Besides regular communication with the missionaries and ministries you support, the missions team should make every effort to report at least quarterly to your church leadership. Major decisions, significant events from the field, any changes in missionary relationships, financial stewardship of missions funds, recommendations for approval of new missions team members, short-term missions trips, and mission goals can be on your checklist. The church leadership body usually has approval authority over the missions budget and its details. You will need to be able to give rationale or defense of missions team decisions regarding significant changes from year to year.

At least annually you will want to prepare a “state of missions in our church” report to the entire church body. Depending on how your church does it, this might be presented verbally in an annual church business meeting, or in written form distributed to your membership after the end of a calendar or fiscal year. You’ll want to include highlights of missions activities within the church, reports of special connections with missionaries who have visited or been approved during the year, and a simplified financial report of missions income and expenses.

Opportunities to give a report are also opportunities to give praise. Individuals who have given extraordinary time, resources, or effort to enable the function and ministry of the missions team should be commended. Missionaries who have achieved a milestone in ministry or accomplishments on the field should be commended. If the church body as a whole has grown in some particular area of missions participation and involvement or has exercised particular faith and stewardship through difficulty, then the church body should be thanked publicly with sincere gratitude.

Of course, regular reports happen within the missions team and its regular meetings all the time. Sub teams report to the whole missions team about their activities and decisions. Missionaries or short-term missions leaders report on the progress of ministry to the missions team. Status reports on ongoing functions and responsibilities of the missions team should be routine.