What is biblical and what is not?

Making needs known?

Identifying people with potential and seeing if they are open to going?

Fixing special days of fasting and praying to see about what a congregation will do about a global need?

Adopting a people group and aiming in prayer for 3 couples or so to target that people group?

How aggressive should we be?

What does the NT say about organizing cross-cultural efforts? How is it to be done?

If you wanted to recruit for missions, how would you do it?



FINALLY, MY MAIN AGENDA:

If I want to recruit now for missions, what are ways in which I can be both Biblical and effective in being used by God in drawing and mentoring people to help these un-harvested areas where the Gospel has not been told?

What can I do to let PB related churches now about the needs and see if there are people in PB related circles who can fill those needs?

__________________
Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

There doesn't seem to be much scriptural data aside from the passage about the Spirit separating out Paul and Silas.

From a practical point of view, I think that churches should eliminate 2-4 week trips but encourage selected young folks (those with emotional and spiritual maturity and a cross-cultural inclination) to spend 3-6 months with an overseas mentor. I currently have such a young woman. She has a very significant ministry and I can see her, by the day, becoming more enthused about long-term missions as an elementary teacher.

Kids that were internationally adopted, especially those adopted at older ages, are prime candidates to return to their country of origin once they have a solid Christian commitment and some maturity.

MK's make the best missionaries, in my estimation. When I see missionaries voluntarily in hardship positions, almost always they are MK's. A strategic financial investment for a church would be to underwrite the cost of missionaries adopting internationally, having these kids grow up in a multi-cultural environment with the intention of having them carry on the work in the next generation.

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Mary Vanderkooi
Kale Heywott Church (KHC)
Soddo, Ethiopia

You cannot and do not recruit missionaries the way you would recruit people for the army. The Lord touches people's hearts and the person works out himself what gifts he has (with the advice of others), what mission field he wants to serve in and with what mission agency he wants to serve with.

There are other instances where church leaders spot gifted church members as missionaries and may encourage them on short term projects to assess things. However usually people spotted as potential missionaries normally have that interest in missions anyway.

Cross cultural efforts are very sensitive. I have known of missions ignore local Christians and culture and try and steamroller in western values along with the gospel and this has been disastrous. Good mission agencies respect local church leaders, seek their advice and aim to support and develop the local church in the target country. Paying heed to the fact that values in the home country can be quite different to the values in the receiving country.

We were missionaries in the Irish Republic. We always enjoyed having people from the UK or the US who would come to us trying to work out if they had a missionary call. For some it was a complete shock whilst for others it really confirmed their sense of call. Others then moved onto a missionary situation in a different country altogether.


The only real way of recruiting is simply to look, see and pray the Lord of the harvest would sent out labourers to gather it in. In so praying you might feel the call yourself.

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Stuart
Elder, Lambeg Baptist, Northern Ireland, UK

In Him the fulness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form and in Him you are complete (Col 2.9-10)

The sacrifice of a broken heart doth please Him but the sacrifice of a broken Christ alone doth satisfy Him (Richard Steele)

We are commanded to pray: Matthew 9:35-38
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Prayer, fasting, and education. It was during a long prayer meeting for missionaries that the Lord first put a desire in my heart to go to France. I ended up spending nearly 3 years there.

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

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