Biblical School of World Evangelism (BSWE) majors in missions1 because missions is the passion of First Baptist Church. The reason our church is passionate about missions is because God is.
A vibrant healthy church is an incubator for missionaries, encouraging the development of what it models. Such a church contributes much more to the training of missionaries than it may realize. After seven years of training students for missions at BSWE, one thing is conspicuous to me – it takes more than three or four years to “make a missionary.” If the church6 does not doher job in modeling spiritual vitality and a love for all people, then it is nearly impossible to “make missionaries” even after three or four years of concentrated missions studies.
If you look at a lineup of our church’s “home missionaries,” you will see many adult missionaries who were raised in our church. Many of them whose parents loved missions, took their children to the field, maintained family devotions, made sacrifices periodically as a family for missionaries in need, and regularly supported missionaries through the Faith Promise missionary offering. Many of our current “home missionaries” heard biblical lessons with a God-centered theology taught by dedicated teachers from the nursery through senior high. These same missionaries learned how to pray in their homes and in our church. They heard messages on the glory of God, discipleship, and spiritual growth long before they ever made application to any college. Of course, there are exceptions to this; but if you were to ask some of our missionaries and their parents, you would hear these things for yourself.
As important as BSWE is, this ministry represents only a fraction of First Baptist Church’s investment in the training of missionaries. Every member has an integral part in this larger missionary training team. When the church is a healthy spiritual body, it will automatically “make missionaries.” The purpose of BSWE is to take these already pre-influenced persons to a more technical level of proficiency in their obedience; and your giving and prayerful support of this ministry enable this “last but not least” phase of missionary preparation.
Thank you for striving to be a “missionary making” church in obedience to our Savior. Please know that all your individual and corporate efforts of faithful serving, praying, teaching, giving, encouraging, preaching, and loving are what God uses to inspire one of our own to say, “I think God wants me to be a missionary!” May God give us grace to continue in this great work.
What does mission passion look like in a church?
- All age groups understand that God’s glory in all the earth is God’s passion; and therefore, it is to be their passion.2
- The church’s “home missionaries”3 are viewed and treated as extended staff of the church.
- The people of the church support and participate in crosscultural ministries at home and overseas.4
- Church members are increasingly studying about missions, taking short-term missions trips, and reading missionary biographies.
- The leaders of the church make world evangelism a major focus of all church ministries.5
- More than one-fourth of the church’s annual income goes to missions.
- The church assumes active responsibility in the training of its own missionaries.
1 Ralph Winter defines the difference between evangelism and missions: “Evangelism is a church growing where it is: Missions is a church growing where it isn’t.”
2 Multiple references show God Himself making this declaration (Numbers 14:21; Psalm 72:19; and Habakkuk 2:14). The church which shares in the pursuit ofGod’s glory believes that “the glorious gospel of the blessed God” includes God. In other words, salvation is about getting God not just escaping hell. The best partof this message is what we get, not what we miss. God is the Gospel. He is to be loved, pursued, enjoyed, served, and glorified by every believer. Anything less is a man-centered Gospel. Churches who merely tell people that salvation is about the lost escaping hell are preaching half the message while omitting the best part.When we get saved, we get God. And glorifying Him for eternity is the God-ordained agenda for all the redeemed, both now and forever (Revelation 5:9; 7:9).
3 A “home missionary” at FBC is a missionary called and sent out from within our own congregation.
4 This is ministry at home among people who are not like “us” (for example, international students – Chinese, Indian, etc. – from a local university).
5 Missions is not just a program of the church; rather, every ministry of the church sees missions as something to be “owned” and involved in by every member.
6 This equally implies the individuals and families who comprise the church.
