Urbana proved more successful than we imagined! We met our goal in publicizing ShortTermMissions.com, and sending organizations are already signing up for the service as a result of networking at the conference. Recruiting potential exceeded our vague expectations as well. Mingling with the attendees at Urbana left us more convinced than ever of the need for missions information to be readily available on the internet. Continue to pray for staffing needs here at M-DAT. With a few more full-time people, some of these online information needs could be taken care of, and more people would be more quickly off to the field, to the unreached.

Peter Armstrong, M-DAT Executive Director

The M-DAT Vision, part 2 of 4

After introducing you to M-DAT’s freshly adopted vision statement last issue, I promised to spend some time unpacking it. This issue we will dive into the portion in bold below:

Our vision is that every believer desiring growth in mission involvement would obtain the practical assistance necessary to realize significant, lifelong involvement in the Great Commission.

Let’s tackle it in reverse order. It may surprise you that we do not just mean “going” when we say “mission involvement.”The need for “goers” certainly is great, but it is not the only form of involvement, nor the most important.

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by Peter Armstrong, M-DAT Executive Director

The M-DAT Vision, part 1 of 4

If you have ever packed a suitcase for a month long trip, you have experienced a bit of what it is like to create a vision statement. So much to pack, and so little room to fit it in! Amazingly, over the last twelve months we successfully wrangled our ministry vision into a single statement from a multi-paragraph document (insert applause). 

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by Peter Armstrong
M-DAT Executive Director

I am often greeted by blank stares when I tell folks, “I am a mission mobilizer.” While it may sound like gobbledygook, “mission mobilization” is really just a shorthand way of referring to work that helps get people onboard, excited about, and involved in the Great Commission.

Some people mobilize without noticing they are doing it. A person may tell a friend about the mission trip he went on or invite someone over for dinner with a church missionary who happens to be in town. Others consciously work to involve believers in missions.

Mobilization has two phases that build on each other in an ongoing cycle. The first phase raises awareness, educates and instills vision and passion. A person is likely exposed to this phase of mobilization when she hears a mission conference speaker. Hopefully she comes away reminded about God’s love and concern for the whole world and senses personal responsibility to join in the task. But she also probably senses a need for more of the “nuts and bolts” of how to apply what she heard to her life.

Enter the second phase of mobilization. This phase provides the practical information and guidance people need to transform their mission desire into meaningful involvement. An example of this would be ShortTermMissions.com, which helps people serve in missions by providing details on mission opportunities; or, The Journey Deepens events which provide guidance to people exploring a missions career.

Both phases are equally important to the success of passing missions onto the next generation of believers and getting people meaningfully involved in God’s plan to reach the lost of this world.