Innovative Missions – React, Adapt, Proclaim

A full time missionary plays many roles throughout the course of their ministry.

They are evangelists, pastors, teachers, community leaders, doctors even – and many have an additional job to support their ministry and pave the way for more connections. As they enter the mission field, many missionaries are prepared for this ‘jack-of-all-trades’ position.

However, few expect earning an additional title: Entrepreneur. Innovator Extraordinaire.

Whether it’s church planting or creating a weekly Bible study, the very nature of missions work is innovative. Creativity is a given when it comes to sharing the gospel to resistant cultures or meeting the needs of a community. After all, discovering needs and coming up with solutions for those needs is the very definition of innovation.

Aside from the obvious examples of entrepreneurship on the part of missionaries – such as church planting or building a school – missions innovation boils down to three core principles. Though simplistic in nature, these three things ultimately fulfill the call of all missionaries – and ultimately, all Christians – to go into the world and preach the Gospel of salvation.

Missionaries React, Adapt, and Proclaim. These three areas fuel exciting innovation that furthers Christ’s kingdom to all corners of the map.

• React

Part of sharing the love of Christ is meeting the needs of whatever community a missionary is called to. Whether they’re confronted with spiritual needs or sudden disasters, missionaries are constantly seeking creative solutions to big and small problems. Upon arriving to the Dominican Republic in 2018, full-time missionaries Jake and Fay Vincik stumbled upon a huge need for nourishment among the homeless community of Higuey. Upon seeing the need, they started a food ministry that provided weekly meals to those who didn’t have a reliable food source. They saw a need and reacted by creating an innovative solution to the problem.

• Adapt

Oftentimes, missionaries arrive at their final destination and immediately have to adapt their plans. Perhaps the community has different needs than they anticipated, or bigger problems have cropped up over time. A full-time missionary is constantly kept on their toes as they adapt to the changing needs of their community. A perfect example of this is Covid-19. Many missionaries have needed to change the way they do ministry due to Covid restrictions. Jake and Faye have adapted their food ministry from an open soup-kitchen style of delivery to pre-packaged meals. They continue to innovate to keep up with the changes constantly occurring around them.

• Proclaim

Ultimately, a missionary works with the goal of glorifying Christ and telling everyone they meet of the hope that they’ve found in Him. This means that they must be creative with how, when, and where they present this message. Furthermore, the glory of God spurs innovation. Where He moves, creativity and new things follow close behind. Full-time missionaries proclaim the gospel and keep their eyes open for new opportunities that present themselves when God moves in their community.