If your church or denomination sets aside a special week to focus on missions, you know it can be difficult to plan if resources are lean. But there are many options to recognize and celebrate missions (from humble displays to week-long conferences) depending on your budget and manpower. Here are a few to get your brainstorming started.
Missions Sunday Ideas for Congregation Engagement
- Provide notecards for church members to write a short thank you to some of your missionaries.
- A few weeks ahead, collect specific items (that your missionaries asked for) from the congregation, then pack them up as a care package to be delivered to their overseas address.
- Several months ahead, ask your missionary if your church might send a group to help them with an outreach. Then provide applications and pricing for interested church members.
- Provide evangelism training for your congregants that offers resources and tools to make it easy to share their faith.
- Ask a missionary to speak to your Sunday School classes or small home groups. Give them the liberty to ask for financial support.
- Create an activity book about missions for your children church to distribute. Include stories, scripture, puzzles, coloring pages, quizzes, and games related to missions.
- Don’t forget domestic missions, too. Provide local outreach opportunities that your congregation can participate in locally
- Designate the offering to go entirely to your missionaries or a local outreach. Encourage your church to give monthly to support a missionary.
- Create a slide presentation featuring information about your missionaries to run before the service starts.
- Invite one of your missionaries to preach that Sunday or ask four different missionaries to tag-team speak for ten minutes each.
- Interview a panel of missionaries on stage before the sermon.
- Provide tables in the lobby for local missionaries to present their ministry opportunities. Ask them to dress up in traditional clothing from their area of the world and play music from their country on their smart devices.
- Similar to Veterans Day, this is an opportunity to ask any missionary (current, retired or visiting) to stand and be recognized.
- Offer a free missionary biography for each family one Sunday.
- Place posters around the building that stories of faith and courage from famous missionaries of the past or about the persecuted church.
- Show a movie about a famous missionary with a fun concession stand in the lobby offering popcorn and candy.
- Plan a week-long Missions Conference with worship, keynote speakers, and breakout sessions where members can learn about the different aspects of missions life or from organizations who are recruiting missionaries for specific roles or countries.
- Arrange a pen pal letter campaign between missionary kids and your local children
- For missionaries who live locally, spend a Saturday offering babysitting, mani/pedis, garage cleaning, yard work, or an all-expenses paid date night to bless them.
- Include a list of prayer requests for your missionary in your church bulletin. Don’t forget those missionaries in your congregation who attend regularly but are not supported by you. Of course, the word “missionary” is thrown around a lot lately. Many people consider themselves missionaries, so you might consider recognizing only certain criteria like those who:
- work full-time in outreach to the lost or new believers,
- proclaim the gospel of salvation as their main goal (not solely humanitarian aid),
- are primarily or fully supported by financial gifts,
- are overseen by a church or mission organization (for accountability),
- attend your church regularly,
- have a website or social media page where you can learn more about their work,
- keep you informed with regular newsletters so you can keep a prayer list updated.
Whatever the size of your church or your budget, and whatever time of year you celebrate Missions Week, there are hundreds of ways you can encourage missionaries here and abroad while also inspiring your members to pray, give, or go!
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.” Luke 10:2 (ESV)
Former pastor, Tez Brooks has been a missionary for 22 years. An award-winning author and international speaker, his work appears in Guideposts, Power for Living, CBN.com, YouVersion, Focus on the Family, and more. Learn more at TezBrooks.com
