Missionary Confidential

Programme Overload

My church elder was talking about the latest conference he attended.  As he described the speakers and the books he bought, his face lit up when he remembered something.  “They’ve got this brand-new approach that they’re trying now, and it shows a lot of promise.  People in some areas are really excited about it.  Have you heard of a Coffee Shop Ministry?”

Sigh.  Yes.  Ten years ago in the States.

I’ve been involved in ministry and church planting now for almost half of my life.  It feels like the whole time has been peppered with the next new book, angle, approach, tool, technique, item or worship style.  Every idea has the aura of “this is the thing that will really work”.  And it seems like more conferences are popping up every year, each with their own subtle twist or perspective on how to “do church” the best way to get the best results.  I fear I’m at the point of programme overload.

I’ve come to this point in my life for two reasons: 1) the sheer quantity of programmes over a long period of time are too much to process, and 2) seeing ministry in a different cultural context has made me realise how culture-specific virtually all of these approaches seem to be.  I have no doubt that, for each of the methods or techniques available in ministry today, there is a place or people group that have responded really well and have become Christians through this.   Praise God!  I’m honestly glad that this has happened in that situation.  But I’m startled by the attitude that most Christians have: “If it worked there, it’ll work here!” Read More…

Top Five Mistakes in Support Raising

Over at TheBodyBuilders.net, the latest newsletter focuses on the Top Five Mistakes in Support Raising.  I really identified with #5 “Jumped in Without Preparation” on the aspect of thinking I just knew who would give.  Just because someone is a wealthy Christian who adores missions doesn’t mean God will provide financial support for me through them, and I’m wrong to pre-judge anyone’s desire to give—or not.  #3 “I Asked Too Timidly” resonates more with me and God than with me and financial supporters.  I think that our mission field is such a tough one both spiritually and financially, and I didn’t want to “get my hopes up”, so I’d ask God that just a few people would show for worship.  Or I expected to not get access to the tools I needed for ministry or even day-to-day living, and God provided it anyway.  I’m not suggesting the Prosperity Path, but I think sometimes we can get dejected and swing very far the other way as if God can’t do anything and won’t provide at all.

As always, would love to hear in the comments your input on this and additional mistakes you’ve learned from your fundraising experience.

Doing Ministry at Arm’s Distance

Early in our fact-finding trips to our mission field, we kept getting the sense that the nationals held a bit of a reservation about working with us.  They were certainly friendly and accommodating, but their comments and facial expressions held a barely discernible air of skepticism.  We knew that their interactions with a large majority of American missionaries had gone very poorly for a number of reasons, so we figured they were understandably hesitant to interact with us.

Fast-forward to about six months into living in the mission field, and the real reason for their hesitancy began to crystalise in my mind.  We had been here long enough to watch several short-term mission teams funnel in and out of the church, plus there were several other long-term missionaries attached to help.  Watching the interactions from the sidelines, I began to see what the nationals saw: most missionaries would only do ministry at arm’s distance.

This is going beyond the unfortunate handful of those with bad attitudes; actually, the majority were polite, respectful, and generally good people who were willing to help and work in many ways.  Yet even in the group of good-natured, well-intentioned people, there still existed a trace element of distance from the nationals. Read More…

Hard Truths in 1 Minute 17 Seconds

Sometimes hard truths about mission realities just have to be stated, and this video does just that under a minute and a half.  Though the speaker is from a Native American tribe, his words could easily be from the mouths of our nationals who have shared similar stories; they have experience both the issues of pictures and charity.  Best quote: “Very few people come for the sake of getting to know us and building relationship. And of those who do come for that, even less ever come back.”

By the way, as informed as I thought I was about missions, I have to admit I hadn’t considered the spiritual needs of the Native Americans until missionaries to their tribes commented on this blog in the past. (HT: Almost An M)

In the Culture of Now

The turn of the new year always gives us pause for reflection on the past and contemplation of the future, so the start of 2010 appears to be no different.  As I remember lessons learned over the past few years as a missionary, one theme keeps recurring: we are shaped by the environment in which we find ourselves, no matter how much we may resist.  And I have been very much influenced by my mission field’s culture which is an “in the moment” people group, something I like to call “The Culture of Now”.

Of course, the title is not indicative of a culture of wanting things or change to happen immediately (i.e., “I want it now”) but of a state of being in the moment, relishing the experience and not focussed solely on the future.  In an earlier cross-cultural course I had learned of the differences in such cultures, and I am grateful to have understood the technical differences before entering the mission field.

It was actually the change of decade that prompted me to take note of my personal attitude shift.  Reflecting on where I was (physically, spiritually, and emotionally) as 1999 slipped into 2000, I started to realise that I had been a much more agitated individual.  Always focussing on the next task, job, location, or goal, I wasn’t actually interacting in the moment.  Time with people, though often a pleasant thing, was seen as an obstacle to progress; because it was a necessity to interact with others, I felt at the time that it must be kept to a minimum.  While I would be present at an activity or function, mentally I was worlds away, going over tasks in my head or thinking constantly about what sequence of events needed to happen once I got out of the situation. Read More…

Staying Home For Christmas

This is my last original post of 2009, so I just wanted to say thank you to all readers of this blog and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wherever God has placed you.

Someone finally asked the right question this year: “Are you staying home for Christmas?”

Over the past few Christmases, many of our nationals have inquired if we were returning home for the holidays.  We always responded that we were staying home for the holidays, not to be cute or trite but to honestly convey how we feel about where God has placed us.

Many national Christians in our field automatically expect us to return to the States for the holidays—because that’s what missionaries from the States have done. Sometimes being called a “missionary” carries a lot of assumptions, one of which in our field is the missionary treating this as an assignment or resume padding, someplace to exit out of or get away from time to time because you’re not from this mission field and have no interest in continuing ministry here.  Even Christian friends in the States assumed we were going to return next year because (this is an actual statement) “don’t all missionaries run out of money by this point and need to come back for fundraising?” Read More…

Preparing For Your Mission

I get a lot of emails from people considering missions work.  If you have already determined your field and are in the process of going, Kevin over at the Life.Outpoured blog has a great series about how to prepare and learn about your mission field’s culture in “Scoping Your Mission”.  Each of the posts are a wealth of information, especially if you are not being sent or prepped by a mission agency (like myself).  Navigating the differences between cultures (even within same-minded Christian cultures in different countries) is probably the most important thing I’ve learned as a missionary.  As someone who “scoped” our field in a similar way, I can strongly recommend these suggestions. Take a look at each:

“Getting To Know Them”

“The Importance of Food”

“Read Their News” (I still do this in the field, even several years into our mission)

Additionally, I think these suggestions are equally important for anyone in ministry (especially church planters) who may be beginning work in another part of their home country.  It may not technically be a “foreign country”, but states (and areas within states) can be considerably different in certain cultural habits, focus or issues.  As a native Californian, I learned this when befriending a co-worker of similar age who was originally from Louisiana; our life experiences and expectations could not have been more different, and most of this was inherent to the local cultures in which we grew up.  Even Californians can be on different extremes depending on their city or county.