Our Philosophy Of Missions

The scriptural evidence of what we have come to call a missionary is found mostly in the book of Acts and in the great example of the apostle Paul. Throughout the scriptures, Paul and Barnabas, once set aside by the leaders of the Antioch church (Acts 13), began a ministry of going from place to place, winning souls and forming the saved  people of a particular city into a local church.
The pattern, which is evidenced in scripture, is that of the missionary who continues to be involved in winning souls and getting them together to form a local church. These churches seem to be self-governing and self-supporting.
In the case of the Antioch church, Paul and Baranbas returned to the Antioch church and reported all of what God had done on their recent missionary trip, (Acts 14:27-28). This would lead one to conclude that both Paul and Barnabas must have felt a responsibility to that local church. Let us remember that these men were set apart by that Antioch church on the order of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13). Therefore, one can conclude a number of things to guide our thinking about supporting a missionary through Christ Independent Baptist Church’s Faith Promise Program:

1. A missionary candidate should be involved in winning souls and
   planting churches.
2. The missionary candidate should stay away from the idea of starting one church and using that church as the mother church for all other missionary projects.
3. The missionary candidate should avoid using his personal missionary support to finance the ministry of the new church. This is stated with the understanding that in the initial stages of church planting, some monies would be needed. Yet, restraint must be exercised to avoid an unscriptural attitude taught to the new converts that the missionary is going to support the church instead of the people supporting the new church through their tithes and offerings.

The missionary who desires to present his missionary burden at Christ Independent Baptist Church is asked to review the above points. If he agrees with them, we welcome him to send his material for review to Pastor Rivera.