What it takes to carry out the missions mandate.
by Ronald Rousseau
The term critical mass may be understood in different ways. I may not define it technically or precisely, but here I want to think about the term in light of Luke 14:28 and our work at GC Missions: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?” (NIV).
A simple illustration of critical mass is the amount of force necessary to hammer a nail. If you want to drive the nail with two taps, you need to hit it with a certain amount of critical mass.
How does this apply to GC Missions? Besides the financial needs to accomplish a task, we must also consider material and human resources, planning, and all the tools needed to finish a project as Jesus describes in Luke 14:28. All this amounts to critical mass.
Finishing a project is never guaranteed, but starting it with sufficient critical mass is essential for success. This is especially true of missions. Critical assessment and discipline are needed at the start if we are to see the project come to fruition.
Three stages
In project management there are three stages: storming, norming, and performing. These characterize what happens at the beginning, middle, and end of a project. Since the beginning of a project typically includes the development of ideas and planning, it tends to be somewhat chaotic. This sometimes occurs because people are learning their roles or aligning with estimates. This storming stage can reveal that we have too little or, most often, not enough staff to start a mission project.
After getting past the storming phase, the team starts to react in a normal fashion and sometimes advances to the performing phase.
At each level, there is a degree of critical mass that is needed to continue to the next, but the beginning can be the hardest. Typically in the storming phase, identifying what’s critical and what is not a priority is essential to getting the project off the ground. In the storming phase, it’s sometimes difficult to identify all that it will take for the team to elevate to the next level: better training, tools, funding?
To comply with Luke 14:28, we have to know not just what the goal is but also what the obstacles are. We have to know how to stay focused and how to recognize when we are becoming too comfortable, lest we lose the critical mass to succeed.
Goals and obstacles
All this comes to mind when I think about the goals and obstacles of Missions. I pray daily for our mission partners as they deal with various opportunities and difficulties where they are called to work.
In February 2026, a team of seven missionaries, including my wife and me, took a trip to Lomé, the capital city of Togo in Africa. We went there to evaluate the mission that has been started in Togo and to see what opportunities exist to do more mission work there.
People in Togo speak French, English, and Ewe. Not being able to speak at least two of those languages can become a hurdle for anyone doing missionary work there. We also have to consider culture, geography, and civil laws.
One of the common challenges in Togo and beyond is registering local churches with the national government of the country where they reside. Obtaining registration and national recognition for churches beyond just a low-level church mission status has not been a priority in the past, but it should be when establishing a church.
Items that need to be identified when planting a church or mission include the following:
• planning and executing an evangelistic campaign;
• church registration;
• a plan for establishing a permanent church home;
• a plan for growth;
• a plan for sustainability.
Each of these items must be done with critical mass — having the funds, logistics, and support to get the tasks done in a reasonable amount of time. Critical mass can come from having more resources to apply to problem solving or more focus on the problems before us. A disciplined and unified approach is necessary to get the mission done. Sometimes it requires us to say no to something new in order to keep our commitment to finishing the projects we’ve already started and get those missions to a good state of being. This would include several things:
• discipleship, the spiritual infrastructure for making and teaching disciples;
• a mission statement that is understood in their communities;
• a path and plan for growth through evangelism;
• a financially self-sustaining ministry.
This is not a fully exhaustive list, but the idea is to see the plan come to fruition. We in GC Missions have many missions partners around the world, and there is a hunger to maintain and grow those missions. But we need focus and unity. Focus means that we are committed to put critical mass on the commitments we’ve made. Unity means that we are not distracted and agree on our purpose and goals.
Engage with missions
Please reach out to GC Missions when you see a mission opportunity you want to be involved in. We may know something that would be good for you to know about this opportunity. We ask that you please reach out to us when you are motivated to donate or engage. This plea comes from a desire for the Church to stay focused and unified in our goal to do missions.
The work we do is mandated in the Great Commission. We want to represent our God, our church, and our Lord in the most excellent way we can. As a church, let’s bring critical mass to the commitments we have made by staying focused and unified. We are better together.
