Church-Centred Missions for Church Members
Nicholas, one of our members, shares about our recent Missions Conference with John Folmar. He also reflects on how church members like you and I can be an active part of missions in and through the local church.
On 2 March 2024, we welcomed Pastor John Folmar from the Evangelical Christian Church of Dubai (ECCD) as the guest speaker at our missions conference. The morning was split into two talks, both of which were filled with compelling anecdotes from Pastor John’s experiences.
Church-Centred Missions
In the first, "Church-Centered Missions", Pastor John painted a vision of how missions goes hand in hand with the local church. The church is the origin, means and goal of missions. In other words, the local church is where missions begins, is how missions is done, and is what missions aims to produce.
Pastor John intentionally distinguished church-centered missions from movement-driven missions. The latter emphasises biblical minimalism, reproducibility and rapid multiplication. Proponents of movement-driven missions tend to downplay the importance of the local church, and instead focus on quick evangelism, leaving the details of church and community to be settled later. The slow, arduous process of church-planting and settling new believers into covenant communities can be criticised as “slow to grow” and not understanding the specific missional context.
However, Pastor John persuasively showed that the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20) needs to be connected to the Great Constitution (Matt 16:17–19). Jesus requires that His disciples gather in local churches, contrary to the allowance movement-driven missions has of “insiders”—where new converts continue to physically attend functions and perform rituals of their former religions, while confessing Christ as Lord in their hearts. The local churches should be diverse and reflect the power of the gospel to break down hostilities (Eph 2:11–22), instead of being homogenous to cater to people’s preferences as movement-driven missions advocates. The local church is where God’s appointed means of grace are performed: preaching and teaching instead of “discovery Bible studies”, joyful singing absent in other religions, baptism to affirm the profession of new converts as entry into the church, and the Lord’s Supper to continue to delineate the church from the world.
The local church is where the God’s appointed means of grace are performed.
As someone who firmly believes in the priority of the local church, I was surprised by how much Pastor John’s first talk struck me. I completed the movement-driven Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course in 2016, and while I had some reservations about some of its material, I had not realised how much it has influenced the way I viewed missions. The course had rightly helped me to consider the different cultural contexts of different mission fields and how these circumstances can shape the form by which core gospel principles are lived out, but perhaps it should also have considered biblical principles around God’s Plan A for missions: the church.
Pastor John is not saying that a group of Christians in Senegal has to look and feel exactly like Grace Baptist Church in Singapore, but that the key principles of them regularly gathering for the preaching of the word, singing, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, should apply. This, rather than independent missionaries separate from constituted churches, is what missions should look like. Churches, rather than independent missionaries, are what I want to support on the mission field.
Mission-Centred Churches
Pastor John’s second talk, "Mission-Centered Churches", placed the role of sending missionaries in the ambit of local churches. He recognised the role and strength of mission agencies in pooling resources, coordinating efforts, and having technical knowledge such as of the requirements for entry into more restricted communities. Nevertheless, Pastor John borrowed the analogy by Andy Johnson in Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global (which was also given out at the conference) to aptly point out that mission agencies are bridesmaids, while the church is the bride. The church can identify, equip, and assess missionaries before they go, and it must be willing to send out its very best for the sake of the kingdom. After sending out these qualified missionaries, churches should continue to support them through generous support, committed prayer, helpful encouraging visits, and warm hospitality during rest and furlough.
Pastor John movingly related the story of how ECCD sent a team about half the size of the church to plant a church on the other side of the city, and how those who stayed with ECCD stepped up to continue to keep ECCD running by God’s grace. While the plant undoubtedly reduced ECCD resources, such is the logic of kingdom economics, and God was gracious to sustain and grow both congregations.
This more practical talk helped me to reflect on how GBC goes beyond contributing funds to mission agencies to contribute to global missions. I appreciate how we interview our supported missionaries when they are in Singapore during our Sunday services, and regularly pray for them in the pastoral prayer. I personally got the chance to meet one of them after the conference, and was encouraged to hear about her ministry and pray for her. I am also excited to see the fruit from sending the Collins family, along with Samuel Ho to support Pastor Mark as a pastoral assistant, as well as Rebecca Soh on her internship in Bangkok City Baptist Church. These are the church-centered mission efforts that GBC should continue to support.
What now?
Our initial enthusiasm from conferences tend to taper off in the days and weeks that follow. So how can we keep our zeal for missions after this conference? I have three suggestions.
First, why not commit to reading the short, 7-chapter, 120-page book given out at the conference, Missions by Andy Johnson, with a fellow church member? You’re more than welcome to contact me if you are shy to ask someone to do so with you.
Second, would you consider praying regularly for our missions partners? You can check out the growing board at the back of the Fellowship Hall on Level 3 for more information on GBC’s mission efforts and how to pray for them. Our website also contains information about our missionaries, and the weekly enews also has monthly updates about our missionaries.
Third, make full use of the unique opportunity we have to pursue cross-cultural missions right here in Singapore where the nations have gathered. Befriend that neighbouring family from abroad and invite them over for dinner or even a CG session. Sit with that exchange student in your school, ask about their background and culture, and invite them for youth group. Make contact with the migrant workers cleaning our estates by offering them a cold drink on these hot afternoons, try to strike up a conversation, and even invite them to a Sunday service.
A heart for missions does not only get ignited when one is overseas, it starts right from where we are and must grow out of our love for God.
A heart for missions does not only get ignited when one is overseas, it starts right from where we are and must grow out of our love for God. Personally, I’m planning to take Japanese classes to better communicate with this gospel-poor people, and better support some of our friends in Japan who are doing gospel work there when we visit. I pray that the missions conference would fan into flame our missionary zeal for the lost, and that God would be pleased to use this humble church in Singapore to bring countless among the nations into his fold, assembled in many local churches proclaiming the same glorious gospel and planting other churches to do likewise.