Local Church Missions for the New Millennium
Debra Wood, “Local Church Missions for the New Millennium” Ministries Today 17:2 (March/April 1999). Pages 64-68.
As the new millennium approaches, amidst all the sensationalism and millennial hype, there is at least one positive emphasis shining through all the nervous excitements: renewed zeal for missions and evangelism.
A number of articles about missions and evangelism, from many streams of Evangelicalism, have recently appeared among periodicals (see Other Significant Articles).
The article, “Local Church Missions for the New Millennium” in the March/April Issue of Ministries Today is an extortive challenge to get radical about missions in your local church. This challenge for developing a successful missions program is given by an up-close look at three missions-oriented churches. The testimonies of Pastor David Kim of Grace Korean Church, Pastor Ted Haggard of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and Pastor Zacharias Fomum of Christian Missionary Fellowship in Yaound, Cameroon will encourage you to seek God for a fresh expression of the Great Commission in your congregation.
Each of these pastors shares how their burden for missions has grown within their churches, beginning with them and their congregations catching the same vision. David Kim speaks of how early on he laid the groundwork for Grace Korean Church to be missions-focused. According to Ministries Today, Pastor Kim told his three-family fledgling congregation that they should start supporting a missionary. Startled at first, they expressed their desire to have some “basics” first like a building and a piano. Kim said, “There are 400 churches in this area. If you do not want to do the will of Jesus, why do want to start a church with me?” Today they still do not have a building, but they have planted over 2,400 churches worldwide. They have planted a church for nearly every member of their 2,500-member church.
Ted Haggard has been stirred to see the spiritual powers in heavenly places be brought low. He has personally traveled to many nations to pray for the overthrow of these demonic forces. As a part of this personal emphasis, every week he reads a profile of a Joshua Project people, one of the people groups the A.D. 2000 & Beyond Movement has identified as needing a church planting effort. He and his church have also been an integral part in seeing the new World Prayer Center, based in Colorado Springs, become a reality. Already it is apparent that this intercessor’s center is going to be a hub for prayer efforts in the coming years. Pastor Ted Haggard believes that for a church to have an effective missions program the leadership needs to set an example of prayer and missions outreach—guilt-laden lectures are not the answer. He says, “The church’s vitality rests on the spiritual life of the leadership, particularly the senior pastor. He must ‘do it himself’ before he can lead the flock.”
Category: Summer 1999
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