Antioch Baptist Church Missions

Learn the Bible Web is sponsored by Antioch Baptist Church of Knoxville. We are a conservative King James Bible believing  Independent Baptist Church located in Knoxville Tennessee (TN).

• A division of Antioch Global Outreach
• Both are ministries of Antioch Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tennessee

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Missionary Expenses

Why do missionaries have to raise so much support? Why do they not just get a job in the country to which they are going and live on special offerings? Those are good questions and involve some things that most people have not considered. Missionaries normally do not work a job in their country of destination. For one thing, most governments around the world do not allow this. They want the jobs for their own people. For another thing, the jobs would not pay enough in most countries to support an American family. Finally, the work of a missionary is greater in many ways than that of a worker in the States. They must have time to learn the language and even daily living takes much more time and energy than it does in America.

But missionaries also incur many expenses that the average person does not have. While in the States, they will normally travel thousands of miles to get to the churches. Gas and repair bills are much more expensive for them. And, while some churches take very good care of the missionaries, at other churches and in between churches they must pay for their own motel bills and meals. Some churches give little or no love offering and the missionary struggles to make it to the next church

Missionaries have many other expenses as well. They must pay for the design and printing of their prayer cards, for their display and whatever they use for their presentation. They must take care of printing and mailing all those letters to churches and supporters. They also have travel expenses to and from the field. They will have the expense of immunizations and any medicines they need on the field. They often have additional medical expenses partly caused by the physical hardships of their field.

While on the field, they have the expense of language training, the printing and shipping of the literature they use to reach the people and many other things. After they begin to reach souls and need a place to meet, the rent will initially be paid out of their support. They normally need some form of transportation. And, many basic items like gas, food, rent, etc. are much more expensive in other countries. Of course, each country is different, but you might be surprised at the cost of basic items in many places.

When a missionary raises support, all of these things and more have to be taken into account. When we send a missionary to another land, we are not simply paying a salary. We are establishing a missionary station in another part of the world. We are putting an outreach base in a place with a need for the gospel. What a wondrous opportunity! When you give to missions at Antioch Baptist Church Missions, you are having a part in spreading the truth of God’s word to different places around the globe. We pray you will have a part in this wonderful chance to serve by giving.

Antioch Baptist Church Missions

• Established for missionaries going directly out of Antioch Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee
• Cared for and administered through the leadership of Antioch Baptist Church
• Providing instruction and guidance for the missionaries as needed, both in the United States and on the field
• Working as a clearinghouse for funds and information for the missionaries
• Making periodic visits to the field to assure integrity and direction of the work and to give needed encouragement and support
• Being available so that the missionary at any particular trial or time of decision can pick up the phone or send a message and expect to receive personal help from someone who knows and cares about his situation

Antioch Global Outreach [Antioch GO] includes:

• Our local church planting ministry
• Our missionary support program
• Our missionary sending program and sending agency (ABCM)
• Our Bible College ministry
• Our worldwide web ministry
• Our free online Bible training, discipleship materials, and teaching materials
• Our Preaching Tapes of the Month ministry Antioch Baptist Church Missions (ABCM)

Definition of a New Testament Missionary

• To preach the word (Acts 13:5, 42-44)
• To win the lost (Acts 13:12, 48)
• To baptize believers (Acts 16:14-15, 30-34)
• To teach the saved (Acts 18:11; 20:20-27)
• To ordain elders (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5)
• To establish churches (Acts 14:23)
• To confirm the churches (Acts 15:40-41; 16:5)

Relationship of the Missionary to the Sending Church

• The missionaries out of our church are an extension of our church’s work and ministry.
• They are still members of our church and are representatives of our church on the field.
• Initially, those they baptize are technically baptized into our church.
• Churches planted by our missionaries are churches planted by our church.
• This should create a very special relationship between the sending church and pastor and the missionary.
• That is the relationship Antioch Baptist Church Missions is designed to maintain.

Advantages for ABCM Missionaries

• We are committed to visit our missionaries on the field at least once every two years.
• We require a weekly report from our missionaries so we can quickly respond to any particular need for encouragement, direction, or instruction.
• We are committed to personal counseling and instruction time with our missionaries.
• We pass your support to the missionaries on a weekly basis. Most boards give the support to the missionaries on a monthly basis and this sometimes causes hardships for the missionary.
• We do not charge the missionaries any fee for the processing of their support. This expense is absorbed by the church.
• We will continue to look for ways to further the ministry of the missionaries. We are determined to learn by our experience and improve our methods.

Statement of Doctrine

• We are Bible-believers. We believe that the King James Bible of 1611 is God’s perfectly preserved Bible for the English-speaking people of today. Every word is exactly what God wants it to be and needs no correction by man.
• We are Baptists. We hold to the historic Baptist precepts without apology. Briefly, these are independent churches, saved church membership, believer’s baptism, baptism by immersion and soul liberty.
• We are independent Baptists. We are not part of any denominational headquarters. We generally hold to the stronger and more conservative stands common among the independent Baptists.
• We are premillennial and pretribulation-rapture. In other words, we believe that Jesus will come to set up His kingdom and that the rapture will occur before the tribulation.
• We believe in salvation by grace offered freely to all men through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by means of His death, burial and resurrection. We are saved by the blood and kept eternally by the power of God. We believe in the eternal security of the believer.
• We reject the tenants of Calvinism, especially those called limited atonement and irresistible grace. Christ died for all men (2Corinthians 5:14-15; 1Timothy 2:6). God is not willing that any should perish (2Peter 3:9).
• We reject Charismatic doctrine, especially faith healing through power given to men and speaking in tongues. These practices ceased with the other apostolic signs with the completion of the New Testament. Their practice today is unscriptural and full of error.
• We oppose neo-evangelicalism and ecumenicalism. We are to come out from among them and be separate; not join in with all despite doctrinal error and worldliness.
• We believe in all the basic doctrines that should be clear to any Bible-believer: a literal heaven, a literal hell, a literal devil, the recorded events of Genesis as real, the direct creation of all things by God, the virgin birth, the trinity, the coming of Jesus Christ as both God and man, the blood atonement, the resurrection of Christ, the bodily resurrection of all men, the judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne judgment, and many other things.
• We believe that the local, New Testament church is the only institution established by God to fulfill the great commission and that each local church is to be headquarters for world missions. The work of the church is to preach and teach the word, seek lost souls, assemble together for mutual profit, give to the cause of Christ, pray as a church, send missionaries, serve God faithfully and let the light of Christ shine through us to the world.
• We believe that believers ought to live holy, separated lives in this world. They should avoid ungodly entertainment, ungodly apparel and ungodly practices.
• We believe that we are called to evangelize the world and take the gospel to each and every man, woman and child. We are to do this both in public ministry and in private homes; in fact, at every possible opportunity. We are to seek souls, baptize believers, disciple them, enable them in service, plant churches and send missionaries to the far ends of the earth.