By Ronald E. Keener
David Horner Senior Pastor, Providence Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC
David Horner’s heart for missions goes back to his teen years when he was invited on trips to Jamaica and Haiti, and both were “eye opening experiences that showed me that the need for the Gospel extended far beyond the local community.” Today, the senior pastor of Providence Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC, a church of 2,200 adults and 500 children, has a concern that the church’s own success has become the scourge of missions outreach overseas.
He’s written an informed book, When Missions Shapes the Mission, and in the opening sentence, he asks: “Why are more churches not engaged in a more practical and substantial way in taking the Gospel to the nations?” He has a few answers:
“A wide variety of factors come into play — church growth at home drains energy and focus from efforts to reach nations, ethnocentric perspectives breed isolationism, the ‘American dream’ fosters an entitlement mentality in churches and individuals (that we must be happy and comfortable even if it means neglecting God’s will).
“Pastors have few missions role models and even less incentive to give up local resources for gains that are largely invisible on the home front,” he tells Church Executive.
Horner grew up in a mill church under the preaching of G.W. Swinney, or “Preacher Swinney” as he was known to everyone, on Mill Hill in Burlington, NC. He notes Swinney was a fiery evangelist who had been pastor since 1927 and retired in 1969, Horner’s junior year in high school. “I came to Christ during a fall revival meeting when I was nine years old. The church was very strong on evangelism, but as a young boy I did not hear much about what it meant to grow up in Christ until my teen years in youth group.”
When did you really get interested in missions work, over and above so many other aspects of church life? How did it evolve in your life and ministry?
Soon after learning what it means to grow in Christ through student Bible studies, a group out of the local YMCA led by J. L. Williams was challenged to see the Gospel on a broader scale than suburban Burlington. In the summer of 1969, I went with them on my first missions trip. We spent a little over a week in Jamaica and the next year followed up with a trip that also included Haiti. But missions work has never been elevated above other aspects of the work of the church. It simply was a part of the big picture of how the Gospel shapes the priorities of a church. As a balanced focus for ministry in the local church must include an emphasis on worship and discipleship, evangelism and caring ministries, it cannot neglect missions as a major part of its calling. Missions is never isolated from the mainstream of the life of the church.
How is the conduct of missions different today from, say a decade ago — for better or worse?
A weak economy has reduced the funds available for missions at a time when we should be seeing a dramatic increase in the levels of our investment in taking the Gospel to the nations. In my own denomination, a reduction in workers has left many fields with insufficient resources to make progress in reaching unreached people groups.
At the same time that problem is growing, opportunities are opening up as travel becomes easier, a new generation is catching a vision for God’s heart for the nations and mission trips are generating a higher level of commitment to go and stay. In the past decade, we have seen a greater willingness to get up and go among the members of our congregation than ever before — both short-term and career.
If individuals, churches and denominations will demonstrate a balanced priority with missions giving, a new wave of workers will gladly go as the funds will then be available.
You founded your congregation in 1978 that is said to be a “mission-based church.” How is that expressed in real terms in the life of your congregation?
Among the many points of emphasis in a growing church, missions is not pushed to the margins so that other ministry efforts can take pre-eminence. In worship, we often speak of missions and present teams and families who are heading off to “parts unknown” so that the entire congregation sees them, prays for them and knows that people are constantly going.
Budgets reflect our desire to allocate funds to support missions financially. Our goal is to keep missions giving in the budget as a way to demonstrate that it is a priority and not an after thought. Giving to missions beyond the budget often approaches the same levels as the amount designated within the budget.
An annual missions conference has become one of the ministry highlights of the year. The Friday night banquet usually has a waiting list of folks who want to come but space limits make it impossible to accommodate all who want to be there. Regular prayer emphases from the pulpit and in monthly prayer lists also keep missions in front of our folks. The book lays out the top ten best practices embraced by 120 churches who responded to a survey asking just that question.
You say that many U.S. churches have abandoned global missions. Why do you think that is so, just in the past generation?
For some it is theological: They might agree on paper that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone but either they think that the nations will be saved through some other means, or worse, they are not that concerned about the condition of their hearts before God.
For others, it is a matter of pragmatics. It is tough enough to give the necessary attention to local ministries and congregational peace and growth. But when the appeal comes to extend the effort even further, many are just too swamped to give that mandate the proper consideration.
You speak about the “systemic neglect” of churches toward missions. What do you mean by that?
No church worth its salt intends to abandon or neglect missions but in the crush of other pressing needs, voices on the other side of the world have a hard time being heard. Programs, policies, strategies and other products of church systems can consume the available time and resources on the home front before addressing missions. Therefore, people will gladly give missions the leftovers but it often does not occur to them to make it an essential part of the ministry effort.
For many, missions support is “sending money” rather than “sending people.” Missions is often seen as the work of “professional ministry”?
Ministry of all sorts have degenerated into the work of paid professionals. The idea of pastors equipping the saints for ministry frequently gives way to a faulty impression that the so called “clergy” are supposed to do the ministry. The same philosophy often follows into missions thinking. Better to send money and pay someone to do it than have to wrestle with a call from God to go yourself.
You call your own denomination, the Southern Baptists, to account on its missions work. What do you see that could be done better?
Southern Baptists offer a great case study on this topic. For the past decade, among Protestant denominations, they have clearly led the way in support for and sending of missionaries. So if one of the leading denominations has such a hard time keeping its focus where it says they want to be, that should be a call to others to right the ship and get back on board with biblical priorities in missions.
As far as what could be done better, the most obvious areas would be the redistribution of budgeted funds so that a great portion of monies collected actually make it to send the gospel to the nations. In most cases, only about 17 to 18 percent of every dollar contributed at the denominational level makes it to international missions. The case gets worse the further down the chain you go.
Churches send less and less to missions causes and individuals are notoriously neglectful regarding the biblical responsibility/privilege for sound stewardship. Second only to funding would be to retool our thinking about who should go, can go, will go. Too few are willing to pull up stakes and give themselves to go. It is far easier to say you will give and pray than to get up and go!
What’s the Great Commission Resurgence of the SBC and what can we expect of it that will be better than done in the past for evangelizing?
Seeing the neglect of missions and responding to the outcries of many in the denomination for a better representation of gifts going to missions, a commission was given to a group of pastors and leaders from around the country to study the situation and make some recommendations about how to fix it. That was done and now it is in the hands of state denominational organizations to determine how much and how quickly the recommendations should be implemented.
“The place held by missions in the church today is marked by controversy and confusion and competition.” What do you mean in each of those three categories?
Controversy persists among churches confused by all the voices competing for pre-eminence for their time, attention and resources. One church advocates a greater emphasis on being missional in the surrounding community while another next door sees that as an abandonment of the commission to the nations.
Confused members hear convincing reasons for the approach their church is taking but cannot help but think that they might be missing something in their approach. With a limited amount of funds and willing people available, the competition for both can become a source of contention for those making decisions about budgets and ministry plans.
We have tried to promote a balanced biblical approach that operates on a breadth of biblical principles, taking into consideration the wide range of responsibilities given to the church. Then instead of battling for top billing, each area of ministry complements the others and contributes to a greater clarity in understanding a consistent vision for what it means to serve Christ as his body.
What is meant by a church having a “sending mentality?”
For a church to have a sending mentality requires that it learn how to give away what it does not own—that is everything! We are merely stewards of what has been entrusted to us and that includes the people in our churches. If we are constantly looking for ways to enhance the work of the kingdom of Christ, we will be less likely to think about how to keep people and be more likely to figure out how to send them.
“Pastors must be at the front of the charge,” you write. Any thoughts on how to marshall the troops?
There is nothing mystical or particularly brilliant about it. Just teach and preach the Scriptures faithfully and the Lord will stir the people to be diligent to apply what they hear and learn. In the course of working through the Bible in expositional teaching, you cannot help but see the heart of God for the nations and then the people will begin to reflect the heart of God in their thinking.
Then, lead by example. Go yourself and encourage others on your leadership teams to go and take others with them. Nothing beyond the Scriptures themselves will excite missions passion like being there yourself and seeing the need, sensing the joy and communicating the wonder of Christ first-hand.
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Sampling of superior missions programs
Westover Church in Greensboro, NC, has long been a regional leader in missions.
The Summit in Durham and Calvary Baptist in Winston-Salem are two other notable North Carolina churches.
Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, AL, Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, The Chapel in Akron, OH, Briarwood Presbyterian and The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL are all strong missions churches. — DH
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“Let’s dream a godly dream. What if you committed to step up and lead your church in the pursuit of becoming a mission-focused church?” asks David Horner in When Missions Shapes the Mission: How You and Your Church Can Reach the World (B&H Publishing Group, 2011)
