St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Holt, MI has always had a strong mission focus, locally, through personal Evangelism, domestic and on foreign soil.  St Matthew used a version of Dr. D. James Kennedy's 'Evangelism  Explosion, in which the lay members were trained to share their faith  through an outline which included illustrations, Scripture references and  questions to determine where the person stood in relationship to Christ. Then,  using Scripture, they lead the subject to a place where he or she would understand the Gospel, and, hopefully, pray to receive the free gift of  eternal life. The member would become trained and certified, then would  take two or three trainees to observe and learn while the Gospel was  presented door to door in the area.  This same process was  used in foreign lands. The procedure worked extremely well for many  years.  Literally hundreds of St. Matthew members were trained and traveled  to places like India, the Phlippines,  Africa, Germany,  and a  multitude of other nations.  For several years, the senior class in our  Christian day school spent up to one month on a foreign mission trip.

Today, such a process is not as effective, for many reasons, including the fact that people are not as likely to open their doors to strangers as they have  been in the past.  Many foreign nations restrict the movements of 'foreigners', making it difficult to contact citizens on a one-on-one  basis. Many countries prohibit foreigners from going into  private homes.

Several years ago, St. Matthew began participating with M.O.S.T. (Mission Opportunities-Short Term), headquartered at Concordia University, Ann Arbor, traveling to other countries distributing eyeglasses to the poor, constructing  homes and buildings, suicide prevention in India and English as a second  language.  St Matthew members have participated in many of these missions.  St. Matthew will conduct our first congregation-led MOST mission  in summer of 2010 (currently scheduled for Chihuahua, Mexico).  While our primary mission is not to personally present the Gospel, many opportunities present themselves either on the mission field, or en route to or from the mission destination.  On the mission field, our countenance and gifts are  used to show the love of Christ to people who may not know Him. Local ministers, who know the language and culture, handle the Gospel presentation and follow-up.  Out team members also conduct Vacation Bible School for the  children.

The mission board is taking steps to encourage all SML members to consider a trip to the mission field and/or to support our missionaries.  SML also continues to support a full time mission project in Trivandrum, India, under the  direction of Stanley Lawrence,  This group, Passiton, India spreads the  Gospel, and has established seven Lutheran churches in Southern India.