Like many churches, Heartland Baptist Fellowship invests in the missionary efforts of men and their families who have given up their life in the United States for other maybe less comfortable living in order to serve God in another country in obedience to the great commission found in Matthew 28:19 – 20.
Mat 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (20) Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, evenunto the end of the world. Amen.
HBF receives many requests through the year to consider supporting a missionary who is preparing to launch into his intended field. The process of raising financial support can be a daunting task. It is time-consuming and expensive just to be able to achieve the support they will need to live and minister. Many countries -- for example when I served in Zambia -- do not allow foreigners to be employed. This means the only way they can afford to live is to ask for churches to contribute a part of the need to meet their budget.
I recently heard a statistic that says for a missionary to have 50 churches support them, they need to personally visit 300 churches to present their case for support. To get into 300 churches they need to contact 1,000 churches. Once they arrive at the 50 churches they may have between $2,500 and $4,500 a month to cover their needs including food, rent, vehicles, ministry needs and medical coverage.
When I get a phone call or letter from a missionary the first thing I do is evaluate their doctrine. It is important that we be like-minded in the work of ministry.
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Next I consider if their mission aligns with our mission. At HBF, our primary desire is to partner with men who are intent on training the nationals in their country and assisting in the planting of churches. That is not always the case and some men have very unique mission plans that are seen as key to the field. Our own sister in Christ serving as an English Professor in a foreign university is a good example. If these things align I meet with the missionary to discuss their vision, their personal and ministry goals, their family as well other topics. If this meeting is a positive meeting, I will then invite the missionary to speak to the congregation. Sometimes this is on a Sunday but most times it is on a Wednesday evening at Bible Study. From there the mission board consisting of key men in the church and the pastoral team make a determination about taking on the missionary as one of our supported missionaries.
At this meeting, the mission board will also evaluate if HBF can financially support this missionary on a monthly basis or not. Missionary support is determined by the regular giving of members of HBF. We currently allocate 11% of regular giving to missionary support. If our giving goes up, we have more room to accept more missionaries. If it goes down, we may have to consider dropping a missionary. These are critical decisions that are made by the board and we take them seriously.
Approved Missionaries
If we cannot financially support a missionary monthly but we still want to partner with him, we will accept him as an “Approved” missionary. This means we believe in his work, we want to encourage partnership, and we value his ministry but we are not able to commit financially each month. We do, however, encourage the congregation to consider personally supporting that missionary and we pray that the missionary has been able to stir the heart of our members to make a personal commitment to support that missionary. We have over 15 approved missionaries today and currently almost all are being supported by families at HBF.
Supported Missionaries
If the Mission Budget grows to support a missionary, we first consider the men who are on the approved list and make the decision at the board to move a missionary from approved status to supported status. This provides the added blessing of an HBF family supporting that missionary and HBF mission budget supporting that missionary. We currently have 10 supported missionaries and many are also supported personally by families at HBF.
We do not list our missionaries on our website because we want to respect their confidentiality and protect them from unnecessarily being brought to the attention of the governments of some countries. If you want to know who you can support please contact the office or contact Randy Foster, who as Missions Pastor oversees the mission ministry at Heartland. You can also find more information on our website at http://www.hbfcass.org/going-together.