In last month’s article, entitled “Who Are We?” I presented our work to define seven values that we believe will be important for us to manifest in our quest to be obedient to the mission Jesus has given us. In this article, I present the work on our distinctives and the unique characteristics that define the World Mission Prayer League. We are different from most missions and wish to highlight that uniqueness and how it applies to what we do in mission and how we do it.
I’ll provide an example of each distinctive and its effect on our ministry. The distinctives might look familiar because they closely resemble distinctives in our Handbook. I thank our past and present workers who contributed much of the following!
Distinctive #1
Lutheran by Conviction: We commit to the doctrine of the Lutheran Church and the historic creeds. We encompass a variety of Lutheran synodical backgrounds. We also recognize our community is just a part of the church of Jesus Christ around the world, and we welcome the participation of all like-minded believers. I encourage you to look at our statement of faith on page five of our Handbook to know more about our beliefs. You will likely find that our Lutheran beliefs and faith statements resonate even if you are not Lutheran.
Just this week, we were thrilled to receive a spontaneous request from believers in Turkey who want to “pray for their country and other countries around the world.” We partner with those in the body of Christ who don’t profess to be Lutheran but are within the body of Christ, his church. Please join our growing movement in mobilizing prayer for the unreached, discipleship, and mission mobilization!
Distinctive #2
Serve as Scaffolding: We work always toward the goal of humble and productive cooperation in the broad mission of God. We anticipate and plan for our future departure or an exit strategy. It means we empower others and equip them as they build our faith as we walk together, and it means we recede into the background when we complete our task. As an example of this, an indigenous Lutheran church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has welcomed a revision of our joint Memorandum of Understanding to include a greater degree of language specifying our intentions to walk alongside them and not create dependency, which would threaten their growth in mobilizing their congregations in the mission of our Lord.
Distinctive #3
Share Resources Within Our Community: We generously share the Lord’s provision with fellow workers and partners. We “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) before the throne of grace. We enact an equity of compensation model that considers the unique needs of the individual worker and situation. It also means that we develop materials, tools, and training to share with partners at little to no cost.
Over the last year, several needs have been covered financially within our community, from vehicles for remote working areas that led to more unreached hearing about Jesus to enabling one of our families to return from their field of service.
Distinctive #4
Do Not Fundraise: We do not have a development office for fundraising, nor do we include the generation of funds in any job description. We trust that the Lord knows and will meet our needs, we pray for his provision, and we enable people to act on their calling without financial delays before they embark on the calling of Jesus. It also means that we dedicate the financial resources the Lord has given us toward the actual work rather than the support of the work.
A few months ago, I was in a session with other mission leaders, and the facilitator mentioned that she didn’t know of any other organizations that didn’t fundraise. The Lord leads and blesses other missions differently in that regard. However, when I hear so many stories of our staff’s excitement at how the Lord specifically answered their prayers in seemingly miraculous and timely ways, I know there is a strong appreciation for this distinctive. It presses us to depend on him for everything in his timing.
In closing, I encourage us all to live in conformity to God’s Word (Romans 12:2), rather than to speak beautiful words yet live lives that give an empty proclamation of Christ: it is the former that will draw others around us to Jesus. While we need distinctives by which to operate organizationally, we must have the presence of Jesus and the power and transformative work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to make a difference in the world.