Local Church and Missions
Without involvement in world missions the local church will wither and die because that is part of the Great Commission. But how can a small local church best be fruitful in this area? How can individuals contribute? These are questions pastors must face, and as they do they will find lots of opportunities and lots of problems.
Until 1990, for us, involvement had been prayer and financial support. But then as we prayed we were challenged by God that we had to be directly involved. The door opened, first into East Germany, but then into Romania. We took a team to be part of a church planting outreach into Rasnov in the Transylvanian mountains. At the time I was determined that this would not be a one off visit but, if we were going to plant a church, we must nurture and support the work as long as necessary. This was where the challenge really began. Part of me had great vision for this work while part of me didn’t know what to expect in a country I had never visited before. But we knew God had called us.
So what are the problems and what have we learned?
All mission and church planting is spiritual warfare
... and this was no exception. We have had to learn to recognise how the enemy tactics change and how we can face up to them. The tactics we met at first were strong opposition and threats from the Orthodox Church and some individuals. Initially there was an amazing openness to new things, but now apathy, indifference and disinterest and bad relationships are the most prevalent problems. Prayer has been our first line in the battle and we have tried to involve the whole church in this – especially when we have a team actually visiting.
People are not perfect
Just as at home, we have found people who let us down, people who make mistakes, people who turn away and people who fail and become discouraged. Some people came with wrong motives and some were just selfish. We have recognised again the importance of investing into the committed people, the willing people and those whose hearts were surrendered to God. There are some wonderful people and they most need our support. It would be very easy to get distracted with weak people and their desire for attention – but that would rob us of fruitfulness with our time. We have had to learn to discern who are the right people and how can we best build a strong church from mainly new Christians. There is no quick fix!
Relationship is the only true basis
What have we to give into a foreign culture church plant? The thing they value most is simply the fact that we have stood by them for so long. They value our guidance, our input, our faith, our financial support and our prayer. But most of all they value the fact that we are still there and we still go to visit regularly. Love is the heart of the Gospel and that has to be reflected in our work with missionaries.
We have had to learn as we go along
The vision we had when we started has not all worked out. In principle I believe a local church should become financially self supporting as soon as possible. This has not been possible yet. We hoped the church would grow steadily from the start, but there have been continual ups and downs – often linked with frustrations with people who think differently in a different culture. Building team leadership has taken a long time to develop. Our desire is to see Christ glorified and His Kingdom come. We continue to work with that as our principle aim.
Brian Clark
Pastor of Clitheroe Community Church