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On July 1o Pat, Tim and I went to Memphis to meet with four other churches and the leadership of the International Mission Board (IMB) to discuss the process of sending missionaries from the local church. The other churches involved with LifePoint in the process are Cornerstone, Pinelake, The Church at BrookHills and Summit Church. The gathering was very informative and historic I believe for the way mission is implemented and carried out in our denomination.

The main focus of the meeting centered around how the local church can lead out in being the mission sending organization and the IMB return to being a facilitating organization for the  local church. Because of the local church’s abdication of it’s responsibility the IMB has had to pick up the task of being the sending organization. God has ordained the local church not para-church organizations. Somewhere along the time line of history the local church got involved in looking inward for too long of a period of time and the mission stopped being the “main thing”.  Let me be clear, we do not want to stop being cooperative with others or change any offerings. The local church must get back to sending, strategizing, and caring for the missionaries that come from their church. It will take all of us to accomplish the task, but we must take responsibility for those we send and how they are sent.

Sometime in the next month each of the churches that were represented will have their Mission pastor travel to Richmond to hammer out more specific details of what the partnership could look like for churches that are ready to take the task of sending missionaries from the local church. Please pray for the leadership of the IMB as they seek to help the church mobilize it’s members to spread the fame of God around the world to each nation and people group. Pray also for the local leadership of the church to be bold and responsible for the sending of the church into the world to Spread His Fame among the Nations.