Missionaries are generally full-time denominational employees. When it comes to finding, funding, and overseeing missionaries, the General Conference is, organizationally speaking, the main level of the church on which this occurs. Church members are involved through their prayer ministry for missions abroad and their financial support of the church's mission advance through their generous giving.
While such traditional missionaries are still very much a part of the church's worldwide work, some new approaches to mission have come to the fore in recent times.
Global Mission pioneers are an example of outreach generated by the official structure of the church. This is often accomplished through indigenous workers. Adventist Frontier Missions is another example, a creative effort that concentrates on utilizing the best the church can offer through volunteers who become involved in long- and short-term cross-cultural service.
Short-term service
There is yet another trend in missions short-term ventures sponsored by individuals, congregations, or other church entities. Advances in transportation and communication have brought a new dynamic to missions at both the tactical and strategic levels.
Air travel makes virtually all inhabited regions of the earth far more accessible than ever before. Travel to distant points is no longer a prohibitive investment either in terms of time or financial resources. Thus it's no longer only the long-term career mission ary who finds it possible to be personally involved in missions.
Many students at Adventist colleges take a year away from their classes to work in cross-cultural mission. Church members not employed by the denomination use their own time and resources to participate in "mission trips" of different kinds.
These short-term missions, usually lasting from one to three weeks, may involve traditional public evangelism or more creative ministries, such as building projects, medical services, instruction in health and hygiene, or a variety of other services.
The travel and the ministries involved may be organized by congregations, by schools or other institutions, by independent ministries or media ministries, or simply by interested individuals. At times they have been organized by entities within the denominational structure such as conferences and unions, who have acted as unofficial short-term mission agencies for congregations or individuals seeking mission experience.
Such personal, short-term involvement in missions has raised the level of mission awareness among the membership, at least in some regions of North America. This development brings some advantage to believers both on the sending and the receiving end.
The great potential that lies just ahead is truly amazing. One central route toward fulfilling that potential is the strengthening of the participation of local congregations as the organizing, sending, and supporting entities in short-term mission projects.
Evangelistic outreach activity, for example, involves the expenditure or exercise of a combination of resources, including time and energy of workers, skill and experience, spiritual giftedness in various areas, and financial and other material assets. With such resources and a receptive audience, quality results may be expected.
Each of these resources is present at a variety of points in the body of Christ. The church can make these resources most avail able in their most advantageous form in the fellowship of a local congregation.
The work of missions is to reveal the good news of Jesus Christ in His fullness to the world. The work of the Holy Spirit includes revealing the truth about Jesus to the world. The identity of mission work with the Holy Spirit is unmistakable. He must be the motivating and guiding force in missions. Missions must be carried out in keeping with His revealed principles of operation.
It is true that the Holy Spirit works fundamentally in the minds of individuals, but not in a disjointed, individualistic manner. Each of Paul's discussions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 12:3-8, 1 Cor. 12:4-31, and Eph. 4:11-16) explicitly places the gifts in the setting of the body. The complementary nature of spiritual gifts indicates that He intended to work through individuals functioning together as a united group.
When it comes to worldwide missions, that group is the worldwide church: Paul recognized the Holy Spirit's authority in the leadership in Jerusalem (Acts 15). That group is also the local body: the Holy Spirit chose to manifest His missionary commission to Paul through the hands of members in his local congregation at Antioch (Acts 13:1-4). The Spirit works through united people, and the basic level of unity in the church is the local congregation.
The congregation and mission
The congregation is the entity best suited to generate financial support for individual missions, to identify and gain experience in the use of spiritual gifts, to encourage and train volunteer missionary groups, and to develop in them a sense of teamwork and accountability. Representatives of a well-prepared congregation, work ing in concert with believers at the mission site, are situated to present an audience with a much richer demonstration of the workings of the body of Christ than is likely without that supportive body and that sense of unity and accountability. And of course the more complete the revelation of Christ, the more successful the mission.
Many engage in short-term missions not only for the expected benefit to those who have not heard the gospel, but also in the anticipation of a blessing to be received by believers at home in the missionaries' country of origin. Increased congregational involvement offers a great potential blessing in this regard as well. Even though only a small number of members may be sent on a mission, the home congregation as a whole benefits from a reawakening of a sense of the overall mission of the church. If members are sent as a team as part of a congregational effort, they experience the working of the Holy Spirit in that collaborative context. Mission volunteers gain experience in the exercise of their spiritual gifts, and see evidence that the gifts are designed to function as part of a united body. Even before departure to the mission site, volunteers gain an enhanced sense of their congregation as a working unit, motivated by a sense of shared responsibility. They return home eyewitnesses of the principle that cooperative, concerted efforts bring satisfactory results. Such an experience in the lives of members must bring an enduring blessing to any congregation.
The role of the congregation
A congregation may begin to take ownership of a mission event by becoming involved early in the process, in the preliminary planning phase. Members may be asked to help research potential mission sites and budgets and present them to the church for an initial decision to con duct the mission.
The congregation may choose the time, the place, and the scale of mission it wishes to support. They may be asked to propose or help select the ministries that will be included in the mission, such as adult evangelistic presentations, children's or youth programs, health services or presentations, building projects, or other services. They may select the size of team they wish to send.
Mission team members and their congregation may identify together with the mission more readily if the team members have been selected formally by the congregation from among those who have applied to take part.
Many who participate in short-term missions have very little preparation for what awaits them at the mission site. They often don't know what to expect, and they have not prepared in advance to work together as a team either with one another or with the believers at their destination. Congregational involvement provides a setting for training to prepare team members for the experience of cross-cultural mission and for the ministries they will provide.
The team, once selected, should regularly update the congregation on progress in planning and preparation, and communicate regularly from the mission site. They benefit substantially as the congregation at home supports them in prayer.
After the mission is completed, the congregation may evaluate the mission experience and its results. They will then have seen the results of their choices and their planning, and be able to propose modifications as need ed in any future mission activities.
Short-term volunteer missionary activity provides a unique opportunity to practice and demonstrate the harmonious workings of Christ's Spirit in the worldwide church. It is increasingly a part of the effort of the church to complete the gospel commission. The church should engage in this work by means of a reasoned strategy, not impulse. This work must reveal order, humility, and unity worthy of the One in whose name it is done.
