When it comes to cross-cultural, overseas missions, you and I probably have some common assumptions. For example, we probably consider a final goal to be the establishment of an indigenous church that is no longer dependant on foreign involvement. Truth is, though, this isn’t the final stage of successful mission. The next stage is one that, in my opinion, occurs so rarely that it’s no wonder we are mostly unaware of it. I am referring to the fundamental shift in the self image of a Christian community from seeing itself primarily as a mission-receiving entity to one that is mission-sending. A number of churches in developing countries have not moved to this stage, partly because Western mission policies have caused them to become excessively dependent upon benefactor churches.

The work of World Parish Ministries (WPM), a ministry of the Mission Society, is successfully tackling this issue by enabling churches in traditionally mission-receiving contexts to become mission senders. At a conference convened by WPM a few weeks ago in Costa Rica, about 60 leaders from eight Latin American countries gathered for a six-day missions mobilization conference. The purpose of the event was to challenge, to motivate, and to resource Latin leaders to guide their churches into effective global outreach. With the mandate of “the whole church taking the whole Gospel to the whole world,” the conference celebrated the growing Latin American involvement in world missions and encouraged the expansion of this movement. Presentations were made by delegates from several countries that addressed topics such as ministries to at-risk children, funding missions through fielding bi-vocational workers, and the challenge of providing effective missionary care for cross-cultural workers. According to the Rev. Dick McClain, executive director of WPM, “Bringing together such a group of key leaders and sharing WPM’s ministry with them as a group resulted in tremendous synergy, as Latin leaders shared needs and visions, challenges and opportunities with one another.”

Clearly, the event had a significant impact on those who attended. One bishop stated, “This has changed my life. I am returning to Mexico with a new vision.” Virtually all of the attendees who are involved in training pastors and missionaries indicated a similar enthusiasm through their expressed intention to include WPM’s Global Vision Seminar material in their future instructional program. Church leaders expressed a zeal to send missionaries, and to partner with each other in mission. McClain added, “We anticipate that the long-term impact of this conference will be that numerous missionary-sending movements will be launched throughout Central and South America, accelerating the fulfillment of the Great Commission.” Indeed, leaders who attended this seminar will have already conducted similar Global Vision Seminars in both Brazil and Paraguay.

This movement is not limited to Latin America. For example, a similar conference was held in Ghana, West Africa, earlier this year. It was hosted by the Methodist Church of Ghana and heralded as their “First International Missions Conference.” In a manner similar to the experience of the Latin American conference attendees, the African delegates sensed overwhelmingly that the Holy Spirit was compelling them to be mission senders.

Mission work is not complete when a ministry merely becomes established among a certain people group in a specific area. It happens when that new ministry becomes a mission-sending entity itself. After all, when Jesus spoke of “fruit that remains” (John 15:16), he was not referring to pears carefully preserved in a jar.