Towards a Strategic Mission Focus

Our pastoral staff and missions committee have continued to pray seeking God's direction in defining a strategic mission focus and discussing possibilities.  Although there is no official document developed yet, I would like to share my impressions on how this is beginning to shape up. The purpose is to keep you informed, seek your prayer support and welcome your input.  This is still very much a work in progress.

The factors that have informed our discussions include missional philosophy, the "I am Calvary" survey results, demographic data of the congregation and Hidalgo County, input from Dr. Milfred Minatrea, Calvary's current involvement and commitments, and pastoral leadership.

Levels of involvement:
One of the elements that needs to be considered in discussing the strategic mission focus of a congregation are the levels of involvement.  These consist of personal, group and congregational levels.

1. The personal level is where the individual Calvary member may be lead to engage missionally.  His or her skill set, personal sense of call and natural connections may lead him or her to connect in particular ways.  Potentially, these could be about a 1000 opportunities (literally).  Calvary's role at the personal level is to help inform, inspire, train, affirm, bless and, even commission the individual.
2. The group level includes Bible Fellowships individually or as a network.  For example, an ABF may have a mission project they support, or there may be three ABF's who together participate in a missional endeavor.  Furthermore, an entire age division of Bible Fellowships may take on a specific mission opportunity.  For example, the student ministry (all of their Bible Fellowships) may organize a mission trip.  Calvary's role at the group level is similar to the personal level: inform, inspire, connect, affirm, bless, and, often, resource the group's involvement.
3. The congregational level is where the congregation identifies a handful of strategic opportunities where it will invest congregational human and financial resources both locally and globally.  Considering that there are two levels at which Calvary people may already be involved, and the amount of resources available, these opportunities have to be limited in number and scope.

Of course, it is understood that these three levels may overlap at some points for individuals.

Geographical Areas of Involvement:

Taking Acts 1:8 as a cue, Calvary's missions involvement can be divided into three geographical concentric circles: local, regional and global.

1. The local area is McAllen proper and the cities which are adjacent to it, namely, Mission, Pharr, and Edinburg, and the "colonias" in the immediate area.  In this area we seek to do on-going community ministry and church planting.  We have determined that the needs in our community are great and that we have a special opportunity and responsibility to increase our witness in the local area.  So we are moving ahead in investing more resources and energy in the local area.
2. The regional area is essentially the rest of the Rio Grande Valley and the northern parts of Mexico.  Since this is a very vast area in size, population and diversity, we will need to focus on particular points within this area.  For example, we may identify two or three strategic places where we want to start new congregations or we may identify particular ministries in places like Matamoros and Saltillo with whom we would like to partner.
3. The global area is anything beyond the regional area and should provide a couple of alternative places where Calvary can engage.  It includes the support of those who have been sent long-term, the support of strategic partnerships and the short-term involvement of volunteers.

Criteria for Strategic Involvement:

By necessity, in order to be strategic, objective criteria needs to be determined and used in deciding which people groups and places we will engage in mission and which partnerships we will develop.  This process takes for granted the role of prayer and spiritual direction.  In other words, we do not list prayer and spiritual direction as a criteria because it should involve the whole process from head to toe.  At this point, we have identified four primary criteria to help us in the development of strategic focus: proximity, unreached people groups, the poor and oppressed, and strategic partnerships.

1. Proximity is the concept of the responsibility we have toward those who are closer.  Although we do not excuse ourselves from our responsibility to "the ends of the earth," we recognize that we have a special opportunity to reach those that are near us.  It is natural in terms of resources and access to use this as a criteria.  For example, if we are wanting to evangelize an unreached people group, and we find that there is one in East Africa and another in Central Mexico, we might give additional weight to the one in Central Mexico as one of the criteria in making the decision.
2. Unreached people groups is the idea that we need to direct more resources and energy toward reaching those people groups who are unreached or least reached.  These are people groups or "ethnes" that do not have a group of believers strong enough to evangelize their own people group within their own language and culture.  There is a wide range of estimates about what is the population of the world that fits this "unreached" description.  On the low end some say it is 1/4 of the world's population.  That's as many as 1.5 billion people.  Currently, most churches engage countries and people groups that already have the gospel in their language and culture.  While the need for evangelism and church planting is great even among "reached" peoples and groups, we cannot afford to neglect the "unreached."  Ideally, we would identify one or two groups where we want to focus our attention for a couple of years.
3. The poor and the oppressed is the recognition that, while our primary objective is to make disciples of all nations, we also have a call to minister to the poor and the oppressed in Jesus' name (Luke 4:18-19).  There is much poverty and oppression around the world and it is impossible for Calvary to address it all.  However, it will be one of the criteria for making decisions of where we might connect.
4. Strategic partnerships is the acknowledgment that, in order to be efficient and effective, we cannot do this alone.  We need to identify churches and organizations who are already doing a good job of the things we would like to be involved in and we need to develop partnerships with these.  This may be a church which is doing community ministry in their area, or a missionary who is engaging unreached people groups or an international benevolence organization.

These criteria still leaves a broad range of opportunities so it will be necessary to continue to refine it and develop it but it will help us in making decisions about current commitments and new opportunities that arise.

Short-Term Service Opportunities

One of the ways in which Calvary is able to engage in missional activity and also make better disciples is through short-term service opportunities.  Given the three levels of involvement mentioned above, Calvary will contemplate two types of mission trip possibilities: endorsed trips and sponsored trips.

1. Endorsed trips are those that an entity other than Calvary may be organizing and leading but in which some Calvary individuals may choose to participate and which Calvary leaders feel enough confidence to endorse.  These trips may be announced, supported in prayer and commissioned but, generally will not receive budget funds or Calvary staff leadership.
2. Sponsored trips are those that Calvary is organizing and leading, occasionally in partnership with another entity.  These trips will be announced, supported in prayer, funded by the church budget and led by Calvary staff or volunteers.

Calvary Strategic Partnerships and Short-Term Opportunities

Using these criteria, Calvary will seek to develop strategic partnerships and to provide short-term service opportunities in the next 24 months (2011-2012) with the following:

1. México: Saltillo/Chiapas.  One of the opportunities that meets all the four criteria discussed above is Calvary Baptist Church in Saltillo, Mexico.  Their health clinic, medical/evangelistic brigades and their involvement with indigenous groups in the state of Chiapas offer a unique opportunity to us.
2. The Amazon.  Along the Amazon river where the countries of Colombia, Peru and Brazil meet, there are several indigenous groups who are beginning to be reached.  The opportunity to do leadership development and evangelism in partnership with David and Denise Love is a great one.
3. Africa.  Although there are many Calvary points of contact in Africa, we are looking to focus on a place where we can minister to the poor and the oppressed or engage an unreached people group, (or both).  We are seeking to partner with entities that are trustworthy and are financially sustainable without being a burden to Calvary.
4. Southeast Asia.  This opportunity is for those that would like to be involved in the mobilization of Christians into closed countries and partnering with them.

These initiatives will be developed and implemented by the pastoral staff with the input and approval of the missions committee.

Calvary Missions Budget

Using the factors and the criteria mentioned above, the missions committee has approved a missions budget for 2011.  This represents the allocation of 16% of general church budget receipts, which are projected to be $317,569.  Of this, 2.5% has been allocated to Texas Baptist Cooperative missions ($49,870), 1.5% to Southern Baptist missionary support ($29,922) and 12% to direct support of Calvary missions initatives and partnerships ($239,374).

The "Calvary Direct" portion is subdivided into four categories: mobilization, missionaries, church plants and ministries:

1. Mobilization:  Calvary will continue to financially support three global indigenous mission initiatives and also fund global partnership projects in three primary areas: Mexico, South America and Africa.  These global partnership projects are still to be determined and developed.  (See the "Calvary Strategic Partnerships and Short-Term Opportunities" section above).  The projects will be developed and implemented by the pastoral staff with the input and approval of the missions committee.  We will also increase staffing for community missions.
2. Missionaries:  All the 10 current missionaries who are being partially supported will continue to be funded (some at the same level others at a different level according to strategy focus).  Three new missionaries will be partially funded at entry level because of their connection with our strategy.
3. Church plants:  We are currently supporting two regional church plants: Sullivan City and Journey Church.  We will continue to fund Journey church at the same level this year while we will only fund the Sullivan City church for the first six months of 2011.
4. Ministries:  We will continue to support Angel Food, the BSM and Bread of Life.  We will increase the amount for benevolent help and we will add funding for medical missions.

As we continue to grow and develop into a missional church, we hope this process will contribute toward our strategic mission focus.  We ask for your prayers, your support, your input and your participation.

Until all the nations worship Him!