Sending Church

We have been so blessed to have such supportive churches who have helped use in our ministry, not least of which are Mansfield Baptist Church in Mansfield, OH (where I grew up), Forrest Hills Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA (where Teri grew up), and Carrollton Baptist Temple in Carrollton, OH (where we were members for several years after moving from Mansfield).

Our sending church, Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA, is a great model to every church especially in the area of sending out missionaries and preachers.  It is such a blessing to have such a great home church.  Pastor Gardner is a tremendous pastor and mentor to me, and I want to thank him and the members of Vision Baptist Church for all that they do.

Here are just a few of the ways that Vision makes such a difference in our ministry as our sending church:

• Faithful financial support. Every month they support us financially, they take up special offerings, and keep our needs before the people.
• Regular prayer support. Vision constantly makes the needs of the missionaries sent out of the church a priority in prayer.  We get frequent emails and phone calls from members saying they are praying for us.
• Regular communication at all levels. From the pastor, the staff, to individual members of the church, we continually hear from our sending church.
• Consistent accountability. We are very accountable to our church through very frequent emails and updates about the ministry and the work we are doing.
• Sacrificially investment. Our pastor and church are committed to a very sacrifically level at investing in us and helping us to be effective and fruitful in our work.  From ideas to designing literature, to material, advice, and family help, they are continually investing.
• Family spirit. Our church is a family.  We are a part of that family.  And even though we are thousands of miles away, we still feel like a family.
• Frequent visits. We get visited by our pastor and our church.  They come and see the work and keep the work before the people.
• Modelling ministry. Our church is a growing, discipling, training, and Biblical church that we can model the churches we start after.  We love having a church to look to see how to do the ministry.  We use their tracts, their discipleship programmes, and many of their ideas in our ministry here.

I could list many other ways they are help to us.  What are some other ideas you might have for how effective sending churches?