Missionary Confidential

Being There

Now the questions begin.  “What’s your secret?” “How’d you do it?” “Why is your group growing?”

Things are beginning to happen.  “Green shoots” of higher attendance and participation at church are emerging that indicate possible fruit.  I use the word “possible” for two reasons: 1) I’ve been gardening long enough to know that just because your seeds sprout and start to grow doesn’t guarantee that an animal or pest will eat your planned harvest, and 2) I’ve been in ministry long enough to know that not everyone who indicates interest in the Gospel will follow through (think the birds and seeds in the Parable of the Sower).

Those in Christian circles around us have taken notice and are now pressing us for the answers why there seems to be an uptick in attendance and participation at church.  Our unabashed answer is always the same: “God”.  We’re His workers, but it really is Him.  We could replicate the same sequences of ministry from the last few years in a different location, and there’s no guarantee that we’d see the same results.  Or any results, for that matter.

This isn’t about a formula, a programme, or some magic succession of actions that equals a result.  Still, the Christian leaders press us.  “Yeah, yeah, God’s doing this.  Of course, I agree.  But what exactly are you doing?” they’ll say.  You can almost imagine their pen and paper in hand, like a journalist, ready to jot down the secret of (what they consider) ministry success.

I didn’t have an answer at first, and their quick diminishment of the Holy Spirit’s power in all this really puts me off.  Yet lately I feel that I’ve located the best way to describe the “formula” they’re trying to extract from me: “Being there.” Read More…

From the Missionary Blogosphere

A leading European newspaper recently asked: “What’s wrong with missionaries?” You’ll find the answers surprisingly supportive of us, especially Monday and Friday‘s responses.

Do we need to change how “Missions” is done? Dr. Michael A. Smith thinks so in this manifesto.

A third-culture kid gives their impressions about an American VBS.

What happens when friends from your field visit you in your homeland? Interesting insights and hilarious situations.

The debate over short-term missions continues.

Lose Yourself: What is Your Identity?

Of all the lessons that foreign missions ministry has taught me (and continues to do so), the top of the list has to be that we are shaped by our location and culture more than we realise.  Most anyone who has lived in a foreign country for a decent stretch of time would probably recognise how true this is.

When you meet a fellow Christian from another country, there are some great similarities and kinship that’s experienced through our Family in Christ.  It’s difficult to describe to others, but there is an understanding of what it’s like to press on with life as a Christian in this fallen world.  They know what you’ve seen, and usually understand how fellow Christians experience life.

Then there’s the point that you realise that their Christian experience has differed than yours.  Their “favourite songs” are ones you’ve never heard, or methodology in worship services is, well, just different.  Nothing wrong or sacrilegious, but jarringly different to your exposure.

Who and what you are surrounded by is bound to influence your perception and choices.  Even when I’ve worked with missionaries who are firmly resolved to not lose one bit of their “American” accent, actions or attitude, over time even they begin to start using phrases here that wouldn’t ever be used “back home”.  They don’t notice it, and can become alarmed when informed of this, yet for all their determination to resist, the phrase or action creeps back in.  Bear in mind that these are things that are completely inoffensive both here and to Americans, nor would they be anything wrong in God’s view at all.  They hear it used over and over again, or perhaps people here understand them better when they say that phrase.  It just happens, even if they purposely try to stop. Read More…