Our Strategy for Missions

If you watch Olympic team-pursuit speed skating, you’ll notice something fascinating. Three skaters start side-by-side, but almost immediately form a single line. The front skater takes the full force of the wind while the others draft behind. After a lap, he rotates to the back, and another takes the lead. Together, they move faster than any one of them could alone.

Working together doesn’t merely add strength—it multiplies it.

That’s not only true on Olympic ice. It’s true in the local church.

Throughout this missions series, we’ve defined missions as crossing cultural distance to make disciples in and through local churches throughout the world. Because God is glorious. Because He promises to save sinners from every tribe and tongue. Because people cannot believe in a gospel they have never heard. We must be engaged in this work.

But the task of reaching the nations is far heavier than any one believer can carry alone. God designed it to be shared.

From Luke 10:1–3, we see a simple, biblical strategy for how we pursue missions together:

Pray. Send. Go.

Will We Pray?

Before Jesus sends out the seventy-two disciples, He commands them to pray: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest…”

The harvest represents people who need the gospel. And Jesus makes something clear: God is eager to save. Revelation promises that Christ will ransom people from every tribe and nation. John 10 reminds us that Jesus has other sheep who will hear His voice.

If God is going to save, why pray?

Because God intends to use His people as the means. As we saw in Romans 10, people cannot believe unless they hear—and they cannot hear unless someone speaks. Prayer is not optional; it is essential.

John Piper once described prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom. We are not calling for comfort; we are calling for reinforcements in a spiritual battle.

If we are going to be a missionary church, we must become a praying church:

• Pray for our missionaries by name.

• Pray for their marriages, children, health, and fruitfulness.

• Pray that God would raise up more laborers.

• Pray He might even send someone from our own church.

The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. Will we pray?

Will We Send?

Jesus not only tells us to pray—He tells us what to pray for: that the Lord would send out laborers.

God sends. And yet the church sends.

In Acts 13, the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas, and the very next verse says they were sent by the Holy Spirit. It’s not a contradiction. God sends missionaries through faithful churches.

3 John reminds us that when we support missionaries, we become “fellow workers for the truth.” We share in the mission even if we never board the plane.

But sending must be done “in a manner worthy of God.” That means not leftovers. Not scraps. Not whatever remains after our comforts are secured. If Jesus Himself were being sent out, how would we support Him?

Sending is costly. It requires real sacrifice. But Scripture promises that those who sow bountifully will reap bountifully. God loves a cheerful giver, and He supplies grace for every good work.

At PBC, sending means strengthening our support of missionaries, funding international partnerships, supporting church plants, and investing in future opportunities God may open.

The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. Will we send?

Will We Go?

Finally, Jesus says, “Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”

Going is hard. That’s why the laborers are few.

Jesus Himself is the perfect example. He came as the Lamb of God—gentle, obedient, sacrificial. He was rejected, arrested, and crucified. Yet He went willingly, dying in our place and rising again so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life.

If we delight in this Savior, we will long for others to know Him. As Michael Reeves writes, mission is not a clunky add-on to our faith—it is the natural overflow of delight in God.

Not everyone is called to go long-term. But God may use short-term trips to awaken long-term vision. Before the pandemic, PBC was building that kind of culture. With the Lord’s help, we hope to rebuild it—sending teams to partner with missionaries in places like Belgium and the UAE.

Some will pray. Some will send. Some will go.

But all must participate.

Together for the Mission

Imagine a hockey team where every player chases the puck at once. They’re all trying hard—but they’re completely ineffective. Success comes not from everyone doing everything, but from each person faithfully doing their part.

Christ designed His mission the same way.

Not every Christian is called to go. But every Christian is called to engage. When we pray, send, and go together, we move faster and farther than we ever could alone.

Our missions strategy is simple:

Every member working together to pray, send, and go.

And when the church embraces that shared responsibility, the nations hear—and Christ is glorified.