Motivation for missions and ministry

I’ve been thinking lately about what motivates me to be involved in missions and ministry and how that compares to what motivates others. Part of it is professional (i.e., “How do we motivate people to give to missions?”). A portion of it is church-related (i.e., “How can I influence others to help with the inner city ministry?”) There’s also a very personal component to it (ie, “What really are my motives in all this, and are they Christ-exalting?)

For some time, a key motive for me has been God’s glory. I believe that the God I know and serve is so great, so good, so loving that He is worthy of the praise of all peoples. He deserves the praise of the people He created and died for. Moreover, if only people knew how great He is, they would gladly and joyfully serve and follow Him. That motivates me to make Him known, whether that is halfway around the world or just around the block. I’m compelled to make His greatness known.

Other people are motivated by other things:

• Compassion for the poor and hurting
• Concern for those who will spend eternity in Hell
• Obedience to the command and call of Jesus

What motivates you? Why do you give your time, talent, and resources to ministry?

How do we convince people to give to missions?

Last week, I told a coworker I needed to work on materials to promote our general missions offering. I’ve already created most of the materials, but I wonder what, if anything, we could still do that would make fund raising efforts more successful.

Her response was to ask a really simple question:

We want people in our churches to give 10% to the church as a tithe, right? And we want them to make a monthly gift to a missionary’s support? And we want them to give to the general missions offering? How do we convince people to give that much money?

The question is basic, but basic questions are sometimes the best. And the basic answer is that we (office staff, itinerant fund raisers, pastors, and everyone else involved) have to persuade people that it is worth it. People don’t give to causes they don’t believe in. If people are persuaded that making God’s great name known in all the earth is infinitely worth doing, they’ll give.

Of course, the question then becomes, how do you persuade people to make God known?

"Gives us 20 more like these!"

A young couple were approved as missionaries today by our board. Yesterday, the assistant director asked our team to interview them, then write an article for the church’s periodical. Specifically, he said the couple were young, committed, and ready to go; if he could carbon copy them 20 times over and place them around the world, he would be a happy man.

They are a fantastic couple. And the church does need 20 more like them. Dedicated, full of faith, ready to serve. Ready to come under one of the older missionary couple on the field, helping how they can now and preparing to advance the work once the others are retired.

Our hope is that the article will inspire others. We asked them what they would say to others, especially younger people, interested in serving in missions but uncertain if there is a place for them. And what they would say to those who aren’t even interested or haven’t considered it.

I hope that message, as well as their faith and dedication, comes through in the article. We’ll likely run an ad next to it for our missions training programs, and I pray God will give the church 20 more couples like them!

That mobilization thing

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the idea that I could me a missions mobilizer. I love to write, I love to design, and I know the Web. I love to communicate the importance of involvement in the Great Commission, and I feel like I don’t get to do that nearly enough. So why not develop a site where I let it all out? Or write articles for sites geared to the emerging church generation, start a MySpace group, participate in online forums, encourage those I’m in relationship with to be more involved, and blog about it all?

I don’t know what the right strategy is, but I do think it’s time for me to start doing this. At work, when anyone suggests that I did more than what was required or otherwise suggests that I shouldn’t expend so much energy in my work, my response is often, “This is who I am; this is what I do. This [promoting missions] is what I will be doing, in one way or the other, for the rest of my life.” It’s time I just start doing it every way I can, whether that’s tied to an organization, employer, church, or not.

Going forward, I want to start a blog devoted to my experiences in missions mobilization and communications. I’ll write about the things I create at work, the message boards I participate in online, the articles I publish on different websites, and the people I talk with at church and elsewhere. The blog will be the journal of my mobilization efforts and my reflections along the way. (My first task is to name the blog. Any suggestions?)

Of course, a blog about my efforts to mobilize those within my circle of influence is only as good as my efforts to mobilize. And so I’ll do more to communicate the missions vision to the church. I’ll continue participating in related message boards, but I’ll write some articles for Christian websites, especially those frequented by the younger generation. Some of the missions topics I want to write about include:

• Missions’ Goal – calling all nations to praise Him
• Support roles in world missions
• The priority of the least reached
• “But what if I’m not called?”
• Postmodern missionaries
• Motivations for missionary activity
• Communication tips for missionaries
• Online media strategies for missionaries and agencies
• Top 10 missions books

God’s will and me – missions mobilizer?

I work for a denomination’s world missions agency. It’s not the denomination I’m a member of though, and I had decided to pursue an overseas missions assignment through my fellowship, the Assemblies of God. Now, things have changed a bit, and I may stay longer than planned.

That’s caused me to think a lot lately about what God’s will for my life really is. Clearly, His general will for me is the same as every believer, to love Him and serve Him and be transformed by Him. Specifically though, I know I am called to a lifetime in missions, and I’ll most likely be employed in a related area for my entire career, whether I have a salary or raise support.

I’ve known for a while that mobilization and least-reached peoples are what I’m most passionate about. Communicating the vision and needs to the body of Christ is what I want to do, and I want to communicate it in a way that leads to action. I want to help people go, pray, and give. It also goes along with my desire to provide resources online to missionaries to help them learn how to better communicate with their supporters.

The work I planned to do overseas is primarily in communications – helping to make the missionary’s and region’s needs known to supporters.

Put all that together, and I’m starting to realize that mobilization is where I really belong. This quote from an article on George Verwer’s site explains it well:

“If your heart’s cry is for the whole world,
if you can’t seem to hear God directing
you to go to one specific people or area,
if you’re gifted naturally and spiritually
in communicating and encouraging,
perhaps your strategic niche is that of a
mobiliser. You can encourage, exhort,
prod, lure, hand-hold, cajole and pray whole
churches into a sharper vision of their part in
God’s global purpose.” – Bob Sjogren and Bill and Amy Stearns