Church Mission Conference Boredom No More

When we announced the first month-long mission conference, we heard groans and skepticism.  Sometimes people dread mission conferences because they are not interested, or the conference itself is not interesting, possibly lacking in creativity and direction.  I assured people that this would actually be the highlight of the year, and so it became every year to come.  

Our annual Mission Conference at Lancaster EFC lasted a full month of Sundays every October.  Many activities comprise a mission month.  But we saw this much more than simply informing our congregation about our missionaries, involving them in activities, and exposing them to the Mission of God.  Although we certainly did do these things.

We would devote a whole session to detailed updates and times of prayer for each of our missionaries, as well as put together a print booklet with photos, mission goals, prayer requests and contact information.  This would be used at home and weekly in our World Christian Prayer Meetings (previous blog post).

First and foremost, we used this month as a vision month, and for strategic planning as a leadership team and as a church.  As a church that saw itself as a mission team, we saw our purpose for existing as being fully involved in the Mission of God (see previous blog post of Every Church A Mission Team).  We selected a theme that fit our goals each year. 

The preaching series was focused upon different aspects of the History of Redemption and how the larger story of God’s Mission in Christ can be found anywhere and everywhere in the Bible.  We would concentrate on areas where we needed to grow in our understanding, or where we believed our passions needed to be strengthened.

As a church, we were constantly working on church planting both in Asia and in our community.  We wanted to know how to plan the next mission trip in order to move forward in reaching the unreached people we had engaged with the Gospel.  We wanted to know more about church planting here at home, as well.

So, we would select the speakers and consultants we needed to help us take it to the next level.  What did we need to think through, or re-think?  With whom did we need to meet?  What more did we need to learn, or what practice did we need to improve?  Special coffees were held for our leadership (and those interested) to discuss such questions with our speakers and consultants.

These annual conferences were times for us as a congregation to refocus on our core purposes of worship and mission.  We wanted to know what were the next steps for us as a church in moving forward in His Mission.  At the end of each conference we would praise God in amazement on how He would met us every year through the preaching, speakers and consultants and led us in the next steps.