World Evangelism Podcast

Connecting Church Members with the World: Strategies for Effective Missions

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 1 • Episode 32

Share episode

Send us a text

Transform your church into a global missions powerhouse! Join me, Austin Gardner, as I reveal practical strategies for engaging your congregation in world evangelism. From developing a solid mission strategy to fostering a missionary philosophy, learn how short-term mission trips can spark a passion for overseas ministry. Connect your church members directly with missionaries and stay informed using essential resources like Operation World. Through compelling personal anecdotes, I'll share how early mission exposure can transform lives and inspire your congregation to actively spread the gospel.

In our next segment, we delve into uncovering your divine calling. Inspired by insights from my book "Are You Called," currently being expanded for greater depth, this chapter serves as a practical guide for anyone feeling a pull toward ministry. This resource acts as a checklist for the necessary preparations and provides pastors with tools to mentor their congregants effectively. Available on Amazon at a discounted rate for bulk orders, it aims to equip more individuals to carry the message of Jesus Christ worldwide. Tune in and share this episode to help us inspire and mobilize a global movement for the gospel. God bless you!

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

W. Austin Gardner:

This is Austin Gardner, welcoming you to the World Evangelism Podcast. I'm so excited always to be able to speak with you, and I've been talking to you just recently about getting your church involved, how to develop a mission strategy for your church, and we discussed briefly last week that we are to do both both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. Then we discussed having a missionary philosophy. Every way we can do anything to get the gospel of the world is a good way to do it. However, you can't do everything, and so you're going to have to choose what you want to do, and so I gave you some suggested mission objectives. I strongly suggest church planting, leader training, multiple church planting, leader training, and those are the things that I really push this week. I'd just like to talk to you about how to get your people involved. You see, missionaries can seem almost like that extra, that thing that takes away from the local church. It's like we got our thing going on right here. This is what we're doing, got this idea that maybe it's not as much about our church and it's their thing and not our thing, and so we all discuss that, but if we're going to effectively touch the world. We need our entire church to be involved in what's going on. So how do you get as many people in your church involved as you possibly can? So the number one thing I would like to suggest is that you get as many people to the mission field as you possibly can on a short-term visit. Let them see firsthand that there's not a church on every corner that's preaching the gospel. Let them see that there is a way for them to make a massive difference. I would just challenge you to consider letting them be involved more. Let them go to the mission field. Maybe let them be involved in doing some work on the mission field. Let them give up gospel tracts. Let them attend church. Let them hear and see what's happening and see if that doesn't stir more in them the passion to be givers and even consider giving their lives as missionaries. Let them know what a missionary really does.

W. Austin Gardner:

Somehow, even though it's 2024, we almost have the philosophy that a missionary still wears that big old missionary hat and wears those khaki shorts and lives out in the jungle and eats weird food. And it's just not true. Most missionaries are going to live in a major city. Even in a place like Burkina Faso. They're going to live in a city where there is so much they can be doing, and so I just want to challenge you to consider with me getting your people to the field and then get them involved. Get them signed up to get the end updates that come directly from the missionaries, so that they can become personally involved.

W. Austin Gardner:

It's one thing to give money straight in the church missions pot. It's another thing to be connected to the missionary so that they're important to you. If they know the missionary, if they have the missionary in their home, if they go to a fellowship in somebody's house and you have some hors d'oeuvres and you have some drinks and everybody's standing around talking and they get to talk to the missionary and see the missionary and meet the missionary's children, it will make a major difference. You want to get them involved in praying for the missionary, help them learn what God's doing all around the world. You want to get in front of your people that God is on the move and the church of Jesus Christ is advancing. I would strongly like to suggest to you OperationWorldorg. You know I talk about that all the time, but OperationWorldorg would help you get your people to knowing what's going on and you don't have to know everything, but you can give them a source to go to operationworldorg and learn more about what's happening.

W. Austin Gardner:

By the way, the country of the week right now, the country right now, is Indonesia. I get that alert every morning in my email. I wish you would, and at least it brings a new country all the time. Now, india and China. They take a long time because they're the largest countries in the world and we're going down the list and so Indonesia will get more time than, say, the Vatican, but we want to pray for every part of the world. We want to pray for every part of the world. Get them involved in praying, help them learn about what's going on and get them involved praying and giving.

W. Austin Gardner:

People ought to realize the privilege they have of staying here in the United States and not going to the mission field. They ought to realize that they are being given a privilege and an opportunity to involve themselves in world evangelism around the world. So get your people involved. That's my first thing today. Get your people involved. That's my first thing today. Get your people involved. How many of your people are involved directly with missionaries? It's hard because there's a rule out of sight, out of mind, and the missionaries are a long ways off and they're living a life we don't understand and we see them as super saints. And they are definitely not that. They're just regular people that love Jesus, carrying the gospel message of Jesus Christ to the world. Second thing I'd like to ask you to do is to begin praying right now that your church will have a missionary sent out from your membership. Every church ought to feel a responsibility for the world.

W. Austin Gardner:

As a little boy in a little Southern Baptist church up in the hills of Tennessee, I heard in vacation Bible school about missions. Oh Lord, it touched my heart. As a little boy I was either right before I got saved or barely after I got saved and I wanted to be a missionary. I heard him talk about how there were not enough preachers and I thought I'd like to go. Let me go. And then I went to Royal Ambassador Camp. It was a thing our church did and I went and I heard and I wanted to be a part. I wanted to be a part, I wanted to be involved, and so then I had Royal Ambassadors, where we discussed in a boys group similar to Boy Scouts. Missions was discussed every week and so I just wanted to know about missions. I surrendered when I was 11 years old because my church kept it out in front of me and I saw it and I realized it.

W. Austin Gardner:

So missions needs to be kept in front of your people so that they'll have a heart to take the mission field seriously and to consider that maybe God would call them to the mission field and regularly offer them the chance. It ought to be a part that you ought to say hey, would you like to be a missionary? Would you like to go to the mission field? Would you like to be involved? Just a challenge for you. So here we go, get your people involved. Pray that God will give you a missionary to go to the field. You have not because you asked not, so pray that God will give you a missionary to go to the field. You have not because you asked not, so pray that God will give you somebody to go. And can I give you some quotes that might help motivate you? These are great quotes. I love missionary quotes. I give them out regularly on Instagram and Facebook. I invite you to be a part of that.

W. Austin Gardner:

The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity. What a statement. We measure attendance, but what are we doing with what we have? It's not how many you can seat in your auditorium, it's how many people you can put out in the ministry doing the work of God. That is a statement by Mike Statura. I don't know him, but I love that statement and I've used it a thousand times I'm sure. And then another statement that is I don't know who it comes from, but it's so good is missions is not the ministry of a choice few Hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is the purpose of the church. Missions is not the ministry of choice for a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is the purpose of the church. That's the reason we exist going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It's listed five times in the New Testament, but the book of Psalms is full of world evangelism and from the very beginning God has wanted to get his gospel message to the world.

W. Austin Gardner:

Oswald J Smith said any church that's not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist. I don't know if you like Oswald J Smith or not. I'm not certain what your opinion is. I never met the man, of course, but I think it's so true, any church that's not seriously involved in fulfilling the Great Commission, not seriously involved in fulfilling the Great Commission. In today's society we have become much more concerned about reaching our local community than we have reaching the world with the gospel, and I think we should be extremely concerned about reaching our local community.

W. Austin Gardner:

Another quote that's really wild is if your church wouldn't miss them. We probably don't want them. You don't send the dregs, you send the very best you have. You send the people that you want to keep. I don't know if I should keep giving you these quotes or not. I don't know if it's overwhelming for me to throw so many quotes at you. But the church that does not evangelize will fossilize. That's another Oswald J Smith. We've got to evangelize where we are. We've got to know our purpose and be going after it. So only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence. We have an obligation to carry the gospel to the world. It ought to be. You vote on your church mission statement, but you can't vote on its purpose. Only, only as we carry the gospel to the world Only. You see, the supreme task of the church is evangelization of the world. That's again Oswald J Smith.

W. Austin Gardner:

I guess I chose quite a few of those to share with you today, so could I just talk to you for a minute. Pastor, as the pulpit goes, so goes the church. What you emphasize gets emphasized. What you push gets believed and pushed. Are you pushing world evangelism? The average pastor views his church as a local church with a missions program. We have a church and one of the things that we do, one of the spokes in the wheel, is missions. When you ought to realize that the fact is you're pastoring a church and one of the things that we do, one of the spokes in the wheel is missions. When you ought to realize that the fact is you're pastoring a church with a global church. It's a global church with a mission's purpose. The Bible is a missionary book throughout.

W. Austin Gardner:

The main line of argument that binds everything together is the unfolding and gradual execution of missionary purpose getting the gospel to the entire world. That's our purpose. That's why churches exist to get the gospel to the world. That was a quote by Bruce Kerr. Bob Pierce said let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God. I just want to leave this with you. You want to get your church involved. You want to develop a missions strategy.

W. Austin Gardner:

Oswald J Smith said I have seen the vision and for self I cannot live. Life is less than worthless to my all I give. Let me quote that again I have seen the vision and for self I cannot live. Life is less than worthless to my all I give. Oswald J Smith, let's get the gospel message, the good news that Jesus loves everybody and forgives all sin, and all can be saved. Let my heart be broken with the things of God. Let my heart be broken with the things of God. A missionary is one who never gets used to the sound of heathen footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity. We hunger to see people saved.

W. Austin Gardner:

The reason some people don't believe in world evangelism is the religion they have isn't worth propagating, and I realize that so often it can be such a constricting, legalistic environment that maybe you don't want to share it. But I challenge you to share it. I challenge you to share it with the world. I challenge you to help the world know that Jesus loves them and died for them and has eternal life for them. The Great Commission is not an option to be considered. It's a command to be obeyed. Hudson Taylor said that the Great Commission is not an option to be considered, it's a command to be obeyed.

W. Austin Gardner:

So I want to challenge you with this as I finish up today's broadcast. There's a world dying and going to hell. They're in great need of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. Would you help your church develop a mission strategy to do all that you can, all within your power, to get your people involved, everything to get the gospel to the world. Well, my name is Austin Gardner and I am here with the World Evangelism Podcast and it is my heart's desire to inspire missions and empower people to take the gospel to the world. I live for that. That's what I desire to do with all of my life and I want to challenge you to get us involved and let's get the gospel to the world. Let's let people hear about what Jesus did on the course of Calvary.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, one of the things I resource that you might be interested in is my book Are you Called, a checklist to discern your calling from God, and I'm reworking it. More stuff will come out in it, but it's really. It's designed to say if you think you're called, here are things you need to prepare and you, as a pastor, can use this booklet to meet with your people and help them get ready to carry out the gospel. You can get it on Amazon relatively inexpensive and I'd like to help you do all I can. If you want to order it in bulk, you let me know and I'll get it to you at cost, basically because I just want to help. Thank you so much for listening to the World Evangelism Podcast. Give us a like, share the video, share the podcast and let's get more people carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. God bless you.