MISSIONNEXT & THE FINISHERS PROJECT

Mobilizing 3,000 New Missionaries by Year-End 2010

This memo is a request to consider commitments of up to $120,000 to fuel the 2006 strategic expansion of MissionNext-The Finishers Project—a non-profit ministry that helps mid-career adults become missionaries. February 2006

May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make His face shine upon us,

that Your ways may be known on earth,

Your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

The Finishers Project—attracting Baby Boomers into mission service since 1998—and the new startup MissionNext for Gen-Xers use Web community, resources and events to help adults become missionaries with more than 90 American mission agencies.

This is a request for tax-deductible contributions up to $120,000 for the 2006 startup of MissionNext and strategic expansion of The Finishers Project.

BACKGROUND

The Demise of American Missions?

In the late 1800s, the Student Volunteer Movement in America mobilized 100,000 university students into missions: 20,000 went overseas and the rest supported them. After WWII, American missionaries again surged abroad by the tens of thousands.

Today, mission researchers such as James Engel warn that American missions has an aging financial base and that missionary vision is eroding. Few candidates actually commit to career mission service, and the challenge of funding breeds competition among resource-strapped mission agencies.

No Shortage of American Manpower

Yet God still insists that “to whom much is given, much is required.” And the American Church has been given much. Fortunately, tens of thousands of believers are now willing to go as laborers into His global harvest:

• Every year about 200,000 mission explorers contact American mission agencies to inquire about mission service.

• As many as 40,000 now stand ready to embark as career missionaries if they could find adequate support.

• Almost 9,000 mid-career adults are now enrolled with MissionNext (under-40) and The Finishers Project (Baby Boomers). 40% are totally or partially self-funded.

• The seminary-level mission extension course Perspectives on the World Christian Movement last year graduated more

than 7,000 adults, and now has more than 70,000 alumni.

• Nearly 1 million Americans each year participate in short-term mission trips outside the United States. (Continued—)

Manpower, continued—

Meanwhile, new initiatives are gaining momentum in 2006:

Exploring Mission Service

• Saddleback's P.E.A.C.E. Plan—Planting Churches, Equipping Leaders, Assisting the Poor, Caring for the Sick including AIDs victims & Educating the world's Next Generation—will help mobilize up to one million believers into outreach & missions.

• The late Bill Bright's challenge to also mobilize one million Christian workers is called The Billion Souls Campaign—to see a billion new believers and 5 million new churches!

• Amazingly, the US Center for World Mission is also mounting, as part of their Global Kingdom Community plans, a Million Person Campaign to mobilize a million Great Commission Christians.

The Challenge to Mentor & Connect

But these thousands of prospective missionaries often have trouble determining their next steps into the complexities of mission service. In past years, the common path was Bible college and seminary, but for most post-college adults, this route is neither feasible nor necessary.

Further, missions as a field of career study is simply, flatly absent from mainstream American Christendom; querying the staff of any Christian bookstore for the location of the “mission section” is a sobering experience. Our churches today are filled with thousands of mission-minded believers who want to find their place in God’s global strategy, and pastors want to see them mobilized. The problem is: There is no longer a clear pathway into missionary service—particularly for mid-career adults.

Solutions: High-Tech Systems & High-Touch Networking

MissionNext-The Finishers Project (MN-FP) has successfully combined technological Web expertise, Kingdom-wide conferences plus networking among churches and mission agencies to earn a striking track record of results:

• Inventor-engineer Nelson Malwitz launched The Finishers Project in 1998. Since then, more than 800 fulltime career missionaries have been placed with sending agencies through the Finishers system.

• The first Finishers event in Chicago propelled an estimated 90 of the 450 participants to the mission field within one year.

• By 2004, nearly 3,000 mission explorers younger than 40 had signed on at Finishers.org. So the Finishers Leadership Team (See “Management” page 6.) determined to develop a Gen-X portal: MissionNext.org.

Solutions, continued—

• MissionNext-Finishers now has a database of 8,500 mid-career adults from churches across the U.S. who are at various stages of exploring mission service. Nearly 40% report that they are self-funded.

• MN-FP’s 90+ mission agency partners (current roster at left) contact these mission explorers to offer more than 20,000 ministry opportunities.

• This unique high-tech, high-touch mentoring system now results in agency partners appointing an average of two new career missionaries every week.

MN-FP has eight years of success in placing missionary candidates. It has hard-earned expertise and sterling credibility in the mission community. And it is now positioned to expand its capacities for helping mid-career adults find a clear pathway into missions and for assisting American churches in their outreach objectives.

Strategic Development

For 2006, MN-FP is:

• Formally launching MissionNext
• Initiating new strategic alliances
• Expanding its management team
• Strengthening its ability to assist churches
• Designing a new-generation Web system
• Producing new online education/training modules
• Launching an extensive marketing campaign
• Developing a strategic format for its face-to-face events
• Expanding its revenue streams to include broader support from “consumers.”

This strategic expansion in 2006 provides the infrastructure to place at least 3,000 new career missionaries by year-end 2010.

n Operations

MN-FP’s purpose is to assist churches to mobilize mid-career adults, help prepare and screen them, and introduce them to church and agency opportunities.

To accomplish that purpose, MN-FP core operational

competencies are 1) mission organizational networking, 2) training on the Web, in churches and at events and 3) mission marketing:

• Organizational Networking

MN-FP is well positioned to develop beneficial alliances with neutral (non-sending) mission mobilization groups:

1) “Gatherers”— Organizations mobilizing believers into basic mission awareness—short-term mission associations, the NVision Seminars and 19 other identified groups.

2) “Vendors”— Organizations offering expertise and mission education-training resources—such as the Perspectives Study Program, ACMC, Caleb Project, Christian schools and 17 other identified groups.

MN-FP is nurturing additional organizational relationships with influential groups such as The Leadership Network—a consortium of more than 1,000 of America’s largest churches.

• Training on the Web, in Churches & at Events

While advanced mission preparation is available through Christian schools and missionary training programs, the foundations of mission service are best rooted in the local church. Thus the MN-FP process and resources strongly urge aspiring missionaries to begin their mission exploration in their own fellowship:

• Consult with your pastor.

• Secure a mission mentor in your church.

• Gather with other local mission-minded believers.

• Help raise mission awareness in your church.

• Gain basic cross-cultural ministry skills in your

region and through your church’s short-term missions opportunities.

• Train a church-based missionary sending team.

The Internet in many ways is a miraculous, God-given gift. The incredible access to information, the benefits of online community-building, the capacity for multimedia Web training events, the backroom tracking of users' participation, the automation/ customization of Web experiences as well as

Competencies: Training on the Web, in Churches and at Events, continued—

email connections all provide a powerful pathway for inquirers to become better prepared and qualified as missionary candidates. (The new-generation MN-FP Web System Flowchart is available.) MN-FP technology offers thousands of mission explorers exactly the info/training resources they want and need—some at no-cost and others at reasonable pricing—with immediate availability of these resources via downloads or online ordering.

Events have been the source of fully half of the 800 adults who have transitioned to fulltime mission positions through the Finishers system. NextStep Seminars in churches bring a revolutionary format to mission-emphasis weekends. Neutral events such as Finishers Forums and NextStep Gatherings offer mission inspiration and training. (An overview of MN-FP events is available.)

• Marketing of Missions

Like the generic "Got Milk?" campaign, all mission efforts will profit by targeted, Kingdom-minded promotion using dozens of creative marketing tactics.

• “Targeted” means focused on mid-career American believers who are already aware of the scope of cross-cultural ministry, already “mission-minded.”

• “Kingdom-minded” means a neutral message from a neutral organization that has no agenda to recruit its own missionaries.

The MN-FP Marketing Plan calls for lavish Web-search optimizing and opt-in email promotion, breaking-news mission publicity, programmed radio PSAs, featured articles in Christian media and an aggressive interview and speaking schedule for MN-FP leaders. (Complete Marketing Plan available.)

Structure & Management

• MN-FP subscribes to the National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith (www.nae.net).

• Oversight

MN-FP as a non-profit organization is a ministry of the Danbury, Connecticut Walnut Hill Community Church—whose pastor Clive Calver is the former president of World Relief. The church contributes financial accounting services to MN-FP and exercises no executive control over any aspects of MN-FP ministry.

Paraclete, a non-profit mission consulting organization based in Phoenix, oversees fiscal and ministry accountability for MN-FP. A member of ECFA, Paraclete mentors mission organizations in administrative, leadership, resource and technology development (www.paraclete.net).

The MN-FP Leadership Team (listed at right) includes representatives of seven distinct mission organizations. The team meets bi-annually and advises MN-FP in practical matters and ministry direction.

• Management Team

Chief Executive Officer Don Parrott

Based in Phoenix and serving concurrently as president/CEO of Paraclete and MN-FP, Don was formerly a missions pastor for 10 years in the Seattle area, ministered with his wife Ele as missionaries for 15 years in Argentina and Guatemala, then as Director of Mobilization with OC International in Colorado Springs.

Director of MissionNext Nick Noll

Nick Noll

An MK—“missionary kid”—former youth pastor, church-planter and CEO of Integrated Marketing Solutions in Birmingham, Nick’s primary purpose is equipping believers to fulfill God’s plan for their lives.

Nelson Malwitz

Founder Nelson Malwitz

Born in 1946, Nelson is the quintessential evangelical Baby Boomer who retired early from an R&D career to develop The Finishers Project. He serves from a home base in Danbury CT to facilitate this movement of sending more laborers into God’s harvest.

Bill Stearns

Staff Support

Associate Staff Bill Stearns in Fayetteville AR is a mission speaker, trainer and author of more than 20 books and dozens of mission training curricula.

Office Manager Paulette Fitch oversees clerical tasks while supervising volunteer workers at the MN-FP Headquarters in Danbury CT.

Paulette Fitch

Finances

MN-FP’s core revenue stream for eight years has been the partnership fees from 90+ mission agency clients. For the first time since FP’s founding, fees are raised from $500 for unlimited database access for one year to $600 per agency. An extensive agency relations campaign plus the formal launch of MissionNext projects an increase in the number of agency partners to 118 for 2006.

Other sources of revenue include:

• Limited Partnerships (90 days access at $150)

• Dual membership in both Finishers and MissionNext (an additional $300/year)

• Expanded roster of Mission Education Partners ($150/year)

• A new set of online preparation courses and resources for “consumers”

Finances, continued—