Missions Mobilization

Global missions is changing. No longer do missionaries primarily come from North America and Europe. Now, disciples of Jesus are moving "from everywhere to everywhere" to make more disciples.

Over the past ten years, the top missionary-sending countries have included Brazil, South Korea, and India. In 2012, Mongolia became the top missionary-sending country per capita, only 2 decades after the gospel started moving in the population in a significant way. Praise the Lord!

In Africa, countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia have had a growing missionary movement, and have now sent hundreds to other nations. We are part of a growing number of organizations that believe it is Uganda's time to shift from mission field to mission force.  

There are many misconceptions about missions. 

Perhaps the biggest misconception is that we're already done! Many believers here in Uganda have never been exposed to an environment where the name of Jesus is not known. Most of Uganda is full of gospel witness, whether it is the name of businesses posted on shops or taxis, bumper stickers, over radio, or through the activity of local churches. Many simply do not know that roughly 3 billion people in the world live in a tribe or people group where they will live and die and never hear the gospel or even meet a Christ follower.

Another common misconception is that we must "first finish with our Jerusalem" (often misquoted from Acts 1:8). Have you ever thought about what would have happened if Jesus' first disciples had waited for every person in Jerusalem to be saved before spreading the word elsewhere? The fallacy with this kind of thinking is the failure to recognize that evangelizing the lost is a task that will never be finished. Because of free will, even when a group of people hear the gospel, only some will choose to place their trust in Christ. However, what can and will be finished (according to Matthew 24:14 and Revelations 7:9-10) is that disciples from every last nation, tribe, and tongue will be worshiping God forever in His Kingdom. And so we realize that the Church everywhere has a dual responsibility to be intentional about sharing Christ with their own people while at the same time sending out the good news to tribes that have not yet heard. 

What Does "Missions Mobilization" Look Like?

The first level of missions mobilization is simply to create awareness and cast vision. This is done in a number of ways. We utilize a number of missions courses and vision-casting seminars and conferences, such as the Kairos course, MissionMode, Global Link Afrika's Professionals in Mission seminar, and the Great Commission seminar. 

Common topics covered in these courses and seminars include God's heart for all nations all throughout scripture, the current state of the world, and the practical ways that every believer can become fully engaged in getting the good news of Jesus to every last nation, tribe, and tongue (Rev. 7:9-10). 

Another very important awareness raising tool that also builds up local missions advocates within local churches is the use of exposure trips. An exposure trip is a journey taken in order to observe and experience being immersed in another culture that has little or no access to the gospel. These trips can be life-changing and spark congregational prayer and financial support for cross-cultural missions. Exposure trips can also be a way that God calls individuals to become cross-cultural missionaries themselves. 

Once a core group of people from a church have caught God's heartbeat for all nations, the second level of missions mobilization is to help believers put the practices of missional Christians (going, praying, sending, mobilizing, and welcoming) into action. 

The kinds of activities we do at this stage include running a weekly prayer group for missions that connects members to East African missionaries in the field, facilitating or connecting interested individuals to the School of Missions Advocacy course, meeting with church leaders to help them brainstorm ways to integrate missions into what they are already doing, and connecting individuals desiring to become cross-cultural missionaries to missionary training programs. It is our hope that Emmanuel International Uganda will have the capacity in future to offer its own training programs. 

The third level of missions mobilization is assisting churches to send and support their own missionaries in the field. To do this, we developed the Siloam Partnership Program, which has two aspects; namely training & financial matching. 

The training aspect focuses on helping churches learn how to send and support their own missionaries well, so that their missionaries will be sustained in the mission field long-term. 

Second, we match the financial contributions of churches in supporting their missionaries. These matching contributions are designed to build the capacity of the churches to increase their own giving over time. 

Through these two functions, it is our prayer that the Siloam Partnership Program will help churches launch many more workers into the harvest fields (Matthew 9:38).