Here at North Life Baptist Church, we are preparing this spring to enter yet another annual missions conference-something we have deemed a nonnegotiable from the very first year in our fledgling history.   Is the annual missions conference at your local church really still worth the investment of our time, the missionary’s travel, and everyone’s collective money and prayer?  Contrary to many in our day, the answer is a resounding YES; the church will never reach it’s full impact and capacity without it!

May I remind you of the following dimensions exclusively found in your local church missions conference:

1.  We get to feel the heart of God that longs to reach the world with the Gospel.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  Your family and church need to be moved by the insightful videos, tearful testimonies, and internationally-flavored preaching.

2.  We get to see in the missionary delegates modern-day palpable sacrifice and surrender found in all the great heroes of the faith.

Philippians 4:9 “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do.”  Our primary and adolescent youths need to be exposed to these “real-life” spiritual giants by shaking their hands, holding their prayer cards, and fellowship with their children.

3.  We get to invest above our tithe in specific and endearing ministries that will greatly impact eternity.

2 Corinthians 8:3 “For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves.”  Our spoiled hearts need reminded of the desperate needs of the physically and spiritually impoverished through vivid pictures and first person accounts of places we have never been.

4.  We get to shoulder fully the weight of our responsibilities of world-wide evangelization both home and abroad.

Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  Without the Holy Spirit working through these dear missionaries, we will never fully abandon our pursuits and commit to reaching both those across the street and around the world.

5. We get to believe that it is possible to fulfill the Great Commission in power of the Spirit.

Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”  Our doubting hearts desperately need the regular testimonies and triumphs of missionary delegates to remind us that God’s calling to reach the world always assumes the enabling of his comprehensive power.

According to Dr. Don Sisk, a statesman of world-wide missions, “Faith promise giving and an annual missions conference will not detract from your church, but will add a whole new dimension.”   World-wide evangelism means we are on the victorious offensive, not backpedaling.  A missions conference discards the “flat map” mentality of this world and replaces it with three-dimensional faces of desperate souls, city skylines without the Gospel, and a personal zeal to reach them.  Your local church CANNOT afford to scratch out this most important calendar week of the year nor your family to miss the expanding dimensions of God’s worldview awaiting this year!  Be there for your wife and kids, for your church, for your pastor, for your community, for your world, for your Lord.