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    Bringing the World to Your Church
    Bringing the World to Your Church
    Bringing the World to Your Church
    Ebook134 pages1 hour

    Bringing the World to Your Church

    By Joy Piper

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    About this ebook

    A rescue pack of ideas and information for missions mobilisers.
    'Help! I'm the Missions Secretary. What do I do now?'
    Joy Piper comes to the rescue with ideas and information on how to encourage your church to look beyond its own needs to those of the wider world. Learn how to organise special events, introduce children to the adventure of world mission, stimulate prayer and support for missionaries...
    Bringing the World to Your Church is a vital resource containing not only ideas, but a directory of relevant organisations and sources of information on world mission.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWEC Publications
    Release dateApr 19, 2013
    ISBN9781301141265
    Bringing the World to Your Church
    Author

    Joy Piper

    Joy G Piper is a lay Christian from Dartford, with a heart for mission and a lot of expertise, who longs to help her friends at church take a full part in the world mission scene. Her book Bringing the World to Your Church expresses her enthusiasm in an easy and engaging style, full of good humour. Although it will amply reward a reading from cover to cover, it can more readily be used as a reference book or encyclopaedia of hints and tips on how to get started, and more importantly, on how to keep going.

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      Book preview

      Bringing the World to Your Church - Joy Piper

      Bringing the World to your Church

      A rescue pack of ideas and information

      for missions mobilisers

      Joy Piper

      Acknowledgements

      I owe a great deal to the many individuals and organisations who gave me ideas, information and prayerful support as I researched and wrote this book. I could not have completed it without their generosity, help and encouragement. My thanks go especially to Stephen Passmore, whose request that I write him some guidelines for a world mission promoter inspired this book, and to my husband Brian and daughters Emma and Karen, who willingly tolerated considerable disruption to our family life whilst I wrote it.

      WEC Publications, Gerrards Cross

      Smashwords edition

      Copyright 2001 Joy Piper

      Joy Piper has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998to be identified as Author of this Work.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works from WEC International. Thank you for your support.

      Contents

      Chapter 1. On your marks … get set …

      Starting off: initial evaluation and preparation

      Chapter 2. Go!

      Creating a basic framework of education and information-sharing

      Chapter 3. Missionaries are human, too

      Support for individual missionaries

      Chapter 4. No special talent required

      Making good displays

      Chapter 5. Avoiding the ruts

      Ideas for special world-mission events

      Chapter 6. Your money or … !

      The vexed question of finance- raising

      Chapter 7. Never too young

      Educating children and young people

      Chapter 8. It could be you!

      Cross-cultural opportunities for everyone

      Chapter 9. What about the Third-World?

      Sounding the trumpet for the exploited and underprivileged

      Epilogue: Out of breath and overwhelmed?

      Directory of organisations

      I. Agencies supporting, resourcing and training national Christians

      II. Information, resources and training

      III. Missionary organisations

      IV. Relief and development agencies and campaign co-ordinators

      V. Students and ethnic minorities

      VI. Support agencies

      VII. Web-sites with listings

      Bibliography

      Chapter1

      On your marks . . . get set . . .

      Starting off:

      initial evaluation and preparation

      Some are asked. Others volunteer. A fortunate few will actually be given some form of job description. Most, however, will simply be left to get on with it. Although one of the lowest profile jobs in the average church, those who take on the job of mission co-ordinator do so with great personal commitment to the cause. Undaunted by the general apathy often encountered, they offer faithful service, sometimes for thirty years or more. When they feel it is time to hand on to somebody else, however, they are usually unable to do so since no-one is likely to volunteer to replace them. Not immediately anyway. It is not a popular job.

      Its popularity may not be great, but its importance is. Mission coordinators are a key link between the church at home, missionary societies, the missionary and the church overseas. The job title may vary, but its importance does not.

      Speaking from experience

      `Important' is the last word I would have used to describe how I felt as a new missionary secretary. I was not given any working brief or guidance, and although I had been a Christian for about thirteen years at the time and was experienced in other areas of Christian service, I felt confused, inadequate and overwhelmed. All I was given was a cardboard box crammed with correspondence and memorabilia from previous mission events. My feelings of inadequacy were intensified when I met with more experienced supporters of world-mission at area meetings, since I found myself unable to understand the mission-speak which they used so confidently. It was as if I had suddenly become a member of a Christian sub-culture but with no initiation ceremony and no clear idea as to what was expected of me.

      It has become obvious from what other people have shared that my experience of being left to muddle on alone is not unique.

      It is my memories of those initial feelings of discomfort and my longing for a basic reference tool to help me that became the catalyst for this book. It has been written to encourage those who may be running out of ideas after years in the job and also those who are newly appointed and uncertain how to proceed. It is a pick'n'mix of information, suggestions and examples drawn from a variety of sources. You can select and adapt them to fit your own particular Christian environment.

      I hope it will especially encourage those in isolated situations who find it difficult to travel to area meetings or meet with other mission mobilisers.

      What makes an effective mission mobiliser?

      The bad news is there are no magic formulae, instant fool-proof methods or short cuts to guarantee success. However, there are qualities like persistence, patience and imagination which will go a long way to making the job easier.

      A genuine interest in overseas mission and the world at large and an abiding love for God and other people will provide powerful motivation to keep you going when the going gets tough.

      Most important of all is faithfulness in prayer, constantly acknowledging your dependence upon God.

      Defining terminology

      Most of us know to our cost that words are powerful tools with great potential for being misunderstood and interpreted according to the listener's experiences and prejudices. Negative connotations attached to traditional titles have led to churches updating the words used to describe their workers, hence the plethora of trendy labels which have sprung up to describe those engaged in raising mission awareness: motivators, coordinators, chairmen and secretaries preside nowadays over 'mission action-groups', 'mission education teams', 'working groups', 'world-mission councils' and 'mission partnership groups'. These have replaced the familiar missionary secretary and missionary committee in many places.

      What about you? Have you ever stopped to consider whether your title is associated with any negative imagery which might hamper your efforts? Are you satisfied that it clearly and adequately describes your role within the life of the church? If not, can you think of one which will be more readily understood in your social and cultural environment?

      Job titles within the world of commerce and management are an important part of our present-day culture. It is helpful to keep up to date with appropriate terms which are in fashion and integrate them into our Christian context, if we are to make sense to young people and converts from an unchurched background.

      Defining the job

      Encouraging any Christian group to become actively involved with worldmission is significantly important but notoriously difficult. As if that were not enough to contend with, the task of a mission mobiliser is rarely defined since the job is assumed to be self-explanatory.

      It is useful to put together a simple working brief, however, if you are to do a really effective job. Consultation with your predecessor and mission mobilisers in other local churches, as well as area representatives or headquarters staff of organisations with which you are linked will be helpful. Their ideas can be used together with input from the church leadership to form a basic job description.

      The following example of a written point of reference (1) shows what areas may usefully be clarified in order to avoid ambiguities which could lead to conflict or misunderstanding.

      Job title: Missionary Secretary

      Main purpose of the job:

      To co-ordinate and encourage the church's support for missionary activity through prayer, sharing information and practical support.

      Key tasks:

      To make recommendations to the leadership concerning the church's giving to missionaries and missionary organisations, including the preparation of an annual budget for financial support of missionaries, where appropriate. (This should be done in consultation with the church treasurer if possible).

      To meet with those carrying out similar roles within other churches in the circuit.

      To organise activities which enable members to find out more about world-mission.

      To communicate prayer needs to leadership for inclusion in prayers at Sunday worship and smaller mid-week gatherings.

      To ensure regular communication with supported missionaries.

      To maintain missionary notice board and keep it up to date.

      To write short updates of missionary news for church newsheets or magazines.

      To report regularly to the leadership.

      Responsibilities:

      To continue to keep the support of Christian workers as an important focus within the church's programme and awareness, and to ensure that any prayer needs are circulated.

      Recognising the role of the leadership

      The main impetus for world-mission support comes from the top. Here the battle for mission is won or lost.

      The extent of the leadership's visible commitment to world-mission will be reflected in the level of enthusiasm shown by the rest of the group.

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