Audio Transcript:

Welcome to Missions on Point, the Propempo perspective on church and Missions. Hello, welcome to Missions on Point episode number 12. I'm excited about a four-part series. We're gonna start this time with pastoral leadership of missions in the local church. This is such a key subject and it's kind of where it all begins. In the local church though these four episodes are aimed at senior pastors or lead pastors or the teaching pastor of churches. Really, I want everyone to hear it because you need to know the special situation that the pastor finds himself in and assist him to do the best job of missions leadership in the local church. Secondly, I want you to convince your pastor to listen to this podcast, at least these four episodes, this one in the next three, so that he will have tools and understanding for him to use in his pastoral leadership of missions in the local church.

Few people talk about this subject, so it's very important for you to, along with your pastor, perhaps listen to the podcast and glean what you can for improving the pastor's leadership of missions in your local church. Let me set up the topic for us. In 1900 April, 1900 in New York, there was a missionary conference for the whole world, and basically they started out by talking about the missionary problem. What is the missionary problem? The missionary problem is where are the missionaries? There's not enough missionaries to get the job done, and how are they gonna be sent and how are they gonna be effective? So the conference dealt with that kind of cluster of issues similar to the heart of our own podcast, missions on point, the propo perspective on church and missions. They realize that the local church is the key to this missionary problem, and I would go further to say if the local church is the key, the biblical key, which we do believe, then the pastor is the key to the local church.

This is not a surprise to anyone. One of the participants was a well known pastor of the time, Andrew Murray, and he wrote a book Key to the Missionary Problem, and in it he reflects on this conference and its importance for the future of missions. I'm gonna give you just a few quotes that he lays out  in relation to the conference for this key. Dr. Pentecost, he says, wrote to the pastor belongs the privilege and responsibility of solving the foreign missionary problem. A congregation can hardly rise above cold indifference or lack of conviction. Regarding missions on the part of the pastor, Dr. Cuthbert Hall is quoted as saying, the problem of the theological seminary is this not how to train an occasional individual for the foreign field, but how to Kindle missionary passion in every person who passes through the school. Further, it says, the pastor needs nothing less than missionary passion, but the man who is thus to conquer must first himself be conquered and set on fire by God.

An Earl Taylor says this, until our pastors are ready to back this enterprise, there will never be a missionary spirit adequate to the needs of this generation. And this final quote is from Andrew Murray. It is one thing for a minister to be an advocate and supporter of missions. It is another and very different thing for him to understand that missions are the chief end of the church and therefore the chief end for which his congregation exists. Wow, that is a different perspective on the pastor's role of leadership of missions in the local church. In this episode, I wanna reflect on 10 reasons to embrace the necessity of pastoral leadership. Number one, God's glory is paramount. This is also not a surprise. We start and end with God's glory. That's what it's all about. It is not your legacy. It is not your church's success. It is not your vision and not necessarily your personal preferences.

Let me speak to the vision issue. A lot of pastors think that vision is one of those essential things on your resume, but I want to tell you that vision is not just a hyperactive imagination. God's glory is paramount. We are building his church. We are not building our church. God's glory is paramount. Whose glory are you building? Whose kingdom are you building? That's the question of number one. Number two, missions is the storyline of the Bible. If you preach and teach the Bible, you must preach and teach missions. It's woven in from Genesis three to Revelation 22. It is the storyline of the Bible. If you really study and understand the Bible, you'll see missions all through it. We have lots of good illustrations of pastors somehow late in their career, awakening to the fact that missions is all through it. I'll just give you this one little example that I use in teaching all the time.

We think that missions is a relatively New Testament thing and it's limited to a handful of texts. No, the Old Testament uses terms like the nations and all the peoples in nonjudgmental contexts. A thousand times God is a God of all the nations and has been and will be for all time. Missions is the storyline of the Bible. Number three, missions is a key purpose of the local church. The local church is God's agent to fulfill his purposes on earth. Look at Ephesians three and many other passengers. Listen to previous episodes of Missions on Point podcast. It'll walk you through that the local church is God's agent to fulfill his purposes on earth. In fact, that is exactly how the early Christians who first received the Great Commission understood the great Commission that missions is a key purpose of the local church. Number four, as pastor, you've been given the job of equipping your people for the work of ministry, which by the way includes the area of missions.

If you are not developing people out of your congregation that have a heart to give themselves in commitment to the Lord, to see the gospel taken where it has not been taken before to be used in the work of missions, then you are not fulfilling your job. Your job as per Ephesians for and the pastoral epistles and implied in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is to see that this work of missions continues and continues and continues. It is a self reproducing vision that continues onto the planting of churches in every nation. Number five, it is the local church that prepares, affirm, sends, supports, and shepherds missionary workers into ministry. You pastor are the key to the leadership and facilitation of that function. You should not accept anyone coming to you or standing before the church and saying, I think God called me, therefore you're obligated to support me.

That is not the way we handle installation and affirmation of pastors and elders in our churches. Why should missionaries be any different than that? In fact, the bar of qualification is higher because they're going to a foreign culture. They need better preparation than someone who is planning on spending their life and career in ministry in the United States. You've been given the job of equipping people for the work of ministry, and I maintain that includes missionary candidates. Number six, while others may champion missions, if the lead pastor does not burn with a passion to see Jesus Christ proclaimed and exalted among all nations, the mission's efforts of the church will not flourish. I've seen this literally hundreds of times in churches where the pastor is the bottleneck. He's the one that's slowing things down. He's the one that's resistant. For whatever reasons, we'll deal with that in a future episode, but the pastor must champion missions.

He must be a part of leading the charge for missions involvement in the church. Number seven, lack of informed leadership in this area can lead to disunity in the body for which you are the appointed lead, shepherd, lack of clear vision and direction. And last but not least, destructive commitments. What do I mean by that? Lack of informed leadership in the area of missions leads the church to just kind of attach themselves to whoever's passing by, whoever has the most stage presence to missionaries that are doing flashy things that may not at all be on the mark. You need to be an informed leader in the area of missions so that you do not end up by lack, creating disunity in the body, lack of clear vision and direction and destructive commitments. Number eight, missions is a natural outgrowth of a healthy church, so the health of missions is a natural measure of the true spiritual health of the church.

I like what one brother said, the strength and health of a church is not its seeding capacity, but its sending capacity. Neglect in this area has major impact on the spiritual condition of the church to which you are charged to lead, feed, and guard. Missions is a natural outgrowth of a healthy church, and if missions is not a natural outgrowth of your church, you've gotta do some soul searching and let's get that thing corrected. Number nine, regardless of the polity or organizational structure of your church's leadership, people tend to look to you as the guide and spokesman for the church. Your passion, permissions, or lack thereof, will be a key determining factor in their ownership of and passion permissions. If there's fire in the pulpit, there's fire in the pews. Number 10, we must revisit. Number one, you are called to be the pastor leader of a local church.

You're obligated to embrace and express God's glory as the number one reason for your church's existence. The Bible clearly shows God's missions purposes through the whole of scripture and that his church in the local church is his agent for accomplishing his glory on earth. Read Ephesians three again. The main reason you must lead your church admissions is for His glory. You are the leader of that Pastors. We dare not fall short of the glory of God because of our own lack of interest or passion permissions. Oh, please subscribe to Missions on point to hear the next three episodes in the series. Share and encourage other pastors and lay leaders to hear it. The Evangelical Church needs you to do your part in order to see the great Commission fulfilled for the glory of God to all nations. That's our heart and propo. That is our message in Missions on point.

Here are the episodes that are coming. Part two is the Obstructions to Pastoral Leadership and Missions, and that episode will share 10 challenges to overcome. Part three is the practice of effective pastoral Leadership, a Missions, and in that episode I'll give you 10 keys to implement effective pastoral leadership admissions part four. The last one is really written to the lay people who wanna help their pastor. It is the enablement of pastor's, leadership and missions, and there are 10 ways you can help your pastor grow in this area. Thanks for listening today. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Missions On Point, the Propempo perspective on church and missions. We trust that you'll find more resources and help on the website, propempo.com.