Missions
Email the Missions MinistryMultiplying and maturing disciples in the neighborhoods and the nations.
About the Missions Ministry:
- Central Missions exists to share the gospel from our neighborhoods to the nations.
- We engage in this mission of God in three ways: Praying, Sending, and Going into our community and the world. We partner with missionaries from every corner of our community and the globe that the glory of God might be on full display and that hearts might be drawn to worship the one, true God.
- Jesus came with the good news that through faith in his sacrifice on the cross, we are forgiven and redeemed by God. Just as Jesus sent out his disciples to every people group to share this message of good news, Jesus also sends us. Therefore we are commanded, commissioned, and committed to multiplying and maturing disciples.
Short Term Missions
One way we take the gospel to the nations is by sending out teams to partner with our missionaries in sharing Christ.
Support our STM by donating funds for each trip.
Upcoming Events
Africa
Ernie and Anne Frey
Supported by Central since 2013
Ernie has a passion for developing the discipleship ministry of the church in Africa and Asia. He works to help churches and denominations develop the infrastructure for doing real discipleship through the church as the founder of ASDM, the African Strategic Discipleship Movement.
Joe and Karyn Bridges
Supported by Central Since 2009
Joe and Karyn Bridges founded the Forsaken Children in 2008 to be a vehicle for transforming the lives of vulnerable Ethiopian children trapped on the streets. Since 2016, Joe has worked directly with these children (called “Kids With Purpose”) at one of The Forsaken Children’s on the ground partner projects, Make Your Mark, International. TFC, MYM and the Bridges work together to rescue children from the streets, restore them to families, and rebuild aspects of those families that led the children to the streets in the first place. They have three children, Jack, McLaine, and Silas, who are studying hard at Bingham Academy and enjoy being kids in Ethiopia. Joe and Karyn are Global Outreach International Missionaries.
Paul Ndungu
Supported by Central since 1999
Pastor Paul and his wife Milka evangelize plant churches, disciple, train, and minister to the Maasai tribe and even other tribes in Kenya. Around 60 churches among the Maasai tribe are under their care. Central takes a short-term mission trip to the area every year to work with Pastor Paul building churches and doing dental work. Paul has also helped develop an orphanage in Uganda.
Philip and Marcia Eyster (EPI)
EPI (Eagle Projects International) is involved in church planting through such outreach as medical clinics, disaster relief, and open-air evangelism. They have developed a program of theological education called Frontline Theology, which is currently in 18 languages in 16 countries with more added every year. Some of their ministry countries are Nepal, Kenya, Ghana, India, Myanmar, and Rwanda.
S and D
Supported by Central since 2002
S and D have been living and working in Malawi and Mozambique among an unreached people group, the Yao. They are doing discipleship and development. They believe in building kingdom-directed relationships with people in order to build up the church in this area. They use development as a means for people to improve their lives and hear God’s Word at the same time.
J and CH
Supported by Central since 2022
J and CH are based in the Middle East and work primarily in closed countries within the 10/40 window where traditional missionaries are illegal. They develop new businesses and equip marketplace professionals to work in these countries to bring the Good News of Christ into these unreached parts of the world. In addition, they equip national church planters in the Global South to develop businesses to support and catalyze their church planting movements.
Asia
A and V
Supported by Central since 2012
A and V, with their sons E, G, and C, are working in Asia to reach Muslims for Christ. They are leaders in a church plant, facilitate seeker groups for Muslims, train Muslim-background pastors to reach their community, and have started a children’s home for orphans and at-risk children. They also work closely with youth organizations seeking to reach teens from Hindu Muslim backgrounds for Christ. V serves as the country’s personnel coordinator helping new workers transition on and off the field.
Andrew and Lori Spurgeon
Supported by Central since 2001
Andrew and Lori are working in education at the East Asia School of Theology in Singapore, training students to become pastors and missionaries all over Southeast Asia. Andrew is a published author and scholar who trains Asian pastors and Lori has worked with children and young women, discipling them in the Lord.
B
Supported by Central since 2008
B recently planted a church in Dubai after spending his first 15 years in the country doing college ministry and outreach. Five other church plants have been launched during that time. The churches and college outreach is growing and many people have come to Christ from other faiths and backgrounds.
F and E
Supported by Central since 2021
The “Ren” family and their 4 kids have served for the last 18 years in the Muslim world. They begin in Central Asia for 11 years and for the last 6 years have served in a major city of West Asia. Although they began overseas with reaching college students, over the last 11 years God has led them to be a part of helping to catalyze church planting movements in West Asia and ultimately to extend to countries nearby. Discipleship happens in the context of groups, trusting God that these groups will becoming multiplying churches; a movement of conspicuously spiritual disciples impacting their own families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and beyond with the truth and hope of Jesus Christ. They currently live in a megacity that has significant influence on Central Asia and the Middle East, making it a strategic city to reach. In this country with only 0.2% following Christ, it is essential to raise up and train locals to reach their own people across the country. The “Ren” family works on a team of local and expat brothers and sisters who have the same goal and dream. Please pray with them to see a viable fellowship of believes in every neighborhood across this beautiful country.
H
Supported by Central since 2000
H is the president of Endure International, a disciple-making and church-planting ministry to Muslims in the Middle East, using radio programs, pastoral mentoring, and personal evangelism to reach this most difficult population. Endure International staff are all locals spanning from Morocco to Pakistan and almost every country in between. Additionally, they run a medical clinic and a center for handicapped children.
Vijay and Gigi Vijayakumar
Supported by Central since 1996
Vijay evangelizes through seminars and training programs, supports 13 independent pastors in smaller towns who minister in the villages, trains a cadre of village missionaries each year for work in the villages, offers Bible conferences and seminars for pastors, makes gospel presentations in 10-12 high schools and colleges three times a year throughout India, distributes Bibles and Christian literature to needy individuals, conducts city-wide crusades with preachers from other countries, and follows up with those who respond to the gospel.
Europe
Guy and Sandra Sottile
Supported by Central since 1983
Guy Sottile Founded Italy for Christ in 1983 and is the President. Guy provides leadership, vision, and oversight for the continued fulfillment of the IFC mission statement, which is to present the Gospel of Christ to every Italian in this generation, in cooperation with local churches, and through mass evangelism, leadership, and publications. He seeks to give input to ministry team members, maximize opportunities to promote and raise funds, delegate ministry responsibilities, and implement the ministry plan and budget.
Stewart and Apryl Clark
Supported by Central since 2011
Apryl is a homegrown Central missionary and worked with YWAM London from 2011 through 2018. She married Stewart Clark in January 2019 and moved to Abergavenny, Wales, to join her husband in ministry at the Gateway Church where he is a volunteer Elder/Associate Pastor of Groups. They are leading several ministries in the church, and also will be sent out as missionaries to the surrounding area. Their ministry could be characterized as reaching “Christians for Christ” as well as the lost. They will be working with sister churches that are depleted, hurting, limited in resources/training and in need of encouragement.
Stewart and Chantal Winograd
Supported by Central since 2001
Stewart and his wife Chantal work with Jewish populations in Eastern Europe and India to show them the glory of Jesus the Messiah. They use youth camps, support for survivors of the Holocaust, and evangelistic outreaches to spread the good news among God’s chosen people.
North and Central America
A Way Out Ministries
Supported by Central since 2001
A Way Out Ministries is to inspire, motivate, and mobilize citizens, community leaders, and elected officials to take action against sexual exploitation and pornography so that (1) our children and families are protected, (2) victims are rescued and restored, (3) the standard of decency is raised, and (4) our quaility of life is improved. Carol Wiley leads A Way Out, helping women get free of the sex industry and build healthy families.
Arise2Read
Supported by Central since 2015
Arise2Read takes an active role in the development of children in our public schools through the presence of volunteers focused on literacy. We tutor students one hour per week utilizing a simple sight-word approach. We also provide books for the students to enhance literacy. Central Church works with students at Dunbar Elementary School.
BattlePlan Ministries
Supported by Central since 2011
BPM is our local outreach to those Christians who’ve found themselves, their marriages, their parenting, and/or their involvement in God’s kingdom radically damaged due to involvement in some form of sexual sin. Bill Berry is an elder at Central, and he and his wife serve together in this ministry.
Calvary Rescue Mission
Supported by Central since 1967
Calvary Rescue Mission opened its doors April 1, 1967, to homeless men in Memphis, Tennessee. Bob Freudiger has been the Executive Director of the Calvary Rescue Mission since 1996. With the help of Central Church and many others, a new facility was opened in 2018, doubling its capacity to rebuild the lives of homeless men and offering new classes and programs for them. Calvary’s mission is to see these men give their lives to Christ and be restored as a contributing force in society.
Community Servants
Supported by Central since 2007
Steve and Tiffany VanDyke lead Community Servants serving Jesus Christ by impacting the lives of northern Rutherford County residents through endeavors like constructing projects, services to community children (after school program & youth program), families (clothing & furniture closet), and widows (trash pickup, lawn care and senior program), and adult education (ESL and Missionary Training School). They also equip mission teams from all over the USA to love God, love people and serve others by providing opportunities for them to come and serve. Lastly, they provide missionary housing for missionaries home on furlough. Community Servants has had 25 years of serving this community.
Dan Hitzhusen (Issachar Initiative/Finishing the Task)
Dan is currently serving as Global Strategist for Church Planting for the Issachar Initiative and for Finishing the Task ministries. For more than 30 years Dan has been sharing the gospel and planting churches in over 60 countries around the world. Dan joined the staff of Global Missions Fellowship and fell in love helping mobilize churches to start multiplying in Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia, South America and North America. Dan served president of GMF which later become e3 Partners to see more than 5 million men, women, and children profess faith in Christ and be disciple in over 200,000 newly planted churches his 25 years with e3.
Don and Linda Gilbert (Kingdom Community Builders)
Supported by Central since 2015
Don and Linda do community development in the Orange Mound area, bridging the gap between the needs of the community and the community’s own leadership to see those needs met. They build relationships with those formal and informal leaders to help see the neighborhood revitalized physically and spiritually.
Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)
Supported by Central since 2014
FCA is a non-profit Christian sports ministry that seeks to make disciples through engaging, equipping, and empowering coaches and athletes to know and grow in Christ and lead others to do the same.
Gideons
Supported by Central since 1980
Gideons provides Bibles and New Testaments for residents of the MidSouth and around the world.
Global Outreach International
Supported by Central since 2015
Global Outreach is the sending agency for many missionaries, including our own Joe and Karyn Bridges and Andrew and Lori Spurgeon. They take no portion of support money that comes in for our missionaries so our support of them helps them support the missionaries.
M & D (Global Gates)
Supported by Central since 2015
M & D work through Global Gates to identify and reach out to immigrants and refugees from around the world who settle in New York City. They also train our short-term teams who go to New York in how to evangelize immigrants and use our teams to evangelize and catalog immigrant populations with a view to future evangelism.
Kyle Cole (University of Mississippi, Campus Outreach)
Supported by Central since 2010
Kyle works with Campus Outreach on he University of Mississippi campus in partnership with a local church, reaching out to students to lead them to Christ, disciple them, and equip them to share their faith and disciple others.
L and J
Supported by Central since 2012
L and J had been working in North Africa with a muslim-people group called the Fulani or Futu-Toro, only recently returning to the states to continue working with Fulani immigrants.
Life Choices
Supported by Central since 1986
The mission of Life Choices, in obedience to Jesus Christ, is to strongly advocate for the choice of life by giving alternatives to women facing unplanned pregnancy. We minister to women, men, and families before, during, and after an unplanned pregnancy. Life Choices offers all of its services and programs in a caring, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory manner. The services and programs are to remain free and can be obtained by anyone regardless of race, creed, or religion.
Lisandro and Michele Montenegro
Supported by Central since 2005
The Montenegro family lives and serves in Costa Rica leading a ministry called Singular. Lisandro serves as the leader of the team in Costa Rica and Michele serves as one of the executive directors for Singular global. They partner with local churches to train and equip their leaders in Jesus’ disciple-making strategy. Their vision is to see lives, communities and the church in Latin America mobilized for the Great Commission as a disciple-making movement.
Luis and Dinora Martinez (Impacto Ministries)
Supported by Central since 1985
Impacto Ministries uses evangelistic crusades, local church partnerships, and community development to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Latin America and particularly Guatemala. We send short-term teams annually to help them in a local community in Guatemala.
Olford Ministries
Supported by Central since 1984
OMI is designed to encourage and uplift pastors so that they are better prepared to nurture and lead their congregations. OMI uses training institutes and workshops to train pastors and law leaders in expository preaching. OMI also is involved in producing audio and videotapes, publishing books, and radio. The Stephen Olford Center for Biblical Preaching also hosts special events such as the Christian Life Convention, help in the spring and fall.
One by One Ministries
Supported by Central since 2019
One by One Ministries offers hope, support and parent education to expectant parents or parents with new babies through mentoring. One by One equips volunteers from local churches and then matches the trained mentors with moms who are asking for help. Many of the women in One by One have come from Life Choices.
Orphanos
Supported by Central since 2019
Orphanos is a Donor Management Ministry for Christian missionaries and ministries for vulnerable children and their families including our own Don and Linda Gilbert, A and V, and J and L. They do not deduct any amount from our missionary support for these services passing on 100% to our missionaries. So our support helps Orphanos cover their costs of supporting our missionaries.
Service Over Self (SOS)
Supported by Central since 1999
SOS exists to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus in underserved neighborhoods through home repair and leadership development. Specifically, SOS seeks to empower people and create thriving communities by: (1) hosting spring and summer home repair camps for students, (2) facilitating summer/year-long internships for college students and young adults, training them in urban ministry, and (3) empowering/discipling low-income urban youth through an after-school construction training program, a summer jobs program, and one week service trips.
South America
Jay Charles and Luz Mary Soper
Supported by Central since 1990
Jay and his wife Luz Mary are currently living in the states but are serving Colombia, where they are making disciples among the hearing-impaired, an unreached people group of about 150,000, doing literacy education, developing a translation of the Bible easy enough for hearing-impaired people to read, and church planting with local pastors in the hearing-impaired community and beyond.