Fri
Aug 20
2010
Pastor Martin Russell
Assistant to the Bishop
Nebraska Synod, ELCA
The church does not have a mission - the mission of God has a church! God is in charge of God’s mission to the world.
We do mission. Mission is the very identity of every Christian and every church. As Bishop deFreese likes to remind us, congregations should be ‘centers for mission’ both in local communities and worldwide. The world yearns for the life-giving message of Jesus. You, your congregation and all of us together as the Nebraska Synod are called to be Jesus’ partner in proclaiming the Gospel through word and deed. Our mission statement as a Nebraska Synod, “Together, we live love with the grace and courage of Jesus” unfolds this understanding.
One expression of this service is global mission. How deeply is your congregation involved in global mission? Becoming actively involved in global mission is a rich opportunity to participate in God’s reconciling mission through proclamation and service. Here are seven ways in which you and your congregation can more deeply engage in global mission:
• Pray for global mission partners and missionaries as well as for the world - Being a global mission church can transform the prayer life of your congregation. There are many ways to pray for global mission partners and missionaries. You can distribute the ELCA Prayer Ventures and lift up global communities in worship, especially our two companion synods: the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina and Uruguay.
• Educate all members about global issues - Being a global mission church enriches the lives of church members and expands their horizons. Organize a global mission class and use resources from the Nebraska Synod or ELCA Global Mission or host an event with a speaker. Emphasize global mission in Sunday School one day a year. Share with members of your congregation the global mission materials available on the Nebraska Synod web site.
• Receive the gifts of the global church - This is another way of educating members about the work of global mission, and can mean hosting Mission Interpreters to speak in your congregation, hosting guests from our companion synods, or developing relationships with missionaries and congregations of our companion synods.
• Give to the work of global mission - This means celebrating that your congregation’s mission share supports ELCA global mission throughout the world. Thirty-two percent of the ELCA Churchwide budget supports global mission. Giving to global mission can also mean participating in specific global mission projects of the Nebraska Synod, such as Textbooks for Tanzania, Motorcycles for Tanzania, and Houses for Health.
• Send members into the world to share the good news - One part of being a global mission church that can change the way church members travel and look at the world is to encourage them to visit global missionaries and partners when they travel overseas. Another wonderful opportunity includes sending a group on a Nebraska Synod vision trip to either Tanzania or Argentina & Uruguay. These transformational vision trips are a tremendous opportunity to share the Christian faith with people whose lives are very different from our own, particularly in terms of material resources.
• Grow in sharing the stories of God’s mission - This can mean designating a member of your congregation to participate in a Mission Interpreter training or organizing a joint global mission event with another church to learn about mission together. This also means sharing the things your congregation is doing with the others in the Nebraska Synod. Your congregation can help all of us with new ideas and opportunities for participation in the work of global mission.
I encourage you and your congregation to think of other ideas to live out these seven ways of being a global mission congregation.
What can you do to become more involved in global mission? Perhaps the first step is to gather a team to discuss and coordinate the global mission church process in your congregation. Learn about the history of global ministries and the current work of global ministries. Evaluate your current mission involvement and what you might be able to start doing. Invite someone to come speak to your team about ways in which you and your congregation might become more actively engaged in global mission. Then, create and commit to a plan for mission involvement including continuing what you’ve been doing and starting new actions in the next three years. Set measurable objectives with dates for completion and names of who will carry actions out. After three years, it’s time to create another plan.
Please feel free to contact me by e-mail or phone (402-896-5311, ext. 1003) if I can be of service to you or your congregation.
Thanks be to God for making us partners in Christ’s mission! May the Lord bless you as you bless others through your ministry!
