Missions Discipleship: Some Practical Ideas

I mentioned in a previous post the need I feel for a return to missions discipleship. Here are some ideas for individuals, families, and churches. These are just off of the top of my head, so if you have additional ideas, post them in the comments section:

Read missionary biographies.  Some good ones I've read are:
Through Gates of Splendor &
The Shadow of the Almighty (both about Jim & Elisabeth Elliot)
The End of the Spear (about Nate Saint)
Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret,
Lord's of the Earth (about Stan & Pat Dale)
Peace Child (about Don & Carol Richardson)
And the Word Came With Power (about Joanne Shetler)
William Carey
Jim & Betty Stam
Imprisoned in Iran (about Dan Baumann)
Bruchko (my all time favorite about Bruce Olson)
Torches of Joy (about John & Helen Dekker)
Mary Slessor
Eric Liddell
Gladys Aylward
I Dared to Call Him Father (about Bilquis Sheikh)
The Heavenly Man (about Brother Yun)
Total Abandon (about Gary and Bonnie Witherall,)
Jesus Freaks

Just a note about reading these to children.  Some of these biographies include tales of martyrdom or violence. The biographies from the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series (several have been included above), however, are good reading material for both adults and children. Hero Tales is a collection of short biographies of Christian Heroes that our children enjoyed us reading aloud to them. Many of these biographies have been made into movies.  

Go to missions conferences (ACMC, Urbana, Missions Fest, MissionExpo, Mission Connexion, etc.)  meet missionaries there, sign up to get their prayer letters.

Host a missions conference at your church or work together with other churches to host a community missions conference.

Read the book From Jerusalem to Iryan Jira to get an overview of missions history.

Visit the website for the US Center for World Missions.


Sign up for Missions Frontiers or read it online (a publication of the US Center for World Missions).

Take a Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course on line or in person if one is available in your area or other courses available through  US Center for World Missions.

Find out which missionaries your church supports and ask to get their prayer letters.

Read prayer letters during family devotions and pray for the missionaries.

Write to your missionaries.  (confession: I am really bad at this!) If they are in closed countries, make sure to get a list of guidelines for letters from them or their sending agency.

Pray regularly for missionaries: for fruitfulness, strong marriages, their children, team unity, energy, vision, wisdom, prevention of burnout, refreshment, finances, spiritual warfare issues, loneliness & isolation, language learning, adapting to culture, friends, etc.

Invite missionaries on furlough into your home.

Pray about going on a short term missions trip or better yet, visiting a long term missionary on his or her field (make sure this would not be an inconvenience first). Be sure to take your children. Did I really say that? Yes, especially if it is a third world country. Trust God for your family’s safety. It will be an experience that will change your and your kid’s perspective and priorities forever.

Advocate for missionaries in your church (see if you can post their prayer letters if they are not in closed countries, see if you can do regular "missions spotlights").

Become aware of the persecuted church. Go to Voice of the Martyrs' website and write to a prisoner.

Visit websites of various missions organizations and find out what is happening in the Global Church.

Go through prayer books like Operation World or  take your children through Window on the World.

Include "missions moments" in your children's Sunday School program or VBS.  This can be done weekly in a short segment or once a month, take the whole Sunday School time to focus on a missionary or country to learn about and pray for.  You could include items, food, songs, etc. from that country to make it more hands on. Be sure to invite visiting missionaries to come and share with the children.

Set an example to your children of giving regularly to missionaries. By supporting a missionary, you are helping to fulfill a task God has asked all of us to do -- preach the Gospel to all nations.  My husband likes to use this analogy:  We all have to clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our cars, etc.  These are tasks that need to be done.  We can either hire someone to do it for us or we can do it ourselves.  Similarly, I can't reach those in remote tribal areas of Tanzania, because God has a calling for me here in the States.  So, I am helping friends of mine fulfill the Great Commission  in that area of the world by praying for and financially supporting them in there work there.

Sponsor a child in a third world country through Compassion International or World Vision.

Put together Christmas shoe box packages through organizations like Samaritan's Purse.

Write your missionaries a thank you note.  You will both shock and bless them. We recently received one from a supporter who cut off part of the  thank you we had sent and mailed it back to us with a personal thank you. I also received an encouraging email recently from my friend, Christine. Those words of thanks and encouragement can go so far in preventing burnout, especially if the missionary is living overseas, in a foreign culture, away from family and friends.


Host a "Christmas in July" party.  Put together Christmas missionary care packages in the summertime. Contact the missionaries first to see if they would want this (don't assume).  Have them give you a wish list of items to be included in a care package.  Make sure to find out if there are any customs restrictions.  Have a Christmas tree in the lobby or some other place in the church with paper ornaments with specific items from the wish list written on them.  Be sure to include ornaments with the shipping costs written on them as shipping packages overseas can be really expensive (this is something to consider when deciding which wish list items to put on the ornaments).  Those who participate come to the party and assemble the packages.  The church I attended in high school used to do this in the context of  an international dinner.

Organize and facilitate a missions prayer meeting for missionaries in your church.


Become aware of the physical and spiritual poverty of countries the 10/40 window and  pray for that area.


Again, if anyone has additional ideas to share, please post them in the comments section.