How to Establish Your Church's Missions Convictions

Before engaging in a missions effort, it is valuable for the sending church to develop the right foundation of what they believe about global missions and what they are uniquely called to do as a church in global missions. This foundation is called “missions convictions”. This resource provides tools for establishing those convictions as a leadership team by explaining what missions convictions are, why they matter, and how to establish them for a church. It also provides some answers to frequently asked questions. 

When beginning a missions leader role in the local church, it can be tempting to dive into all the immediate to-dos, like developing short-term trips, exploring partnerships, and forming budgets. However, at the outset of a new role, and periodically within their role, every leader needs to step back and revisit the answers to the foundational questions of when, where, why, and how.

Foundational to a church’s global missions output is laying the foundation for what they are convinced is true about global missions biblically and their unique role in the mission. We call these foundational ideas “missions convictions.” In chapter 2 of Upstream’s book The Sending Church Applied, we describe it this way: “imagination is the belief in what could be; conviction is the belief that it must be. In other words, these aren’t simply dreams or aspirations. They are formed from what your church firmly believes about the Bible, your unique calling in missions, and what your church must therefore do in light of those convictions.”

Missions convictions also help the church avoid a broad strategy and have a more focused strategy. Let’s look at the difference between these two approaches to mission.

Broad Strategy in Sending

The broad strategy of sending has the goal of putting resources into as many opportunities as possible. This path is often born of a church’s desire to be a blessing to as many people as possible. While this type of sending may be more exciting, it can often lead to shallow impact on the mission field and confusion among members as to the goals of the church in global missions. The church can display more flags in the sanctuary, but, ironically, it will do so at the cost of having less ongoing, reciprocal, and meaningful relationships with missionaries and partners.

Focused Strategy in Sending

A more focused strategy allows a church to put more resources into fewer partnerships, thus making a greater impact in those partnerships. Church members are able to understand more easily what they are investing in, and the church can provide a more personal benefit to the partner. Having less breadth and variety in the church’s engagement usually leads to investing more resources: time, people, funding, prayer, etc. The kind of deep, long-term impact that comes from this investment more likely leads to the multiplication of disciples and deeper relationships with your missionaries.

In order to move towards a more focused strategy, church leadership needs to be able to explain, “This is who our church is in light of God’s mission,” which will then lead them to determine, “This is what our church does in light of God’s mission.” This process requires the church to consider their biblical view of global missions and their uniqueness in the body of Christ and then create the convictions that will guide their missions investment and strategy.

At Upstream we encourage churches to take the time to establish and/or clarify their unique missions convictions. Whether they are a church plant sketching out who they want to be or an established church with years of missions activity and experience, any church can benefit tremendously from having this informative, unifying framework. 

Step-by-Step Process

There is no perfect way of developing healthy missions convictions. However, based on our relationship with many sending churches, we have taken note of key steps that make for a healthy process. We encourage you to consider doing the following:

1. Download the Missions Convictions Worksheet. Download or print the "Worksheet for Establishing Your Church’s Missions Convictions" to help guide your discussion as a leadership team.

2. Determine who will be part of the process. Missions convictions are something that will be shared by the entire church, therefore the process should involve multiple members of the church. Bringing in multiple voices will allow for the different giftings and experiences God has given your church leaders to be represented. 

3. Intentionally spend time in Scripture and prayer. Make this a spiritual exercise more than a programmatic one. Just as the global mission of the church at Antioch (Acts 13) was propelled through the fasting and prayer of its elders, so your church should seek God, ask him to lead your church, and listen to what he says. Spend time surveying the biblical theology of mission that spans from Genesis to Revelation. 

4. Utilize the foundational statements of your church as a starting point. Hopefully, your church has something in writing related to its vision, values, and/or strategy. If it doesn’t, start by creating one. Your missions convictions should complement the vision, values, and strategy statements that guide your church.

5. Read examples of missions convictions from other sending churches. Since many sending churches have gone before you, it is wise to read their missions convictions and inquire as to how they went about the process. To help you with this, we have compiled five examples in our resource “Church Examples of Missions Convictions.” 

6. Gather your team. Give your team time to read the Scriptures. Consider having them read a book like The Sending Church Defined to prompt their thinking. Give the team space to share their findings with one another. Beyond biblical convictions, you will want your team to discuss what makes your church unique. Convictions are a combination of a church’s biblical basis for missions and their recognition of the unique role God has called them to. The worksheet provides some questions to guide your team to discover its unique place in God’s mission.

7. Use a whiteboard to brainstorm a list of potential missions convictions. Allow your team to share their thoughts about specific missions convictions. As with any brainstorming session, don’t hold back, even if ideas seem misplaced or repetitive. You can revise them in later steps.

8. Allow the team leader to edit the list into a first draft. As the leader of the team, you should take the ideas and begin crafting missions convictions. The missions leader should look for common themes and combine similar ideas. Decide as a group to remove anything from the list that is clearly disjointed from biblical mission or not an honest assessment of your church’s identity. Narrow the list into a solid first draft.

9. Share the first draft with key church leaders and members. While the missions convictions are still in process, take them before key leaders and members in the church who are not part of the team. These should be people of influence and insight and might include the pastor(s), returned missionaries, deacons, missionary candidates, ministry leaders, etc. Allowing them to speak into the draft will bring greater ownership when the convictions are finalized. 

10. Repeat steps 5 through 8 as many times as needed. Having received feedback from other church members and leaders, take the convictions back to the team for continued revision and refining. Once the convictions are fully assessed, write out a summary paragraph for each one. Since you’ll be using them for sending vision, education, and strategy, you want them to be simply worded and easy to remember.

11. Solidify your final list of convictions and begin to share them. Once you’ve settled on your list of mission convictions, take time as a team to think through how you want to use them. Put them in an appealing format and make them available online and in print. Incorporate them into any missions training your church offers (Sunday School classes, small group discussion, short-term mission trips, sermon series, etc.). If you don’t yet have any missions training, now is the perfect time to start! Consider starting a simple class that walks church members through your new missions convictions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the point of having missions convictions?

Missions convictions lay a foundation that ultimately guides how your church will envision and strategize your missions engagement, ensuring that you are most effectively utilizing the unique and limited resources God has given you. Convictions will help your church navigate the sea of endless missions opportunities and pursue those that are most strategic.

How many missions convictions should our church have?

There is no ideal number of missions convictions, but most churches will narrow them down to a list of eight to ten. Having less than eight may mean you are being too general, while more than fifteen probably means you are being too specific. Remember, the point of creating missions convictions is to have well-defined clarity that can inform vision and strategy. 

Can our church use missions convictions from another church?

Absolutely, though we do not recommend adopting them all word for word. Since no two churches are exactly the same, no two lists of missions convictions should be exactly the same. We also want to encourage churches to establish their own convictions instead of merely embracing convictions from another church. The process of forging missions convictions should be a spiritual journey in itself and will definitely be a rewarding one for your church.

How are missions convictions different from our church’s core values or mission statement?

For some churches, there may be little or no difference. But for most churches, core values and mission statements are more general than missions convictions. However, as noted above, the church’s values and mission should inform and shape its missions convictions. 

What if our church leaders and/or members do not approve of the missions convictions?

All is not lost. You may have discovered an opportunity for development as a church on mission. You will need to work through these sticking points as you move toward seeing your missions convictions approved and applied.

Can one person establish mission convictions by themselves?

We recommend that your church make the development of missions convictions in community and trust God to use the giftings and personalities of many to help the body come to a clear vision. 

Is this an activity just for our missions leader(s), or can others in the church participate too?

We encourage you to seek to establish not simply a missions program, but a “sending culture” that informs and involves the entire church, making every leader “missions-minded” and giving every member “sent identity”. Work hard to involve the right leaders and members in the development and adoption of missions convictions.

Should our church’s culture inform the missions convictions, or should the missions convictions inform our church’s culture?

Both. Good mission convictions flow from the church’s identity. In establishing mission convictions, the church recognizes its uniqueness and embraces the reality that it is one church among many churches. These convictions then call the church to a common, God-sized vision that fits the unique calling he has given to that church, which will have an impact on the church’s culture.

Once our missions convictions are established, can they be changed?

There are seasons for churches to maintain their missions convictions and seasons in which to innovate. We encourage churches to remain focused on their established missions convictions to avoid mission drift. However, they should also be assessing themselves regularly. As they do this, it will become evident if convictions need to be added, removed, or revised.

Next Steps

The journey toward sending well happens one step at a time. Here are three ways you can continue moving upstream:

1. As you begin writing your church’s missions convictions ask some leaders and members in your church, “What does the Bible say about global missions?” Utilize some of their answers or the questions they pose as you begin writing your missions convictions.

2. Download the Worksheet for Establishing Your Church's Missions Convictions to apply this resource in your church context.

3. Refer to the Upstream resource “Church Examples of Missions Convictions” to learn how other churches have established their missions convictions.