Churches Can Get Going on Missions

Does your church feel a calling from God  to go out and make disciples by sending short-term teams, long-term missionaries, or through cross-cultural encounters in your area?

Or maybe your church wants to live out your missional calling through disaster-relief ministry or reaching out in various ways to your community and neighborhood?

If these questions resonate with you, Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM), in conjunction with other agencies of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), can help.

“We see our mission as walking alongside churches and helping them to fulfill the Great Commission,” says Steve Van Zanen, CRWM’s director of Missions Education and Engagement.

As a way to assist churches, CRWM has put together and held, along with other agencies, several half-day GO (Global Outreach) Conferences.

Local church leaders including pastors, elders and deacons, mission committee or outreach team members and anyone interested in missions have attended these conferences, often held at a church.

A GO Conference addresses key issues and gives practical information on various aspects of local and global missions.

“The conference is especially for churches that would like to gain critical information on how they can best do outreach,” says Van Zanen.

The added value for churches,  says Van Zanen, is that CRWM and other agencies have many years of experience in missions that they can rely on in recommending approaches and strategies that have worked and those that haven’t.

Often, the conferences include a presentation by the Salaam Project, the CRC’s educational ministry that helps church members to love and to reach out to Muslims.

A GO Conference is scheduled at New Life CRC in Guelph, Ontario, on Feb. 9, 2013.

This conference will feature speakers and workshops that focus especially on the ministry of the Salaam Project.

But there are other topics as well, including “Are Missionaries Still Needed?” and “Global Partnerships: Are You Ready?”