Missionaries to America

I have been working for the past two years to begin a missionary movement to America. This vision is to call, train, relocate, and release missionaries into America’s inner cities starting in North St. Louis Missouri. The idea of being missionaries in your own country may seam strange to some. Many missions organizations involved in overseas missions have already realized the need to raise up indigenous leaders for their work in foreign countries. We do not consider this in America because the church is on every corner.

In the devastated inner cities of our country the church is often ineffective in growing the kingdom and combating evil. Many of the inner city churches are made up of people that do not live in the area where the church is located. Many times the majority of the congregation and pastoral staff are coming into the neighborhood for services and then leaving to their suburban homes. The churches with the greatest impact are residents of the community.

The idea of a missionary movement to the inner cities may have escaped the eyes of many people. What God is doing in our midst is to prepare a place and a means whereby we can facilitate a large movement of missionaries to a specific place. This movement will allow us to work interdependently together as we tackle some very big issues that have plagued these areas for generations.

We are working as missionaries outside of the traditional church structures. We do not “do church” the way many people are used to seeing it done. We do not have public services. We gather the missionaries and their disciples for organic gatherings of worship. We share our resources with one another as each has need. We work co-operatively in non-profit business ventures to supply the needs of the work and to pastor the community where we live. We take on large tasks together and empower each missionary to do what God has made them to do (Ephesians 2:10). We support each other in their work and together we operate as the sacred assembly of Christ in the midst of a fallen world.

As our foundation has been set over these past two years we see an acceleration coming. We have a wood shop and sewing center that makes products from mostly re-purposed materials. We are negotiating for the use of a commercial kitchen in the area that will allow us to make and package food for sale. We have been offered a 3100 square foot café and retail space starting next year. We have 12 missionaries working in the area with 5 already living in the neighborhood. We are ready to begin rehabbing housing to provide for the needs of future missionaries.

We have been given extreme favor with the business and political leaders of the area. The kind of favor that can only come from God’s grace. We are beginning to see a working of unity among the leaders and ministers that live in the area. We are seeing young people accept Christ and make life changes. These are only first fruits and there is much work to do in our area.

If you feel a call to work outside the church structure but remain in America then I want to hear from you. We can help to provide, train, empower, and release you to become a part of what I think will be the largest missionary movement to America in it’s history. Those who are chosen will find work, housing, support, and freedom to minister in one of the most dangerous and depressed areas of our country. You must be dedicated to making disciples that make disciples and working outside the traditional church model.

For more information contact Terry by email at terry@sunministries.org