Tailoring mission strategies that fit your church

In Rural Sunrise we believe that the local church is vital in the mission of God.  In rural communities the local church has a significant place physically and socially.  The quality of the life of the local Christian community should be the best visual aid for the gospel. 

In the past evangelism has been heavily dependent upon imported resources, often in the form of short term missions.  Therefore evangelism seems to be something detached from the local Christian community instead of being seen as the very thing it exists for.  Such short term high profile missions can be very effective in the short term, but far too often there are difficulties sustaining those outcomes once the excitement of the mission has passed.

One of the characteristics of village life is that each village is rather like an island.  Each island needs some kind of Christian witness to the gospel.  If evangelism of rural Britain was dependent upon the resources of mission agencies it is probable that together they could only effectively evangelize about 1% of the villages in a year.  Yet almost every village in Britain has a visible Christian presence.  Unless the churches engage with God's mission the work will never be done.

Most Christians believe that God has a unique plan for their life and how it fits with his purposes.

Each person is unique in the combination of personality and life experiences.  When God calls us into discipleship he knows that unique quality.  To this is added our gifts and abilities both natural and imparted by the Holy Spirit, as described in 1Corinthians 12.  Of the gifts that Paul lists here he also states that there are different ways in which these are exercised and different degrees of exercise.  To this mixture we can add the place in which a sovereign God has located that individual.  He has been choosing, equipping, enabling and placing each of his children according to his purposes.

If this is true for each individual Christian then each local church is a unique mixture of unique Christians for unique purposes in God's plan.  Understanding more about who we are and where we are lies at the heart of the Rural Sunrise approach.  It's not just about good methods; its also good theology.

Mission strategies should be "tailored" to suit the those resources that God has placed in each unique location.  Dare we believe that God has already given us the resources to do what HE is expecting us to do right now?

If you go to have a suit personally tailored then the tailor will want to know what kind of purpose you want the suit for, and he or she will take many measurements before setting to with the scissors.  Even after that the tailor will require a fitting just to make sure it fits perfectly.

There are many "off the peg" mission strategies. Some of them fit some churches perfectly well.  But for others they are not always "comfortable".  Rural Sunrise believes that for each church to engage appropriately in God's mission for the people of the community where they are located then the strategies need to be properly tailored.

We are not looking for locations where we can come to do "our thing".  We offer our services to help those who are local Christians discover how to match who they are and what they have to the local needs and opportunities.  It's a kind of bespoke mission tailoring.