First, I would like to thank my wife, Jessica, for creating the space for me to continue this endeavor. Third, I would like to thank my parents, Kurt and Wendy Urbanek, and my parents-in-law, Todd and Denise Way. Todd and Denise, thank you for your support and help with our children while I was traveling and writing.
Fourth, this project would not have been completed without the help and encouragement of Dan Dumas, my program director, and Beau Hughes, my faculty supervisor. I also want to thank Spence Shelton and Jake Greer, who gave me the space to pursue this degree. I also want to thank Sarah Wampler, Apollos Digges and Chet McDilliams for working with me to mobilize our church to the unreached.
INTRODUCTION
The vision for Mercy Church is to see a gospel awaken in the city of Charlotte that would spread to the ends of the earth. Since the establishment of the church in the Acts of the Apostles, sending out missionaries has been a key component of the local church. 4 In the case of the Southern Baptist Convention, the IMB did not take up the mantle.
Köstenberger says, "The great opponent of Christianity became the greatest protagonist of the church's mission, and he would take the gospel to 'the ends of the earth'."17. Both early church leaders would be essential in promoting the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles. Timothy would later become an elder of the church in Ephesus, and Paul would often encourage him.
Since Mercy Church was founded seven years ago, taking the gospel to the ends of the earth has been a key component of its mission. The team will present themselves as part of the Mercy Church staff team rather than Launch Global and seek to use the Mercy Church vocabulary.
Discover
The second purpose of discovery meetings is for the mobilizers to find people in the church who express a calling or desire to serve as missionaries. Scouting meetings serve as a filtering process for mobilizers to identify members who are ready to move to the next step in the mission preparation and deployment process. These next steps may include attending a Mission of God class, participating with a Discipleship Team, or simply other one-on-one meetings with a mobilizer.
In the Mission of God class, participants are provided with a survey that outlines introductory aspects of mission.11 This six-week class guides members with a general interest in mission to gain a better understanding of what exactly is meant by the term. become 9 Sarah Wampler, "God's Heart for the Nations," accessed February 3, 2023, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dI6pyuzeMfCrzN4i9CGJ9x30zcZbcuZZ/view. Week five looks at the history of missions and how the church sent missionaries in the past.
After participants take the Mission of God class, they are invited to join a Disciple Making Team. The time together is spent in prayer, worship and sharing what they have seen God do in the previous week. The Disciple Making Team is fertile ground for mobilizers to find people interested in becoming long-term missionaries.
As the groups meet, the mobilizers evaluate what God is doing in the group members. They can witness the faithfulness of the participants, how they are using their gifts to engage in mission, observe their level of dedication in performing their duties, and learn a lot about the members as they pray together and observe that how they share their faith all the time. the process. The practical and reproducible focus of these groups on evangelizing unreached peoples makes a Disciple Making team a training ground and a recruiting pool for identifying future missionaries.
Twenty participants in these disciple-making teams decided to help lead subsequent groups the next time they were offered.
Develop
Bob McNabb and an accompanying workbook.12 This book provides tools and research to help them learn the necessity of making disciples as a team and the simplicity of the process of Christ's commission to make disciples. Once all the Launch Community participants have moved into the neighborhood together, they begin working through the training process. While the basic structure of the fall and spring is almost identical, the fall is intended to be a time in which candidates deliberate modeling, coaching,.
During the fall and spring semesters, the Launch Community meets once a week, a "Half-Time Meeting". These meetings usually last three to four hours a week on the same evening. Their time together begins with a meal and then moves into worship and prayer, debriefing and sharing stories from the past week, making plans for the week ahead, discussing their daily scripture reading, and ending with a discussion of the curriculum and training. Fall content begins with two weeks of training to abide in Christ.
Of all the topics covered, Launch Global emphasizes that "abiding in Christ is the most important and permeates the rest of the curriculum."16 After the first two weeks, participants go through a five-week overview of church planting movements.17 During These five weeks the team is given a framework for the future strategy of the teams they can join in the mission field, as well as to help formulate a strategy to reach their current cross-cultural neighborhood. The principles include prayer for individuals and groups; leadership confidence; effective planning; respecting the schedule and viewing the meeting time; maintaining 80/20 of participants discussing more than the leader's teaching, participant preparation, full engagement, creative structuring of the first half, welcoming learning environment and fun together. The end of the autumn period is also when the conversations with these candidates about their readiness for the field begin.
By the end of the fall and spring semesters, the launch community participants have spent nine months in rich community, training and preparation. They will be with a small group of people who will go through all the highs and lows of life with the same focus to reach people with the gospel. One of the most important aspects one must learn about being a multiplying disciple maker is that one must learn how to build the kind of communities that result in multiplication.
Multiplying disciple makers and churches is the goal of church planting movements, which is the goal of Launch Global and Mercy Church. 20.
Deploy
Based on the survey, Chapter 4 will show why missionary care is needed for the missionaries of the Church of Mercy. A missionary care plan must also be established at Mercy Church for each missionary sent from the congregation. It is clear to the leadership of Mercy Church that we need a mission care program to grow in mission care.
For this project and the functions of the mission care team, Mercy Church defines mission care as pastoral care. The mission pastor and mission care team are committed to providing pastoral care to missionaries. Advocacy means that the mission care team to the mission pastor any concerns about the.
All that is needed in building this team is the articulation and implementation of the missionary care plan. The missionary care team exists to mobilize Mercy Church members to help missionaries be spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy. The final role for the missionary care team is the Pastor (or Director) of Missions.
The primary role of the Missionary Pastor is to oversee the mission care program as a whole. Have a clear understanding of the mission care resources of any mission organization with which Mercy Church's missionaries are affiliated and work with them to provide care. Mercy Church and the mission care team must be ready to provide care in crisis situations.
Completing the missionary care program will help missionaries remain faithful to their work. The third strength is the readiness of Mercy Church members to participate in missionary care. With the missionary care program in place, it will ensure that Mercy Church does all it can to support missionaries.
Would Do Differently
Through this project I was overwhelmed by the need for Jesus to help Mercy Church to become a healthy sending church. I pray that this project will have a great impact on the people of Mercy Church. The following survey was used to determine how prepared the missionaries sent by Mercy Church felt when they arrived in the field and began their ministry.
This survey was sent to nine participants, all of whom have been sent as missionaries by Mercy Church. You will also be asked to answer open-ended questions to inform Mercy Church leadership of specific ways to improve. 1 I am satisfied with the character development I received from Mercy Church to help me love God and love others.
4 I am satisfied with my preparation by Mercy Church to feel God's leading to be a missionary. The following survey was used to determine the effectiveness of the care provided to missionaries sent by the Church of Mercy. What Mercy Church can do better in providing missionary care for you and your family.
These roles together would create a missionary care team to mobilize Mercy Church members to help missionaries be spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy. The missionary care team exists to mobilize Mercy Church members to help our missionaries be spiritually, emotionally and relationally healthy. Must be an active covenant member of Mercy Church who is committed to the vision and beliefs of the church.
The purpose of this project is to set up a missionary preparation and care program for a Mercy Church.
