(Logo courtesy SEND)
USA (SEND/MNN) — With new missions trends emerging and an ever-changing global community, SEND International is asking whether or not they’re prepared for the future.
For seventy years, SEND has been serving Christ in the world by spreading the good news through the work of hundreds of dedicated missionaries. Many individuals, families, and churches are linked to this effort, have partnered with SEND, and feel the joy of knowing that it is worth every sacrifice.
SEND is committed to establish reproducing churches among the unreached. For the past couple of years, they’ve been progressing in all aspects of running an effective, modern organization.
At present, SEND has over 500 missionaries around the world reaching more than 50 unreached people groups. In the next 5 years, their vision is to add at least 250 more missionaries to widen the impact.
Most of the training and equipping of these church planters happens in Michigan. At the flagship campus in Farmington, they have a critical need to modernize the campus to meet the demands and expectations of a 21st century sending operation. However, they’re functioning in a 50-year-old facility that desperately needs renewal.
As SEND considered their approach, they considered the changing expectations of modern professional development space,the demographic of the missionary church planter, and how to help missionary families thrive.
So, what does renewal look like? New guest housing, international office training facilities, retreat and office space, grounds, and a bigger budget for maintaining it all. The price tag for this vision: almost $3.5 million dollars. It sounds like a lot, but consider this: the current facilities were built in 1964. How much has changed over the last 50 years technologically, environmentally, and educationally-speaking? The facilities are old and not gently brought into the 21st century.
For SEND, it’s about stewardship clearing the way for learning, teaching, and the Great Commission. As they put it, “We pray and live in a kind of tension–the tension between stretching too far and not stretching enough. But we do not want to be playing it safe when the vision of reaching the unreached with the gospel demands boldness, and part of that boldness is a call to renew this campus.”
