What in the world is God doing? Have you ever asked that question? When asking, people are usually contemplating something very personal. Often the question is asked in angst over something confusing and regarding a specific challenge.
But really, what in the world is God doing?
For more than 30 years, Northland has partnered with many churches and organizations around the world. Our church has learned a great deal about who God is and what God is doing. While many Northlanders have traveled to serve alongside our partners, our posture in traveling is one of learning, listening and understanding. Our desire is to link God’s church together, building friendship, sharing best practices and learning ways we can work together to advance God’s Kingdom.
Northlanders serve many ways around the world. Many of them are uncharted and go way beyond our organized church efforts. The heart of this congregation is to serve locally and globally wherever God places us, and this church is blessed with many amazing people who work internationally. Even among businessmen and businesswomen, we often hear stories of practical ways believers share the gospel, build bridges and connect the church in their own global work.
As an organized church, Northland is connected around the world in amazing ways. Here are a few of the ways your participation at Northland helps advance the gospel worldwide.
Missionary Support
Did you know that Northland supports more than 50 missionaries locally and around the world? Locally, missionaries are working with children, reaching out onto school campuses, and serving in areas among the poor of Orlando. With the large number of parachurch organizations in Central Florida, we also support larger ministries, such as Pioneers, Ethnos360, Cru, Wycliffe and many others. And that’s just locally!
From the example of the early church, we see how Paul and the first band of missionaries were called to take God’s Word into new territory. The local church equipped every believer in Christ and the apostles teaching, and every person contributed to the good of the ministry. Some were selected to go beyond their region to spread the gospel, disciple new believers, and raise up new leaders to oversee the emerging churches. Every community of believers had overseers who cared for and nurtured the church body, and the next generation continued in the faithfulness of the previous generation. The result was more than 2,000 years of the church expanding around the globe.
Beyond our borders, Northland supports missionaries in countries including Colombia, Peru, Italy, Venezuela, China, Bosnia and Egypt. From Bible translation to the Jesus film, from church planting to church revitalization, from working with refugees to serving orphans and widows, missionaries are doing incredibly innovative work, some in places that we are never allowed to mention for security reasons. While we are all called to be ministers of the gospel where we live, we also desire to support those whom God calls to go outside of our own region.
A great way to connect further with them and their ministries is to take a month and pray for a couple of our missionaries every morning. Ask God to continue to expand the opportunity for the gospel to spread throughout their region.
Last year Global Missions hosted a Friday luncheon with those missionaries who live in Central Florida and invited anyone in our congregation to join. This was a great time to hear updates, meet missionaries, share in stories of what God is doing and spend time in prayer. We will do a couple of luncheons like that this year too; look for the next event to take place in the spring. We will keep you updated with information about when that will happen!
Short-Term Mission Trips
Over the last couple of months, you have seen the list of Distributed Journeys taking place this year. In fact, we are writing this article from our partner church in Cuba while serving with the Northland DJ team here! If you have ever wanted to explore what God is doing in other parts of the world, this is a significant way to have the Bible open up to you in a very new way. Meeting believers in other cultures, sharing Scripture together, praying and serving alongside one another — these are all great ways to see the church in a brand-new light.
Our short-term trips are connected with local church partners, so there is a lot that we can share with and learn from one another. When you join others on a Distributed Journey, you participate in the ongoing story that God is unfolding between our churches. By working with partners year after year, we are able to build upon the previous generation in brand-new ways. Every team adds its own contribution, story and advancement of the gospel.
See the list of locations where Northland takes short-term teams at www.somedayistoday.net. If you don’t see a location where you have interest, other organizations we recommend for trips include:
IsleGo Global Hope Network International Greater Europe Mission
Church Partners
Northland has incredible church partners in a number of locations around the world, including Cape Town, South Africa; Kiev, Ukraine; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Cairo, Egypt; Kampala, Uganda; Manaus, Brazil; San Jose, Costa Rica; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Havana, Cuba.
In each of these locations, we share in the same ministry efforts of our own church community in Central Florida. We have five primary categories of emphasis:
Prayer
Would you pray this month for specific needs that our partners are facing? Here are five of them:
Tithes and Offerings
Your financial contribution helps expand the church locally and around the world. Northland is a generous congregation that has always supported through giving. When you give your tithes and offerings, pause for a moment and pray for one of Northland’s partners. It’s OK if you don’t know all the details. God is holding His church together everywhere. When we pray for our partners, we join our hearts in the great work that our church family is doing in other parts of the world. That work is very similar to what you and I do in our own neighborhoods, schools and workplaces.
Sponsorships
Another practical way to serve the church globally is through child sponsorships. There are many great organizations for you to work with, including Compassion International and World Vision.
Additionally, our church partner in Uganda has a child sponsorship program for the kids in its community. Sponsor a child today! Visit gatewaytohope.com.
Sean Cooper has served as the pastor of Global Missions since 2014, after working at Northland since 1996 as a minister in Student Ministries.