During 20 years of ministry in missions, I’ve experienced and observed three characteristics of churches that, when existent, radically alter the experience of the missionary on the field:

1. churches that make and keep commitments
2. churches that demonstrate concern
3. churches that show care

For the rest of this post, pretend that your job is to live among and share the gospel with people halfway around the world who speak a different language than you do and live an utterly different existence from you including food, transportation, clothing, values and worldview.

Commitment:  Affirming the Missionary

Commitment refers to the financial commitment that a church makes to a missionary.  I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Generally speaking, most missionaries would not seek partnership with churches if the system were not set up that way.   If it were up to the missionary, most of them, I venture to say, as a personal opinion, would just as soon go it alone.

Certainly, prayer support would be asked for and a general sense of ‘who is with me’ would be sought after, but most missionaries are independent, self-focused, ‘I’d rather do it my way’ kinds of people.

Does a missionary value visiting 40 churches over the course of 9 months during home assignment?  That’s 40 church visits in 36 weeks.  Somehow the math doesn’t add up.

No, a missionary prefers to worship in one church during home assignment, to connect deeply with that fellowship, to experience rest, while also visiting a handful of churches who are committed to the vision to share what God is doing.  But missionaries go along with the system that we have set up and that God has permitted because they are compelled to share the good news.

For the missionary a committed church:

• gives regularly according to their pledged amount
• gives extra when possible because it means the church is behind the missionary
• keeps lines of communication open
• communicates ahead of time if the church needs to alter or stop their giving pattern

A missionary feels affirmed every time a church says “Yes, we will partner with you.”  A missionary feels re-affirmed every month or quarter or year that the church makes a gift.  Yes to my ministry.  Yes to my vision.  Yes to God.  Yes to me.

Concern:  Demonstrating Loyalty to A Missionary’s Ministry

Missionaries appreciate when churches show concern for their unique life and ministry context.  Even though a missionary would be happy to go it alone, she deep down does not want to be alone.  She wants to know that churches and individuals are kindred spirits in her ministry.  She desires that missions committees and pastors give a hoot about the vision, the outworking of the gospel and the changing of a community to the glory of God.

Churches can best show their concern by asking relevant, helpful questions:

• Tell us about your praises and challenges this year.
• What else can we do to partner with you?
• How can we best pray for you?

When these and other questions are followed up with relationship and communication (just as the church desires from the missionary), then the missionary feels that this church is genuinely concerned for the ministry and the partnership.

A lack of interest as observed in a lack of communication makes missionaries think that the church is sending the money without their hearts attached.

Care:  Showing Love to the Missionary’s Heart

Care is a dangerous word.  Use it once and you create expectations that you might not be able to back up.  Use it often and you run the risk of sounding like a sissy.

Cross-cultural ministry is dangerous too, so dangerous, that without care a missionary or church planter may exchange a fruitful life for a successful ministry.

Missionaries may not say that they want to be cared for.  That is one reason I am writing this post, on their behalf.  But if you ask them How can we care for you? you will bless them beyond measure.

Churches, you know how to care for missionaries.  Ask them for their needs and then meet some of them.  Give them special surprises.  Help them to find housing and transportation during home assignment.  Send them to a marriage refreshment weekend or give them a gift card to Outback Steakhouse.

A missionary who feels cared for will change the world.

The church on mission is a sending church and today I wrap up my series on the sending church.  But first, four questions:

1. How is your oneness as a church expressed?
2. Is the Lord giving your church more and more responsibility?
3. To whom does your church show compassion?
4. What are you, as an individual, a witness of?

These four questions point to four realities that are foundational in being a sending church:

Missional – a commitment to being the church

Compassionate – a desire to please God by showing mercy to others

Stewards – being responsible before God for what he has entrusted to you

Unity – a willingness to work together

When these four elements are present the outcome is astounding:  a church impacting the local and world communities in obedience to God.

Yes, this is the grand climax to my series on the sending church.  Let’s keep it simple and revisit the four parts, two adjectives and two nouns, of the foundation.

Missional

I am encouraged at today’s emphasis in church life on being missional.  Missional is fresh.  Missional is vibrant.  Missional is necessary.

Being missional means planting the gospel (to steal a phrase from my friend and colleague, Steve Valentine, Director of Recruitment for Converge Worldwide) among people like yourself as well as with potential believers across geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries.  It means going and sending and supporting others who are going and sending.

Jesus said, “…you shall be my witnesses…”

(Acts 1:8, NASB)

What are you, as an individual, a witness of?

Compassionate

Showing compassion is showing a heart for the application of the gospel to real people with real needs.  It means revealing a Jesus-soaked heart to the rest of the world.  We can talk mission all day long but if we don’t feel it and if we don’t show that we feel it we might as well go home.

“He (Jesus) felt compassion for them, because they were distressed

and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

(Matthew 9:36, NASB)

To whom does your church show compassion?

Stewards

Being good stewards focuses on taking care of the people God has given you.  It means fellowship and pastoral care in a local church.  It means relevant and responsible missionary care to your goers.  It means being responsible with all the resources God has entrusted to your church.  Without adequate stewardship, those who are sharing the gospel are in danger of dying on the vine.

Jesus taught the parable…

“Well done, my good servant, because you have been trustworthy in a

very small matter, take charge of ten cities.”

(Luke 19:17, NIV)

Is the Lord giving your church more and more responsibility?

Unity

Unity means that we don’t go it alone.  We choose to be missional together.  We choose to demonstrate compassion one to another, to steward each other.  Unity means that we go with God’s plan and not our own.

Jesus prayed “…that they may be one even as we are.”

(John 17:11, NASB)

How is your oneness as a church expressed?

Unity in mission?  Unity in compassion?  Unity in how you steward people?

The next step for this sending church material is to give you models of churches that are being effective sending churches.  The idea is not to replicate their model but to adapt it to your own context in a way that pleases God by being missional, blesses God’s creation by being compassionate, honors God’s people by being good stewards of those God has entrusted to you and expresses unity with the people of the glorious God.

When these models are complete, I will begin to share them with you.  Happy sending!

- Read the first two parts of this series:

1. The Desire of the Sending Church – Do you want it?
2. The Description of the Sending Church – How does God see it?

“God spoke to me through a Newsweek article and instead of planting a church our new tool for reaching Furnia is to create a network of orphanages.  There are three thousand orphans in Furnia.  The Muslims don’t believe in adoption so our new strategy is going to make a lot of noise.  We’ll start 30 orphanages around the country and when everyone sees how much God loves the orphan they will come running to you as the architect of the Highway to Heaven Orphanage Network.”  Molly and Martin didn’t know if they should reply to, forward, or delete Jason’s email.

Molly became indignant.  “Orphanage network?  What do we know about orphan ministry?”  “Yeah,” Martin retorted, “I haven’t had any training in that.”  As they felt the pits in their stomachs, their friends Pete and Holly strolled into the Russian-styled café with iron-wrought tables and purple plastic chairs.  “Wazzup guys?” Pete yelled across the room.

“Our church is flippin’ out – that’s what’s up,” anguished Molly.

“What’s goin’ down?” wondered Pete aloud.  “I thought you said your church was pretty committed and focused?”

“Maybe too focused,” said Martin, wondering what he had gotten himself into.  “Our pastor just wrote us with twelve changes he wants to make.  He wants us to open orphanages now instead of CP.”

“On top of that,” Molly interrupted, “the church is cutting our funding back by 25%.  I saw this when I was in management at my former company – always asking employees to do more with less.  I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming.”

Holly sat down and expressed the concern of a sister missionary.  “I remember you guys telling us that your church wouldn’t let you raise money outside of the church or go with an agency.  What’s up with that strategy?”

“Our church wants to control us and our ministry.  That’s the problem,” Molly said, dejectedly.

“Molly,” Martin fired back, “don’t talk about Jason that way.”

“It’s true.  We can’t raise money.  We can’t partner with anyone.  And now we can’t church plant.”

“It must be a misunderstanding,” Pete added, “how well does Jason communicate by email?”

“Too well,” Molly spit up.  “Hey, tell us, Holly, did that miscommunication with your agency get worked out or are you on skid row along with us?”

“Did it!  Our sending church called them and worked through the issue.  Our missions person called us back to say how pleased she was with Sarah at GreatBeginnings.org.  They feel like it is a real partnership,” Holly gleamed.

“Partnership?  What’s that?” Martin wise cracked.

“What do you mean sending church?” Molly asked.

“Well, Green Mountain views missions as a series of partnerships, led by what they call the sending church.  A sending church is a church that sends their own missionaries to the field and gets behind them in every way:  financially, with prayer, special gifts, visits to the field, help on home assignments with housing and transportation, that kind of stuff.  The church really gets behind us.  It’s not just leadership either – they get a lot of the rest of the church involved too.  We feel like they are truly committed to our ministry, our vision for Furnia, and not just to us.  It’s all about community.”

“At the same time,” Holly continued, “they help us to seek out partnerships in funding and ministry, knowing that they can’t go it alone, and trusting God to provide the right partners.  I guess it’s a nice balance between trying to equip us as newbies and enabling us to share our ideas and perspectives as well, all along seeking the Spirit of God for his vision, his plan, and his provision.  It’s like planning well and being flexible at the same time.”

“Flexible – right” Martin mused.

Pete jumped in, “Green Church tries to avoid the two extremes that many churches make.  On one end of the spectrum are churches that throw money at missionaries they don’t really know.  It’s not bad, it’s kind of the system that has evolved over time.  It’s better than nothing but is it God’s best?  We know missionaries who have to visit forty or fifty churches while in the U.S.  Home assignment is supposed to be a time of rest and retooling but often it is the most stressful, most tiring time of ministry.  It seems backwards.”

Pete spoke as if he knew what he was talking about, even though he was ten years younger than Martin. He was reflecting what he had learned in his missions studies at school, his church’s missions preparation program, and his understanding of the Word.

“It seems about half stupid if you ask me,” Martin bellowed.  Pete looked at Martin, seeing culture shock hitting him square between the eyes.  He wondered if this news from their church coming to them during this time of language learning and cultural adjustment would be a knockout blow to their time in Furnia.

“One of Green’s goals is to do mission like the church in Antioch that sent out Paul and Barnabas and received them back after their trips, debriefing them, and hearing their reports.  I love that verse in Acts 14 that says ‘they had been committed to the grace of God.’  Martin wondered why he hadn’t studied like Pete, able to share with conviction, excited about his field assignment.

“Molly, where did we go wrong?  Are we at the right church?  Shouldn’t we be with a sending agency?  Our church is trying to act like the agency but they don’t have a clue what they are doing.”  Martin was in a daze, not sure if he verbalized the words on his heart.

The Green Church was seeking to avoid the extremes of other churches, to a find a blend if you will, between the Blue and Yellow Churches, hands-on (like Blue) and impactful (like Yellow), but also smart about the way they did mission.  They realized that there is no exact model, no perfect way to do mission in today’s world.  But seeking to do mission in partnership in an intentional and realistic manner, they used Scripture as a guide and the voice of God as a beacon, combining seasoned approaches with creativity, rather than merely adopting the latest popular methodology or human whims.

Yellow Church of Broad Valley has also bought into the Great Commission.  Pastor Joey desires to support missions in any way possible, including missionaries who ‘cold call’ the church.  His neighborhood might not change that much because of Yellow’s influence, but by God, the world will be changed by Christ one missionary at a time.

The thirty-two missionaries that Yellow partners with at $50 per month are changing the world.  The money is coming into the offering plate and being funneled back out to twenty-five key mission agencies that Yellow partners with.  What an awesome God he is, to offer complexity, diversity and limitless opportunities for the gospel to go out.

If only Yellow Church could be more like Blue Church.

Jason’s focus is admirable.  His ten year church plant plan was so purposeful, so infused with resurgent methodology, that he didn’t need to show it to anyone else.  Being missional was at the forefront through the methodical, detail-oriented plan that would extend Blue to the nation of Central Furnia.  Furnia would change by God’s grace, current thinking, and Jason’s persistent vision.

It is the church that plants the church.  Jason saw no need, no biblical reason, to use a sending agency.  He would go it alone, with God of course, and his disciples that he would raise up to match his God-ordained vision.  During Jason’s trip to Central Furnia, God laid out the vision on a napkin over a lunch of stuffed cabbage.

Jason’s vision clarified further when God sent Molly and Martin earlier in the year to Blue Church.  Molly and Martin felt called to missions and even went forward at a missions conference eight years earlier at a different church, but had yet to see anything come to fruition.  Neither had they received much missions training or preparation or studied theology, history, or hermeneutics.  Enter Jason and his vision for Furnia.

“I never dreamed that we’d live in Furnia,” Molly told Jason after one strategy session.  Martin concurred, “Furnia is God’s, Blue’s, ours.”  The three of them wrote detailed plans of how Blue’s philosophy of mission would evangelize two million Furnians within seven years, the perfect amount of time.

Seven years was longer than Yellow Church had been in existence, and yet, Yellow’s income generation rocked the valley.  Every church wanted to be like Yellow Church because they were touching the unreached through 32 missionaries partnering with 25 agencies.  Impressive.  Not as impressive as their goal of 100 missionaries and 50 agencies.

They also hoped to increase their support for each missionary by an unheard of 20% to $60.  Another ten dollars per month per missionary would go a long way, Joey reasoned, especially once the $25 million building program was completed.

Molly and Martin began their fundraising and wanted to approach other churches for partnership but Jason objected.  “Blue Church will meet all of your needs.  You don’t need anyone else.”  Martin liked the idea of not having to go all around the United States asking for money, but he was concerned not to put all of his eggs in one basket.  “I’ve been researching sending agencies and want to pursue Gospel Go as our sending agency.”

“What?  You don’t need a sending agency.  God doesn’t need a sending agency.  God built the church.  We are going to do this.”  Jason was insulted.

Molly and Martin liked Pastor Jason’s passion but wasn’t so sure that Blue Church had the resources to do it on their own.  Still, they obeyed their pastor, for the most part, and after eight months found themselves in Furnia.  Just to be safe though, they went behind Jason and raised some additional financial and prayer support from friends, family, and a handful of other churches.

They approached Yellow Church because they had heard that Yellow Church was a missions-minded church that supported missionaries well but were disappointed when the missions committee said that they could not support them right now.  “Our budget is a little stretched because we just brought on eight new missionaries,” the missions chair told them, “but we will consider you in future budget years.”

After a few months on the field in Central Furnia, Molly and Martin were drinking coffee at Cafe Lux, responding to email, when they saw a message from Pastor Jason saying that some changes were coming that might affect their ministry.  Two of the twelve issues that Jason raised were particularly disconcerting.

Read Part 2 for Jason’s troubling email to Molly and Martin.

May Day brought with it eternal sunset for Osama Bin Laden.  U.S. special forces deadly blow means special justice for millions of people whose lives have been affected by this evildoer, not the least being men and women who have served in the armed forces and intelligence communities, their families, and the victims of 9-11.

One arena that has been affected drastically by Bin Laden’s treachery is that of world missions and church planting.  We’ve been reminded that behind blood and guts battles a spiritual battle is raging, led by spiritual troops commissioned by the Lord of hosts.  Cross-cultural church planters see first hand the devastation perpetrated by Bin Laden ideology.  Missionaries who serve among Muslim and other peoples fight the ultimate battles with weapons that “…have divine power to demolish strongholds…arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God…” (NIV, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Like it or not, God’s use of warfare imagery in scripture awakens us to the fact that church planting is more than marketing and training conferences.  And let us not forget that Bin Laden died physically yesterday with a bullet in the head but his eternal disposition, with greater stakes, is now firmly in the hands of God.

Fort Kali Janga, Mazar i sharif - first major battle in Afghanistan

Bin Laden stirred up the entire world.  He also lit a fire under a band of brothers and sisters who care more about Jesus than they do jihad.  The world of mission operates differently today thanks, in part, to OBL, in five ways meaningful to our generation.

New Mission Fields Opened Up

Events surrounding 9-11 have opened the gates to the gospel to countries that were previously closed or difficult to enter.  Afghanistan is the obvious benefactor here but God has allowed additional focus from the War on Terror to enable the spread of his good news throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia and Southwest Asia.  New churches have been planted.  Tens of thousands of new followers of Jesus Christ have been welcomed into the kingdom.

During my visit to Afghanistan in 2003 I met with a hospitable warlord (he invited me to sit down, chat, and serve me tea) who has since protected Christians who moved to Afghanistan to bring hope, peace, and good news.  “What a strange life I live” I pondered during that wonderful cultural exchange.

warlord is big guy in middle, I'm on his right, my friend on his left

The next day an Afghani man approached me on the street with a look of concern on his face asking me, “are you an American?”  As I was surrounded by a crowd from the nearby market waiting to hear my reply, I mustered up the courage to respond, “yes, I am an American.”  Immediately, a sense of human dignity enveloped my heart when he responded, “America is a friend to Afghanistan.”

America remains a friend to Afghanistan, even as Bin Laden’s death creates some uncertainty.  What is known is that thousands of Christians have improved health facilities, educational systems, and infrastructure that provides clean water and electricity to millions of Afghanis.  Seeing girls in school uniforms and boys flying kites, both activities outlawed by the Taliban, warmed my heart to see that small changes can lead to larger ones.

Better Contingency Planning Among Mission and Church Leaders

Good things in Afghanistan and other countries have not come without cost.  A sister committed to Christ that I helped to mobilize into Afghanistan was murdered while on a rural medical mission.  My sadness and pain have been deep knowing I had a role in her sending.

A family I know has served in Afghanistan for over twenty years.  I interviewed and approved this family as a member of the missions committee of their sending church.  While they are a picture of courage for having returned to Afghanistan again and again through wars and turmoil, their family life has been lain on the altar of sacrifice.

Nevertheless, we have a greater awareness of what it takes to live and church plant in dire circumstances.  Mission agencies and churches are better in tune with contingency planning, how to handle evacuations, and debriefing missionaries after their terms.  We serve missionaries better because we have walked the tumultuous path with them over the past ten years.

Afghani men

Much more remains to be done in supporting missionaries so that they are effective in life and ministry.  The hardships created by Bin Laden and the War on Terror have mobilized the Christian community, committed to making disciples where none or few exist.

…Continued in Part 2

Highlights of Five Ways Bin Laden Has Influenced Missional Church Planting (Part 2):

• there is more public awareness of the missionary church planter lifestyle
• there has been a waking up among American Christians
• in Bin Laden evil has been clearly delineated for all to see

Part 2 of Five Ways Bin Laden Has Influenced Missional Church Planting

‘I will bless you and make you a blessing,’ God told Abraham (Genesis 12).

‘I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth,’ God told the nation of Israel (Isaiah 49).

‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,’ Jesus told Zacchaeus (Luke 19).

Bless.  Reach.  Seek.  Save.  Those are strong, active verbs.  By association these actions of God are reflected upon the heart and activity of the local church.  Why does it sometimes, perhaps often, feel like the church is not being the church?  Not blessing others.  Not being a light to those around us.  Not filling up the seats with those Jesus is seeking and saving.

We don’t want to take God’s place in redemption.  We do want to be the expression of God’s heart by augmenting his salvific orchestration with God-honoring practices.

How does one measure desire, especially in a corporate setting like the church?  One helpful measurement of desire rests upon the activities, commitment and methodology of the local church surrounding its ‘blessing’ and ‘reaching’ strategies.

The term ‘sending church’ reflects the fact that the church is supposed to send people with the gospel.  Sometimes the people of God welcome the people of the world into their presence.  Other times, the people of God go to the people of the world because leaving home is at the heart of mission.  The Great Commission says that ‘while we are going’ we are to teach, disciple and baptize in the presence of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28).

The church must send.  The church must go.  The church must be.  Otherwise, the church is not acting like the church, bringing its character, not to mention its understanding of Scripture, into question.

The desire of the sending church is to be the church, to go into the world and to send its people, accompanied by the Savior, who is seeking and saving the lost.

The three-fold purpose of the church to worship, fellowship and reach out inter-twine and to the degree they are separated then the church is not functioning as the church was intended.

Renewed emphasis on being missional these days reminds us that the church, in its essence, embodies the seeds of the gospel and is tasked with scattering.  While some movements focus on church planting, other movements focus on church hunkering down.  New churches are being planted locally and globally but are they being infused with the essence from which they were formed?

We can talk about being a missions-minded church, sending out missionaries and fulfilling the Great Commission.  We can discuss the roles of the local church and the para-church.  We can debate modality vs. sodality.  We can study church planting and multi-site glocalities.  The heart of the matter is this:  Will the church be the church?  Does the church desire to fulfill God’s intentions for his bride?

- Read a parable of the sending church

Read Acts 13:1-3.  What do you see?  Prophets and teachers, in short, church leaders, worshiping.

God speaks to them.  “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (NIV, Acts 13:2b).  What happens next?

The leaders lay hands on the ‘called out ones’ who then become the ‘sent out ones.’

Now read Acts 14:26-28.  Again, what do you see?  The missionaries return to the church that sent them out.  The church gathers together.  The missionaries report what God did in and through them.

This is the sending church:

• a worshipful community where God speaks, calls, and tasks for the Great Commission
• a spiritual context where  leaders send out their very best
• a warm place to return to share all that God has done

Other elements exist but you now see the basics of the sending church from a biblical perspective.  In the coming weeks we will explore these vital components of biblical Christianity in a series on the sending church.  Get ready to explore:

1. The Desire of the Sending Church – Do you want it?
2. The Description of the Sending Church – How does God see it?
3. The Development of the Sending Church – How does it work?

I’m perhaps more excited about this series of posts than I have been since ConvergeMissionary.com was birthed.  Join me as we explore how to help missionaries to be effective in life and ministry.

Don’t let these six simple verses continue to be ignored in the church where you experience God.  Successful church planting happens when the planting of the church is embodied with seeds that can be scattered elsewhere.

One last word.  I like my thoughts on the topic, as I interpret Scripture and share from my own experiences, but I want to hear your thoughts and relate to your experiences.  The more we interact, the more successful our churches will be in satisfying God’s desires to manifest himself to the nations through churches that send.

Not every church asks for all three, only the truly committed churches do.  Most churches want some level of two of these aspects, generally, communication and faithfulness.  The church that only requests or requires one aspect, generally, communication, is mainly only concerned with one side of the mission equation.

Let’s break down these three key components to the church – missionary relationship.

Faithfulness

A church expects a missionary to faithfully carry out the sense of call that the Lord has given.  Churches trust missionaries that they are following after God and doing the right kinds of activities to implement a successful ministry.

When a missionary displays unfaithfulness through selfishness, pride, inability to resolve conflict, serious family difficulties, lack of competence, and the like, trust is broken.  Here is the difficulty for the missionary.

Missionaries struggle with many life issues and yet are afraid to vulnerably reveal such challenges publicly.  Church:  recognize that missionaries are not perfect.  They need God’s grace just like you do.

Being faithful to God is perhaps the most challenging of the three aspects, not just for missionaries, but for every Christian.  We all desire to please the Lord and carry out his will.  Faithfulness is the fault line determining whether or not we hear “well done” in the end.

Communication

Every church wants some form of regular communication from the missionary.  These desires and expectations should be expressed to the missionary so that the missionary can follow through.

Meaningful communication with hundreds of people is challenging for a missionary living and working in another culture but communicating with friends, family, prayers, and financial partners is vital to the missionary being effective in life and ministry.  Missionary:  make good and frequent communication a cornerstone of your life and ministry.

Relationship

Some churches want to form a relationship with the missionary and some do not.  The committed churches tell missionaries that they want to build a relationship.  The lackadaisical churches do not share their desire for relationship but they still expect it.  Then there are the churches who give the money but never communicate, never pray for, never host the missionary.

Relationship is a two way street.  Churches can foster relationship through proactive outreach to the missionary.  Missionaries can foster relationship through proactive activities with the church such as communicating frequently with multiple individuals, visiting during home assignment, and expressing special needs when they arise.

It takes two to maintain a successful relationship.  God has ordained the church – missionary relationship for his glory.  The more we can do to encourage faithfulness in missionaries and communication between both parties that fosters relationships, the more we will glorify God and fulfill the Great Commission.

If you are a church or individual with missionaries or loved ones overseas in the midst of a natural disaster, here are eight steps to take:

1. Contact your missionary using every means possible, realizing that communication channels may be unavailable.  Also consider being considerate and contacting others that the missionary is safe.
2. If you can’t get a hold of the missionary, contact his or her sending agency, church, friends, or other family members to find out if they have made any contact.
3. If you get through and establish their safety, ask how you can assist them personally or how you can help them to use the disaster as a community outreach.
4. Consider raising emergency funds on behalf of the missionary.  Being a part of a natural disaster or in a war zone may cause the missionary to incur additional expenses.
5. If you are the sending church, work with the agency to help the missionary determine if he or she needs to evacuate or relocate temporarily.  A haven of safety may be needed or in some cases an area may be so devastated that the missionary cannot be of any assistance at all.
6. If the missionaries return to their home countries, be flexible with them, get them some debriefing, and help to provide for their needs.  They may be traumatized, hurting, or confused.
7. Help the returned missionary to determine a plan and time frame to return to the field.
8. If the vision grabs your heart, become involved in the disaster relief efforts personally or through financial gifts.  Or consider what role you or your church or your family could play as the events on the ground shift from relief, to recovery, to development.

You can see the importance of being prepared beforehand with a contingency plan.  A contingency plan foresees the possibility of horrific events and helps the missionary to be prepared for any situation.  A contingency plan includes escape/evacuation routes, pre-planned locations to evacuate to, levels of escalation, the handling of extra money and special documents, special planning, etc.

A Personal Story of Being Caught Up in a Disaster

I lived in Macedonia right after Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia and during the time that Kosovo exploded.  God had blessed our ministry abundantly but the parties at war didn’t care about that.  As a result, 200,000 Kosovar refugees fled into our backyard.  Long story short:  our teams were given hundreds of thousands of dollars to establish a food outreach to Albanians and Gypsies.  Our ministry changed entirely, overnight.

Previous to that, Americans came under attack by the locals so the expatriate community evacuated.  We hung out in Greece for several weeks.  This evacuation was unplanned and we did not have the money for a hotel and food.  We shared the need and our support base and other friends sent us over $1,000 within a week so that we could pay for these extra expenses.

After our term was over we returned to the US but did not receive adequate debriefing from our agency or our church.  Six months later we were diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.  Just saying…that the eight steps listed above are important steps to undertake and if they are not undertaken there are consequences.

Relief for Japan

Converge missionaries in Japan are all safe and we have established a relief fund.  If you’d like to contribute go here:  Japan relief fund.

I’m not an expert on these issues, but I have a lot of personal and professional experience in disaster relief and development.  If you have questions I’m happy to try and help or point you in an appropriate direction.

Sending Church Emphasis

If you do anything, do this:  create a sending church environment in your church.  Acts chapter 13 is the classic passage for being a sending church.  I feel a future post coming on.

Be a church that integrates pastoral care with vision.  Don’t entrust your missionaries to the agency and then forget about them.  Take an interest in every phase of the missionary journey.  Send well.  Care during.  Receive back faithfully.

Personal and Professional Development

Most of the missionaries I have known and encountered during the past 20 years had no idea how long they would be in missions, what might come next, or any sense of planning.  God had called them and that settled it.  It’s nice for the movies but in real life many missionaries struggle with the ideas surrounding ‘career’, ‘personal growth’, and ‘planning’.

Like anyone else, missionaries need direction in their professional and personal lives.  If you are a church, spend time planning with your missionaries, listening to their desires, assessing their abilities, encouraging and exhorting them.  Require their agency to do the same.  If you are a friend or family member of a missionary, find some development resources to point them toward.  These steps will cover a lot of woeful gaps that currently exist in the missionary community.

Personal planning and professional development is like setting the table for missionaries, preparing the way for the feast that is soon to come.

set the table for your missionaries

Missionary Partnership Team (MPT)

A MPT is a team the missionary develops to surround his ministry with people who provide practical helps and encouragement.  My colleague, Ruthie Stevenson of the American Baptist Church (ABC) International Ministries is working on future guest posts around this topic.  Check out the successful ABC Xtreme model.

Debrief Your Missionary

Yet another topic to delve into in the future, missionaries need multiple types of debriefs to help them process their experience.  A field debrief should occur at the end of a term and be conducted by the field leader.  An agency office debrief needs to be done by the agency within a month of returning from the assignment.

Another key debrief that a missionary needs is the sending church debrief.  The purpose of this debrief is to see how the missionary is doing, what the needs are, how the plans for home assignment are shaping up, to show care for the missionary, and to add the next piece of the personal and professional development plan.

Regular Communication

It goes without saying, doesn’t it, that communication is a key aspect to missionary life.  Missionaries need to communicate regularly with friends, family, and support partners but they also need to hear back from the same people.  Be proactive and gracious in communication.  A church can set up a system for multiple touch points.  Individuals can make communication with missionaries a priority.  Be sure to ask the missionary what the best forms of communication are.

A long-term commitment to missionaries involves a long-term commitment to missionary care.  What have you found to be effective with your missionary?  Leave your comments below so we can learn from each other.