Below is my report from the 2024 Global Missions Conference in Atlanta, Georgia from 11/1/24 - 11/3/24. About 2,000 people attended this conference from around the nation and even the world. Many Mission to the World (MTW) missionaries flew in to spread the vision for their region of the world, with an exhibit hall full of information on different countries and some mission agencies. 

Thanks to everyone who made it possible for me to attend, especially Christine who made all the arrangements and Pastor Sam covering my responsibilities while I was away. 

Faithfully Yours, 
Pastor Sean 

  

General Notes: 

  • I am grateful for Tom Worman's support and vision to bring so many of us on this trip. This is a mission-expanding and visionary conference. I believe that, as much as it costs to get us here, that the fruitfulness of getting us on this trip will multiply itself out beyond any expense.  
  • Pastor Sean attended a Leadership Summit on 10/31, with 150 PCA church leaders from around the nation. The focus on the Summit was group discussion in encouraging us as pastors and our congregations in the work of evangelism and missions, as well as giving feedback to MTW on our own experiences with missions. 
  • Who attended from NLIC? Tom and Sharon Worman, Craig and Sandy Cuddy, Ted and Nancy Haenlein, Will Castillo, Sharon Leaman, Emilee Leaman and Pastor Sean attended the global missions conference from 11/1/2024-11/3/2024. 
  • NLIC Missionaries we saw there: Frank and Cindy Sindler, Scott and Ruth Hill, Jim and Karen Weaver, Doug Bergen, Tracy and Joy Dager. 
  • There were 5 Plenary Sessions with over 50 Breakout sessions.   
     
    The plenary speakers were excellent, addressing the reality of hell as a motivation for missions, a vision for reaching unreached groups, and remembering that God uses our trials and suffering to build His kingdom. They called us to action.  
     
    Breakout sessions we attended included Christianity Explored, overcoming missions committee challenges, singleness and missions, prayer and spiritual warfare, missions and suffering, building internships, building a missions culture that sends people out, helping women grow in their vision for missions, estate planning and giving to missions, and using the arts in missions endeavors. We heard about plans for WARM and Israel ministry for the most part, we all attended different sessions and shared some of our experiences over meals. 

These conferences give me some time to think and to write out some ideas. Here are some of my reflections and some opportunities we need to consider moving forward.

  • Overview: This is an incredibly visionary and optimistic conference. It focuses our attention on the fulfillment of Great Commission and our obedience to the Great Commission within a Presbyterian world and life view. It is worth attending. I think we should especially give thanks that we had two younger people as part of the trip. 
     
    I pray that more would be willing to attend the next one. They have been every 3 years, so I hope we will have another in 2027.
  • How in NLIC doing in missions?  
     
    We ask this question every time we attend this conference. I believe we have a strong missions program which many other churches would gain a lot from observing and imitating. Our practices are consistent with some of the biggest and most influential mission churches in our denomination, doing pretty much the same things. I am grateful for the mission-minded people who are part of our church.  
     
    That being said, there are other churches with great mission programs and great evangelistic outreach, and we have a lot we can learn from them. We can refine and improve. There are always places for that.   
  • Engaging Younger Generations in this Conference:  
     
    We would benefit from conferences like this centered around our college students, but open to young adults and older high schoolers. Maybe a conference during college students' winter break. 
     
    The PCA has some smaller, more localized conferences we might be able to encourage people to attend. 
     
    This conference is worth bringing as many people as possible to every time it happens, which is every three years.
  • What we need for missions right now:  
     
    We need an accessible international trip for our college and young adults to participate in next summer. We were hoping Colombia could be this, but it sounds like it is not a good fit due to the danger. We need something we can do.
  • How we can lead in missions:  
     
    We can host a Cultivate conference at New Life in Christ Church. Cultivate is a training ministry of MTW that helps churches and mission committees grow their church's missions work. By hosting this training conference, we could a) get good discussion to develop and refine our own missions priorities and b) help the regional churches to develop their mission programs. We could be a greater asset to the work of missions if we can get other churches involved.
  • Improving our Evangelism:  
     
    I would love to see a Christianity Explored class started in January. 
  • Identifying, Equipping, and Sending Leaders:  
     
    I would like to reinvigorate our efforts to recruit and utilize interns at the church. We have a policy and a plan. During a seminar I received another way to do this and so I would like to adjust the plan and see if we can encourage more participation.
  • Missionary Care:  
     
    I was encouraged that ministry care to missionaries means the Senior Pastor should visit the missionaries on the field if they can. We received a number of ideas about missionary care, including an excellent booklet to assist. 
     
    We can really put some energy into welcoming Billy and Yashmin Clark and Ben and Kim Church to our church as they live in our manses.
  • Networking:  
     
    We build new friendships and expand on relationships we already have. We were able to connect with Jim and Karen Weaver and many involved with WARM, Frank and Cindy Sindler (EFI), Tracy and Joy Dager (Israel). We met the new missionaries to Israel now that the Dagers are retiring.  Pastor Sean and Jim Melnick may visit Israel around the same time these missionaries visit themselves.
  • Pastoral Leadership: I am thankful to be able to be part of missions as pastor. I am thankful that we have solid, visionary leadership under Tom Worman and the support of the church (YOWAW, NYC trip, mission trips).  
     
    I am reminded that it is my job to keep missions in front of us. It is also the hardest thing to keep going. It is easiet to keep going in worship, nurture, and good teaching. But it is so easy to forget about missions, evangelism, and outreach. That is why we need to keep it front and center. Mission creep will cause us to lose it.  
     
    I need the accountability and encouragement of conferences like this, of the missions committee, and your prayers and encouragement to keep missions central.  
  • Church Planting:  
     
    We need to arrange interest meetings for a church plant in our area. We should get started with this before missions conference and budget planning. I reached out to somoene to see if he had a group of interested people.
  • Ethnic Church Planting:  
     
    I am incredibly grateful to have connection with New Life Korean and with Rafael Santamaria as he works to plant a Spanish speaking congregation. We need to pray for the successful development of both these works. Pray especially for our Thanksgiving Day ministry as we work to connect Rafael with Hispanics in our area.
  • ESL, Refugee, CVJI: These are important outreach ministries to continue to stay connected with. 
      
  • Unreached People Groups:  
     
    One talk was about reaching unreached people groups. While we don't have an immediate plan to add this in, one idea would be to add a short list of 5 unreached people groups to our Sunday morning prayer rotation. Why not pray for North Korea, Afghanistan, and other strategic groups that have little to no access to the gospel?
  • Teaching Children: Do we teach children about the Faith Promise as part of our children's mission conference?
  • Care Groups: Can our Care Groups be engaged in praying for missionaries? It would be easy to add to our prayer group guide.
  • Medical Missions: I met two doctors involved in medical missions and they would be glad to connect with PCA doctors for medical missions. One group has training for Christian witness as doctors. 

Other Comments: 

“I was definitely challenged during this conference. When I'm asked why I do missions internships, I say that God has given me a missional church. Without New Life, I would not be doing what I'm doing. This is God's doing, He uses the faithfulness of His church.” -Emilee 

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“One of the things I learned during this conference is that it is much easier for me to give now that I know the missionaries and spent time with them. Maybe due to our culture where if we see a video trying to compel us to give, we put it off as another sales. I have learned that to give, there is nothing compared to just talking with the missionaries 1 on 1. God loves a cheerful giver and not done under compulsion (2Cor9:6ff) And I never got the salesman feeling when talking to the missionaries. Even if I see a video of a missionary in another place, seeing them in person is better, based on how Paul longed to see others, the personal connection needs to be made. And people be willing to come and listen to them, it usually starts by having something in common, not necessarily the obvious common things.” -William