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10 Lessons I’ve Learned as a Missions Pastor

Aug 17, 2020
4 min

10 Lessons I’ve Learned as a Missions Pastor

As a missions pastor, these are ten lessons I’ve learned along the way as I’ve served my church in this role. 1. Take time to learn, dream, and build a good foundation. Before jumping into engagement and activities, take the time to building a good, well-thought-through foundation to mission engagement and activity. This is critical for long-term impact. I suggest developing mission convictions that will lead your ministry forward and help you know what to say “yes” to and wh

Empower the Saints for the Work of Missionary Care

Jun 29, 2020
5 min

Empower the Saints for the Work of Missionary Care

Editor’s Note: Matt Clark will be leading a specialized cohort on Missionary Care starting in August. Find out more information here. I think I have one of the best possible jobs that anyone on a church staff could have. My entire focus is ensuring that the missionaries who are sent from our church are cared for well before they go to the field, during their time of service, and after they return home. If this is part of your role as a pastor or missions leader, I hope you fi

Merits of a Business as Mission Strategy and How to Overcome Its Challenges

Jun 22, 2020
4 min

Merits of a Business as Mission Strategy and How to Overcome Its Challenges

The world is changing rapidly. Globalization, the expansion of cities, and the increase of the middle class have created new and different opportunities for missions. This, in turn, creates the need for new and different missions strategies. With this in mind, Business as Mission (BAM) can and should be a part of a missions strategy for the 2020s and beyond. Here are a few reasons why BAM is a valuable missions strategy and ways to overcome certain challenges. Access Missiona

Together on Mission with God: Principles and Practices of Healthy Partnerships

Jun 18, 2020
4 min

Together on Mission with God: Principles and Practices of Healthy Partnerships

Cross-cultural missional partnership is “The Fellowship of the Bent Knees” (Phil 1:10–11). Partners meet because they mutually submit to King Jesus and then rise together to join in his mission to the nations. Mutual submission and striving form the foundation for healthy relationships among cross-cultural partners (Phil 1:6, 27). Based on previous posts about the theological basis for partnership and my definition of cross-cultural missional partnership, I now want to offer

Together on Mission with God: A Definition for Partnership

Jun 15, 2020
4 min

Together on Mission with God: A Definition for Partnership

“I thank my God…because of your partnership in the gospel.” Phil 1:3–5 In the previous blog post, we looked at some of the biblical foundations for cross-cultural missional partnerships. In this post, I will give a definition of partnership that clarifies goals, actions, and commonalities in cross-cultural relationships in missions. A partner, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a person with a joint share in something or who takes part with another in doing someth

The Keys to Conducting Ethnographic Research: Part 2

May 21, 2020
6 min

The Keys to Conducting Ethnographic Research: Part 2

Balancing personal and professional obligations leave most people with very full lives. Some think research requires an extensive time commitment or formal training and so they are hesitant to add it to their ministry toolkit. Despite the initial learning curve, ethnographic research practices can be easily acquired and integrated in a daily ministry routine. Information can be collected when meeting up with friends at a coffee shop, using public transportation, or walking do

Guts and Glory in the Service of God

Apr 20, 2020
4 min

Guts and Glory in the Service of God

As I prepared for my stint serving as a missionary in East Asia, I decided to read a couple missionary biographies. One of them was To the Golden Shore about the life and ministry of Adoniram Judson in Burma. I was absolutely enthralled by the story, so much so that by the time my departure came, I had churned up a restless, almost rabid energy within myself. That’s one effect missionary biographies can have, particularly when we don’t focus on God’s hand in the stories. The

Multisite Missions Leadership

Dec 16, 2019
3 min

Multisite Missions Leadership

Multisite churches are a global phenomenon—with massive, often untapped potential for global missions. In Multisite Missions Leadership, former missionary and veteran missions pastor, Nathan Sloan, acknowledges the unique complexity of multisite churches, but also expresses the tremendous opportunities for leveraging them beyond their local impact. Along the way he invites readers into the journey of his own church (Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY) from “pillar” (one church