Category Archives: Church Plants and Foreign Missions

As so often happens, reader Charles McLean raised some challenging questions in response to Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. Most start-up churches (those words stick in my throat as generally oxymoronic) come about for one of three … Continue reading →

David Fitch is an author and frequent speaker at church seminars. He recently posted on his blog a request that we stop planting churches! Instead of funding one entrepreneurial pastor, preacher and organizer to go in and organize a center … Continue reading →

After Part 11, Mark has a post responding to the opinions of some (myself included) that the traditional “missions committee” model is salvageable. He writes, William Faulkner said about revision, “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.”   To add to … Continue reading →

In Part 11, Mark begins with three important points — Too few new hopeful missionaries are willing to become full-time, church-supported, church-overseen missionaries. Many new and current missionaries are replacing church oversight/support with funds from individuals and private foundations to sidestep … Continue reading →

In Part 10, Mark begins to lay out an alternative structure — I would like to put some ideas out there to start a serious conversation about a new model for missionary oversight/support that would have the following characteristics: Make … Continue reading →

In Part 8 of his series, Mark builds on his suggestion that missionaries be identified, recruited, and sent by the local church from within the local church, rather than almost entirely recruited by our Christian colleges and nonprofits. He’s not so … Continue reading →

In part 6 of his series, Mark points out the chronic problem of poor planning — I know missionaries who strategically planned on getting jobs in their new country, only to discover when they arrived that local law would not … Continue reading →

In part 5 of his series, Mark argues that we need an overarching, worldwide strategy for missions. And we need to share information among the churches and missionaries. He suggests — We need a Wikipedia-like site for mission information, preferably … Continue reading →

In Part 4 of his series, Mark Woodward argues that the local congregation should be recruiting missionaries from among its own members — Let’s begin shifting our paradigm by making home congregations—no matter the size—the first place of inspiration and … Continue reading →

In Part 3 of his series, Mark takes a very skeptical view of the ability of the local church to manage a missions program — Local churches Are ill-equipped to truly oversee foreign mission work. Typically, churches who agree to … Continue reading →