Primary Issues
Regarding some of the main challenges facing missions pastors in the American church today, four primary issues will serve as the agenda to get our discussion started:
THEOLOGICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL ISSUES
→ → Congregation’s Inadequate Views of Missions
→ → Competition With Other Church Priorities
PERSONAL ISSUES
→ → Busyness, Schedules, and Time Commitments
→ → Demands of Mobilization, Communication, Education, and Motivation
LOCAL CHURCH ISSUES
→ → General Lack of Missions Leadership
→ → Resistance To Change and to a Strategic Plan
→ → The Missions Committee, Council, or Team
→ → Missions Ignorance and Apathy in Congregation and Leadership
FINANCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES
→ → Finances and Funding in a Recessionary Cycle
→ → General Pessimism in the Culture
As a group we will decide which issue(s) should be our main focus for the event. We will meet in smaller groups to discuss the issue(s). Then each church represented will have an opportunity to share what is going on in its missions thrust and how each church can help in tackling the issue(s) in focus. Each church is urged to bring any documents, notebooks, policy statements, strategic plans, books, brochures, etc.--that can be given away free to all.