H04. Missional Team A – Principles and Parameters
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H04. Missional Team A – Principles and Parameters
In some congregations, an evangelistic event might take place here and there. Elsewhere long-term prayers for non-believers are held or for the growth of the church. That’s great! Only rarely do I hear that someone practically teaches Christians the skills for personal contact with non-believers. Even less familiar is the idea of accompanying someone in successes and failures of ministry outside; for example, by listening, praying, sharing one’s own fresh experience with non-Christians, or even experimenting together among people.
Why
Several hundred Czech and Slovak believers went through distant or previously live Bridges to People. During the training, some will reach out to a few of their acquaintances, and some will start Discovery with them! It’s fantastic! But when they don’t have long-term support, a few weeks after the training their contact with non-believers gets rare, they forget to pray for their people and quickly they lose the basic skills of what they could actually say to those non-believers. Enthusiasm and effective ministry remains only as a memory. The Lord Jesus probably knew it; therefore he sent the disciples two by two, then discussed with them what it was like (Luke 10:17) and taught them other things or corrected their attitudes. Similarly, the apostle Paul always had at least a small team around him. Peter also took a group of brothers with him. (Acts 11:12)
From broad observation we say that
only those who have regular support, will persevere in the ministry to non-believers for a long time!
If one is alone in this ministry, they usually fade or burn out quite soon.
I don’t know what kind of support you have in your church for your personal ministry to non-Christians. We need a small team where everyone serves the unbelievers. We call it the “missional team”. There we can share our successes and failures and also discuss the thoughts and questions that swirl in my head about my contact with non-believers. All this is continuously a subject of mutual prayers and encouragement. The missional team may or may not give me advice on how to resolve a situation. But they pray with me, think with me, and next time they ask me important questions about what I did and how I did. With all this, we are building each other!
The Goal
The goal of the missional team is to support each other in making and building disciples who will make and build other disciples. Also a local or regional missional team can naturally aim to create a smaller new fellowship with new people. This site discusses this more in the section “G. The Movement and the Church“.
Who
For a missional team, we recommend three to six believers, all of whom are actively winning people for Jesus. If there are going to be more than seven of you, consider two smaller teams. In this way, you will create space for new disciples, who in the meantime will become believers and have a lot of non-believing friends. Even older believers can join the missional team; the essential thing is that they learn the tools well and most importantly they use them regularly with unbelievers! Regular and frequent personal contact of each member of the missional team with non-believers is fundamental; a mere spectator or theoretician may be a hindrance to others.
Connection
Ideally, a missional team meets in person, but sometimes they are quite effective also remotely! A combination is also possible: For example, three participants are together at someone’s home and one or two are connected via the Internet. Some missional teams operate across both republics.
Guides
The missional team does not have one leader. It consists of „guides“ who take turns guiding the parts.
Time and Frequency
A missional team meeting usually lasts around an hour or according to their agreement between thirty and ninety minutes. Thirty minutes is really just a quickie of mutual reports only in the parts labeled „never omit“. Ideally once a week, acceptable in two weeks; some teams faithfully encourage each other even monthly.
Coach
As coaches, we are ready to help you remotely with your start. We had missional teams in contact with a trainer for half a year. In the meantime, the believers learned it and grasped it into their own hands. Depending on the interest, a guide will be happy to call even afterwards: for support, questions, prayer… In order for something to really change around us with new people from the outside, and especially to persevere in this personal ministry to non-believers in the long-term, we simply need a missional team. In the next lessons, we will show its practical operation.
Thank you, Jesus, that even in the area of team support, you have wonderful biblical examples for us.