Latest / Reformed Thinking / Why Missions Must Be Elder-Led

Transcript

Why Missions Must Be Elder-Led · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the show. We are shifting gears a little
• 0:03
  bit today. We're moving away from some of
• 0:04
  the headlines and trends we usually cover, and we're
• 0:07
  stepping right into the life of the church.
• 0:08
  Yeah, that's right. And this is a well, I think it's
• 0:11
  a needed shift. We spent a lot of time on the
• 0:13
  what of the world, but today we're going to look at the how
• 0:16
  of the church. Absolutely.
• 0:18
  So for everyone listening, I want to set the stage so you
• 0:21
  know what you're walking into with this deep dive.
• 0:24
  We're approaching today's discussion through a pretty
• 0:27
  distinct theological lens. We're grounded in Protestant
• 0:31
  Christianity and more specifically, Reformed theology.
• 0:35
  We're trying to look at things to the framework of, say, the
• 0:38
  Westminster Confession. And that's the key distinction.
• 0:40
  We aren't here looking for pragmatic business hacks or, you
• 0:44
  know, the latest corporate leadership fad.
• 0:47
  The question on the table is what is biblically prescribed?
• 0:50
  So we're not asking what works at Google.
• 0:52
  No, we're asking how did Christ order his house?
• 0:56
  A very different starting point. The topic today is missions, but
• 1:00
  maybe not the way you're used to hearing about it.
• 1:02
  We're not going to be telling a lot of stories about, you know,
• 1:04
  hacking through jungles or translating the last vowel in
• 1:08
  some remote village dialect. Those stories are valuable.
• 1:11
  Of course. But today we're talking about
• 1:13
  the governance behind all that work.
• 1:15
  The engine room. The part nobody sees, but
• 1:18
  without which nothing moves. That is a perfect image.
• 1:22
  We're going to be looking at a chapter by Tom Pennington in the
• 1:24
  book Biblical Missions, Principles, Priorities, and
• 1:27
  Practices. The chapter is all about the
• 1:29
  role of church elders in missions.
• 1:31
  And the main idea, the thesis he puts forward, is pretty
• 1:35
  provocative. It definitely pushes against the
• 1:37
  way things are usually done. It really does.
• 1:39
  The thesis is that the local church, and specifically its
• 1:43
  elders, is the divine command Center for world missions.
• 1:47
  Command center. Right.
• 1:48
  Not the missions agency, not the seminary, but the local body of
• 1:52
  elders who lead a specific congregation.
• 1:55
  That term command center, it's a strong one.
• 1:58
  It implies authority and it implies a ton of responsibility.
• 2:02
  And you know, if we're being honest, for the better part of
• 2:05
  the last century, a lot of churches have basically handed
• 2:09
  that authority over to para church organizations.
• 2:12
  Well sure, we see the agencies as the professionals, don't we?
• 2:15
  They're the ones with the country specific knowledge, the
• 2:17
  maps logistics network. And they are.
• 2:19
  And agencies can be wonderful servants to the church.
• 2:22
  But Pennington's argument is that when a church just sort of
• 2:26
  leaves missions on autopilot, or it outsources all the strategic
• 2:30
  thinking to an agency, it's actually an abdication of
• 2:33
  biblical leadership. An abdication?
• 2:35
  Yeah. So a failure to do the job they
• 2:37
  were given. A failure to rule in the
• 2:39
  biblical sense of that word. OK, let's get into the theology
• 2:42
  of that Why does Pennington, and why does this view insist that
• 2:46
  the elders are the ones on the hook for this?
• 2:49
  Why is the local church the Primary an engine for it all?
• 2:52
  You really have to go back to the source, to the promise
• 2:55
  itself. In Matthew 16, Jesus says I will
• 2:57
  build my church. He didn't say I will build my
• 3:00
  mission board or I will build my excellent network of Bible
• 3:04
  colleges. Those things are, well, they're
• 3:06
  man made tools. It can be very helpful tools,
• 3:09
  but they are not the institution.
• 3:11
  The church is the God ordained institution.
• 3:14
  So the Great Commission then, the command to go and make
• 3:17
  disciples of all nations, that's a standing order that was given
• 3:20
  directly to the church. It is the church's assignment.
• 3:23
  It's the church's burden to carry.
• 3:24
  And if the church as an institution is responsible, then
• 3:27
  it follows that the leaders of the church must shoulder the
• 3:30
  duty of managing it. You just you can't delegate your
• 3:32
  primary responsibility away to a third party.
• 3:35
  Let's talk about those leaders for a minute.
• 3:37
  The elders the source material Pennington's chapter.
• 3:40
  It really drills down into the Greek words used in the New
• 3:43
  Testament to describe. Them and the words have so much
• 3:45
  meaning. They're not just, you know,
• 3:47
  generic titles. In Acts 20, verse 28, Paul is
• 3:51
  talking to the Ephesian elders. He calls them overseers.
• 3:54
  Overseers. The word in Greek is episcopose.
• 3:57
  It literally means someone who watches over something, someone
• 4:01
  who guards, who inspects. It's an active, engaged role.
• 4:05
  So it's not a passive. Let's just hope for the best
• 4:08
  kind of role. It's like a sentry on a wall.
• 4:11
  Or a Superintendent of a building project.
• 4:13
  You have to know what's going on, and then you have another
• 4:15
  keyword. In First Timothy 5.17, Paul uses
• 4:19
  a word that's often translated as rule.
• 4:22
  Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double
• 4:25
  honor. OK, rule is a word can sound a
• 4:29
  bit harsh to our modern democratic years.
• 4:32
  We tend to prefer words like facilitate or lead.
• 4:35
  We do. But the biblical term is
• 4:37
  stronger than that. It implies real authority.
• 4:40
  The word is priest Emmy. It means to stand first, to
• 4:43
  direct, to manage. Yes, and it's actually the same
• 4:46
  word Paul uses elsewhere for managing your own household.
• 4:49
  So if an elder can't manage his own family, well, how can he
• 4:52
  manage the household of God? The parallel is direct.
• 4:55
  An elder manages the household of God, which includes its
• 4:58
  global outreach. OK, so this is a crucial point.
• 5:00
  Does managing or ruling mean that the elders have to do
• 5:03
  everything themselves? I mean, does the elder board
• 5:05
  need to be the ones booking flights and packing shipping
• 5:07
  containers and vetting language schools?
• 5:09
  Yeah. No, absolutely not.
• 5:11
  And that's a critical distinction Pennington makes
• 5:13
  throughout the chapter. Elders are not called to do
• 5:16
  every single task. They would burn out in a week if
• 5:19
  they tried. I can imagine.
• 5:21
  They're called to oversee everything.
• 5:23
  They're the directors of the play, not necessarily the actor
• 5:26
  in every single scene. They set the vision, they ensure
• 5:29
  the resources are there, and they hold the work accountable
• 5:32
  to the standard. But they don't have to be the
• 5:34
  ones hammering every nail. That's a helpful picture, the
• 5:38
  director of the play. So let's apply that directly to
• 5:42
  missions. What does ruling or overseeing
• 5:45
  actually look like when the work is happening 5000 miles away in
• 5:49
  a different culture? Well, it has to start with the
• 5:51
  concept of order. This is a big deal in our whole
• 5:53
  theological framework. God is fundamentally a God of
• 5:57
  order. He's not a God of chaos.
• 5:58
  And Pennington sites the 1st Corinthians 14 on this point.
• 6:01
  It does, and it's a great application.
• 6:02
  Now the immediate context in First Corinthians 14 is the
• 6:05
  worship service. The church in Corinth had, let's
• 6:09
  say, some chaotic things happening with tongues and
• 6:11
  prophecy. Right, it was a bit of a free
• 6:13
  for all. Exactly.
• 6:14
  But in the middle of correcting that, Paul lays down a universal
• 6:17
  principle. In verse 33 he says God is not a
• 6:20
  God of confusion but of peace, and then in verse 40 he sums it
• 6:24
  all up. Let all things be done properly
• 6:27
  and in an orderly manner. Decently and in order, as the
• 6:30
  old translation puts it. Precisely.
• 6:33
  So now take that principle and apply it to your church's
• 6:35
  missions budget. If your missions program is a
• 6:38
  total chaotic mess, if the elders can't honestly say who
• 6:42
  they support or why they support them or what those missionaries
• 6:44
  are actually doing on the field, is that program reflecting the
• 6:48
  nature of a God of order? That's a tough question.
• 6:53
  It sort of reframes the whole issue.
• 6:55
  It suggests that bad management isn't just an administrative
• 6:58
  failure, it's actually a theological error.
• 7:01
  It's a misrepresentation of God. It's just we're misrepresenting
• 7:04
  God's character to the congregation and to the world.
• 7:07
  And according to the source, this kind of orderly managing
• 7:09
  involves 2 distinct duties. OK, what are they?
• 7:12
  First, evaluating the current reality, You have to know the
• 7:15
  state of the flock as a shepherd would, and that includes the
• 7:18
  part of the flock that is overseas.
• 7:20
  You have to know what's going on on.
• 7:21
  And the second. 2nd Lanning the future strategy.
• 7:25
  You can't just react to every request that comes in the door.
• 7:28
  You have to roactively decide where you are going.
• 7:31
  I want to ause on that planning aspect for a second because
• 7:34
  sometimes, you know, in spiritual circles, strategic
• 7:37
  planning gets a bad rap. You'll hear people say things
• 7:40
  like we don't need a five year plan, we just need to follow the
• 7:43
  spirit. Right, and that sounds very
• 7:45
  pious, but Pennington argues it's often just a spiritual
• 7:48
  sounding excuse for laziness. He points to Luke chapter 14.
• 7:53
  The passage on counting the cost.
• 7:54
  Yes, Jesus is teaching about the high cost of discipleship, but
• 7:58
  look at the analogies he uses to make his point.
• 8:01
  He talks about a builder who sits down and counts the cost
• 8:04
  before or he starts building a tower.
• 8:05
  So he knows if he can finish it. Right.
• 8:08
  And he talks about a king who assesses his 10,000 troops
• 8:11
  before he goes to war against an army of 20,000.
• 8:14
  He plans. He evaluates.
• 8:17
  So Jesus assumes a wise person plans ahead.
• 8:20
  He's not praising spontaneous, unplanned action.
• 8:23
  He's actually implying that starting something without
• 8:26
  having a reasonable plan to finish it is sheer foolishness.
• 8:30
  And then you can just look at the book of Proverbs Where there
• 8:33
  is no guidance a people falls. But in an abundance of
• 8:37
  counselors there is safety. Planning is a deeply spiritual
• 8:41
  endeavor. So for an elder then, sitting
• 8:43
  down with a spreadsheet and a budget to plan out the mission
• 8:46
  strategy isn't a distraction from real ministry.
• 8:48
  No, it is ministry. It's part of ruling well.
• 8:51
  It's part of being a good steward of God's resources and
• 8:54
  God's people. OK, so let's get practical.
• 8:57
  If the elders are the command center and they need to be
• 8:59
  orderly and proactive, where do they even begin?
• 9:03
  Most churches aren't starting from a blank slate.
• 9:05
  They already have a list of missionaries they've supported
• 9:07
  for years. That's the typical situation.
• 9:09
  And you can't just, you know, wipe the slate clean overnight.
• 9:12
  So you have to start with an audit.
• 9:13
  Pennington calls this phase one, evaluating the status quo.
• 9:17
  Evaluating what is. Right.
• 9:19
  The core principle here is that an elder cannot possibly oversee
• 9:22
  what he does not know. That seems obvious, but it's so
• 9:26
  often overlooked. I'd be willing to bet that in a
• 9:28
  lot of churches, if you ask the elders to name all the
• 9:31
  missionaries they support and what they do, many couldn't.
• 9:34
  They might know the total budget line item for missions, but they
• 9:37
  might not know the specific theology, the current ministry
• 9:41
  focus, or even the family situation of the people they're
• 9:44
  sending checks to. So the first job is just to
• 9:46
  gather information. Who are we supporting?
• 9:48
  What are they doing? Are they theologically aligned
• 9:50
  with us? Is their work effective?
• 9:52
  And this information gathering leads to what the book calls the
• 9:55
  three categories for evaluation. This seems like a really
• 9:58
  helpful, practical tool for an elder board that might feel
• 10:01
  completely overwhelmed by this task.
• 10:03
  It is. It's a filter.
• 10:05
  The goal is to sort every single missionary or ministry your
• 10:08
  church currently supports into one of three buckets.
• 10:11
  It brings clarity to the chaos. OK, let's walk through them.
• 10:14
  What's category one? Category one is the green light.
• 10:17
  These are the missionaries and ministries that are biblically
• 10:21
  and philosophically aligned with your church.
• 10:23
  They're doing the kind of work you believe is a first
• 10:26
  importance, say direct evangelism, church planting or
• 10:30
  training national pastors. They're a perfect match.
• 10:33
  They're a perfect match. Their doctrine is sound.
• 10:36
  They're faithful in their work. They communicate well.
• 10:38
  These are your true partners in the gospel.
• 10:41
  So for this category, the action is simple.
• 10:44
  These are the keepers. Yes, you keep supporting them
• 10:46
  fully. In fact, Pennington suggests you
• 10:48
  should be asking if there's any way you can support them more,
• 10:51
  either financially or in other ways.
• 10:53
  These are your frontline troops. OK, that's straightforward.
• 10:57
  Now what about category 2? This is the yellow light.
• 10:59
  This is the messy middle, and this is probably where a lot of
• 11:02
  long supported missionaries will land.
• 11:05
  These are often people you've supported for a decade or two or
• 11:07
  three. There's a deep relationship
• 11:09
  there, but maybe there's some minor differences that have
• 11:13
  emerged over time. What kind of differences are we
• 11:15
  talking about? It could be a number of things,
• 11:17
  maybe a slight theological variance, nothing that you'd
• 11:20
  call heretical, but maybe they hold a different view on baptism
• 11:23
  or spiritual gifts than what your church confesses.
• 11:26
  So not a deal breaker, but not a perfect alignment.
• 11:29
  Exactly. Or maybe it's a difference in
• 11:31
  methodology or focus. Perhaps your church, after much
• 11:35
  study, has decided to focus its resources on unreached people
• 11:38
  groups. But this missionary you've
• 11:40
  supported for 20 years is doing a radio ministry in a part of
• 11:44
  Europe that is, you know, largely considered reached.
• 11:47
  So it's still good work, it's just not aligned with your
• 11:50
  church's current specific strategy.
• 11:53
  That's it. So the action for this category
• 11:55
  is to continue the support. You honor the long standing
• 11:58
  relationship. You don't just cut them off
• 12:00
  because you've developed a new strategy that would be wrong,
• 12:02
  but you probably don't increase their support.
• 12:05
  You just sort of maintain the status quo out of respect for
• 12:08
  the partnership. That seems very fair and
• 12:10
  gracious. OK, so that brings us to the
• 12:12
  most difficult one, Category 3, the red light.
• 12:15
  Right. This category is for
• 12:18
  missionaries where there are significant differences or
• 12:20
  serious issues and there are a few triggers that would land
• 12:23
  someone here. What's the biggest one?
• 12:26
  Troubling theology is the big one.
• 12:28
  If a missionary you support starts teaching something that
• 12:30
  is clearly contrary to Scripture, or if they adopt A
• 12:33
  view that undermines the gospel, you have a duty to stop funding
• 12:38
  that teaching. So that'll be a clear red line.
• 12:40
  A very clear red line. But there can be practical
• 12:43
  issues, too. A consistently poor work ethic.
• 12:46
  A pattern of unresolved conflict with their teammates or national
• 12:50
  partners. If a missionary is constantly
• 12:52
  causing division on the field, that's a disqualifying issue.
• 12:56
  So for this category, the action is to transition them off the
• 12:59
  church's support. But Pennington is really clear
• 13:02
  about the ethics of how this is done.
• 13:04
  You don't just send a cold e-mail saying you're cut off.
• 13:07
  No, not at all. Unless it is a major gospel
• 13:09
  denying heresy, you have to be incredibly gracious.
• 13:13
  The source talks about providing A runway for them.
• 13:16
  Yeah, you give them a generous amount of time to find new
• 13:19
  funding from other sources, maybe six months, maybe a year.
• 13:22
  You explain the reasons clearly and biblically, but you do it in
• 13:26
  a way that preserves their dignity.
• 13:29
  And he adds another scenario. If the missionary is very close
• 13:33
  to retirement, maybe you just finish it out, support them for
• 13:36
  those last two or three years until they're done.
• 13:38
  Strategy with grace. It seems that's the balance you
• 13:42
  have to strike. It has to be you're dealing with
• 13:44
  people's lives and livelihoods. OK, so this evaluation phase is
• 13:48
  huge. The elders have done their
• 13:50
  homework, they've sorted everyone they know who is green,
• 13:52
  yellow and red. But just managing that process
• 13:56
  and then caring for the green light people, well, that takes a
• 13:59
  massive amount of time and energy.
• 14:01
  It takes a huge amount of time, way more than most people think,
• 14:04
  and that reality brings us directly to phase two, structure
• 14:07
  and delegation. This is about making the
• 14:09
  workload scalable, right? It is in a very small church,
• 14:12
  maybe a Church of 50 or 75 people.
• 14:14
  The board of elders can be the missions committee.
• 14:17
  They can probably handle the direct oversight themselves.
• 14:20
  But once the church starts to grow.
• 14:22
  As soon as you grow, the complexity explodes.
• 14:25
  The number of missionaries, the financial details, the care
• 14:29
  needs needs, it just becomes too much for a handful of elders who
• 14:32
  also have to preach, teach, counsel and visit the sick.
• 14:36
  At that point, you need what Pennington calls a missions
• 14:39
  leadership team or an MLT. Yeah, some people might hear
• 14:42
  that and think, oh, great, more bureaucracy, another committee.
• 14:46
  Is that what this is? It's not about bureaucracy, it's
• 14:48
  about biblical delegation, and we have a perfect model for this
• 14:51
  in Acts chapter 6. The issue with the widows?
• 14:54
  Exactly the Hellenistic or Greek speaking widows were being
• 14:58
  neglected did in the daily distribution of food.
• 15:01
  It was a logistics and care failure.
• 15:03
  And what did the apostles do? They gathered the church and
• 15:06
  said it is not right that we should give up preaching the
• 15:09
  word of God to serve tables. You didn't say serving tables
• 15:12
  was unimportant, they said it wasn't their primary calling.
• 15:15
  Precisely. They knew they had to stay
• 15:17
  focused on prayer and the ministry of the Word.
• 15:19
  So what do they do? They delegated the logistics to
• 15:21
  7 qualified spiritual men so they could focus on their main
• 15:25
  task. It's the same principle for
• 15:27
  elders. It prevents elderbrens.
• 15:29
  It prevents elder burnout and it ensures that the actual needs of
• 15:33
  the missionaries, the logistics, the care, the communication
• 15:36
  don't get neglected because the elders are too swamped.
• 15:39
  So who gets put on this missions leadership team?
• 15:42
  Pennington has a pretty strong warning against just picking the
• 15:46
  people who are the most excited about missions.
• 15:48
  Yeah, that's a common mistake. You see someone who just got
• 15:51
  back from a short term trip and they're all fired up and you
• 15:53
  think, great, let's put them in charge.
• 15:55
  But excitement does not equal qualification.
• 15:57
  So what are the qualifications? He goes right back to the model
• 15:59
  in Acts 6, the apostles said to choose men of good repute, full
• 16:03
  of the Spirit and of wisdom. So character comes first.
• 16:08
  You need people who are known for their spiritual maturity.
• 16:11
  Leon character. You need people with the
• 16:13
  relevant gifts. The apostles, interestingly,
• 16:16
  chose Greeks to help the Greek widows.
• 16:18
  There was an affinity there for an MLT.
• 16:21
  You need people with gifts of administration.
• 16:23
  That's a spiritual gift listed in Romans 12.
• 16:25
  You need people with discernment, with wisdom.
• 16:28
  So you're looking for spiritually mature, wise
• 16:31
  administrators, not just world travellers.
• 16:33
  That's it. And there's one more piece.
• 16:35
  Congregational affirmation. The apostles told the multitude
• 16:39
  to pick the seven, and then the apostles appointed them.
• 16:42
  The church should have a say in affirming these leaders.
• 16:45
  OK, so once you have this team in place, what is the division
• 16:48
  of Labor? What is the MLT do and what are
• 16:51
  the elders keep for themselves? This is a really clear and
• 16:55
  helpful distinction. The Elders steer the ship, the
• 16:58
  MLT rows the boat. I like that.
• 17:01
  What does steering include? The elders retain final
• 17:04
  authority on the big picture items.
• 17:06
  They have the final approval of any new missionary candidate.
• 17:09
  They are the only ones who can fire or remove a missionary from
• 17:12
  support. They set the overall missions
• 17:14
  budget and most critically, they established the doctrine and
• 17:18
  philosophy of missions for the Church.
• 17:19
  They define the mission. So they set the strategy in the
• 17:22
  boundaries. What does the MLT do then?
• 17:24
  What does rowing look like? The MLT handles the
• 17:27
  implementation, they do the comprehensive vetting of new
• 17:30
  candidates and present a recommendation to the elders,
• 17:33
  They handle all the financial logistics, they take charge of
• 17:36
  promoting missions within the church, they administer short
• 17:39
  term trips, and maybe most importantly, they are the front
• 17:43
  line of missionary care. That care piece seems huge.
• 17:47
  I can see how elders, as busy as they are, might not have the
• 17:50
  bandwidth to check in personally with every single missionary on
• 17:53
  a regular basis. They just don't.
• 17:55
  But the MLT can. They can be the ones making the
• 17:57
  phone calls, sending the care packages, tracking the prayer
• 18:00
  requests, and making sure that no one on the field feels
• 18:03
  forgotten or falls through the cracks.
• 18:05
  That makes a world of difference.
• 18:06
  OK, so we've got the people sorted out with the evaluation,
• 18:09
  we've got the structure in place with the MLT.
• 18:12
  Now we need the plan, and this brings us to phase three,
• 18:16
  strategic planning. Right.
• 18:18
  And this is where the elders, having delegated the day-to-day,
• 18:21
  can now focus their energy on the big picture.
• 18:23
  And this is where the source introduces a tool that he calls
• 18:26
  the Missions Grid. The grid sounds very systematic.
• 18:29
  It is, and it's designed to be. The whole point of the grid is
• 18:33
  to remove as much emotion and subjectivity from funding
• 18:36
  decisions as possible. It's a tool to help you make
• 18:39
  wise, consistent decisions instead of just reacting to
• 18:43
  whoever gives the most compelling presentation.
• 18:46
  So it's about being proactive instead of reactive.
• 18:49
  It's built on three main criteria.
• 18:51
  Let's start with criterion 1. Criterion 1 is what he calls New
• 18:54
  Testament priorities. This is about the what?
• 18:57
  What type of ministry are we going to prioritize?
• 19:00
  And how do you determine that? Pennington argues that you have
• 19:02
  to look at the patterns in the New Testament and based on that,
• 19:05
  the highest priority always goes to the tip of the spear, direct
• 19:09
  evangelism and church planting among unreached peoples.
• 19:13
  Right alongside that is the training of national pastoral
• 19:16
  leadership. So preaching the gospel and
• 19:18
  establishing healthy churches. That's priority number one, and
• 19:20
  then you have a secondary priority.
• 19:22
  These are essential support roles.
• 19:24
  Things like missionary aviation, Bible translation, medical work,
• 19:27
  mercy ministry, all good and necessary things, but they exist
• 19:31
  to support the primary work of church planting.
• 19:33
  OK, so that's the first filter, the type of ministry.
• 19:36
  What's criterion 2? Criterion 2 is the relationship
• 19:40
  to the Church. This is about The Who.
• 19:43
  How connected is this missionary to our specific local body?
• 19:48
  This feels like it could get controversial.
• 19:50
  How does he break this down? He proposes 4 tiers of
• 19:53
  relationship. Tier 1 is the absolute highest
• 19:56
  priority, the homegrown home church missionary.
• 19:59
  This is someone who was raised in your church, came to faith in
• 20:03
  your church, was discipled and trained, and then sent out by
• 20:06
  your specific congregation. Your own sons and daughters in
• 20:09
  the faith. Exactly.
• 20:10
  Tier 2 is the home church missionary.
• 20:12
  This is someone who joined your church later in life, but they
• 20:15
  became a member. You affirm their calling and you
• 20:18
  sent them out as their primary sending church.
• 20:20
  So they're still yours, just not from childhood.
• 20:23
  Right then you get to Tier 3, the related home church.
• 20:27
  This is a missionary sent out by a sister Church of like faith
• 20:30
  and practice. Maybe a church in your
• 20:32
  denomination or network that you trust implicitly?
• 20:35
  So you know they're sending church, you trust their process.
• 20:37
  Yes, and then there's Tier 4, the lowest priority, the
• 20:42
  unrelated home church. This is a missionary sent by a
• 20:45
  church you have no relationship with.
• 20:47
  They're essentially a stranger who sends you a letter asking
• 20:49
  for support. And the source material is
• 20:51
  pretty blunt about this category, isn't?
• 20:53
  It it is, it suggests that elders may wisely choose not to
• 20:57
  support anyone from this 4th category at all.
• 21:00
  Not because they're bad people, but because resources are finite
• 21:04
  and you have a primary responsibility to your own and
• 21:06
  those you know and trust. That's a challenging thought.
• 21:09
  It cuts against the idea of just helping anyone who asks.
• 21:12
  OK, so we have the what? The ministry type and The Who
• 21:15
  the relationship. What's the final criterion?
• 21:17
  Criterion 3 is the financial support level, and this isn't a
• 21:20
  separate decision, it's the direct result of the
• 21:23
  intersection of the 1st 2 criteria.
• 21:25
  So the grid tells you how much to give.
• 21:27
  It provides A framework for it, yes.
• 21:29
  The idea is that someone at the very top of the grid, a Tier 1
• 21:32
  homegrown missionary doing priority one church planting,
• 21:35
  should receive the maximum level of support your church.
• 21:38
  Offers and someone at the bottom.
• 21:39
  Someone at the bottom, say a Tier 4 stranger, doing a
• 21:43
  secondary support role, would receive the minimum level of
• 21:47
  support, or perhaps no monthly support at all.
• 21:50
  Maybe just a one time gift. It creates A logical, defensible
• 21:54
  system for stewarding the church's money.
• 21:56
  And this system is designed to combat what the source calls the
• 22:00
  shotgun approach. Yes, exactly.
• 22:02
  The shotgun approach is what most churches do by default.
• 22:06
  Which is. What it's supporting, you know,
• 22:07
  50 different missionaries, but only giving each of them 50 or
• 22:10
  $100 a month. You spread your money so thin
• 22:13
  that you're not actually being a significant partner to anyone.
• 22:17
  And what's the consequence of that for the missionary?
• 22:19
  The consequence is that it forces them into an endless loop
• 22:22
  of fundraising. To get fully funded, they have
• 22:25
  to build a coalition of dozens and dozens of churches, which is
• 22:28
  exhausting. And then when they come home on
• 22:30
  furlough, they have to spend their entire time racing around
• 22:32
  the country to visit all these churches instead of resting and
• 22:36
  reconnecting with family. So the alternative proposed here
• 22:39
  is to support fewer missionaries, but to support
• 22:42
  them with more significant amounts of money.
• 22:44
  Yes, real substantial partnership.
• 22:48
  Be a primary supporter for a smaller number of people rather
• 22:51
  than a token supporter for a large number of people.
• 22:54
  Now what about the other extreme?
• 22:56
  He also warns against what he calls total support.
• 22:59
  Right, that's the idea of one single church providing 100% of
• 23:04
  a missionary's budget. That sounds generous, but it's
• 23:07
  actually dangerous for the missionary.
• 23:09
  Why is that? Because it makes them incredibly
• 23:11
  vulnerable. What if that one church has a
• 23:13
  budget crisis? What if the pastor leaves and
• 23:15
  the new pastor has a different vision?
• 23:18
  The missionaries entire support can be wiped out overnight.
• 23:21
  A healthy support base involves a few strong, committed church
• 23:25
  partners. So it's a balanced approach.
• 23:27
  Fewer partners than the shotgun method, but more than just one.
• 23:30
  That's the wise path. We're getting close to the end
• 23:32
  of our time, but I want to make sure we hit on a key caveat that
• 23:35
  Pennington includes. He says the grid is a tool, not
• 23:39
  a cage. What does he mean by that?
• 23:42
  He means there has to be room for wisdom and flexibility.
• 23:46
  The elders can't just blindly follow the formula.
• 23:48
  They're shepherds, not accountants.
• 23:50
  There will be times when a unique situation or a strategic
• 23:54
  opportunity comes along that doesn't fit neatly into the
• 23:57
  grid. Can you get an example?
• 23:59
  Sure, maybe a highly trusted missionary partner on the field
• 24:03
  identifies a critical need for a support ministry.
• 24:06
  Say a pilot is desperately needed to reach remote villages,
• 24:10
  even though that's a secondary priority on the grid.
• 24:13
  The elders might in their wisdom decide to make an exception and
• 24:16
  support that person significantly because of the
• 24:18
  strategic need at that specific time.
• 24:21
  So the grid provides the baseline, the default, but it
• 24:24
  doesn't eliminate the need for prayerful discernment from the
• 24:27
  elders. Not at all.
• 24:28
  It informs their discernment, it doesn't replace it.
• 24:31
  And. What about one time gifts?
• 24:32
  Do they have a place in this model?
• 24:33
  Yes, a huge place. One time gifts are a great way
• 24:37
  to support people or projects that are like minded and doing
• 24:40
  good work, but who don't fit into your long term monthly
• 24:43
  support grid. It's a way to bless them without
• 24:46
  derailing your core strategy. You can help with relocation
• 24:49
  costs or a vehicle purchase or a specific project.
• 24:52
  That makes a lot of sense. Wow.
• 24:54
  This has been a really heavy download of information.
• 24:57
  We've moved all the way from the high level theology of elder
• 25:01
  oversight down through the practical steps of the valuation
• 25:04
  delegation and into the nitty gritty of strategic planning
• 25:07
  with the grid. It's a comprehensive vision, and
• 25:10
  it all comes back to that first principle, obedience.
• 25:12
  This isn't about creating a slick corporate structure.
• 25:15
  It's about trying to faithfully and wisely manage the resources
• 25:19
  God has given His church to accomplish the mission He gave
• 25:22
  to His church. It's about moving from just
• 25:24
  paying for missions to actually managing the church's active
• 25:27
  participation in Christ's work around the world.
• 25:30
  That's a great way to put it. So as we wrap up, here's the
• 25:33
  provocative thought from the source material that I'd like to
• 25:35
  leave you all with. If you were to look at your own
• 25:38
  church's missions budget right now, tonight, what would it tell
• 25:43
  you? Would it reflect a clear
• 25:46
  biblical thought out strategy? Or would it just look like a
• 25:49
  historical record of every nice person with a good story that
• 25:53
  the church has said yes to over the last 30 years?
• 25:56
  And maybe to tie it back to the beginning, how does the
• 25:58
  orderliness of our missions program reflect the nature of
• 26:01
  the God of order we claim to serve?
• 26:03
  That is definitely something to chew on.
• 26:05
  Thanks for listening to this deep dive on reformed thinking.