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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.

Friday July 10 will be a huge day for LifePoint Church.

Over the past several years God has re-arranged everything at LifePoint to focus on sending leaders out to reach the nations for His glory. In the last four or five years we have mobilized around 500 people on short-term mission opportunities around the world. We have watched God call a families to South Asia, South America and West Africa. Today, LifePoint is in the process of sending two church planting teams to live long-term in other parts of the world. One of those teams will plant in Thailand and the other will plant in Belgium.

Well, this brings us to Friday July 10th. On this particular day our church will have the privilege of sending a short term team to Brazil, we are sending our Thailand team on a discovery trip, we are sending the Schroder’s to West Africa and some of our staff team will be in Memphis meeting with the senior leadership of the International Mission Board about new methods for partnership. No one can say LifePoint isn’t committed to seeing God’s glory spread throughout the nations.

Please pray for our church specifically on July 10th. Pray for God’s will to be done in each of these endeavors as we mobilize for the sake of God’s kingdom.