Radically different accounts

Same semester. Same church. Is it possible?

These two "An Accurate Picture of My Local Church's Involvement in Global Evangelism" reports were turned in on the same day. The two students were supposedly reporting on the same church. What a difference. One student did the proper research. The other attempted to write a report from observations (that turned out to be less than stellar!).

Report #1 on Windsor Hills      I attend Windsor Hills Church of the Nazarene and serve as the Director of the College and Career Class, and my husband is the College and Career Pastor. We have been attending Windsor Hills Nazarene for two and a half years. I interviewed the NMI President at the church to get a better glimpse of what our church is participating in concerning world missions. Even though my husband and I are staff, I realize that there are sometimes things that go on behind the scenes that we are unaware of. I was greatly surprised at some of the things that I learned.      I asked our Nazarene Missions International President if we circulated Missions Books or Tapes and she said that we circulated Mission Books as well as Mission tracts on CDs. Our NMI Vice President circulates the books and CDs through our Sunday School classes, and when an individual is done with the book or CD, she collects it and continues to pass it along. The Vice President also keeps a record of who reads what books so that it can be calculated at a later time. I didn't actually know that we circulated the books and CDs, and the President explained that one of the reasons why people may not realize that we do this is because it is not announced in church, but rather just word of mouth through Sunday School classes.      Every once in a while, posters and flyers are posted up on bulletin boards through the church, but this is not the major way of advertising for missions' promotions. Generally, skits will be done at the beginning of a Sunday Morning Service to help promote missions. I think that this is a great idea. It is more interactive with the congregation rather just passively expecting people to glance up at the billboards and expect that to get them on the band wagon as a result. I think that people in general will respond more positively to skits that are done live. For one thing, it is unpredictable as to what will happen, and secondly, it allows them for a second to step into someone else's shoes.      Our church does give financially to missions in various means. We participate in Faith Promise, Easter Offering, Thanksgiving Offering, and also a Memorial Rose. Even though I have been in a leadership position for almost three years at this church, I did not even realize myself that all of these offerings went to missions. I think that maybe one flaw that the church has committed is to just assume that people know where their money is going. I believe that people will be more willing to give financially if they understand where those funds are going. Plus, being open about where the funds go is a statement not only to the church but to unbelievers as well about what significance we place on supporting world missions. Missions, just like anything else, must have financial support. The sad truth is that most believers don't give much to missions. One drawback for my church is that we are so far behind on paying our district budgets that it seems hard to raise funds for other areas.      Once a month -- normally the third Wednesday -- the midweek service is focused on missions. Our NMI President told me that she wished that she could do more towards this service such as prepare foreign foods and such that had been done in the past, but she just doesn't have the time. She runs our women's ministries. Her husband is in charge of Angel Food Ministries and she heads up NMI on top of her full-time job and commuting to church from Riverview to Windsor Hills. I felt bad when she said she wanted to do more, but I appreciated that she herself acknowledged that more could be done in these areas. The church also brings in three to four missionary speakers a year to help promote a global worldview.      One thing that our NMI President wants to do differently is she wished that the services that are done on Wednesday nights could be done on a Sunday Evening service instead. She feels that one of the biggest hindrances to the effectiveness of missions' promotions is simply that people are interested but don't want to be involved. She thinks that this is the case because most people don't think that they are a part of missions. They just don't feel a connection between themselves and the missionaries out serving in the field.      She completely agrees that missions needs to be promoted, but she doesn't know how to make people feel a connection to missions. I feel like the church needs better resources to teach our NMI leaders on what they need to do and helpful tips on how to carry it out. I think that for too long missions has just been put to the side as something that `those' people do. This is what has caused a detachment between the church and missionaries.      I do see areas that my church could be more active in missions, but I also completely believe that they are doing it to their complete capacity. I know feel that it is time that the pastoral staff steps up the challenge and figures out a way to help with the missions promotions. I think that a big part of that simply begins with our own attitude towards missions. We leaders need to smile when it comes to missions promotions!

Report #2 on Windsor Hills      Windsor Hills is a small inner city church that for its size actually has a great deal of missions going on. They don't have a very large world wide missions program and only donate money for that cause, but they focus more on evangelism in their community.      They have angel food ministries that helps bring in other families that normally wouldn't come near a church event. They also have a southern gospel outreach the last Saturday of every month. There are prayer circles and cards that go out for other people as well as several hospital and nursing home visits. Compared to a lot of churches this isn't very much but for a church that averages less then 100 it is fairly impressive.

SNU missions course materials and syllabi

Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008  |  Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2002 - Last Updated: April 29, 2007 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/2picture.htm

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