Missionaries - XL Ministries

Missionary Leadership

“It is my conviction that the local church must take the primary responsibility of training their missionaries to take the gospel to the unreached peoples of the world. This is not the responsibility of a sending agency; it is the task of the church. Let us not fail in this endeavor any longer. ”

Brian Murphy, Executive Director , XL Ministries

It is both vital and a command from Scripture for the church to train their missionaries in Bible knowledge and theology before they leave for the field. We should not expect all this training to be done in a Bible college or seminary. But the church must not only see that prospective missionaries have head knowledge about the Bible and theology, but that those truths are being applied in their lives. In other words, the local church needs to know their missionaries before they send them. Again, I’ve learned this the hard way. I wrongly assumed that just because I had wonderful people who wanted to go to the mission field, they had the maturity needed to get the job done on the field. Looking back now, I see that I sent them out too quickly, not taking the time needed to look deeply into their character, parenting, spiritual lives, etc. and to help them grow to maturity in these areas prior to them being sent to the pressure cooker of the field.

In today’s church we feel the urgency to send our fellow Christians all over the world to preach the gospel of Christ. In that haste, we often bypass critical training that is needed to equip those missionaries to successfully and effectively plant churches that will continue long term to preach the gospel and make disciples. Rocky Wyatt meets with Pastor-Teacher Tom Pennington from Countryside Bible Church, who is also the voice of The Word Unleashed, and Brian Murphy, Executive Director of XL Ministries. They unfold the state of missions in the church today, particularly regarding the biblical responsibility of the local church to qualify, train and equip missionaries.