11 Thoughts for Leading Your Church to Reach the Unreached
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In my previous post, we were challenged by some of John Mott’s thoughts on the relationship of local church leaders and missions. Today, I want to share a few practical thoughts on this matter. Though I am not pastoring at the moment, nearly twenty years of my ministry includes serving as a local church pastor. Pastors are both busy and practical people. These thoughts are for you.
1. Know Your Church Family
Before leading your church to reach the unreached, you must understand the spiritual maturity, passions, fears, talents, and gifts of your people. Every congregation has unique strengths that can be leveraged for mission and unique hesitations that require patient shepherding. When you know your people, you can lead them with clarity, compassion, and realistic pathways in obedience. Effective mission mobilization begins with pastoral awareness.
“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds” (Prov 27:23). Clearly, this verse was not written to local church pastors, but there is wisdom here.
2. Know Local and Global Realities
Churches often desire to reach the unreached but lack awareness of who the unreached actually are—locally and globally. Understanding demographic and cultural trends, diaspora communities, and global lostness provides context for prayer, training, and strategic decision‑making. When leaders stay informed, they help the church engage with greater focus and urgency. Awareness fuels intentionality and motivates to action.
People need to see what’s at stake. Many believers do not grasp the spiritual, cultural, and eternal realities experienced by unreached peoples. When leaders paint a clear picture of lostness—respectfully and truthfully—it awakens compassion and urgency. Awareness breaks apathy.
“From Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chr 12:32). While the Spirit may lead us without field-based knowledge, He often guides in light of understanding contemporary realities. This also means that we need to keep reminding members that others will not believe in Christ if they have never heard of him (Rom 10:14).
3. Pray, Pray, Pray
Prayer aligns the church with God’s heart and keeps mission from becoming merely a human project. The warfare is great and requires supernatural power for tearing down strongholds. Only God can open doors, soften hearts, and call workers. A praying church develops spiritual sensitivity to where God is already at work among the unreached. Mobilization without prayer is rooted in strategy without power.
“Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt 9:38). We often have not because we do not ask.
4. Lead from the Word with a Biblical Missiology
Scripture—not trends, pressure, or guilt—must shape your church’s understanding of mission. When people see God’s heart for the nations throughout the whole Bible, obedience is more likely to become a joyful response rather than a burdensome obligation. Teaching a biblical missiology clarifies the “why” behind reaching the unreached. A church rooted in Scripture is a church with a healthy foundation for sending to the nations.
“All the nations…will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). Help your people understand God’s story of His mission and how they can be part of that story to bless the nations. Do not settle for a church that only grounds her sending work in two or three passages from the New Testament.
5. Set the Example—at Least Short-Term
Your church will follow where you personally go. Even short-term engagement with unreached peoples demonstrates urgency, priority, humility, courage, and dependence on God. When leaders model going, members feel empowered and invited to consider the same steps. Credibility is strengthened when your actions match your words.
“Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). A few times in his letters Paul makes statements related to imitating his life and doctrine. May we do the same with the people we lead. Do they see a model in us that is an example to follow?
6. Teach the Difference Between Cultural Preferences and Biblical Requirements
Much hesitation in intercultural engagement comes from confusing personal preferences with gospel essentials. When believers learn to distinguish between the two, they gain freedom to contextualize and flexibility to serve effectively. This humility removes unnecessary barriers and allows the gospel to advance with limited cultural baggage. A church that prioritizes Scripture over tradition becomes a powerful missionary force.
Paul reminded the Corinthians he had “become all things to all people, that by all means,” he “might save some” (1 Cor 9:22). Here is another relevant missiological principle for us to follow today.
7. Cast a Vision of the Simple Nature of Disciple Making and Church Planting
Many assume mission requires extraordinary expertise, when in reality disciple making is found in simple, reproducible obedience. By emphasizing accessible practices—sharing the gospel, forming small communities, teaching obedience—you help people see that ordinary Christians can engage in evangelism that results in new disciples and new churches. Simplicity encourages multiplication and reduces fear. When the vision feels doable, more people are likely step into it.
“Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20). Our Lord’s practice was to keep things simple and highly reproducible among the intelligent and uneducated, rich and poor, literate and illiterate. The first disciples were accused of turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Complexity does not produce such change. Jesus has done the complicated part; we get the simple task.
8. Challenge People to Remain in Their Vocations
Professionals often have access to unreached contexts that pastors and traditional missionaries do not. Encouraging members to leverage their existing career paths empowers them to obey the Great Commission without uprooting their entire lives. This approach broadens your missions pipeline and helps people see intercultural engagement as a calling for all, not just a select few. Vocation is wed to mission.
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them his property” (Matt 25:14). Help people understand that the stewardship received extends well-beyond their finances. Work with your people to leverage their skills for the Kingdom.
9. Assess and Train People for the Task
Desire alone cannot sustain long-term engagement among the unreached; practical skills are essential. Training in evangelism, discipleship, cultural intelligence, and simple church planting methods equips your church for effective ministry. Skill-building also builds confidence, reducing fear and uncertainty. Well-trained people go farther and last longer.
Here is a place where agencies and other organizations may assist local churches. Again, we often do not have because we do not ask. Reach out to them for help. Pastors are called to equip “the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph 4:12), and this includes those apostolic teams being sent across the street and across the world. How will you be involved in training your sent ones?
Not everyone is gifted for intercultural church planting, and wise assessment helps steward people well. Evaluating character, calling, competency, resilience, and relational health provides clarity for potential goers and confidence for the sending church. Assessment protects both the work and the individuals involved. It ensures those sent are prepared. Again, here is a place where agencies and others may be of assistance to your church.
10. Commission Them to Cross the Bridge
A church’s public affirmation and commissioning underscores the seriousness and beauty of sending. Commissioning reinforces accountability, support, and the church’s ongoing responsibility in mission. It communicates that those going are not alone—they are sent ones, carried by prayer and community. Sending is a sacred act.
“After fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:3). The Church in Antioch stayed in touch with the team, welcoming them back from their journey. Give space to hear from those sent and do all you can to keep their faces before the church.
11. Partner with Them as Co‑Laborers in the Gospel
Sending does not end at the commissioning service. Ongoing support—prayer, encouragement, financial partnership, relational care—helps sustain workers serving among the unreached. A sending church that partners well embodies gospel unity across distance. Partnership strengthens both those who go and those who send.
Paul found partnership vital to his work. “You are partners with me in grace” (Phil 1:7), he wrote. Pastors, ask yourself this question: Who pastors missionaries? Lead your church to continue the relationship with those sent. Do not allow the pastoral oversight and care to end at the airport. These brothers and sisters are on the frontlines of Kingdom advancement. Lock arms with them and work while it is still day.
If you are interested in more regarding these thoughts, check out my books at my Amazon author’s page. Pastors, there is much more there to assist you in your ministry among the nations.