1. Presently there are 4,000 to 5,000 openings for full-time missionaries needed to be

filled among North American Protestant mission agencies....that’s just to keep

pace...and if we just keep pace we lose the battle for souls anyway.

2. The road to recovery will not be easy. You can expect resistance if change is to occur.

a) Of course, our enemy, the devil, will resist us every step of the way, because

he does not want us to succeed.

b) But don’t be too shocked to find out that well-meaning Christians will resist

us as well. Many just will refuse to believe that the ministry is truly

vanishing. Others are just too comfortable to be disturbed. Still, many

will hide...hide themselves and their children---from life-time ministry.

3. Let’s look at some areas we must give our attention.

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1. Christian parents who really love their children must love them the way

God loves His Son....by giving them.

2. Our society has gone to the extreme...babies are aborted with absolutely

no second thought, no consideration for the value of human life.

Others in the camp of the Christians will deprive their children of the

right kind of spiritual life.

3. Psalm 127:3...

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.

a) Our children are on loan to us from the bank of Heaven.

b) We are only to be stewards over raising them.

c) Many parents know that one day they will release their children

physically. Sadly, few understand that the place for many

of them would be in the ministry...and there’s been no

in-put, no training, no encouragement for lifetime ministry.

4. Could we just remember:

1. A Jewess and a believer in Christ...but married to an unbelieving Greek.

2. She and her mother, Lois, both raised Timothy in the faith...and years

later Timothy trusted Christ.

a) Both this godly grandmother and mother saw to it that Timothy

was taught the Scriptures from early childhood.

b) The time came when Paul came looking for a young travel

companion on his second missionary journey...and

Lois knew the brethren at Lystra and Iconium commended

her son to Paul as one worthy of lifetime service.

Acts 16:1-3 indicates Paul came and wanted Timothy to

join him....LEAVE HOME...leave his parents.

This is what she trained him to do...he was a heritage of the Lord

and she obviously understood that.

This was her opportunity to give her "talent" back to the Lord, the

talent he requires all of His stewards to invest.

4. Don’t think for a moment she didn’t cry...don’t think her mother’s heart

didn’t ache.

5. Too many parents are hiding their children from the Lord, from full-time

Christian work.

6. Go to many Christian schools and ask the graduates how many are going

to the mission field...to pastor...to teach. Count it the exception if

you find one.

Very few are holding up service to the Lord as an option. Kids are

not being urged to serve the Lord in a full-time capacity.

7. Christian parents do not force their children into the ministry...they are just to use every opportunity they have to encourage, to recommend the ministry to their children.

8. My greatest gift to God, beyond myself, is my children.

9. When they are in the center of God’s will, they are safer there than

any place we could place them as parents.

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1. Example: Barnabas

b) Barnabas worked to recruit Paul to the ministry!

2. Andrew heard the call of John the Baptist and he went out and recruited

Both of these men "recruited" or evangelized... and isn’t that

what witnessing/soul winning is all about? Recruitment.

5. Elijah anointed Elisha to become a prophet of God.

7. Those saved to serve don’t deliberate long; they just get busy.

1. While we can see how important our youth pastor is, we must understand that this is not his role alone.

2. The joys of the ministry ought to ever be kept before young people

in our church.

3. Never grow tire of the appeal being made to young people for full

time Christian service...may they always be frequent.

4. May we each take on the challenge of one day being able to look back

on our lives and see our influence of recruiting people for full-

time Christian work.

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1. Institutions that used to be primarily for the training of pastors and

missionaries became side-tracked with other secular vocations.

2. The strength of our Christian colleges will greatly be determined by

the strength of our churches.

Remember: The local church should be the primary recruiter for

full-time workers, not the Christian college.

Therefore, churches should exert more influence on Christian colleges if they are to support them with their dollars. The Bible colleges are to serve the churches.

3. Why should a local church support a Christian college when less than

15% are going into life-time ministry?

Sadly, many Christian colleges, once they are financially established, are entirely unconcerned about the church. It’s as if

they have come to live in "an ivory tower" and are out-of-touch

with the needs on the frontlines of winning people to Christ.

#1. How well does the controlling board understand the historic mission

of the Christian college?

#2. Is the curriculum so diversified that the program for pastoral training

is losing its prominent place?

#3. How broad has the word "ministry" become---does it include any

vocation pursued by a Christian?

#4. Does the college president feature pastoral majors when appealing for

financial support, but the college actually funds more money to the

business department, for example?

#5. How well is the budget of the college administered in relationship to

its mission and commitment to putting laborers on the field?

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1. If the local church delegates its role as a recruiter for full-time Christian

workers to the some other agency, the ministry will eventually vanish.

That’s one reason we place such a strong emphasis on the local church---in every ministry we offer, it centers around our church--- from our church day school to our nursery ministry.

2. What the swamp is to the mosquito, the church is to the missionary.

The entire environment of the swamp is conducive to the hatching

of mosquitoes. If you want to hatch a mosquito, you head for the

swamp.

3. How well are our churches known for "hatching" missionaries?

We must change our thinking if we are not thinking of cultivating

an atmosphere in our local church that is conducive to the calling of life-time servants for the Lord.

1. Most of our members are not wealthy, just average income families.

Yet, our homes are filled with items waiting for the next community

yard sale. We literally have boxes of junk waiting for disposal.

2. We must consider what we give to the Lord in relationship to what we

spend on ourselves---especially if the things we are buying have

little or no eternal value.

3. Praying for workers is in, but personal sacrifice is out.

a) Why can’t we have members of our church who underwrite a

year in the education of a young pastor?

b) Why can’t we have members of our church who look for

young men and young women of ministry potential and

offer to pay their way to a Christian high school or Bible

college?

c) Why can’t we put off another year or two that new car, that new

home so we can help young people go through the training

years of becoming a missionary or a pastor?

4. We can do more---we must do more.

1. Things cost more than they did just three years ago...consider what the

health insurance costs are for missionaries; missionary giving has

not kept pace with real costs.

2. In 1990 American evangelicals gave only 2.7% of their annual incomes to the Lord’s work...and of the total amount given to the Lord’s work, only a fraction of it went to world missions....the rest is used for maintaining the local ministry.

3. The average monthly support for a missionary couple:

1965 $521

1980 $1,554

1985 $2,017

1990 $2,581

Every time we hear of a weakening dollar on the world market we

need to pray for those missionaries who’s ministries are affected.

4. We must strengthen the ministry on the foreign field without weakening the home base.

1. While we must give more, even sacrificially, there is another element

that is a part of the solution to the vanishing ministry.

2. Each new church planted in this country is a church that should be

actively supporting home and foreign missions.

3. Remember, America has 96 million people---or 40% of our population are not affiliated with any religious group. In addition to this,

100 million people have little actual involvement with a local church.

One estimate is that we need 1.5 million new church in America now.

4. And many of the existing churches are in some form of spiritual decay---

that is, they are dying from within.

The more missions budgets we have, the more institutions training

pastors and missionaries we can support...the more trained and sent

out, the more churches that are planted.

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1. What’s the plan?

#4. Plant more churches at home to broaden the base for missionary support.