When we talk about missions, we mean taking the Gospel to a culture other than our own. This may be within our own country, either by reaching out to those who have come as immigrants, or by ministering to a different sub-culture, such as a businessman going to bikies, or a young person ministering to the elderly. Or it may mean leaving our own country and travelling overseas.
Traditional missions meant a long-term commitment to a single culture. The missionary would arrive, learn the language and customs of the people, and become embedded with them, often spending decades ministering to the same group. Modern short-term missions are often a matter of only a few weeks, or at most a few months, and an individual may visit many different cultures as a short-term missionary over a period of years. Also, where the traditional missionary was often going to break new ground, taking the Gospel to those who have never heard it before, the short-term missionary is more often working with the already established local churches to teach, encourage and develop their people.
All forms of missions have their place – local or international, traditional or short-term, each has its own particular benefits and challenges.
KOGMI’s founder and Senior Minister, Rev. Dr. Lynn Fowler, has been involved in short-term international missions since 1989, and since 2001 most of these have been with pastors who were affiliated through her previous ministry, Glory to the King Ministries. The slide show below shows some of her experiences.
Through KOGMI we aim to take short-term missions teams out at least once a year. Unfortunately due to ongoing COVID restrictions this will not happen in 2021, but we will be aiming for a trip in 2022. Watch this page for details.
A long term vision is that we might eventually be able to send out full-time, traditional style missionaries.
The slide show below shows some of the highlights from Lynn’s years of missions experience.
