Missions

Faith Baptist's Philosophy of Missions

WHY WE DO MISSIONS AT FAITH 
Matthew 28:18-20 "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Acts 1:8  "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." 

THE GOAL OF MISSIONS AT FAITH 
We want to Engage our world with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.


HOW WE DO MISSIONS AT FAITH 
We believe that we can best meet our goal by following these five principles.

I. Strategic Partnering 
Strategy is defined as a plan or method for obtaining a specific goal or result. Our plan is to continually work with select missionaries in order to effectively do our part in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Partnership is defined as a relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal. With this in mind, we have committed to a long-term partnership with several missionaries who meet the following criteria:

• Evangelism and Discipleship – they are committed to the mission of Finding and Feeding Fully.
• Plan – they have submitted a viable, long-term plan for reaching their people group that includes our participation and genuine assistance.
• Communication – we hear from them on a regular basis and they are relatively easy to contact.
• Ease of Travel – they live in locations that are generally easily accessible and not overly cost-prohibitive. 

Currently Faith has 4 mission partners:
Trey & Robin Cates in Northfield, VT
Rob & Katy in Western Europe
Ben & Shellie in Asia
Good News in Action in El Salvador and Central America

We look forward to adding additional partnerships in the future, but will only do so after prayerful consideration, in cooperation with our strategy, and only when additional partnerships will not adversely affect our ability to fulfill our commitment to our current partners.

In order to reduce confusion and increase support for our partners, it will be our general practice not to promote trips other than those to our strategic partners.

II. Going
Mission trips should not be “evangelical tourism” and are not an end in and of themselves. Rather, we encourage believers to go for the following reasons:
1. To gain an understanding of the vast lostness throughout the world.
2. To witness the various ways that God is working throughout the world and to see a glimpse of God’s heart for the nations.
3. To provide genuine assistance and encouragement to our partner families as they work to make disciples in their people group.
4. To learn that missions is not a one-time trip, but a continual commitment to reach the unreached people of the world.
5. To allow participants to experience genuine sacrifice for the Kingdom of God and increase their faith in God’s provision.
6. To open the eyes of participants to see the mission field at home and give them courage to be on mission there.

III. Giving
We believe the Bible teaches that local churches and individual believers have the responsibility to financially support missionaries. As a church, we do this through these designated offerings: The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.


IV. Praying 
We believe prayer is a vital part of missions around the world. Missionaries face many trials and situations that require prayer to overcome. They often see spiritual warfare and demonic activity, and many times they are the only Christian presence in an area. For this reason it is absolutely crucial for us to constantly lift them up in prayer. Through prayer we actively participate in the ministries of our missionaries. Our primary means for promoting prayer for missionaries is our Missionary Adoption Program through the Sunday School and our Missions Prayer Team.


V. Training
We believe it is essential to adequately train and equip mission trip participants for the ministry they will be participating in. Training is necessary because:
1. We do not want to engage in actions that offend our host culture.
2. We do not want to endanger our partner families, their ministries, or national believers. 
3. Training ensures that participants will be best prepared to handle culture shock and other adverse conditions encountered on a mission trip.