Here is a short checklist typical of churches that are ineffective in missions:

• We never hear about missions
• We don’t know any missionaries
• We support missions (or missionaries) but we don’t know why
• We support missionaries by we don’t see the connection with our church
• We support so many missionaries we can’t keep them all straight
• We support missions work “all over”
• We’re working on our Jerusalem before we go to the uttermost parts
• We don’t even know how to begin to be involved in missions
• We let our denomination (or association) handle that
• We just don’t care. We have enough needs in our church to take care of.
  
  

Here are basic categories of way to help your church become more effective:

• Get some resources to help people pray for missions.
• Submit prayer requests reflecting God’s heart for the nations.
• Build relationships with real missionaries.
• Put up some excellent graphics of the world, or unreached people, or cross-cultural needs.
• Give John Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad to your Pastor.
• Attend another church’s missions conference or emphasis event and take notes.
• Provide overnight hospitality to a missionary or missionary family.
• Find out the census demographics of your community.
• Get Operation World and use it to pray and encourage others to pray for the nations.
• Ask about getting a Missions Team (or Missions Committee) started, if you don’t have one.
• Ask about serving on the Missions Team.
• Help plan and execute a Missions emphasis event or conference.
• Find out how and how much your church supports missions financially.
• Give more to missions, however your church supports it, through designated giving or project giving or other means.
• Write a missionary or missions organization asking for critical or strategic projects your church can support.
• Become a prayer partner for someone from your church preparing for missions.
• Get involved with (or initiate!) a short-term mission team from your church in support of a ministry the church supports or is related to in some way.
• Pledge support to someone from your church going on a short-term missions trip.
• Become a mentor for a missionary candidate from your church.
• Encourage your pastor to use illustrations from missionary work in his sermons.
• Read missionary biographies and share them with your church friends.
• Offer to teach a class on missions.
• Create a fund-raiser for missions.
• Start a missions/missionary newsletter for your church.
• Add missions books (Bible studies, biographies, etc.) and other missions resources (CDs, DVDs, etc.) to your church lending library.
• Come back to this page for future additions of comments, links, and downloadable resources.

Today’s All-Star Missions Churches: Strategies to Help Your Church Get Into the Game