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EFCC Engage

I’m delighted to be able to share with you, Friends of the EFCC, something that is on our hearts here at Home Office, as we attempt to deepen our connection with, and engagement in, mission. As Friends in Ministry, you are some of the first people to hear our hearts in this matter. I hope that as I share these thoughts about where we would like to go, you can take the time to pray for the EFCC, our collective mission together, and this new initiative. I would also love to interact with any of you who have ideas or questions. That is the beauty of this Friends in Ministry group: as we connect on these kinds of issues, we can grow them together. Who knows, maybe God will even lay it on your heart to be involved in some way in this thing we are calling EFCC Engage. So, without further ado, let me introduce to you EFCC Engage.

At the heart of the Evangelical Free movement, right from its inception, was the local church. It was local churches that had a burden for the town next to them that sent church planters. It was local churches that had a burden for other parts of their country that commissioned members of their congregation to become evangelists to those areas, holding tent meetings, etc., with the aim of seeing new believers and birthing new churches. It was the local church that laid hands on members of their congregations to send them forth to the ends of the earth to win the lost for Jesus. And it was the local church that ultimately would support and care for those missionaries.

Despite the plethora of mission agencies and the vast array of ways we support missionaries, we need to remember that the work of mission should grow out of the local church. When nurtured and supported by local churches, mission work will also encourage and grow local churches.

EFCC Engage

I want to introduce you to a new initiative that we are calling EFCC Engage. It is a strategy that we hope will help our EFCC churches engage in mission opportunities, both near and far, and stay in touch with existing mission opportunities in ways that help them grow their own mission presence.

How will EFCC Engage do this? In three ways:

  1. By developing a global care team.
  2. By raising up mission ambassadors.
  3. By engaging with mission catalysts.
1. Global Care Team

We would love to heighten the involvement in missionary care by raising up a global care team that could number in the hundreds or maybe even thousands. A team of volunteers from EFCC churches. A team that would simply commit themselves to care for, pray for, support, and communicate with our EFCC missionaries. Would you like to be a part of a team like this? I believe that most of our EFCC churches already have people doing this to some degree. We want to help coordinate those efforts so that every missionary we have feels like they have a significant base of people who connect with them on an ongoing basis.

2. Mission Ambassadors

The second arm of EFCC Engage is to raise up mission ambassadors. Mission ambassadors are people who can represent, champion, or be the spokespeople for a particular mission project. We want to raise awareness of all our partnerships and projects by finding and giving adequate voice to people who can be ambassadors. These people will keep us up to date on what is happening with their projects, through our various EFCC channels. This way our local EFCC churches will have more information coming their way and will be apprised of ways to engage in mission that they may not have known about.

3. Mission Catalysts

The final arm of EFCC Engage might be the one that takes the longest to establish well, but it will likely be the most important one. We are hoping that every EFCC church will put forward at least one local church mission catalyst. This person(s) could be a mission committee chair, or someone who wants to see the mission reach of their local church extended beyond what it currently is. We want to encourage and resource these people in ways that would help them and their local churches think strategically about their own mission engagement, whether that is in their own community, in their own country, or on an international scale.

It all starts with the Engagement of the local church. We want to empower our EFCC churches to think, act, and be missional communities that are reaching beyond themselves. That is what EFCC Engage is all about.