Sometimes it’s not a matter of sharpening our missional focus but adjusting our missional perspective. You might not be able to travel to the uttermost parts of the earth, but would you be willing to travel one mile for missions?
That’s the approach taken by the good people of Towering Oaks Baptist Church, Greeneville. I recently received an encouraging text message from Pastor Jeremy Roberts who outlined their strategy.
They took a map and drew a one-mile radius around their church. That’s the concentrated mission field; the micro-mission field. Next, they are visiting every home within that circumference, asking everyone they meet two questions: “How can our church serve you?” and “How can we pray for you?”
They also leave a gift Bible and a door hangover with information about the church.
What an incredibly simple yet impactful biblically evangelistic strategy. As Tennessee Baptists, we have the stated vision for every Tennessean to hear the gospel. Think of the potential impact if every church in Tennessee looked at the immediate area around their church as a mission field. With a strategy like this moving in ever-expanding circles away from the church, surely with 3,000 Tennessee Baptist churches, that would mean a gospel witness to nearly every person in our state.
I have been saying for over a decade that any way you slice it Tennessee is a mission field. What if we think smaller, not bigger, and bring that in a bit. Any way you slice it, your neighborhood is a mission field.
Let’s consider this in a Great Commission context. The highlight of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting is always the appointment of our International Mission Board missionaries, and the 63 we – Southern Baptists – send out this year in Orlando was no exception. I always loved the hymn we used to sing during commissioning ceremonies, “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations,” and the sense of pride I’ve always had in Southern Baptists as we work together through our Cooperative Program giving to make Christ known among the nations.
But let’s not get so lost in the grandeur of world missions that we lose site of the thousands of families living across the street from our churches who share the same great need of the gospel as the person on the other side of the globe living in a remote village. Spiritual lostness doesn’t have degrees of severity. Those who are lost desperately need to be found.
A place to start is information. All effective missionaries research every aspect of the people groups to whom they are sent. You need to intimately know the people under the shadow of your steeple. The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board has the type of tools secular companies utilize to mine demographic information. You can visit seetnmap.com and learn a significant amount of information about your county. And you can explore the data at citydata.com.
And if you need help, we would be glad to serve your church. Our own Lewis McMullan is a demographics specialist and can help your church build a solid analysis of your surrounding area and town. You can reach him at LMcMullen@tnbaptist.org.
It has been said that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. The neighbors around your church must know that you deeply care for them. That begins with knowing your neighbors, praying for them and caring for their needs, including their greatest need which is to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
We need to continue sending missionaries to the uttermost parts of the world. That’s who we are as Southern Baptists and what we are called to do. However, let’s not lose site of the mission field across the street. Sometimes it’s not a matter of sharpening our missional focus but adjusting our missional perspective.
It is a joy to be on this journey with you. B&R