The Church of the Good Shepherd

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GLOBAL OUTREACH
Global Outreach Foundations \| CGS Overseas Workers \| Global Outreach Events \| Strategic Vision and Goals
2008 Short-Term Missions Trips

STRATEGIC VISION AND GOALS

The Church of the Good Shepherd seeks to make a specific contribution to spreading God's glory among the nations, and for this reason the GO Team wants our congregation to understand how we use certain guidelines to help us target our work. The following is an article written by Ross for the February 2006 CGS Cross & Staff Newsletter.

CGS Global Outreach & Short-Term Missions If you have a limited supply of water, should you hook it up to a sprinkler or a pressure washer? The Global Outreach team (GO Team) at CGS has been working on this very question. There are a vast number of very good ministry opportunities and needs around the world—far more than any one church could take on. Should we hook our resources to a sprinkler or a pressure washer? The answer that we sense from the Spirit, again and again, is the pressure washer. Then where do we aim those resources? And since we are able to say “Yes” to only a subset of the vast requests and opportunities before us, how do we make those decisions? For many years, we have used a set of general values for making long-term commitments. More recently we have found the need for specific values to guide our short-term missions program. Please allow me to lay out the strategic values that have historically directed the GO Team and that we affirm to be the most valuable way for CGS short-term teams to continue proclaiming Christ among all nations and peoples (Rev. 7:9). The Five Strategic Values are:
1.	Church Planting or Church Planting Related Focus:
	Since its inception, the PCA has focused on church planting. The PCA’s own growth came by starting new churches, and most research on church growth in the United States and around the world indicates that starting churches is the most effective way to reach people with the Gospel. What’s more, this goal of planting churches among particular people groups strategically addresses the cross-cultural call in the New Testament. The PCA’s mission board, Mission to the World (MTW), states on their website “Our mission is to build church-planting movements, whose energy continues to grow far into the future, long after we may be gone. Vibrant, nationally-led churches around the world will grow and multiply, transforming the culture around them.” The goal of all global outreach should be the creation of indigenous, self-sustaining local churches. The establishment of local churches also reduces the possibility of imperialism, cultural insensitivity and other inappropriate use of power in the name of ministry. Thus, church planting around the world is our highest value.
2.	P3-P2 Focused (The P-Scale is a means of comparing the different cultural distances that potential converts need to move in order to join the nearest church.)
	Great diversity exists in the world in terms of how geography affects people’s ability to hear the gospel. There are those sitting in pews who have never understood or sought the Gospel. There are non-Christians in a city such as Durham with easy accessibility to a church. Then there are non-Christians who would have to learn a new language or travel to a new country to hear the Gospel. These examples represent P0, P1, and P3 respectively. Someone in the first group (P0) needs only to listen and humble his/her heart to the Gospel. A person in the last group (P3) needs someone from outside the culture to enter in and bring the Gospel to him/her. While all people are of equal worth, our concern is for those with unique barriers to the Gospel and that the Gospel goes to all distinct people groups or "ethne" (Mt. 28:19).
3.	Connection with Long-term Workers
	Aware of criticism that could come as a result of the GO Team’s selection of short-term missions trips, we are striving to connect our short-term teams with CGS long-term workers in ways that are synergistic to the goals of the latter. We want our short-term teams to be strategic, to bring value, and unassailably be good investments. One of our own workers, Frank S_, when asked if he preferred to have $40,000 (note: this is not the typical figure for a Short-Term Team, just the one used in the question to Frank)or a short-term team, answered, “Both!” Short-term teams supplement the long-term strategies and commitments we have made. Long-term workers often request and direct our short-term teams. This close connection enables our teams to make valuable contributions as they work united with our long-term workers.
4.	Two Target Categories: (1) Urban Asia, and (2) a Specific Non-Christian Group
	The majority of our long-term workers minister to people in these two categories, which also represent the greatest current spiritual needs of our world. Urban Asia has experienced enormous population growth, which will likely continue. And the specific, non-Christian group represents the greatest absence of indigenous churches in the world. We want to be used by God to make a contribution to the Gospel going forth in these two categories.
5.	MTW and Other Reformed-Ministry Contexts
	While we are concerned that the Gospel, rather than Presbyterianism, is proclaimed in all the earth, we believe our theological values and convictions facilitate ministry. We desire to work in contexts and with partners where a reformed view is part of the foundation for ministry, though not necessarily the particular content of that ministry. These ministry values are aimed at allowing The Church of the Good Shepherd to make a significant, strategic, specific impact toward “the knowledge of the glory of the LORD filling the earth, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14). May God use us for His glory.
This short article can’t communicate all that the GO Team has been working on. We’ll communicate more in the future. Meanwhile we invite you to HOPS (4th Friday of the month at CGS) for an opportunity to hear and discuss these issues further.

919-490-1634

Jonathan Stocker, Global Outreach chair
JStocker@ICAGEN.com
919-945-0635

Page updated January 25, 2008.