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Church Planting Axiom I heard years ago: “Don’t just start a church for your community. Start a church for the whole world.” That resonated with me for several reasons:

1. God’s Great Commission vision for his disciples was global. Matthew 28:19-20.
2. You need the whole world to properly make a disciple. True disciples will be moved to go & give of themselves. You’ll need to give them opportunities.
3. The whole world needs disciples that have a vision for going & giving. A growing family of disciples was Jesus’ Plan A for reaching the world.
4. Going & even dreaming of going on mission, stretches our faith & helps us deal with our own selfishness & complacency. Color of the carpet, etc. pales in comparison to the needs of the world.
5. Spiritual Maturity is impacted exponentially through going, & it seems that’s even more true when you can cross cultures.
6. When you engage the world, it affects how we view our own communities. Every mission trip I’ve ever gone on, the conversation on the way back always turned to, “We could do this at home.”

How can I make sure my church is FOR the Whole World:

• Give. Make sure that your budget reflects a global vision. For our church, that means giving to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention & supporting a few missionaries individually as a church & then as a family also. Amount doesn’t matter, just begin to make this a priority from the beginning.
• Tell stories. Video resources abound about missions & global needs. Develop space in your worship service & websites to tell the stories, show the images, celebrate the successes of missionaries, current & of old. I’ve enjoyed having the Heroes For Young Readers series around the house as a parent. Great stories of missionaries & missions.
• Connect with missionaries. Many ways to serve them on site. But praying for missionaries helps more than we’ll know on this side of eternity.
• Ask God to lead your church to a place in the world to pray for & connect with.

What are you doing to make sure your church is a church for the whole world?