"Mission mobilization activity is more crucial than field missionary activity," observes Dr. Ralph Winter of the U.S. Center for World Missions. "Wouldn’t it be better to awaken one hundred sleeping firemen than to hopelessly throw your own little bucket of water on a huge fire yourself?"

The concept of local church mobilization is to redirect the natural regression of church organization –
from: the Missions Committee does missions on behalf of the church to: the Missions Committee mobilizes the church to do missions.

It is essential to understand the distinction. If a local church missions pastor or staff coordinator expends their energies in doing all the administrative work to keep in touch with missionaries, monitor their ministry, and makes all the decisions about who and how much to support them, then no one else gets the blessings, no one else shares the burdens, no one else knows how to pray.

People need to have ownership, relationship, and partnership in order to be stakeholders and investors in the vision for ministry on far-flung fields. They don’t get that automatically. Team performance and productivity is hugely impacted by the contribution of everyone on the team pulling in the same direction. It is the local church mobilizer’s work to educate, inform, inspire, and provide opportunities for that to happen.

Local Church Mobilization is winning the participation and ownership of others to do their part in a Great Commission, both as individuals and as a body.