At today’s commissioning service for Adrian, Anita, Matias and Maia Lovell, it was a fresh reminder of our deep partnership with them and with the Church Missionary Society, CMS.

We gathered along with representatives of six other churches to show our support for the Lovells, and to pray for them as they prepare to return to Bolivia in a month.

Mandy and I were able to lead the gathering in prayer, and along with the gathered congregation, we commissioned them for another term of service.

Scott Millar from CMS reminded us about how hard it is for one church alone to send out a missionary, but when we’re in partnership with several others, it becomes possible for us.

Our church contributes financially to CMS for our support both of the Lovells, as well as our other friend… and our partnership includes lots of prayer!

But there’s another important challenge for our church and each of us as we consider missionary work around the world.

A big challenge is to ‘go,’ as someone willing to be considered for mission work in a cross-cultural situation… but, the opposite to going, is not staying… it’s sending.

You might not be able to go yourself, but together as a church, we can be involved in sending someone from our own church, or to be a part of helping another person from another church to go.

If we can’t go, then we can still send… even as you and I might stay.

Please pray for the Lovells as they prepare to leave in five weeks’ time, especially as they return to the all-new city, Santa Cruz.

They know where they’re going to church, and where the kids are going to school, but are still unsure where they will live—so will you pray for them?

JODIE McNEILL

In our increasingly-professionalised world, we now employ people to do many of the things that we once did, ourselves—from mowing lawns to walking our dogs.

There are good reasons why we engage the services of others, but as we have become wealthier, we now value our time so highly that we spend money to deliver us with more leisure.

In the church context, we now employ some specialists to do ministry where we once relied on volunteers to serve in different practical ways.

One way that this has changed is in the area of youth and children’s ministry: where we once had a young adult parishioner volunteer to coordinate the youth, or a mum or dad to be the Sunday School Superintendent, we now encourage people to invest in specialised ministry training so that they can deliver specialised ministry to children and youth in our churches and schools.

This comes at a cost, but it also brings a benefit, for in the same way that we rightly require our school teachers to train in the skills of child and adolescent education, we now are training some specialised ministers to be knowledgable in the Bible as well as skilled in teaching young people in their specific ages and stages of life.

We have been thankful to God for our partnership with Youthworks College, and we delight in how Brad has benefited from his theological and ministry education that he now uses to invest deeply in our teenagers.

God willing, we hope to also welcome a specialist children’s minister to help us disciple and evangelise children in our village, valley and region.

May the Lord grant us wisdom as we consider this option for our staff team, and may he provide the right person to join our church and to help us teach and pastor our youngest people, for his glory.

JODIE McNEILL