David Mays, ACMC
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We
are so overloaded with information and our church has so many programs, that keeping
missions and missionaries in front of people and making it receivable by them
is very challenging.
·
We must constantly teach new church leaders, mission team
leaders and finally new church members our philosophy of missions.
·
We need to break out of the silo of missions and have every
single department, ministry area, incorporate missions into their fabric.
·
Motivating the congregation to be personally involved rather
than passively supportive is a big job.
·
Most view missions as one of the 125 ministries of the
church. Missions is viewed as one of the many programs, not the purpose of the
church
·
We see so many needs in our town and we hear Acts 1:8 as
"Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria or to the Ends of the
earth".
·
There is a scarcity mentality: if we give to them, there
won't be enough for us.
·
There is a stigma toward the word "missions."
·
The
over commitment and busyness of the congregation makes missions just one more
good thing. They are too overwhelmed to
get personally involved in kingdom work.
·
Like most missions pastors, I wear several hats. It is easy for things like study, planning,
and pasturing missionaries to be squeezed out by the barrage of e-mails, voice
mails, and local church issues clamoring for immediate attention.
·
There
is a lack of understanding of God's heart for the nations.
·
It is a battle to awaken Christians from theory and theology
to their real identity and calling as God's agents of transformation in the
world.
·
The congregation is oblivious to missions. They have
determined "go ye . . ." does not apply to them and are uninterested
in finding out any more.
·
The senior leadership of the church does not support
missions. The senior pastor does not
demonstrate a passion for world evangelization.
·
Missions is only brought up when the missions department has
a missions Sunday. Otherwise, it is never taught from the pulpit.
·
As
our church gets bigger, there is growing competition for funding and personnel
resources from all the new staff and developing ministries.
·
In a larger church our message is diluted by all the other
"competing voices."
·
Finding help in our Sunday School children's department
takes precedence over concern for 170 leaders arrested in China.
·
It is difficult to say no to many good things in order to
focus on the best things.
·
People
prefer the old way to changing church-mission paradigms to become more
effective in the work of the kingdom.
·
There is resistance to reshaping a strategy that seems well
entrenched and accepted by a group of knowledgeable, dedicated servants.
·
We are surviving some tough economic times.
·
There is a shortage of available resources for strategic
ministries.
·
Maintaining and developing an effective team requires
particular leadership skills.
·
Keeping volunteers effectively engaged without burning out
is challenging.
·
Recruiting and orienting constantly changing members is
stretching.
·
Perhaps
the greatest obstacle is our growing disenchantment with the world.
Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Palestinian conflict undermine our confidence that
Christianity is making an impact on the world.
Source: ACMC Great Lakes Survey of
Missions Pastors, September, 2003