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Our Missions Policy

9/6/2010
Our Schedule:
Sunday:
Sunday School/AWANA 9:30am
AM Worship 10:45am

Our Address:
So. Paris Baptist Church
1 Park Street
P.O. Box 282
South Paris, ME 04281
(207) 743-6405

Definition of Missions:

Missions at South Paris Baptist Church shall be defined as the sending and supporting of qualified people (with approval by the Board of Deacons and SPBC membership vote) to carry out the scriptural mandate to proclaim Christ�s gospel of salvation to the whole world, both home and abroad.

Scriptural Basis of Missions:

The Word of God demonstrates God�s love and mercy because of the lost condition of all people and mandates that all believers get involved in the unfinished task of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. (Matthew 9:36-38, 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 4:18-19; John 3:16, 17:18; Acts 1:8; Romans 10:11-15)

Missionary Committee

The Missionary Committee is defined as stated in the Constitution of SPBC.

Relationship of Missionary Committee

The Missionary Committee acts in an advisory capacity to the Board of Deacons and the Finance Committee. The Missionary Committee may not commit the church to programs, policies, and/or other obligations apart from the approval of the Board of Deacons, and if finances are involved, with the Finance Committee as well.

Responsibilities of the Missionary Committee:

Attend committee meetings
Pray for and communicate with the supported missionaries and their agencies.
Become familiar with missions, the supported missionaries, and with the mission policies and practices of the local church.
Promote home and foreign missions in the local church.
Evaluate missionary qualifications and experience, missionary agencies, and make recommendation of support or non-support, including possible recommendation of removal of support as deemed appropriate.
Recommend commissioning services for departing missionaries.

Standards for Missionary Candidates:

The Missionary Committee and the Board of Deacons will evaluate the missionary candidate(s) and organization(s) in the form of personal interviews, references, and review of background materials and experience. Questions to be asked: their spiritual life, burden & call to the field, what jobs need to be done on the prospective field, what qualifications are necessary, what is the total cost.
The candidate(s) must have an understanding of the importance of the local church and must have demonstrated faithfulness to it.
Mission boards should furnish copies of policies of finances, doctrinal statements, stands on separation & field policies.

Short Term Missionaries:

SPBC will allocate the greatest percentage of its annual missions budget to the support of career missionaries. However, it will seek to give support for short-term missionary activity to adults and young people of this congregation.

Persons seeking to go on a short-term mission trip must:

Be born again
Be willing to give a pre-determined amount of money towards their own support
Attend all meetings of the team before leaving
Show a heart to serve
Be flexible
Be willing to submit to the authority of those leading
Be faithfully involved in the ministries of the local church
Submit written verification of health insurance coverage inside and outside the United States of America.

Financial Policy:

The Annual Missionary Budget will be prepared as stated in the Church Constitution. SPBC will seek to provide at least 10% of total required support for missionaries sent from this local church. Generally, support will begin once the candidate is accepted by the mission agency and approved by SPBC�s Annual Meeting.

SPBC will reduce or terminate support of career missionaries who:

Retire
End their service prematurely
Prolong their furlough beyond a year without valid reason
Fail to actively communicate with the local church in regards to their work on the field.

Honoraria for Missionary Speakers

General honorarium arrangement for a visiting speaker is $75.00 plus $0.30/mile for travel. Special offerings may be taken to help defray the costs.

Missions Policy adopted by the Missions Committee and Deacons Board in 1999