Fortified Hills Baptist Church in Dallas, Georgia, holds Engage Missions Week urging members to pray, give and go

DALLAS, Ga. — Engage Missions Week at Fortified Hills Baptist Church is designed to do more than tell church members what missionaries are doing around the world. Lead Pastor Josh Price described the week as an opportunity for members to understand that they are participants in the mission of God through discipleship, prayer, giving, evangelism and, for some, going to the nations.

Zane Pratt, vice president for global training at the International Mission Board and associate professor of Christian missions at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, preached on Sunday morning, Nov. 1, from Luke 24:36-49. Pratt, who previously served with the IMB as an international church planter, argued that missions should not be treated as one ministry among many in the church. He said there is a tendency to see missions as “just one more agenda,” a “special interest for a few” that others can safely ignore.

“But the reality is that Scripture is one story,” Pratt said. “It’s got a beginning, it’s got a plot line, a direction, it’s going somewhere, it has an end. And missions is woven all the way through that story.”

Pratt traced that story through the Old and New Testaments, pointing to God’s promise to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed, the prophets’ vision of the nations worshiping God, and Jesus’ declaration that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all nations. Pratt’s account of God’s work passing from one generation to the next reflects the call to pass on the faith (Psalm 78:4).

Engage Week began Sunday morning with an impact report on ways members of Fortified Hills have been involved in missions locally and globally during the past year. The congregation also heard reports from mission partners serving overseas, while children heard from missionaries from Slovakia. Pratt preached during the morning worship service and returned that evening for a workshop titled “Missions and the Local Church,” which addressed the role of the local church in global missions. The week continues Wednesday, when adults and students will hear from one of the church’s mission partners who is back in the United States from the Horn of Africa.

Pratt told the congregation that the work of missions begins with Christians growing as disciples. “First of all,” he said, “you’ve got to be a disciple before you can make disciples.” He said believers grow in their faith through studying Scripture, praying and involving themselves in the local church, since discipleship happens in the context of the body of Christ. “Make yourself known and vulnerable to other believers,” he urged, “so that you can have the input of the body of Christ as you grow as a disciple.”

Pratt also recalled his own years serving overseas and the encouragement he received from knowing that Southern Baptists were praying for him. “The story of missions is the story of answered prayer, often in miraculous ways,” he said. “So please don’t discount prayer. It is actually the most critical of all the tasks of missions.”

Southern Baptists are able to send missionaries overseas through their giving to the Cooperative Program, a portion of which supports the International Mission Board. Pratt thanked the congregation for its faithful giving and explained how the CP model allows those serving overseas to concentrate on sharing the gospel, discipling believers, planting churches and training leaders, rather than spending significant portions of their time raising financial support.

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