Mobilization, Missionary Care, Vision – Panel Discussion

Friday @ 3:30pm

For years, the Church has outsourced the Great Commission to missionary sending agencies. Do parachurch organizations exist because the local church is ignoring Christ’s last command by delegating the call to mission organizations? Sending agencies fulfill a very strategic role within the Kingdom, but the Church has a clear mandate to fulfill God’s redemptive plan for the nations.This panel (Linda Parker, Steve Beirn, Matthew Ellison) will explore what the late Dr. Ralph Winter meant by our efforts today in any part of the world will be most effective only if both of these two structures (church and agency) are fully and properly involved and supportive of each other.

David J. Wilson

Director of Church Relations
Avant Ministries

For the last 20 years, he has served as a Mission Pastor in local churches in North Carolina and Southern California. He is the General Editor for Mind the Gaps: Engaging the Church in Missionary Care and the Author of Transforming Missionaries: A Short-Term Mission Guide. He has received a Master of Divinity degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Campbell University. He and his wife Lorene live in Kansas City, MO.

Linda Parker, MFT

Professional Therapist
Olive Tree Counseling Center

Linda Parker holds a B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College and a M.Ed. in Counseling from Georgia State University. She held a private counseling practice for 30 years in southern California, including trips overseas teaching and counseling missionaries and national Christians for mental health. She was the first director of Trinity Church’s Missionary Care Team and co-author of the recently released book Mind the Gaps: Engaging the Church in Missionary Care. Linda recently moved to Central Asia serving as a Professional Therapist to missionaries in the region through Olive Tree Counseling Center.

Steve Beirn

Global Ministries Pastor
Calvary Church in Lancaster

Steve provides leadership in mobilizing the local church to recruit, prepare, send and sustain their members in cross-cultural ministry. Calvary Church has approximately 100 of their members serving cross-culturally. Steve’s commitment to advancing world missions has taken him to over 40 countries. His book Well Sent: Reimaging the Church’s Missionary-Sending Process, has recently been translated into Mandarin. He has served on the Board of Directors of The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) for 18 years. He and his wife, Lorraine, have three children and five grandchildren.

Matthew Ellison

President & Co-Founder
Sixteen:Fifteen

Matthew was rescued by Jesus when he was 23 yrs. old. In 1993 he began serving as the Mission Pastor at Calvary of Albuquerque, NM where he graduated from their School of Ministry. He founded an international short-term ministry called LifeLine Missions that gave thousands across the country the opportunity to experience the mission field firsthand. Now, he coaches local churches to discover and use their unique gifts to make Christ known among all nations. Matthew is the President and co-founder of Sixteen:Fifteen, and currently lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife, Renee, and their three children, Matthew, Caleigh and Landin.