SigGlob 08-08-115 Global Impact Manual The Essential Roadmap for Your Mission to the Nations Mark Sigmon Global Impact Services, 2008, 89 pp., www.globalimpactservices.org

Global Impact Services exists to help churches, mission agencies, organizations, schools, foundations, and businesses maximize their resources and mobilize their people for greater global impact through consultation, information, and presentation. Mark Sigmon, the Director, has been assisting such organizations as well as compiling data bases, ministering in several countries, doing mission research, teaching and writing mission education curriculum for more than 15 years. Contact Mark at mark@globalimpactservices.org. Mark's manual has a global focus from the local church perspective. It includes a sequence of roadmap steps to guide a church through eighteen stages of operation and provides several appendices of evaluation tools, goal setting charts, resource lists, and suggestions for those just starting out or starting over. It focuses on cross-cultural and international ministry within the big picture of reaching all nations and urges ministry to the unreached. Mark provides both management principles and concrete suggestions for every area of your international missions ministry. Following this manual will help you strengthen the best of the equipping, sending, and supporting model of missions. Sigmon mentions some of the newer methods of missions such as direct partnering with national workers, business-as-missions, ongoing ministry largely via series of short-term teams, and wide-spread lay involvement in hand-on ministry. The next edition of this manual would benefit from more detailed recommendations and guidelines in these areas. "The 'greatest Story ever told' calls us to the greatest mission ever imagined! The 'glory of God' is indeed the heart of that mission, but the 'Global Glory of God' is the full expression of it." "Our first priority is to take the Gospel to all nations and His glory to all people." (7) "Our mission is about lostness, but more so about access. There are lost people everywhere, and we could easily spend our entire life witnessing just in our own community. But the goal is far greater: to build the church among every tribe, tongue, language, and nation. This is the benchmark of success for the progress of the church." (9) 2.1 The first step: Prepare for change. "Obedience to the Great Commission involves risk and sacrifice. God will do more through your honest mistakes than your disobedience; more through your bumbled efforts than your lack of effort; more through your awkward attempts to influence your global neighbors than through grand programs within your comfort zone." (11, quoting Mark Mays) "Your pastor is 'the evangelist for the dream': he will give visibility and viability to the changes. Gain his input and involvement in the process." (12) 2.3 Support your pastor. "We need leaders at the top for whom the Great Commission defines their overall direction and decisions." (17) What your people need from your pastor: participation, priorities, passion, permission. (17) 2.4 Build a strong lead team. "Build a team not just a committee. Develop passion and camaraderie, not just policy and duty." "Move from doing to leading." "Choosing your lead team is one of the most important ministry decisions you will make." (20) A strong team has commitment, community, competency, and committees (for special responsibility, projects or activities). (22) The core topics of missions management and goal setting that the author uses throughout the book are: Manage, Mission, Missionary, Money, and Mobilize (24) 2.6 Develop your mission and strategy. "The lasting impact of any ministry depends on a solid foundation. Effective global outreach rests on four cornerstones: mission, strategy, goals, and objectives." (27) "Your global mission should flow from your overall mission. Address the most basic question of all: Why does your entire organization exist? Your overall statement forms the context for your cross-cultural mission: make sure it also reflects a global priority." (27) How will you balance your ministry: US and international ministry; evangelistic, compassionate, and holistic ministry; deeper and wider ministry; missionaries, internationals, churches, agencies, schools, and projects? (28) "Your grid goals are your highest ministry priorities. They codify the kinds of partnerships and projects you primarily intend to support, and complete the sentence, 'We will give priority to _________.'" (33) To come up with your grid goals, do your global homework. Do your organizational homework. Choose three or four Grid Goals. Carefully but deliberately incorporate your new direction. Constantly reinforce these goals with your people. (33) A one-page list of essential contents of a missions policy is given on p. 36. 2.9 Maximize where you send, who you send, how you send. "Beside prayer, in missions today there is no greater need than sending the right people to the right places with the right skills and resources." (38) A four-point grid provides an excellent list of tips for selecting and sending your partners. (40) 2.10 Care for your Missionaries Missionary care is intended to help them be better servants and stronger people. Four dimensions of missionary care are vertical, horizontal, personal and vocational. (42) 2.13 Maximize the use of your limited funds. A few of the Twelve Steps to Greater Use of Your Global Resources: (51-3) n Use your funds to accomplish your goals. n Analyze your current distribution pattern. n Chart a course to where you want to go. n Consider the needs of your partners. n Evaluate the fit of your current missionaries, ministries, and projects. n Determine how you will handle surpluses, shortfalls, and windfalls. n Maximize the flexibility of your budget items. 2.14 Utilize missions education. "Beside your annual missions event, how often is this subject taught or preached?" "If we treat the text faithfully--if we just cover missional truths and their application as they appear--missions will occupy its rightful place in our pulpit our classroom, and our personal study." (54) "The priorities of the Word and realities of the world call us all to this: more ministry for the least-reached and the least-trained. We should not neglect anyone, but who is being neglected now?" (60) 2.18 Mobilize your people. "The task of 'missions mobilizers'…is to help each believer, each church, each Christian organization discover their greatest global potential." (67) "Mainstream" missions. "To 'mainstream' global outreach is to integrate it throughout the life of the church. When this occurs, how will your primary activities look? The author provides an insightful picture of how the various church ministries will look: mission, strategic plan, worship, prayer, edification, evangelism, education, promotion, orientation, giving, serving, training, learning, and influence. (68) The appendices include a rating chart for your progress, a quick "which gear are you in?" chart, suggestions if you are starting new or starting over, a goal setting chart, an "A" list of missions resources, and services available from Global Impact Services.

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