your church has all mission fields (locations) identified and initiated, but how many of your members are going in some fashion? Maybe you have 5% of your members engaged in local missions. Maybe there are 25% actively engaged in regional, or national, or international. What would it look like to double that percentage in the next few years? How would the DNA of your church change if every single church member was an active missionary in some way?
If you would like to explore options to identify new mission fields or increase engagement for an Acts 1:8 Missions Portfolio, sign up now for a consultation with your regional missions consultant!
Where do we go?
Acts 1:8 is a portfolio of mission fields. Through a consultation with your regional missions consultant, we can help you identify the places your church can strategically engage locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. And we can help you formulate a realistic plan to multiply the active involvement of your people in missions endeavors.
You can choose which of these documents you would like to incorporate into your Missions Portfolio. They are organized by region and include information related to the available partnerships for each region (PDFs):
PLANNING
Where can we go?
Missions doesn’t have to be random, nor does it have to be just one time a year. With a 4-3-2-1 missions calendaring strategy, you can help your church to be on mission all year long.
Consultation
The consultation process is easy. It starts with a conversation with your regional missions consultant. Using an Acts 1:8 Missions Portfolio assessment tool (MAP – Missions Assessment Profile), you can look at the current reality of your missions activities in your church and determine where there may be some gaps in prayer, plans and projects. Then, a meeting with your missions leadership team will allow your church to adopt a strategy with goals and expected celebrations for missions.
Planning a year for missional engagement is vital. One great way to implement the engagement of your Acts 1:8 Missions Portfolio is utilizing a 4321 Calendar Strategy. This allows the church to look forward to four months of focus on local missions projects, three months of regional missions, two months for missions in another state in North America, and one month of focus on an international field. By focusing on 10 months of missions activities, there are still two months of focus on local harvest (ie. Christmas and Easter). The consultation will include a plan for connections with other outside help through conferencing and training events. There will be a reporting mechanism that will allow your testimony to serve as an inspiration for other churches throughout Georgia!
Community
The Lord never intended for us to be independent in our missional efforts. Every part of the Great Commission was addressed to a plurality of disciples. Even Paul the missionary never went anywhere alone, and his letters reiterated the necessity of churches working together for sharing the Gospel. Through a consultation process with your regional missions consultant, and the joint efforts of Virtual Strategy Coordinators (VSC) and Great Commission Christian partners, your church’s efforts can be strategically aligned within the larger context of God’s mission. There are masterplans being drafted that will allow you to see where your trips can fit alongside others’ trips to make a more effective impact on the mission fields. There may also be opportunity for churches to actually go together in community on joint mission trips. Your regional missions consultant and VSC can show you these opportunities.
PARTNERSHIP
Who can help us go strategically?
God is raising up some virtual strategy coordinators or VSCs throughout Georgia who will come alongside your church for planning. Specifically, these VSCs can help you see where your missions efforts can fit in the context of the wider masterplan of endeavors by your sister churches and Great Commission partners.
Not only will your missions consultant walk with you in this journey; you will also connect with one or more Virtual Strategy Coordinators (VSC). Missions is never a one and done activity. Throughout your region, God is raising up VSCs who will assist you in the planning and implementation of your part of an ongoing masterplan for reaching your mission fields.
With regular regional conferences, your church can join other churches to play a vital contextual role for long-term impact. These VSCs will help you see your church’s activity within the larger scope of missions at that location. They can also provide key insight into planning your team’s logistics and activities.
PREPARATION
What do we use to help us get there?
There are resources available to your church to help you organize your people, promote your missions works, and make a bigger impact on the field when you get there. Look at the links to these resources the Lord has provided.
God has provided the Georgia Baptist Mission Board several resources and partnerships to help you make your missions dreams a reality.
Inspire
One key area for developing a missional DNA is to inspire your church to greater engagement in prayer, giving, going and sending. Your region has its own Missions Facebook Group. This where other churches are sharing missions prayer requests, ideas, testimonies and best practices.
There are also direct connections through that group to mission fields like churches within the most lost zip code of your region, churches in another state in partnership with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, and leaders in a country in Central or South America.
Join your region’s group! These connections can help fuel the fire of missions inside your church:
Northwest | Northeast | West Central | East Central | Southwest | Southeast
Equip
Spanish for Missions is a 10-lesson series that will give you the tools to communicate lovingly and effectively to Spanish speaking people. With this Spanish for Missions course you can learn how to say, “GOD LOVES YOU”, and share the message: “Jesus died for YOU, so you can go to heaven. Jesus is the ONLY way to God.”
Do your members need training in Spanish? More Information
Does anyone need training in teaching English as a Second Language? We can direct you to ESL or Literacy Missions conferences in your area!
Would you like a comprehensive missions team preparation guide to assist your planning? Download Guide
Support
God has provided the Georgia Baptist Mission Board several resources and partnerships to help you make your missions dreams a reality.
Mobilize
God has called EVERY church member to be an Acts 1:8 MISSIONARY. And He has called the church to pray for, call out and mobilize its members into the harvest fields. Within your region in Georgia, there are four types of missions helpers in this endeavor. For local missions projects, we encourage you to reach out to your Associational Missions Strategist (AMS) for direction. They are crucial leaders for missional work in your “Jerusalem”!
The Church Assessment Tool
- Designed to help your church discover areas of greatest potential.
- Answer each question to the best of your ability.
- Your scores and key resources will be sent to you via email.
Start your church assessment now…
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