How the Pandemic Helped Our Church Find Clarity and Conviction for Global Involvement
By Dave Stewart
Unexpected. Unpredictable. Unsettling.
There are a lot of uns we could use to describe this past year. Unproductive is not one of them. At Compassion Christian Church in Savannah, Georgia, God showed up in a very Romans 8:28 way, but it certainly wasn’t in a form we expected or predicted.
Yes, we scrambled like most to get some of our workers home, to equip others who remained on the field, and to resource our partnerships in areas hardest hit by the pandemic. And we worked diligently to provide member care where needed—everyone was struggling in some way or another. Caring for our people has always been a high priority, but it looked very different now.
We also canceled the majority of our international short-term teams, prompting a season of upheaval for the more than 400 folks who were committed to go. Quite honestly, this gave us a season to examine our infrastructure and processes. Our outreach strategy team had been praying, fasting, and pursuing a more clearly defined calling for global impact through our church.
We weren’t starting from scratch. Author Neal Pirolo describes how it sometimes seems as though there are only two squads on the missionary team in the local church . . . those who go and those who say, “Goodbye!”
This wasn’t us.
We’ve worked hard to help our people embrace their calling as senders—we had followed a structured plan for many years—but it was time to revisit our purpose. Where and how could we make the biggest impact in making Jesus known to the nations? Should we focus our efforts and resources on sending out more members of our church . . . or on further developing several strategic, national-led ministries we’ve partnered with for years?
We came to clarity.
This is probably a good time to acknowledge that sharing our experience of this past season comes with the risk that some who read this won’t like or agree with our convictions.
That’s OK. These are our convictions, not theirs.
Discovering God’s Direction (and Reconsidering Our Role)
Compassion Outreach, as a ministry of Compassion Christian Church, embraces the biblical mandate of Romans 10:14-15 to raise up, send out, and care for those from our church body whom the Holy Spirit sets apart for missionary service. We believe the local church should be proactive in discovering God’s direction for our global involvement and equipping workers for the harvest promised by Jesus.
Our team also believes the issue of sent Americans vs. national leaders has never been an either-or choice. While we watched the church growing in many locations where national evangelists were making disciples who effectively made disciples, we also know there are still many places in the world where frontier mission workers are needed to launch or equip a national-led disciple-making movement.
So, we determined to emphatically build on our long-trusted relationships with key national leaders while at the same time raising the bar significantly in the areas of preparation and demonstrated proficiency within our own people.
We know God always equips the sent, but our goal was clear. If we were going to set apart members of our body to the work for which the Holy Spirit called them (Acts 13:2), if we were going to send them to tough places with all the extra cross-cultural challenges American workers face (i.e., cultural acclimation, language acquisition, partnership development, finances, etc.), then we needed to commit to the best possible process of identifying, encouraging, equipping, and celebrating those who were committed to this calling.
Rather than simply conceding that sending Americans is just messy, expensive, and highly unpredictable, we needed to reconsider our role in this process.
Rising to the Challenge
There’s an old story from back in the day when military recruiters were brought into local high schools to make pitches to the senior students. (I’m old enough to remember this.)
“It’s Not Just a Job, It’s an Adventure,” “Be All You Can Be,” “See the World” . . . all slogans designed to coax the teens toward a military commitment in service to their country. The recruiters were always good at what they did.
The story goes that after the others had finished their pitches, the U.S. Marine Corps recruiter came forward in his dress blues, sharp as a knife, with a no-nonsense look on his face.
“I’ve been watching while these other gentlemen have shared why you should join their branch of the service. And as I look around, I don’t think there are two of you in this entire place who have what it takes to be a United States Marine!”
With that, he sat down.
Guess which recruiter had the biggest crowd at his table after the presentation?
The moral of the story is people will often rise to extreme challenges and vision when cajoling or recruiting isn’t getting it done.
For years we had tried to communicate a message that “normal” people are called to do this; missionaries aren’t super saints, they are just regular people obedient to a call on their lives.
But sometimes it felt like we were pitching, “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!”
(I write this with no intention of offending any U.S. Navy friends or my father who served honorably for 28 years . . . thanks Dad!)
People would come forward to serve and we would excitedly incorporate them into the process, only to find out a few months down the road that they weren’t really, really committed to the “whatever it takes in trusting God” journey.
Not bad people, just not 100 percent committed to mission work.
Far too often, it seems, the local church has chosen a role of being cheerleaders . . . when people within the body determine missions is their calling, their friends and mentors celebrate, uplift, and then pass them off to a sending agency.
Or many times the sequence is reversed:
“Hey church leaders, my spouse and I are working with ABC organization and we’re preparing to go to Timbuktu in three months. We would love for you to send us out.”
Then the church scrambles to understand the family, the target country, and ABC organization, all while encouraging and celebrating the calling of the potential missionaries.
It ultimately proves exhausting, and quite frankly, the church’s actions can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy—“sending Americans is just too much work.”
Discipling Others to Reproduce
Consequently, our focus for the majority of 2020 has been on creating a funnel, a much more organized process, and preparation for our sent workers to the global field.
In having a strategic impact for his kingdom in our world, the ministry focus for sent missionaries must align with the direction the Lord is calling our church. Therefore, decisions regarding field placement must be made in partnership with the Compassion Outreach team and not unilaterally.
More specifically, we have prayerfully identified three priorities. We are committed to:
- equipping national leaders for Disciple-Making Movements (DMM) and church planting
- using cross-cultural workers for DMM and church-planting among unreached/least reached people groups, defining measurable goals and exit strategies to be implemented as soon as a reproducing, nationally led church is established
- building healthy, Church-Based Teams (CBT) whenever possible
How is this different than in the past?
If someone desires to join a well-rounded team with significant national leadership already in place, there must be a very specific purpose in discipling. And that will require a demonstrated proficiency while still in the U.S. We are raising the bar not only on a commitment to preparation for the field but also in intentional multiplication at home; that is, being disciples who can in turn make disciples who can make disciples, before being sent.
This renewed emphasis requires a commitment on our part to equipping our people with the tools and confidence to lead. In addition to their regular ministry responsibilities, every pastor and significant leader on our staff is required to direct at least 10 percent of their time to intentionally discipling others to reproduce.
Clarifying Our Calling
Another significant factor in this intentionality is that our church works with only a few sending organizations, those that not only have shared values but also know our church, and with leaders who have consistent lines of communication established to ensure the best stewardship of this cooperative partnership.
While I pray we would never discourage a member from exploring the calling and conviction of being sent out as a missionary by our church, it is every bit as important to clarify our calling and conviction as a body of believers that desires to glorify God as effectively as possible with our blessings and resources. And this requires saying no to some things.
One important note is necessary here to understand our logic.
At first it seemed possible to differentiate between those strategically sent and others who invited us in well after their plans were defined. We could certainly accomplish this through our level of financial commitment.
But we realized our calling was to the highest level of member care for all sent workers, period. The church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas, but they also cared for them while away and when they returned. Therefore, we work hard to love our people and undergird them in tangible ways.
If our commitment was to be “all-in” on every sent worker, then it was clear the distinction had to be on the front side—establishing clear expectations, identifying direction, and raising the bar on preparation.
So, we developed a detailed process for commissioning and sending workers that includes four stages: exploration (up to 9 months), assessment (up to 9 months), equipping (up to 6 months), and deployment (up to 18 months).
Our process in no way conflicts with the immense value of working with an established missions sending agency. In fact, collaborating with familiar agencies allows us to integrate with their preparation models, avoiding confusion and duplication . . . with the end goal of a three-way partnership, mutual approval, and a whole lot of celebration!
Obviously, not every church will be led in the same strategic direction. We would never discount the work others are doing to make the global church healthy, whole, and capable of relevantly reaching the next generations for Jesus.
Our desire is simply to be found obedient to Luke 16:10: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much . . .”
While we know all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, we want to work diligently to be found worthy of the influence we have been given for his purposes.
As we elevate the expectations in our church, we no longer ask, “Would you please consider . . .” but instead ask, “Will you rise to the opportunity?”
I pray that, much like the Marine Corps recruiter, we will find workers in this generation who can proclaim, “By the power of the Holy Spirit, I have what it takes!”
Dave Stewart serves as executive pastor of outreach with Compassion Christian Church, Savannah, Georgia.
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