Missionary Confidential

When The World Comes To Your Field

After the Bible study, Marta asked to speak with me, away from the others. We’d been leading in this Baptist church in Western Europe for a few months now and were getting to know the regulars.

“I am confused,” she said in staccatoed English. “In Chile, I went to a Baptist church, too. And this is why I come to your church, because it is Baptist. But it is not like my church at home at all!”

Marta went on to describe the customs in her church in great detail, from the music to the worship style to the way the leadership evidently was heavily involved in the daily decisions that each member made. And she was right, it sounded nothing like how church was here. None of it sounded sacrilegious or wrong, just different and closer to how I suspect a Latin culture might praise God.

Her genuine confusion brought home the point that culture shapes our Christianity. Like Marta, I hadn’t anticipated how very different the Christian faith can look here in Western Europe compared to my West Coast experience in the States. I had expected perhaps a few minor changes, but melody changes to the same songs or traditions dictating when to stand to sing a song (here it’s about four beats before the group should sing, not immediately after the song is announced) had thrown me slightly.

Western Europe has seen a huge increase in immigrants, mostly from Third World countries. Many have little to no grasp of the English language. Because of all the prior mission work that’s happened in the 10/40 window, a good portion of these immigrants are evangelical Christians. And when they land here, they look for a church to join, which is a great thing. But it’s presented some interesting dilemmas in a country where less than 1% are evangelical Christian. Read More…

Question Week: What Books Would You Recommend to a Prospective Missionary?

Finishing up Question Week:

What books/reading would you recommend to someone considering full-time mission work?

As referenced on our “So, You Want to Be a Missionary…” page, the book we considered invaluable to our journey was “Funding Your Ministry: Whether You’re Gifted or Not” by Scott Morton. We most certainly would have made several errors without it, and it includes honest talk about myths, mistakes to avoid, strategies, and a section for beginners.  Especially helpful are communication techniques and money management ideas.

I’m curious about what book(s) have helped you on your journey (and we can all agree that The Bible should be on the list!).

Question Week: How Much Should You Divulge During Fundraising?

We’d like to get some dialogue going, so this week is Question Week. Next up:

During the fundraising process, how much about yourself is appropriate to dilvulge?

Here’s what got me thinking about this (see my post from January on “Obama Cost a Missionary Their Support”). The point of discussion that I see here is not about who’s supporting Obama (or not); it’s about public disclosure when you’re a missionary.

When we started our journey into fundraising, I didn’t realise that we would become a (lesser) form of public figure, complete with all the requisite scrutiny. Combined with today’s social media openness, you can learn a lot about a missionary without even talking to or interacting with them. Plus, people in your mission field will research you online. We found this out the hard way, and it can jeopardize your entire mission, depending on the culture.

We’ve done some things in our past that we’re not proud of. One of us used to be a “hacker” back in the day. The other never wanted to be a missionary until God really brought a heart-change just a couple of years before our fundraising. These (and other things) would potentially upset certain personality types, and if we had been directly asked about such things, we would have answered honestly. But bringing it up out of nowhere would have seemed worse.

Missionaries, did/do you find people want to know specific things about you, your family, or your beliefs on specific issues? Let us know in the comments section.

Question Week: How Do You Handle Missionary Inquiries?

We’d like to get some dialogue going, so this week is Question Week. First up:

For those already established in their mission field, how do you handle inquiries from prospective missionaries about your field?

Because we maintain huge communication back to our supporters, which includes a blog, we tend to get a decent amount of people we’ve never met contacting us for direction. Sometimes this happens in waves (evidently a lot of Christian colleges must have a “Missions Emphasis” week or month which requires contact or research on a mission field), other times not so much.

We started out replying to each one, but that became daunting and too time consuming. After time we could spot indicators from the emails that seemed to determine a person’s seriousness about our mission field, such as specific questions or understanding that we were busy and could not reply immediately or at length. I began compiling our “best of” in a file, and copying/pasting into the reply emails. A few have turned into great friends, and one couple are completing their preparations to become missionaries here in Western Europe. I’m glad we took the time to respond to them.

However, for prospective missionaries reading this site, please remember that you’re contacting a complete stranger. Introduce yourself and give a short paragraph about who you are, where you’re from and why you’re considering missions. Do some research first and avoid broad questions. Don’t expect an immediate reply, especially if they’re in a different time zone. Here is my list of “what NOT to ask a missionary about getting into their field” (and these are all real emails we’ve received): Read More…

What I’ve Learned As a Missionary (So Far)

The one thing I consistently heard from missionary presentations at my church back in the States, regardless of their specific field, is that you may think you’re going to change an area for God, but most always you are the one being changed. Because it came up so much, I pretty much expected this going into missions full-time. And I am changed, just not the way I expected. Here are some of my thoughts: