“Well, you must be there because you have such a love for the people.” I never know how to respond to that comment.
It’s usually after the complaintive statement about why the person thinks it would be so awful to live in our mission field (or outside of America in general). “But the weather’s so bad!”, “How do you deal with the lack of product choice?”, or “Why would you give up such good opportunities in the States?” are the most typical precursors.
A while back, we were invited to visit some fellow Americans in another part of this country during our vacation time. They are Christian, yet their primary reason for being in the country is secular work. We had asked about what there was to do as a tourist in their city, and the reply was interesting:
“Here’s a list of historical and religious sites in the area. We figured since you’re missionaries and you have such a love for these people, you must want to focus on those things during your vacation here.”
Uh, no, actually we were curious about regular tourist stuff and, while that could include a museum or church, we’re more the foodie type. And shopping. And entertainment. Or even walking the countryside. You know, being somewhat normal in modern society. When I let them know this (albeit in much less sarcastic tones), they sounded disappointed. We just wanted some time off and to have fun. It became clear that we weren’t living up to that “Missionary Superhero” stereotype. » Read the rest of this entry «
While the context is business entrepreneurship, John Doerr makes some interesting comparisons in this video from Stanford. I feel his description of missionary is very favourable, and it made me think in the Christian context, “Are some missionaries more like mercenaries?” The reason I say that is, if you pause the video at 1:04, there’s a comparison list. And it saddens me to say that I have encountered some mercenaries on the field, just replace “money” with “numbers” or “personal glory”. Thoughts?
The first time I heard it, it went something like this:
“With our method, we hope to plant 200 churches in the mission field within four years.”
Since then, the number of churches, or years, or the method changes every time I hear it, but it’s the same intent: an astounding number in a very short amount of time. And it makes me wonder, do missionaries have to make projection promises just to get funding? Or maybe attention?
I wonder because, by those kind of numbers, we’re pretty pathetic. In our first four years (according to the example above), we’ve planted nothing. Not even one. We’re not even at the beginnings of a church plant. Though I’m not trying to compare or measure up (we’re in a different field, etc.), other Christians have encouraged me over the years to direct my interest to a certain leader or group because “they have this great plan to plant ___ churches in ___ years!”
I have to say that I’ve never had someone suggest I go hear the exciting presentation from missionary who’s still slogging on for decades with perhaps a convert or two and a group of ten in church attendance. » Read the rest of this entry «
Because we’ve just come out of the “Time-To-Visit-The-Family Season”, this is the point that your choice to be in the mission field becomes crystal-clear as the sacrifice it is, even in this time of Skype and Twitter and Facebook, etc. We couldn’t be there for Thanksgiving, and it’s just not the same 5,000 miles away. We also couldn’t be there for several funerals during our time in the field, and we’ve missed graduations, milestone birthdays, anniversaries, too. It can be easy to feel a bit sorry for yourself come November and December, and it’s so important to be on guard about it. I had somewhat anticipated this would happen, but I really didn’t appreciate that my sacrificial decision as a missionary has caused others to sacrifice, too, whether they wanted to or not. » Read the rest of this entry «
