Missions:

Missions is the heart of the church. Many churches, however, seem to add missions as an addendum. As a result only a very small amount of the total resources of the church goes to world evangelization. Although we give 30 percent of our total giving to world missions, our goal is to increase that greatly.

There are two basic ways missionaries are supported. First is the denominational system. Denominational churches give a certain amount of their budgets to their denomination. The denomination then hires the missionary, gives him a salary and sends him to a field of the denomination's choosing.

One of the advantages of this system is that the missionary is able to get to the mission field quickly. A great disadvantage is most of the people in the local churches of that denomination never really get to know the missionaries. There is little or no accountability from the missionary to the local church. Instead of local churches sending missionaries, the denomination sends the missionaries.

The second missions support system is the independent faith mission. In this method, a missionary is sent out by a local church. Usually one local church is financially unable to completely support the missionary. Thus the missionary needs to raise support from other churches. The missionary visits churches explaining his work and soliciting commitments from churches and sometimes individuals. Hundreds of faith mission agencies have developed to coordinate the work of missions and facilitate churches working together to send missionaries to the field.

There are several advantages to this method. First, the pre-field experience of raising support helps the missionary to live by faith and trust God. Second, there is a direct relationship between the missionaries and their supporting churches. Third, the people in the supporting churches have a greater incentive to pray for their missionaries. Fourth, the people in the supporting churches tend to know much more about and care more for their missionaries than the denominational system. Fifth, most of the greatest work in world missions has been accomplished through faith missions.

There are some disadvantages to this system. Over the years, churches have not kept up with the levels of support needed to compensate for inflation and the devaluation of the dollar. Second, some churches have been more concerned with the quantity of missionaries they support rather than the quality of that support. Third, there has often been a lack of strategic planning resulting in a duplication of effort on some fields and total neglect of others.

At Heritage, we are committed to the independent faith mission approach to supporting world missions. However, we feel there needs to be a greater accountability on the part of the missionaries to their supporting churches and a greater support on the part of the churches.

We are concentrating on greater amounts of support for fewer missionaries in strategic areas. We also believe that the missionaries' work is not simply his, but the work of the sending and supporting churches as is illustrated by the church at Antioch. In this way we have tried to take the best from both systems while diminishing the disadvantages of each missions support system.

To carry out this task of world evangelism, our missions committee is divided into three task groups. The conference team has the responsibility for planning, scheduling and implementing all aspects of the annual October missions conference. The emphasis team has the responsibility of stimulating missions interest, education and involvement throughout the year. The selection team has the responsibility of researching strategic fields, holding presently supported missionaries accountable, and evaluating potential missionaries for support.

Primary consideration is given to those directly (or indirectly, by equipping nationals) involved in planting churches among unreached people groups (no Gospel witness or established church) and a partially reached (limited Gospel witness and fledgling church) people group. Secondary consideration is given to those involved in planting a church (rather than a multiplication church-planting strategy) among an unreached or partially reached people group. Tertiary consideration is given to those involved in support roles for church planting.