Continued from the summer 2024 issue of Advance magazine.

Priority #1
Balancing Biblical Evangelism

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

We must take seriously the responsibility of reaching souls if we ever expect that burden to be caught by others who will be passionate about taking the gospel across the street and around the world. Biblically balanced
evangelism must be priority one!

Priority #2
Training Rather than Entertaining

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12)

A servant-sending church will train all its members to serve the Lord, especially the next generation.

Priority #3
Praying for Harvest Laborers

Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Matthew 9:38 Churches that are servant-sending churches consistently,
passionately, and intentionally pray for more harvest laborers.

Priority #4
Surrendering to the Will of God

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1) Churches that are used of God to send servants are churches where surrender is preached from the pulpit and practiced in the pew.

Priority #5
Raising Children for God’s Purposes

Psalm 127:3 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Woodrow Kroll writes, “A heritage is this—they are on loan to us from the bank of heaven.” Our children are on loan to us. They may have Daddy’s eyes, and Mommy’s personality, but ultimately, they are God’s children, not ours. One of the challenges we face as parents in affluent, materialistic America is rearing our children with God’s purpose in mind instead of our own. Sadly, for many parents the American dream can supplant the will of God. Consequently, parents want their kids to get a better education, make a better living, and live a more comfortable life. This becomes a problem when the will of God in their children’s lives is supplanted by a desire for success. Pursuing God’s will ought to be the primary focus of Christian parenting.

A camp leader was in the habit of interviewing teenagers who attended his camp. All summer long he interviewed hundreds of teenagers, asking, “If you could be anything you want to be, what would it be?” Of those hundreds, only one said that he would like to be a youth pastor, three said that they would like to be a missionary, and none said that they would like to be a pastor. Eighty-one percent of the campers came from homes where both mom and dad were born again believers. The camp leader concluded, “This tells me that Christian parents, in their quest to have financial security in life, have held up all of those secular options. Very few are holding up service to the Lord as an option. In my opinion, kids are not being urged to serve the Lord in full-time ministry.”

I think he is spot on. One of the biggest obstacles to our young people’s pursuing ministry can be when their own Christian parents push them primarily toward material success. God does not call everyone to be a missionary or a pastor, but Christian parents outght to desire and pray that He would call some of their children. What are your aspirations for your kids? To get the best job possible or to serve the Lord wherever possible? Are you praying that God would call them into ministry? Are you encouraging them to consider it? Remember, they are simply on loan from God. Servant-sending churches are full of godly families and individuals who purposefully strive together to rear children for God’s purposes and not their own.

Priority #6
Championing Missions and Missionaries

There is a biblical pattern set for this in Acts 14, the account of Paul and Barnabas and the conclusion of their first missionary journey. When they came back to their sending church in Antioch, they reported on their ministry, and their church championed what God was doing. Churches should want to hear how God is using those in whom they have invested to spread the gospel. Sadly, some churches relegate missions and missionary reports to the most poorly attended service of the church or give missionaries only ten minutes to share a brief report. In many churches, missions conferences have been eliminated. Yet churches wonder why interest in missions has plummeted. One of the ways to keep the fire for worldwide evangelism burning is to regularly stoke it with missionaries reporting about what God is doing. Our prayer ought to be that God would light that fire for missions in every heart as well.

Priority #7
Measuring Success by Sending Capacity

Finally, a sending church will measure its health by sending capacity rather than seating capacity. This idea is from the book Gaining by Losing by J.D. Greear. He makes the point that historically we have measured whether or not a church is doing well by numbers that reflect growth and increased offerings. Yet in Acts 13, God took Paul and Barnabas away from the church and called them to missionary ministry. The church kicked them out—to go be missionaries! The church gained by losing, measuring their success by sending capacity rather than seating capacity.

Greear uses a metaphor that illustrates his point powerfully. Churches can be described as one of three boats: a cruise liner, a battleship, or an aircraft carrier. People who see the local church as a cruise liner act as if the church is about filling their needs. The cruise liner church provides all kinds of ministries for every member of the family. This mentality often prompts a church member to jump from one cruise ship to a better one that happens to be going by. Others have the mindset that the church is a battleship. This church is always in attack mode. Greear says, “The role of the members is to pay the pastors to find the targets and fire the guns each week as they gather to watch. They see the programs and the services and the ministries of the church as the primary instruments of
the mission.”

The last example of a church is the aircraft carrier that exists to take the battle away from the ship and to the enemy. All churches should be like an aircraft carrier. Christ said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Jesus creates a picture that the church ought to be attacking the gates of hell by winning souls to Christ. This kind of church prepares and launches Christians into the battlefield to take the gospel into their neighborhoods, workplaces, families, social environments, and maybe even across the world—sent out from the aircraft carrier church. The great thing about churches like this is that some of those who are thrilled to be sent out locally will realize people are in other places where nobody has ever flown with the gospel before. Such churches have a hard time holding back these people because they are so excited to be sent on their mission. Aircraft carrier churches become great servant-sending churches!

If our churches are going to reverse the trend of seeing fewer and fewer servants of the Lord sent into the ministry, our churches will need to place a premium on all seven of these priorities. That will require leadership, prayer, and change, but by God’s grace all of our churches can be the servant-sending churches that God wants them to be!