I have been engrossed with the studies I have been doing about Kingdom advancement, the role of the Church as the people of God, small group and house church movements, the mission our Lord left with us, the way the early church worked out this mission and grew so quickly, and finally the thought that the very way we do church, and where, might actually be hindering the mission.  We have many indicators of this in the fact that even with all of our modern methods, educational institutions, bible translations galore, freedom of worship, comfortable gathering places, and institutional governance, the Church is still not growing in the greatest “Christian nation” on earth.

I was reading on another site a discussion about how the church building might be actually contributing to the fact that we are not very capable in being the Church.  I agree with this to a large degree.  But the conversation led to someone making the statement that without large institutional churches, missionary work and missions trips would not get done.  The talks led to the idea that missions trips might not actually be as Kingdom advancing as some of us think.

The actual way most mission’s trips go, it seems, is that a group from a church will use a substantial sum to reach and stay in some faraway place to work and supposedly minister to the local people.  But the question was raised about whether that money, what it actually takes to go and stay a week or two, would actually go further if it was just sent and used by the locals to get the needs met.  Considering the fact that the money would do a lot more in those local economies, this seems to make a lot of sense.

What do you think?

Has our self-centeredness even entered into the work of missions?

Are mission’s trips actually more about those that go than the ones that are there?

If we started sending the money used to make those trips say, through a missionary, wouldn’t it actually do more good than a couple of weeks of labor?

Couldn’t smaller house churches do just as much with less if this was the way it was handled?

Missions and missionaries are needed.  I am talking about those local groups from a church that spend quite a bit just to get someplace.  Any thoughts?

Love you all

Tags: bible translations, christian nation, Church, Conversation, Discussion, educational institutions, Ending, institutional governance, Kingdom, mission, missionary work, missions trips, role of the church, small group, town hall, Tuesday