Missions on Point

It's surprising to many that the average termination of service of a missionary on the field may be less than five years. This is especially true for missionaries in fields of higher stress, greater antagonism toward Christianity, or more challenging living conditions. We can help! Awareness and prevention of preventable attrition can go a long way toward keeping our valuable missionary personnel on the field for long-term faithfulness.

A key to avoiding preventable attrition on the field is having a strong sending-church-to-mission-agency partnership agreement. The local sending church must not abrogate its continuing responsibility to shepherd and guide their missionary on the field. The mission agency must not divest the sending church of the responsibility to shepherd and "own" their missionary's ministry on the field.

Too often mission leaders and supporters take for granted the need for language proficiency in missions. Many of us come from a mostly monolingual society. We short-circuit language learning or press for minimal time and effort so that, in our view, the missionary can get on with the program. Little do we realize the significance of a higher level of language proficiency in order to teach and explain and proclaim the glorious intangible truths of biblical truths, theology, and the Gospel. We must change our attitudes and minds in order to encourage and insist that the missionary learn the language or languages! really well.

International commerce and opportunities abound. Christians are sometimes persuaded that going for overseas employment can be an effective means of witness for Christ and the Gospel. Maybe so; maybe not. Digging into the details will help temper expectations toward realism. It's possible that the job proposed doesn't allow for much, if any, evangelistic or ministry opportunities. Count the cost. Qualifications and job performance are also of high importance. This is not a vacation! Not a lark! Your presence and performance need to leave a lasting testimony that makes your message believable.

So many institutions are established by mission agencies with well-meaning intentions. The natural compassion of Western affluence sometimes provides an outlet for humanitarian concerns and goals. However, institutions too often become an end unto themselves over time. They lose sight of the original goal - that is, to establish a platform for Gospel ministry toward indigenous church planting. Institutional workers feel burned out and disconnected from any spiritual purposes besides fellowship within their own staff team. How can we help? Challenge, question, and redefine the time, structure, and purposes of the institution. Connect with the local church/es. Disciple and train for indigeneity to replace the Western workers and Western control.

It's no surprise that there is opposition to the Gospel and Gospel messengers. Jesus said it would be so. Paul said it would be so. History teaches us that it is so. How then do we prepare ourselves for the challenges of resistant culture in our world? Ignore?, Deflect?, Neglect?, Disobey?, Hit and run? None of these weak, selfish, sinful responses will do! Listen to this episode. Pray. Ask what God would have you do to be involved in going or sending to the last bastions of resistance to our Almighty King Jesus.

It seems simple. Yet, the simple process of planting a church can be distorted or muddied by modern pragmatism and the pressures of fadish methodologies. The end goal is a biblical, healthy, indigenous local church. It takes time, prayer, sweat-equity, relational skills, and no small amount of administrative and logistical attention.  We start with biblical models and build goals and priorities which reflect the right ends.

Wildly diverse and unbiblical definitions of "local church" continue to infiltrate contemporary trends and field practices. We MUST start with and expect a solid, biblical definition of a local church in order to plant solid, healthy churches.  The implications are HUGE. Wrong goals produce wrong results. Fuzzy targets yield a lot of misses. Inappropriate altruism only helps people feel good about something that is less than true and reproducible. We must ask these questions in order to actually fulfill the Great Commission. Nothing less, nothing else will suffice.

One of the most dramatic streams of trends in missions over the past decade and the present is the methodologies represented by DMM ("Disciple Making Movements"), CPM ("Church Planting Movements"), T4T ("Training for Teachers"), DBS ("Discovery Bible Studies"), and others. The statistics are mind-boggling! While we can learn some essential things about the power of God's word, presently plainly, simply, clearly, we also can see the seeds of a kind of legalism that breeds flawed concepts of salvation and the local church. Be careful! Ask questions. Stick close to a truly biblical understanding of conversion, Christian growth, and biblically qualified church leaders.

Literally billions of people around the world, especially in the remaining people groups unreached with the Gospel, are strictly oral learners or oral communicators. Though various kinds of media may be used, often technology limitations require that a person go and teach the Gospel to them orally. Recent emphasis on this means and refinements of methods have improved and helped to spread the Gospel through orality. Still, church planting and leader development is aided by literacy being an intentional follow-up to the harvest of orality ministry.