The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Your church and missions

I'd like to find out how others are handling some of the issues we are facing right now. Would you please answer these questions to the best of your ability? I posted these some time ago but am tweaking it a little.<br><br>1. What percentage of your church budget goes to missions? For practical purposes let's define missions here as a person or organisation whose purpose is solely to spread the Gospel, that is, to do evangelism, as opposed to something like a pregnancy crisis center or Habitat for Humanity which provides a service in Christ's name but doesn't exist solely to make Him known by preaching, teaching, discipling, etc.<br><br>2. What percentage of your church budget goes to Christian service organisations like the pregnancy crisis center I mentioned above? Do you group these with missions or do you handle it under a different category and criteria?<br><br>3. Does your church have a missions Sunday? What do you do to celebrate it?<br><br>4. How well does the average person in your church know your missionaries?<br><br>5. Do your missionaries ever give your church members opportunities to help them in the form of a short-term mission? (I'm not talking about the youth group here, but rather grownups taking vacation time to go and serve, support, and observe the daily goings-on of your missionary.<br><br>6. Who in your church administers the missions affairs? Do they do it solo (such as, an elder managing it and reporting to a session), or do they have a committee?<br><br>7. What are, or what would be your procedures for giving support to a long-term missionary or short-term mission candidate. Do they have to be a member of your church? What if the person was a student at a local college who was not a member but attended? What if they were a part of a group such as Navigators, the leader of which attends your church and your church supported, but the one seeking support attended elsewhere?<br><br>8. How do you determine what to support? Does your church have a focus for its mission budget, or do you simply consider any and all requests, as much as you have available funds for?<br><br>9. What do you do when you have a missionary who needs to come home because of health problems, or to care for an elderly parent until the parent's death? Do you stop support, or do you continue it? For how long? Do you continue only if they are a member of your church or do you ease off their support if they are not?<br><br>Some but not all of these questions reflect dilemmas we are facing. We now support over 60 missions/service organisations, and it is simply becoming too big a job for the present mission committee to handle, so we are trying to get a different committee started to handle what we consider the service organisations. Wondering what others' handling of this looks like.

Eleanor,<br><br>1. What percentage of your church budget goes to missions? For practical purposes let's define missions here as a person or organisation whose purpose is solely to spread the Gospel, that is, to do evangelism, as opposed to something like a pregnancy crisis center or Habitat for Humanity which provides a service in Christ's name but doesn't exist solely to make Him known by preaching, teaching, discipling, etc.<br><br>[color:blue]Our Deacons don't set up a budget with percentages as you've defined them above. We are provided with offering envelopes that allow for choices. Some of the choices printed on this envelope are Local Budget, Denomination & Classis, Building Fund, Educational Fund, Benevolent Fund, Local Christian Grade School, Local Christian High School, Local Christian College, and Faith Promise. The Deacons recommend to the congregation certain amounts to meet the operating needs of the church and its ministry. With the exeption of requested amounts to meet some Christian School obligations it's entirely up to the individual to decide where to direct their gift. Our Faith Promise would fit in the category you call missions. However this is not the only area that missions is supported through our giving. We have various offerings from week to week for different causes based on need. So we have a variety of ways a member can give his offerings through the local church.<br><br>On Thanksgiving Day each year we have a special offering in which every member writes on an envelope the causes they want to support. This is the biggest offering in the church year. Much of this money is directed to missions.</font color=blue> <br><br>2. What percentage of your church budget goes to Christian service organisations like the pregnancy crisis center I mentioned above? Do you group these with missions or do you handle it under a different category and criteria?<br><br>[color:blue]As I mentioned above we don't keep a record of percentages nor do we budget along those lines. We set certain goals and present specific needs to be met but mostly the amounts are determined by the consciences of the givers.</font color=blue><br><br>3. Does your church have a missions Sunday? What do you do to celebrate it?<br><br>[color:blue]We have a week each Spring that we call "Mission Emphasis Week". Usually we have special speakers, generally missionaries we support, lead us in our worship services both Sundays, and have a special mid-week service. The focus is on our committment to mission support and awareness of the various mission fields we support. This is not the only focus we put on missions but this week puts a special emphasis on it. This is also a time when we make our committment through pledges for the coming year. We call this Faith Promise.</font color=blue><br><br>4. How well does the average person in your church know your missionaries?<br><br>[color:blue]We receive regular correspondence from them and we make sure we correspond back regularly. We also include articles and pictures in our church newsletter describing the work and specifically what God is doing there. </font color=blue><br><br>5. Do your missionaries ever give your church members opportunities to help them in the form of a short-term mission? (I'm not talking about the youth group here, but rather grownups taking vacation time to go and serve, support, and observe the daily goings-on of your missionary.<br><br>[color:blue]Occasionally some missionaries can use some members to help out on their mission field but most opportunities that our members have to be involved in mission work is relative to other opportunities than these specific fields. Many of our members get involved in short term mission work and a few have gone on longer service projects. This varies from teaching ministries, to service project ministries,</font color=blue><br><br>6. Who in your church administers the missions affairs? Do they do it solo (such as, an elder managing it and reporting to a session), or do they have a committee?<br><br>[color:blue]We have an active missions committee. They report to the Council of the church and all their decisions need final approval there. They keep contact, promote congregational involvement, and present the needs of our missinaries. They promote our Faith Promise offerings and present the candidates for receiving these gifts. In 2002 we had a significant surplus beyond the list of candidates and needs they had presented to the congregation so they found additional mission causes that needed to be responded to. Actually these additional causes presented themselves to us and the gifts came in response. </font color=blue><br><br>7. What are, or what would be your procedures for giving support to a long-term missionary or short-term mission candidate. Do they have to be a member of your church? What if the person was a student at a local college who was not a member but attended? What if they were a part of a group such as Navigators, the leader of which attends your church and your church supported, but the one seeking support attended elsewhere?<br><br>[color:blue]Through various contacts these candidates present themselves. So are from our church, some are from our area, some are from denominational ministries, some are home missionaries, some are foreign missionaries, and some are in parachurch ministry. </font color=blue><br><br>8. How do you determine what to support? Does your church have a focus for its mission budget, or do you simply consider any and all requests, as much as you have available funds for?<br><br>[color:blue]I don't think we have a written set of rules to determine what to support. However over the years these causes and people have been primarily mission causes. Meaning both in Word and deed. </font color=blue><br><br>9. What do you do when you have a missionary who needs to come home because of health problems, or to care for an elderly parent until the parent's death? Do you stop support, or do you continue it? For how long? Do you continue only if they are a member of your church or do you ease off their support if they are not?<br><br>[color:blue]We've actually had that occur. Just a few years ago a missionary team we sent to Japan came home because of illness. After helping that couple get home safely and restored to health they retired from mission service and we moved that support on to a new opportunity. </font color=blue><br><br>Wes

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]1. What percentage of your church budget goes to missions? For practical purposes let's define missions here as a person or organization whose purpose is solely to spread the Gospel, that is, to do evangelism, as opposed to something like a pregnancy crisis center or Habitat for Humanity which provides a service in Christ's name but doesn't exist solely to make Him known by preaching, teaching, discipling, etc.</font><hr></blockquote><p> We have a dollar amount, but with the math it is app. 17%.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]2. What percentage of your church budget goes to Christian service organizations like the pregnancy crisis center I mentioned above? Do you group these with missions or do you handle it under a different category and criteria?</font><hr></blockquote><p> Missions is one line in our budget, but is sub-divided in its distribution by a committee. We have members on the boards of the two largest local missions (homeless shelter and pregnancy center) in the area thus we can control also somewhat what is taught from a Reformed view.--Funds are not the only issue! We have three counselors from our church work at the pregnancy and rape crisis centers.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]3. Does your church have a missions Sunday? What do you do to celebrate it?</font><hr></blockquote><p> Every two months we attempt to have a missionary visit and they share in the adult/teen classes. They do not speak at our Sunday morning services though they are recognized. We normally have dinner on the grounds and they put on a presentation on sometimes during/afterwards...this.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]4. How well does the average person in your church know your missionaries?[</font><hr></blockquote><p> Pretty well. We have pictures and bios of all the ones that we normally support in a central area in the church. We have the children's classes write them letters (every two months). And of course us adults write letter, e-mails to them personally as well.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]5. Do your missionaries ever give your church members opportunities to help them in the form of a short-term mission? (I'm not talking about the youth group here, but rather grownups taking vacation time to go and serve, support, and observe the daily goings-on of your missionary.</font><hr></blockquote><p> We plan one on a every other year basis: one year-teens go to Mexico, France....... the next year the Adults. Locally (weekly) we work in food/clothing shelters and minister to the homeless.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]6. Who in your church administers the missions affairs? Do they do it solo (such as, an elder managing it and reporting to a session), or do they have a committee?</font><hr></blockquote><p> An elder and he heads a 3 person committee.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]7. What are, or what would be your procedures for giving support to a long-term missionary or short-term mission candidate. Do they have to be a member of your church? What if the person was a student at a local college who was not a member but attended? What if they were a part of a group such as Navigators, the leader of which attends your church and your church supported, but the one seeking support attended elsewhere?</font><hr></blockquote><p> Each mission submitted is looked at for its goal and theological position. Each mission is re-evaluated each year. They do not have to be a member of the church. We do not support Navigators in our local area--liberal. We have three college students who head up a college missionary program at their local college and it costs are very minimal (teaching, campus dinners, jail ministry).<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]8. How do you determine what to support? Does your church have a focus for its mission budget, or do you simply consider any and all requests, as much as you have available funds for?</font><hr></blockquote><p> For the most part this was answered above. There are certain missions (denominational) that we support almost automatically, but they are still scrutinized. Individual missionaries overseas must be a part of the denomination, local missionaries do not (but this is in the midst of change as more denominational members get involved at this level). We have had a huge missions push during this last year for more individual church members to get involved.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]9. What do you do when you have a missionary who needs to come home because of health problems, or to care for an elderly parent until the parent's death? Do you stop support, or do you continue it? For how long? Do you continue only if they are a member of your church or do you ease off their support if they are not?</font><hr></blockquote><p> We continue support as that would be their new/extended mission given by the Lord. This just occurred last month for a missionary serving full time in France. They are now back in the states caring for their father who has cancer..........he is not expected to live through the end of this month.