World Missions

“The Power of One”
How to Plan Your Missions Emphasis Month

Thank you for your willingness to be part of Mid-America’s “Power of One” Mission Emphasis Month. The Mission Mobilizer Team is excited about the opportunity that this gives us as a Yearly Meeting to focus together on missions. Here is how to get started:

1. Read through all of the bulletin inserts and materials to get a feel for the overall theme, and to see the kinds of things you can do to “customize” this project for your individual church.

2. Prayerfully choose the time of year when you will implement this program. It is designed to be used for a period of one month (4 Sundays). We are encouraging churches to consider making the month of October missions month, but if another time works better for you, that is fine. The materials are undated and can be used anytime.

3. The final Sunday of the 4-week period is designed as “Commitment Sunday”. Think and pray about the kinds of commitments you would like to encourage among the members of your congregation, and how these goals can shape what you do over the course of the month Some examples are:

Prayer – perhaps a commitment to pray daily or weekly for missions, to choose a particular field to uphold in prayer for the coming year, or to take steps to become a more well-informed intercessor for all of our mission fields. Many Friends are joining EFM board members in fasting one meal each week to pray for missions.

Giving – Is your church able to meet its designated contribution for the Missions budget of Mid America? If not, encouraging people to make a commitment toward helping your church to raise this amount is a great place to start. If you are already doing this, perhaps God is calling you to take a new step forward! The possibilities are endless: committing to needed field support for one of our EFM fields or stepping out to raise support for one of our candidates that God is already calling (Howells to Ireland, Girons to Mexico and Swans to Rough Rock). If your gift of faith is really strong, commit to the missionary God is going to raise up for Sinaloa. Maybe your church wants to help fund next year's Mission Month materials, or the new "Power of One" prayer directory that EFM is working on, or raise funds for Kibimba hospital or help provide scholarships for prospective missionaries. And while designated funds are good, undesignated contributions are far better, a tremendous help and blessing because they can be used where needed most.

Going – Jesus instructed us to pray for laborers for the harvest. Is it reasonable to expect that some of those laborers are already in your congregation? Are there people in your church who God is calling to either long-term or short-term missions? How can your missions month encourage them to take steps in that direction?

There are several examples of commitment cards included in this packet to give you ideas. Once you have some ideas of the kinds of commitments you would like to encourage from the members of your congregation, design a commitment card to use at the conclusion of your Missions Month. Then think about ways to get the message out throughout the month. The cards should be available at least a week before Commitment Sunday, so that people will time to pray, and for families to have the opportunity to discuss their commitment.

4. Make it personal! The bulletin inserts that are provided for the 4 weeks of Missions Month are just a starting point. Try to include something special as part of your worship service each week to help focus on some aspect of missions. Here are some ideas to consider; choose a few of them or, even better, gather a group of missions-minded people from your congregation to talk, pray, and come up with your own ideas. Here are some to get you started:

Have a time of prayer for missions as part of each service during Missions Month. You could choose a different field or missionary to focus on each week, and invite different members of your congregation to lead in prayer on the various Sundays. If you have pictures that you can project, use them.

Is yours one of the many congregations in Mid America that has people who have already experienced a call to missions? Allow them to share a brief testimony of how God is working in their lives, and have the congregation gather around them to pray.

Use some of the audiovisual resources that are available from Mid America or EFM as part of one or more services. (See the enclosed list). There are some great DVD’s that will give your congregation a closer look at how God is working around the world.

Invite a special speaker. Somewhere in your area there is probably an excited student who just got back from a life-changing experience as part of a Saltshaker team to Nepal, Rwanda or Alaska. (Contact Matt Macy at 316-267-0391 to arrange for a Saltshaker speaker). Maybe you’d like to invite one of our retired missionaries, or plan your missions month around a time when one of our current missionaries will be in Mid America on home assignment. Check with other pastors in your area to see if they have someone in their congregation who is a good missions speaker.

Don’t overlook your own congregation! Is there someone in your church who has traveled to a mission field, or has been blessed through giving to missions or praying for missions, and would be willing to share with the congregation?

Include missions-themed songs as part of your music.

Choose a missions-related Scripture to memorize as a congregation. Say it together each week. Make bookmarks as a reminder.

With some advance planning, you can make a phone call to one of your missionaries during the service. You’ll need to test out ways to run the call through your sound system, and make arrangements with the missionary ahead of time. Some missionaries have webcams, and through the use of an internet phone program called Skype you can actually see them while they talk to you.

Add information and prayer requests about projects or mission fields that are close to the heart of your congregation in each week’s bulletins, to go along with the information provided in the bulletin inserts.

Look over the attached resource list, and consider choosing one or more of these to use during a service, or for some other activity.

A 24-hour prayer vigil for missions would be a great project for youth and/or adults.

Remind the congregation weekly to be praying about Commitment Sunday.

Involve your children in Missions Month! Make sure that those in your church who work with children are given a copy of the suggestions and ideas included in this packet. An attachment with a missions scrapbook activity is included in your Power of One materials. Also, encourage the teachers to use their creativity to expand on the themes contained in the inserts. For example, during the week that focuses on one seed planted in good soil, you could plan a great object lesson using hard soil, rocky soil, thorny soil, and good soil. The week that talks about caring for the physical needs of people would be a great time to collect items for a food pantry, or for a team of children, youth and/or adults to help serve a meal at a homeless shelter If you’d like more ideas and resources for promoting missions with children, contact Donnetta Carpenter at 316-942-6980.

Involve your youth in Missions Month! Keep in mind that your church may have more students who have visited Friends mission fields than any other age group in your church! Yet, often our churches involve our students the least in missions emphasis on a week-to-week basis. Matt Macy, EFC-MAYM Youth Superintendent, would love to talk to your youth leaders about some ideas to get your students more involved with your all-church Missions Emphasis Month. There are many simple methods of engaging students with missions besides taking them on a trip - from quick introductions, stories, videos, or prayers for missionaries in your weekly youth group sessions, to having your students give brief testimonies of their experiences on the mission field at your Sunday morning worship, to designing your own ’29 Hour Fast’ for your choice of EFM fundraising projects.

5. Consider planning a special, festive missions event sometime during the month – like a banquet, potluck, or dessert gathering. You might choose a theme that goes along with your special project, or pick a certain country where your church supports missionaries, or have an international theme. Find food, music, decorations, etc. to go with your theme. There are many internet programs like “itunes” where you can download songs for 99 cents each. Ask one of your teens to find some background music on the internet for the country you are featuring – you’ll be amazed at what they come up with! Places like “Oriental Trader” have international-themed decorations that are very inexpensive. Also, check party supply stores. Look online for recipes from the country you are featuring. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Have a “fiesta” with catered Mexican food, and Mexican decorations and music. Invite a speaker who has been to Sinaloa or Aguascalientes to share about one of those ministries.

Plan an African safari, using animal print decorations and African music. Show David and Debby Thomas’s DVD about ministry in Rwanda as part of the program, or make slides of some of the pictures Brad and Michelle Carpenter have sent back, and have a time of prayer for their ministries.

Have a potluck supper with an international theme. Decorate with flags from different countries, and have several speakers share briefly about their experiences on mission trips to different parts of the world.

Instead of eating, gather for fasting and prayer. Use the money you save on food to meet a need on one of our mission fields, or to help feed the hungry in your own community.

6. Each church in Mid America will have a member of the Mission Mobilzer Team who is responsible to be in contact with you as you plan your Missions Month. Feel free to ask for their ideas, or their help in finding needed resources. Keep them posted on how things are going. They’ll be very thankful for your input on how to do even better next year.

The Mid America Mission Mobilizer Team is praying for you as you take on this project. May God richly bless you!

Mission Month Resources

Questions, Corrections, Information? Email Sue Randall.

Friends Ministry Center
2018 Maple
Wichita, KS 67004
316-267-0391
316-267-0681 fax

“The Power of One” How to Plan Your Missions Emphasis Month

“The Power of One”
How to Plan Your Missions Emphasis Month