THE RESOURCES:

1. A Spirit filled Missions Committee: A committee made up of men and women who are not just filling a committee slot. Instead, when accepting the responsibility to serve, they should realize that they must pray the prayer, "Lord, help us to be missionaries, to do missions right here in our town, our city, our community." Then, begin to look for ways to carry out the prayer.

2. A vision for and commitment to missions: The pastor's leadership is indispensable! Leading the congregation to search for ways to touch the lives of men and women beyond the walls of the church with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a priority. When the church realizes that lives can be changed, when Christians realize what it means to confess Christ as Lord, when the church realizes that the lives of the needy must be touched by Christians who care, a vision for missions begins to become real.

3. Find a Tillie: Most important, ask God to send a mission sensitive, compassionate, dedicated person to direct the missions enterprise. The great need is to find a person God has been preparing for mission outreach. This person needs to be someone who cares about people and wants more than anything else to share the gospel and to meet the needs of people. In His providence, God sent us Tillie Burgin.

   THE PROCESS:

4. The Mission Committee and the pastor asked the Personnel Committee to "put a Missions Minister on our staff." The Personnel Committees asked the Budget Committee to find a way to implement the decision. This was eventually accomplished with the help of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' "Key Church" Program.

5. To find the dollars to begin the missions ministry, we had to sacrifice other programs. Hopefully, a church will not have to cut anything to start this ministry, but if it does, it's worth whatever has to be done. The purpose of the ministry was to reach out beyond the walls of the church. We felt we could do more for people outside the church through a direct missions effort than through some of our other programs. As any pastor knows, budget decisions are always a matter of priorities and effectiveness. The sacrifice was worth everything to us. At the critical moment, the Budget Committee and others were willing to see if the pastor really believed in the mission plan enough to make missions a priority. Once you start, you can't stop! Complete dedication to the missions effort is an absolute necessity. The dedication of the pastor to the mission endeavor is as important as finding the money by rearranging budgetary items. It's the pastor, along with the Missions Minister, who must eventually communicate the vision to the vision to the members of the congregation. Only then will the congregation become a part of helping something significant happen for the Kingdom of God in the local church's own "back yard."

6. The members of the committee became the program's "cheerleaders." They began developing a local mission strategy and worked with the state mission leaders to maximize the resources. The question: How could we use our buildings, our people, and our dollars, coupled with some mission money, to help us begin our ministry to the needy and the lost in Arlington apartments?

7. We also decided to use our benevolence fund, which is budgeted, and allow it to be spent at the discretion of the new Minister of Missions to help our people maintain a continuing relationship to the program, and to facilitate the necessary Bible studies.

8. Our Minister of Missions is Tillie Burgin. I don't know if we found Tillie or if Tillie found FBC. She was already a faithful member,-"called to Korea as a missionary, and if not Korea, then Arlington." What ever the case, the Spirit of God was at work. We could have done all the planning in the world, strategized forever, but without Tillie we could easily still be "thinking about it," or still be working "within the walls of the church." It is Tillie's vision, her dedication, her ability, her wisdom, and her desire to reach people for Christ that-more than anything else-is the key to the enormous success of Mission Arlington. What does she do? What are her gifts? I'm not sure I can list them all:

   A. Prayer Warrior: Tille is not afraid to pray and not afraid of work. Her stamina is incredible.

   B. Story Teller: She tells stories, especially about what God is doing in people's lives-true stories, real stories! There are always fresh experiences about God's grace to be told.

   C. Consistent: She has the gift of consistency. She stays focused. She knows what God has called her to do and she is ever about the task.

   D. Motivator: Her example, her passion for people, her love for the Lord, her dependence on God's power, her hard work, and stimulus for others to "catch the vision" of Mission Arlington.

   E. Administrator: She can delegate and let others help without getting in the way. When anyone volunteers, she has an immediate assignment to make and she asks for a report on the results. Work needs to be responsible as well as it needs to be recognized for what it accomplishes.

   F. Committed: Tillie inspires trust and commitment because it is clear that she is about needy people, and that she has an evangelistic passion to win the lost. She is not about herself!

   G. Encourager: Tillie is committed to the church and its total program. She encourages her pastor, appreciates other ministers, networks with everyone, and gives of herself tirelessly.

9. The Bible Study groups are the key to mission's work. When any person is ministered to, that is a Bible Study team nearby to follow up. They provide a continuing ministry; they get involved with those who come to Bible Study. They form a fellowship of people who gather around Christ-centered (John 3:16). The Spirit of Christ is life changing. People experience love, acceptance, encouragement, and accoutability in the Bible Study groups, and they learn the spiritual truth from the Bible that God can change their lives.

10. The complement of the innovative and the traditional. We work hard to keep the Mission Arlington ministry and the traditional Sunday School ministry of FBC in harmony.

    We recognize the importance of upholding both ministries with prayer, people, publicity, appreciation, and budget resources. If the parents who bring their children to our "traditional" Sunday School ever got the idea that we care more for the children in the apartments than we do for their children, we would be "dead in the water".

    THE RESULTS:

11. Encouragement and prayer for one another in our church fellowship has become intensified because of Mission Arlington. We look on our task as teamwork between the Mission Arlington staff, the general staff of FBC, and the congregation. Because of Mission Arlington we better realize, at least now more than ever before, that we all have a responsibility before God to touch Arlington, our city, with the gospel. You can do this with your city-in the power of the Spirit!

    THE PRACTICAL:

12. As the program has grown, it has been necessary to keep good communication lines open between Tillie Burgin and myself. We could easily have gotten off course, had feelings hurt over miscommunication, lingered in misunderstandings, or gotten divided over our purpose. So that this will not happen, we meet an hour almost every week, and we talk anytime needed. I can't speak for Tillie, but I need the inspiration of listening to Tillie speak about reaching people, sharing the gospel, and seeing lives change.

    THE SUMMARY:

13. Tillie says the key of Mission Arlington is, "Hover around John 3:16 and hang out on the property." I say the key is a called, sensitive, strong leader and congregation committed to missions. This leader must be able to inspire others to help. This minister must also be fully involved in the ministry that touches people where they are; a ministry that gathers the needy together for fellowship and Bible Study. The ministry never stops. Tillie! She's called of God. She's incredible!

    THE SERMON:

14. There are obviously other men and women in other churches besides the pastor and the Mission Minister who are called to serve. Quite often, we need to have the courage, the insight, and the wisdom as pastors to simply let the Holy Spirit of God work through their lives. As Baptists we need to be supportive and we need to be willing to help rather than manage God's people. When God changes the world around us by using all of us, together in a fellowship of faith, the church grows, lives are changed, and then the congregation can rejoice in the blessing of God's presence (John 3:16).

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