William Carey said, “To know the will of God we need an open Bible and an open map.”
Sending and mobilizing students, for me, is one of the most significant things I do! It is in sending and mobilizing students in the Great Commission that they can and will discover their calling. This is why some of our most repetitive phrases at Arkansas Tech Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) are: “It is not if you go, but when you go” and “You have three summers in college that you will never have again, so use them strategically.”
This summer at Tech BCM we mobilized 23 students. That is nearly 40% of our average attendance for BCM serving at camps, on mission trips, and in local churches.
Here are some of the best practices I have learned in sending and mobilizing students for the Great Commission.
Start with Community focused on Preparing and Equipping for every good work.
Neil Cole says that lives change when we are together in community. At Tech we define this community in two ways: preparing and equipping for good works. In 2 Timothy, Paul states this phrase twice, ‘for every good work.’ He first states it in 2 Timothy 2:19-21 in talking about confessing our sin and being set apart. He says it again in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in talking about the Word of God.
In this community we need to be confessing sin, while also reading and obeying God’s Word. Living out biblical community and the Great Commission wherever we are is foundational for mobilizing and sending.
Regular Training and Modeling Obedience
In the Great Commission Jesus said to “teach them to obey.” Training principles and providing tools are effective ways to build obedience in others that will lead to sending them. Once they have been trained, take them out to share the Gospel. Have weekly times set up or schedule times to take them. Show them how you begin a conversation and segue the conversation to the Gospel, and ask the golden question, “Would you like to give your life to Christ today?”
Have Prayer Nights
Create a night of prayer where all you do is pray over different missionaries, people groups, partners, etc. Make the prayer stations interactive…get creative. Prayer is one of the best ways for us to hear God’s calling in our life!
Create mission opportunities in your ministry before sending them on their own
Take mission trips throughout the year. Don’t be afraid to only have a few who go. Going says this is important. If you say the nations are important, then make sure you are taking an international trip somewhere. The nations cannot be important to you if you are not willing to go. God will provide. He has called you to go, so He will provide the rest. Be obedient and you will see the fruit of it.
Host a Missions Fair
In the fall, Tech BCM will host “Summer Options Night.” This past fall we had nine different partners come to this event. They each gave a 5-minute talk about their organization and what serving in the summer would look like for them. They also had tables set up with info where they were able to talk to the students afterwards. Many churches will do the same thing. They will take a Sunday morning or a night of the week and have every one of their partners, and or trips, set up a table. This is where their church can find different ways to plug into missions through their church. Remember when doing this, track the number of new people in your church that are signing up for opportunities. When 5% of new people are serving that is huge and worth a celebration. We replicate what we celebrate. Make sure to celebrate the small as much as you celebrate the large!
Send them care packages
Every one of our students this summer will receive a care package and a handwritten note. Most of these we will hand deliver where they are serving. We want them to know that we care for them, and we are celebrating what they are doing. We spend around $10 per package. It certainly can be an investment, but when they know we care about what they are doing, then they will be willing to give up another summer as well. Do this for those you have sent through your church or partner with through your church. When your church sees you caring for your missionaries, they will want to be a part of that.
These are just a few ideas, and there are plenty more to add to it. But let me finish with this…make it personal, make it important…because that shows you care about it. God has called us all to GO! Locally and globally! Create opportunities and call people to join them. Don’t worry about having a BIG number, just focus on being obedient. God will work through your faithfulness. You can only control what you can control, and that is pretty much how you care and how you obey. Let God take care of the rest…you just Go and Be Obedient, and others will follow!
Two Final Notes
If you need help setting up a trip, contact the International Mission Board or go to imb.org/students to find trips you can go on without needing an entire group to fill it. They will give you everything you need to train and mobilize for the trip. They will also help you track the money individuals have raised for the trip.
The International Mission Board has assigned missionaries to every Southern Baptist Church in America. The Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC) can help you find out who that is or give you others to partner with as well. If you don’t have a missionary, then contact the ABSC and they can set you up with one. They love seeing Arkansas Baptist churches partnering with Arkansas missionaries serving around the globe!