Evaluation Criteria for Missionary Support - Grace Bible Church of Lee's Summit, MO

Our plan is to support missionaries for a significant amount and to have significant involvement with those missionaries. This would be a “fewer missionaries for more support” approach. We recognize the hardship of turning away godly, passionate missionary candidates, but we also recognize the blessing of being intimately involved in the lives of a few godly, passionate missionaries.

We will consider missionaries who have…

A clear testimony and supporting evidence of salvation in Christ alone.
A lifestyle of spiritual maturity and the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit
A sound understanding of the Gospel and full confidence therein
Sufficient education and training to fulfill the desired ministry.
Gifts suitable for missions work, observable by the local church.
A background of proven ministry experience
An awareness of the cultural differences, ideally by experience, but at least by training.
A ministry goal that is in line with our missions strategy and emphasis.
A desire to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with our church.
A willingness to abide by our guidelines for communication and periodic evaluation of ministry.
A strength of character portrayed in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9.
A strong marriage commitment and healthy family relationships, or a biblical understanding and example of singleness.
A doctrinal and philosophical unity with our church.
A sending church and/or mission board with similar doctrine and philosophy.
Evidence of good stewardship of finances.
A commitment to spiritual accountability to our pastoral staff in personal and ministry life. We recognize that the missionary’s sending church would have primary authority. In the event of conflict, we would seek to communicate our concern or point of view as a secondary authority to the missionary and the sending church in the pursuit of gospel unity.

The pastor and deacons will annually review the support of missions efforts based on these criteria.

Much like the call of the pastor to the church, we will not establish a length of commitment for career (non short-term) missionaries. Termination of support will be handled carefully with the missionary, the mission board and sending churches to be sure that reasons for termination are noted and to be sure the missionary is not stranded in a foreign country. By God’s grace, we will be firm in our commitment only to missionaries who meet our required criteria, and we will be loving and responsible toward those who fail those standards in any way. When necessary the pastor and deacons will recommend the termination of a missionary’s support to the congregation for approval.