Does your church support missions or missionaries?

Having just returned to the mission field of Niger from our home assignment in the U.S., I went through my four months of accumulated mail and just browsed through the May-June 2010 issue of Mission Frontiers (published by the U.S. Center for World Mission). In it, USCWM Director Greg Parsons observed that many churches put more emphasis on “missionaries” than in “missions”.

He believes that there’s more concern about the missionary unit than in the ministry that missionary is engaged in. In other words, “our” people and personalities trump “their” people and God’s purpose in supporting churches’ mission practices.  Our local churches may pray for the missionaries, their families, their health and their struggles, but are they praying that God uses their work for His Kingdom---that lives in another culture or place are being transformed through the missionaries living and witnessing for Christ?  Parsons wonders if the missionary’s home-based prayer support teams are in serious partnership with the work itself on the mission field.  If not, he argues that the missionaries’ effectiveness is being negatively impacted.

Indeed, there are some churches that do try to create “missionary heroes” (and some missionaries who gladly play along).  When you visit these churches, people marvel at the sacrifices the missionary is making to serve the Lord. They want to know about the strange foods you must eat, the foreign language you’re obliged to learn and what kind of house you live in and if you have electricity, indoor plumbing, etc.  The missionary can be held up as an ideal Christian, the fulfillment of obedience to the Great Commission and someone to be admired.  Perhaps in our celebrity-driven culture, we shouldn’t be surprised that this happens even in local congregations, but shouldn’t our emphasis be less on the missionary and more on the ministry?  I don’t mean that we should stop praying for the missionary or ignoring his or her needs, but rather we should focus on our partnership in mission work in seeing the Gospel fulfilled through the Holy Spirit working through the missionary. We all should want to see God glorified in this “other” land, knowing full well that anyone we send in mission is foremost an "instrument" in God's hands.

If you look at the RCA’s mission history, we have invested years in ministry fields such as South India; Amoy, China; Chiapas, Mexico; Oman; Bahrain; South Sudan, Alale, Kenya; Dulce, New Mexico and many other places.  Some RCA churches are dedicated to such mission sites and have supported whatever person or project that the RCA has determined will advance the ministry there and in today's jet-set world, many have even visited in person.  As a result, such long-term commitments have seen great rewards for the Kingdom: with strong, faithful indigenous churches or a Christian presence where history and current events argue there shouldn’t be one.  Certainly the prayers, financial support and continuing interest of local RCA congregations were instrumental in these accomplishments and we must be thankful that these churches stayed with such mission fields even when that first beloved missionary left.

Missionaries, like pastors, will come and go over time.  While most of us couldn’t fathom the classis abandoning its ties with a local church when the charismatic pastor moves on (although we know individuals do so), far too often a local church will quit supporting a mission field when the missionary departs if there isn’t immediately a “likeable face” to associate with that ministry.  Personality-driven ministries aren’t good for local churches, nor are they appropriate anywhere where we want people to know Christ and to grow deeper in Him.  In covenantal relationships, the two parties stick with each other over good times and bad, believing that grace will see them through. Of course there are times and circumstances that dictate a change in support or in strategy, but remember that many mission fields will require years to produce a harvest, as God’s time isn’t our time. 

Mission strategists suggest that local churches should prayerfully commit to a people group (i.e. the Hausa), to a geographic location (i.e. Eastern Europe) or to a specific ministry (i.e. prison ministry) and find ways to incorporate these missions and ministries into the overall life and identity of the church and not just solely as an item in the missions’ budget. The missionary shouldn’t be the primary focus, but rather the mission: those people that we are praying for.  As covenantal people ourselves, we know first-hand the value of such lasting relationships.

TOP 10 BEST AND WORST LIST FOR MISSIONARY HOME ASSIGNMENT

It's almost time for our family to head home to Niger.  Here's a list of the best and worst aspects of missionary home assignment in the U.S.

BEST THINGS ABOUT HOME ASSIGNMENT

 1.  Eating all the food that you don’t eat in your mission country of service

2.  Being with a church congregation that’s been following your ministry and asks good questions about your work.

3.  Visiting RCA churches in different parts of the country and learning about the variety of church life in our denomination.

4.  Buying all those things that you can only find in America or can only find at an affordable price!

5.  Going to RCA General Synod, seeing colleagues and having lots of great conversations while eating M&Ms from Words of Hope’s exhibit booth.

6.  Trying to give your kids a crash course in American life by doing VBS, swimming at the community pool, watching summer movies at the theater and playing at the park.

7.  Enjoying a genuine home-cooked meal with family or friends.

8.  Watching your kids get pretty good at traveling to the amazement of other parents with small children.

9.  Being prayed over at a church service.

10. Sleeping in during the week because you don’t HAVE TO be anywhere or do anything.

WORST THINGS ABOUT HOME ASSIGNMENT

1.  Eating TOO MUCH of the American food that you don’t eat in your mission country of service.

2.  Trying to find appropriate housing during home stay.

2.  Missing out on weekend summer family and friend gatherings because you’re traveling to churches.

3.  Discovering that you’re more and more out of the loop with your family and friends’ lives.

4.  Sitting in a church basement/fellowship hall alone while church members are chatting with each other all around you.

5.  Having distant friends and family members try hard to steer conversations AWAY from the fact that you're a missionary or blurt out: "I can't afford to support you" when you never even brought the subject up.

6.  Suffering through U.S. cable TV commercials

7.  Sleeping on lots of different beds

8.  Driving on I-80 almost every weekend.

9.  Explaining your ministry at a supporting church only to have the first question from the audience be: “So, what do you eat there?”

10.  Packing for the return trip to the mission field.

BRINGING REFORMED TEXTS TO THE WORLD: A new goal for Reformed missions?

Now-retired, RCA Missionary to Albania, Jack Dabney sparked many thoughts for me in his farewell comments at General Synod this June at Orange City. I mentioned several of these in my previous post.  I’d like to elaborate a little more on one aspect of his mission career that he highlighted and which I think deserves more attention in mission work: the sharing of our Reformed worldview.

When Jack arrived in post-Communist, post-isolation Albania, he was one of many Western missionaries who came to share the Gospel.  Affiliated with a pastor-training institution, he quickly realized that there was a dearth of Albanian-language theological books for preparing pastors.  Dabney contacted his Reformed seminary friends and missionary colleagues and asked them “what are the best short (due to translation costs) Reformed-friendly theological works that they would recommend?”  Here's what he came up with: 

1. The Kingdom of God by John Bright (Old Testament)

2. The Message of the New Testament by F. F. Bruce (New Testament)

3. The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, edited by Tony Lane and Hilary Osborne (Theology and Nature of the Church)

4. The History of Christian Doctrine by Louis Berkhof (Theology and History)

5. A Short History of the Early Church by Harry Boer (Early Church History)

6. A Short History of Christianity by Martin Marty (History)

7. The Letters of Paul, Conversations in Context by Calvin J. Rotzel (New Testament history and Pauline theology).

8. The History of the Church in Albania by David Hellston (History, written by a missionary (Reformed theology) in the Albanian language)

9. Integrity by Stephen Carter (A book that contrasts a corrupted worldview with God’s expectations for living)

10. Kiss Your Church by Dick Little (A great book on pastoral ministry with an excellent chapter on how to write a sermon)

[NOTE: Numbers 1-7 below were suggested by faculty with Reformed perspectives; 8 & 9 were requests from missionary colleagues in Albania; and 10 was written by Jack's pastor, who raised the funds for translating and printing this book in the Albanian language.]

Additionally, he had hoped to get The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer translated, as well as The Enduring Community: Embracing the Priority of the Church by Brian Habig and Les Newsom, but was unable to get these produced for various reasons.

 While many may quibble with this selection, Jack reports that the Albanian Christian community has devoured these translations and the local publisher has trouble keeping some titles in stock.  Should this surprise us?  That after believers have copies of the Bible in their mother tongue, the next thing they want is sound theology and church history to place their new-found faith in context?  I think we should expect this more and more and perhaps even (somewhat) re-orient our Reformed response to missions to capitalize on our unique strengths and contributions to global Christianity.

 Let me explain my rationale: thankfully there are many evangelical, Pentecostal and independent missions and missionaries that are on the front-lines of leading people to Christ throughout the world and establishing churches where none have ever existed.  We Reformers should be grateful and humbled by these efforts, as our own zeal for evangelization is seldom matched by theirs in actual practice.  Yet we often see, as some believers grow in their faith, that they become drawn to Reformed truths when they are exposed to them.  The RCA’s aid in helping organize disparate Pentecostal congregations in the Dominican Republic into the Dominican Reformed Church (See Wes Granberg-Michaelson’s 2009 blog on this subject) after they heard Reformed preaching on the radio is a case in point. Our goal isn't to create lots of little "RCAs" or to "steal" new believers from other churches, but to help believers mature in the faith--as Reformed creeds and catechisms can strengthen one's walk with Christ.  Indeed, we constantly meet new believers who are almost "upset" that no one explained Reformed Christianity to them sooner, as our teachings  often seem to fulfill a spiritual hunger they possessed but couldn't otherwise satisfy.

In my own ministry, it looks very likely that we’ll be able to add (with the technical help of Words of Hope) a simplified Hausa audio version of the Heidelberg Catechism (translated by the joint work of a Christian Reformed missionary and Nigerien Christians) to the first-ever complete Hausa digital audio bible. This solar-powered audio device will soon be produced and distributed in Niger with Audio Scriptures Ministries, once funds are raised and logistical issues are resolved.  For a largely non-literate people, this could mean that Bible listeners would also have the explanatory resource of this classic catechism to better understand the essential truths of the Christian faith. Thus, they'd be better equipped to respond to the new believer’s dilemma (to borrow from Francis Schaeffer) “How now shall I live?”  Also their preachers and teachers would be able to use the catechism for discipling their churches and  instructing their children.

Returning to Jack Dabney’s ministry work in Albania,  my own response after hearing him at General Synod was “Who will help us get these great books translated into Hausa, so that I can share them with Christians there?”  The translation of classic Reformed texts into the world’s languages seems like a very appropriate contribution for us in the RCA (and others in the Reformed Community) to share with the global Christian community.  Should this be something we pursue as a denomination or through a body like the newly-launched World Communion of Reformed Churches? If so, how can we make it happen? 

RANDOM MISSIONARY THOUGHTS FROM GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Our family arrived in the U.S. from Niger in mid-May and we’ve been in almost constant motion since; visiting churches, family and friends, as well as taking care of our health and personal needs.  We were privileged to visit the 2010 General Synod in Orange City and I’d like to share some random thoughts with you from that gathering.

#1. The RCA continues to employ some of the best missionaries you’ll ever encounter on the mission field.  Generally, an individual RCA missionary rarely meets his or her RCA colleagues who serve in other parts of world except at General Synod.  I’m always impressed and inspired by the RCA missionaries I meet as they are generally more insightful, humble, knowledgeable, sincere, effective and faithful than the majority of missionaries we bump into in our respective countries of service.  I’m not trying to denigrate others, but our missionaries are truly world-class. 

 #2. Welcome to three newly commissioned missionaries, including two men, whom are each involved in ministry in sensitive areas, as well as Mark (and Deb) Wilson, who will serve the Lord in Cambodia.  These folks have compelling faith stories and have already experienced joy and suffering for the Gospel. All are still looking for support and I know your congregation would be blessed by forming a partnership with them.  Mark and I go back to being in graduate school at Michigan State University in the mid-90s and we both credit University Reformed Church and the Rev. Tom Stark for our current roles. Small world.

#3. As my former RCA colleague in Niger, Barbara, would certainly have said at the time of commissioning the new missionaries Sunday night, “Where are the female missionaries?”  That’s a good question and one that deserves further investigation.  Once upon a time, becoming a missionary, along with being a nurse and a teacher were one of the honored (but few) career paths for a Christian woman to choose.  While it’s wonderful that women have unlimited options—including that of pastor—it doesn’t look like many females in the RCA are choosing to become a full-time missionary.  Why is that?

 #4. Congratulations to the 68 RCA churches that give either $40,000 or 10% of their budget to RCA mission efforts.  I wonder how many of these churches are producing sons and daughters that later enter full-time ministry?  I credit the spiritual formation I received from one of these 68—Ebenezer Reformed in Leighton, IA—for providing me the foundation that led toward a ministry vocation.  I have a hunch there’s a link between a church’s missions/outreach activities and the raising up of future generations of ministers and missionaries, as deeds often speak louder than words.  Any other thoughts on this?

#5.   I learned that only 57% of RCA’s congregations contribute to the denomination’s Partnership-in-Mission (PIM) share program.  While that number doesn’t include churches that contribute through gifts for Mission of the Month, other Global Mission projects or Reformed Church World Services relief efforts, it would be great if almost all RCA churches would have the goal of connecting with a RCA missionary (or family) through this financial support program.  Missions and the joint sharing and supporting of missionaries could be one of the “glues” that hold the denomination together.  As church multiplication brings new life to the RCA, my prayer is that these new church plants will embrace the excellent missions endeavors of the RCA in that loving and serving others in Jesus' name--wherever in the world they might be--becomes one of our denomination’s hallmarks.

#6. Could a retiring missionary have delivered a better good-bye than Jack and Susannah Dabney, missionaries to Albania?  Not only does Jack deserve our plaudits for highlighting his wife's impressive ministry to Albania's poor during his GS speech, but he gets my praise for leaving Albania pastors and seminary students with a dozen (or so) Reformed theology books translated from English to Albanian! Finally, Jack told the crowd that he began his "missionary career" by praying for Albania, long before it was even possible for a Westerner to visit the country (during its long, restrictive communist era).  You don't always need to cross a border to partner with God in foreign ministry!

Like every family reunion, General Synod brings the scattered family together for a time of sharing and decision-making. As a RCA missionary, it is good to have a place at our common table and to catch up with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Care and Feeding of Your Visiting Missionary

In two weeks, we’ll leave Niger for almost four months of home assignment in the U.S.  This will be our first trip back to the U.S. since February of 2008 and it will be the first time my parents will see our third child, who was born in March, 2008 in Niger (and who was a few weeks early).  We have a lot of people to see, things to do and churches to visit during this period.  So, as you can imagine, we leave Niger with lots of apprehension mixed with excitement, since we know we’re going to squeeze “a lot of living” during our brief time back “home”.

Some of you may recognize other terms for what the RCA calls “home assignment”.  “Furlough” was once the preferred term for the time missionaries were back home as they were relieved of their primary ministry responsibilities in the foreign land to come back home and rest, raise funds and report on what they’ve doing.  Some missions use “deputation” “itineration” or “interpretation” to describe the missionary’s domestic job of visiting and speaking to churches about their work.  My Nigerien colleagues refer to this time as “vacance” or “congé”, terms I dislike very much as it seems to imply that we have several months of doing nothing but vacationing and enjoying annual leave---in direct opposition to our reality of being in almost constant motion!

What I want to write to you today, though, is to offer some advice to churches about how they might wish to structure the missionary visit to their church. We know some churches put a lot of effort and care in hosting their missionaries, while others don’t. All of us missionaries have many stories to tell about some surprising treatment we’ve received from local churches while in the U.S.  So, what I’m going to share is a summation of these stories, not all of which I’ve personally experienced.  I hope it gives some food for thought.

The biggest issue we deal with is whether or not we can even get access to the church on a Sunday.  For some of you that may be a surprise that a supporting church wouldn’t welcome its missionaries with open arms, but there are some churches, dare I say pastors, who almost seem to resent the interfering presence of a missionary.  For us missionaries, we usually feel that we have a sacred duty to share with you about our work, as we see the local church as important partners in our ministry.  For one thing, we can’t be in the mission field without your financial support and we appreciate those members and churches who take the time to send cards, write emails and who let us know they are reading our “Dear Friends” letters and praying on our behalf.  So, we want to meet with as many of local church members as possible.  Yet, we regularly encounter pastors who tell us that they have no room in their Sunday programs for a missionary speaker.  To travel half-way across the world, where we serve as your Ambassadors to Christ and to be informed by our North American brothers and sisters that “we don’t have time for you” is to feel a bit like Mary and Joseph when they were told “There’s no room at the inn” in their ancestral home of Bethlehem after their long journey from Nazareth. 

So where to if there’s no room at the inn?  Like the parents of Jesus, we ask if there’s a stable.  Yes, we’re told, there is one adult Sunday school class that may let you speak. Or we’re told that we can have the children’s sermon.  Some reluctantly agree to carve out 3-5 minutes of greetings Sunday morning or they’ll permit only a pre-timed format like a DVD clip or 4 slide PowerPoint. I’ve even had colleagues who have been relegated to a table in the narthex as their only interaction with a supporting church!  Sometimes we do get apologies:  “we’ve had this sermon series planned for a long time and we can’t interrupt it”; “we used to let missionaries speak on Sunday, but once we had one ramble on for an hour and so now we don’t allow outsiders to speak from the pulpit”; and the one that really hurts: “there’s really not many people here but a few of the older members who are interested in missions”. Really? I didn’t know that following the Great Commission was a generational thing, like singing Fanny Crosby hymns.

Now I’m not arguing that every church should turn over its whole Sunday service to the missionary.  What I am advocating is that churches realize that it takes a lot of effort and money to bring the missionary to the church and that their reception of the missionary can be either encouraging or discouraging to them and their ministry.  Please try to utilize well his or her time and to make the visit special, while giving ample opportunities for the missionary to share his or her work, ideally in a variety of ways. 

Here’s my suggested “ideal” format for hosting a missionary:

1) Try to arrange a family to host the missionary in their home whenever this is possible.  That helps create deeper ties between the missionary and your church.  While every missionary is different, I believe most prefer to stay with someone and to interact than to be left alone in a hotel room. Don’t worry about putting us in the nicest church member’s homes: we’re usually pretty adaptable and already have exposure to a variety of situations.  I think most just want to be where they will feel appreciated.

2) See if the whole missions committee can meet with the missionary either on the Saturday evening before the service or for the noon meal after Sunday church (or some appropriate time).  Pastors come and go, but mission committee members tend to stay around for a long time.  By creating a forum where the missionary and the mission committee can talk in depth, it can create a strong sense of partnership between your church and the missionary (or a realization that you’re not particularly well-aligned!).  I was on a missions committee once in the U.S. and I well remember committee members stating that they couldn’t remember a missionary’s face.  That usually is a prelude to a deletion in the mission budget!

3) Please make sure your missionary has some sort of “face time” before the whole congregation.  Despite what I wrote in an earlier paragraph, some brief presentation or greeting or short interview of the missionary before the whole church is better than none at all.  It is especially good if there’s a follow-up activity with the missionary, such as the adult Sunday school class or lunch-time presentation for those who want to hear him or her.  I have no problem of considering a few minutes on Sunday morning before the congregation as a means of “promoting” a more enriching activity later.

4) Create at least one event where the missionary can really present his or her ministry to those in your church who want to hear it.  Ideally this would be between 30 and 60 minutes, such as mentioned in item #3.  In the RCA church where I grew up, all adult Sunday school classes were cancelled for the visiting missionary to speak.  I’ve been to other churches where they had potlucks or catered meals after church or held a soup supper on Saturday night before for the missionary to speak at length and answer questions (very valuable!). For those that still have Sunday night services, they lend themselves well for longer mission presentations.  We really feel like missions are important to churches that carve out these special times for the missionary.  I think most churches will find these times to be fascinating and useful in reminding us that our Savior died for all the people of the world.

Of course, there are other formats and activities that churches can successfuly use to host and interact with a missionary and perhaps some will share those in the comments section.  And if you’ve had a bad experience with a poor missionary speaker in the past, please don’t condemn all missionaries as a result.  Technology is getting better and better at helping tell the missionary story and the RCA now requires all missionaries to meet with their media and communications staff upon returning home in an effort to produce higher quality presentations.

I hope what I’m offered has been useful for the organizing the church visit from the missionary’s point of view.  I’ll continue with more of these thoughts of missionary home assignment time in my next blog posting.