Question Week: Sent By a Mission Agency or By Your Home Church?
Posted by C. Holland on Jun 29, 2009This week is Question Week.
Are you sent by a mission agency or by your home church?
I ask this purely out of curiosity. We are sent by our home church, but in our mission field we find that most missionaries are sent by a mission agency. What’s interesting to me is that when we were doing our research and trying to figure out how we’d get to Western Europe, we had an almost impossible time finding mission organisations that were willing to send anyone (not just us) to our field, claiming that the “lack of return” on the money needed to live in one of the most expensive countries in Europe was the issue.
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June 29th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I love my home church, Immanuel’s Church of Silver Spring, Maryland. I love my missionary sending agency, Calvary International of Jacksonville, Florida. I am sent by both. The biggest benefit I see from going with an agency is on field leadership and mentoring. I would not be here on the field were it not for my leadership.
At the same time I am not a one size (or solution) fits all person. If going solo or with your sending church alone works for some, then keep at it. For our family we chose Calvary International, and I am so glad we did.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:24 am
@David: I agree with you, there’s not an “only this way” solution to being sent. Sometimes I’m envious of other missionaries who are with an agency; being sent by our church we often feel like “lone rangers”. But other times I’m glad we’re sent by a church as the agency furlough requirements that most have would impair our ministry here in the field at the moment.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:58 am
In my estimation missions agencies, for the most part, are expensive, meddling middle men. While I’m sure some people need them, I think in our global, interconnected world (between sending churches and missionaries) huge, bureaucratic missions agencies have been rendered unnecessary. Trust me, I’ve worked with a lot of the big name missions agencies – hosting their short-term groups and they use us for their own glory and leave little in return. I could tell stories and name names but I’ll be nice! Haha!
Maybe a deeper reflection would be this – look into the fact that missions agencies were created in the 19th & 20th centuries and reflect the Industrial Age constructs – hierarchical and authoritarian – they mandate where you go, what you do, how many children you can have (I kid you not!), etc all the while YOU are paying them a 10 to 20 percent of the money YOU have raised…! This is pretty inconsistent with savvy, flat, interconnected Information Age organizations now springing up to surf the new global realities.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:04 am
And to answer the question: We were sent out by our home church, my wife’s parents’ church, and a church a friend pastors. In addition to that we have various people who support us monthly. We run our support through a 501(C)3 organization.
We have regular communication with these supporters (mostly through the wonderful medium of facebook) and they are truly partners with us in our work. That being said, I stand by my jaded view above that missions organizations suck!
July 1st, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@Greg: I’m familiar with mission agency things like furlough requirements or restrictions on buying a house in the mission field, but I hadn’t heard about a family planning/number of kids restriction before. Yikes!
July 1st, 2009 at 6:07 pm
We had some friends in Nicaragua who worked for a well-known missions agency. The couple had a ten year, very fruitful ministry and were happy and flourishing when suddenly the missions agency dictated that they relocate to another Spanish-speaking country. The couple (who were in the mid 60s) tried to appeal the decision b/c they believed it was God’s will that they stay in Nicaragua – I believe they had only a few years left of their commitment – but the directors of the missions agency (who BTW had NEVER, not even one time visited them on the field) decided to move them. Apparently bureaucrats in clean, well-lighted comfortable suburban offices know best. In the end the couple, frustrated beyond belief, returned to the U.S. because they didn’t want to start over again in a new mission field. We saw this firsthand when we were newbie missionaries and it pretty much soured me on large missions agencies. In the years since nothing’s really changed my mind as these organizations have consistently proved my bias right!
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:26 am
@Greg: We know a missionary couple who were placed in one Asian country for years and experienced what you describe. However, their move was to another Asian country with a completely different language, so they were really starting over! They actually went through with it and are doing fine, but their story made me think seriously about agency requirements.