The 5 Core Values of the MOPS Evangelism Perspective

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1. We Welcome All Moms at MOPS

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• MOPS is a place where every mom is welcomed and affirmed as a human being created in God’s image. Regardless of her lifestyle choices, beliefs, mistakes, political leanings, habits, relational status or any other qualifiers.

• The MOPS program is designed to be a place where there are no barriers that keep her from coming to a group. We often hear from people who are searching for faith that they feel skittish about showing up to a church because they are worried they are going to be judged.

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2. We Believe in the Power of the Holy Spirit and Prayer

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• We believe that the Holy Spirit is working in people’s lives well before they come to a MOPS group. We also trust that the Holy Spirit does the work of prompting, convicting and revealing the truth of Jesus throughout every meeting and conversation.

• We know that our job isn’t to save people – that is the work of Jesus. Our responsibility is to communicate through our words and actions the truth found in Scripture, and then leave the outcome to God.

• We also trust in the power of prayer and encourage our leaders to cultivate robust prayer lives where they are actively interceding for every mom in their group. Prayer is an act of worship that connects us with the heart of God, provides us with wisdom, and allows us to intercede for others.

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3. We Forfeit Our Right To Be Offended

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• Taking offense is a national pastime. We feel offended by other people’s choices and ideologies, and respond to these offenses as a strategy to protect the integrity of the Church as an institution.

• What we notice about Jesus is He encountered people in all sorts of moral messes, yet He was never taken aback, never indignant, and never took offense. Jesus offered each person he encountered dignity and a seat at the table, despite her sins or differences. At some point, He offered perspective about her sins, but He rarely led with that approach.

• Because of what Jesus modeled, we ask our leaders to forfeit their right to be offended, because we believe that taking offense is a terrible evangelism strategy. When we find ourselves chronically offended by people’s political leanings, social media postings, or lifestyle choices, it is difficult to build meaningful relationships with them. This doesn’t mean we don’t hold true to biblical mandates or good theology, it means we model ourselves after what happened at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts.

• In Acts 15, Paul, Barnabus, Peter and James came together to address the question of whether the church should insist that new converts be made to adopt the predominant religious customs. The decision that was made encompassed the following belief: in everything that is negotiable, believers should not make it difficult for those who do not know God to come to Him.

• We can remove the unnecessary barriers facing those who seek God, but have not found Him yet. It is the paradox of the unchanging truth of God’s word and the changing expression of every culture and people who respond to the God of grace. This first major council was about theology, but it was also about how the church would engage culture, and they chose to be unoffended in order to bring more people into the saving truth of Jesus.

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4. We Empower Amateurs

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• Roland Allen in his book, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, observed that the churches in China seemed to flourish whenever the missionaries were forced to leave. We see the same thing happen at MOPS. MOPS is most effective when it is led by volunteers who are learning to lead, who make mistakes and don’t have all the answers, and who are so passionate about Jesus that it is contagious.

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5. We Answer Different Questions

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• Women are asking different questions than women who came to MOPS 20 years ago. In the past, seekers were asking: “How do I get to heaven?” Today, the most common questions they are asking: “What is my purpose?” and “How do I live a meaningful life?”

• Neither question is inherently better or worse; they are just different. Radically different questions require radically different approaches to the conversation. Just like the Apostle Paul varied his approach depending on his audience; speaking to Greeks in Athens required a different line of argument than speaking with Jews, we too recognize in the face of shifting cultural norms that we need agility to answer the questions people are actually asking – not the ones we assume they are asking.

• No question is too tricky for the Gospel. The incredible thing about the Gospel is its adaptability. The message of Jesus has been relevant in a premodern world, a modern world, and now in postmodernity. While the core truths haven’t changed, the tactics have. What a brilliant God that His word would be relevant and applicable across generations, cultures and questions.

 

That’s why at MOPS, we talk about the real issues and questions women have; we don’t shy away from any topic, because women need a safe space to talk about the things that are keeping them in shame and bondage to sin.

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The Impact of MOPS Evangelism

• Last year alone*, over 10,000 women decided to follow Jesus as a result of their MOPS experience, the work of the Holy Spirit, and volunteer leaders sharing the Gospel.

• Over the course of 50 years that MOPS has been in existence, we have seen over 220,000 women come into a saving relationship with Jesus.

• But here is the remarkable news: When a mom meets Jesus, not only does her life change, often her children and spouse encounter Jesus as well. It is exponential evangelism. But it doesn’t stop there. Evangelizing women mobilizes a movement of some of the most effective, but unexpected evangelists on the planet: moms. Moms have incredible influence and when they are passionate about the Gospel, they become powerful conduits of truth; spreading the message of Jesus in their homes, communities and around the world.

• May the Spirit of God give all of us courage as we share about the Good News of Jesus, because, How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7

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MOPS is:

67 countries*
17 languages*
35,000 volunteer leaders*
85,000 members*
4,500 churches*
1 million moms influenced*

*statistics compiled from 2019-2020