Missions Priority Scale

At the Missions Forum I attended last week, I was introduced to a booklet entitled Becoming a World Changing Church by David Mays.  In it he has what he calls a "P-scale" that "describes a hierarchy of missions priority in the local church."  As you read through the descriptions, at what level would you find your local church?  At what level would you find yourself?

1. Missions as a Possibility: The church gives some funds to missions but the church has little serious interest in ministering to people unlike themselves. It is not a common topic of conversation or a visible church ministry. Church leaders may hope or desire to get involved in cross-cultural outreach in the future.

2. Missions as a Project: A church does periodic outreach or missions activities/offerings. An individual or a group may occasionally get involved in a missions project or go on a short term missions trip.

3. Missions as a Program: Missions is one of the regular church programs. An individual or committee is responsible for maintaining the missions program. There are regular meetings and perhaps a missions policy. The church gives ongoing support to missionaries or the denominational mission program. The church has periodic missions emphasis events.

4. Missions as a Priority: Church leaders and the congregation recognize the importance of reaching lost people at home and abroad. The missions ministry receives more funding, leadership and backing than many other programs. Missionaries are given prominent exposure. Reports on needs and progress in the world are a common feature of all-church gatherings. A significant portion of church income is devoted to cross-cultural ministry.

5. Missions as a Purpose: Discipling the nations is either the overarching purpose or one of the core purposes of the church. The pastor, staff, and church leaders model God’s heart for the world through awareness, teaching, enthusiasm, and personal involvement. Church leaders work to educate and involve the whole congregation with regard to people unlike us at home and abroad who need Christ. The church has a strategy for mobilization that touches all ministries and age groups.

6. Missions as a Passion: Church leaders agree that the church exists to see God glorified in all the earth. Church leaders and the congregation understand, commit to, participate in, and extol their efforts to reach people like us and unlike us, both at home and abroad. Personnel hiring, ministry plans, budgets, calendars, communications, prayer life, and many casual conversations focus on reaching the lost of our own and other cultures. The guiding question for every ministry decision is, “How will this help us reach the world for Christ?”

Further information from the late David Mays including the entire booklet can be found at http://www.davidmays.org/.