Mission and Presence... the power of being there...

This came across my electronic desk in Oaxaca today and I felt it was well worth sharing.  If you can get past the drama, there are some good points in here.



As one of those guys he talks about who serves in the field, I certainly share his concern for funding the work we are trying to do.  I also like his idea of raising money for the field and have written on that before here.

But in spite of all that he says that can be considered good, he misses a central point.

Jesus himself believed in the power of presence.

If our mission work, both long and short-term, settled for just sending money, how would the body practice the presence of Christ.

Certainly Jesus could have healed Lazarus from afar, yet for some reason he felt there was value in going.  He felt there was value in his being among the people to do His work.

I am reminded of a conversation I had years ago with a woman named Maria in the village of Camalu, south of Ensenada, Mexico.  She told me to remember that I could come any time I wanted to their church.  Thinking I understood, I nodded my head in agreement and said thank you.

As I got up to leave, she grabbed me and explained what she was trying to say.

Maria wanted to make sure that I knew we didn't have to come and do anything.  Our simple act of being there reminded them that the God of mission was God everywhere and that was a huge encouragement for this small local church.

Our presence reinforced to them the truth that the God they worshipped in Camalu, was the same God people worshipped in Los Angeles, China, France, or Australia.

Just as when Jesus could have stayed where he was and healed his friend, many times we can stay where we are and enable mission.  And we should!

But there are also times when we must go... for the body there, and for the body here.

Remember, while money is important, and us in field folks can always use more regular support, your presence is invaluable to both us, and those we serve on the field.

Church Missions... Is It Time to Rethink Our Approach?

Maybe it is time for us to reroute our global mission GPS.  Like a car stuck in midday traffic in Los Angeles, there has got to be a better route to where we want to go.

For years the Christian Mission Movement has been focused on sending people abroad to preach the Good News of Jesus.  Those missionaries, in the spirit of earlier times when funerals were held prior to departure, dedicated their lives to one place, one people, and one mission...sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are still a few of us out there, but more and more people are sensing God’s call to worldwide mission are choosing to give only part of their lives instead of the whole enchilada.  This is the short-term mission movement.

This is presenting the church with a profound opportunity to rethink and reframe its philosophy of sharing the Gospel, both here and abroad.

Failure to do so will surely result in lost prestige, influence, and a weakening of our message that we could have prevented if only we had seen the coming storm and decided to make the changes necessary to stay engaged in our rapidly evolving cultural world.

Here are my suggestions, gleaned from years of on field experience and conversations with long and short-term missionaries from around the globe. 

Accept the reality of short-term mission [STM].  Many churches and long-term missionaries still look at short-term mission with a jaded eye.  Short-term mission is still being judged by the mistakes of its youth and this is unfair.  While not perfect, many organizations and people connected with short-term mission have worked hard to improve, and are making real substantive changes in the way they carry out their ministry.  

A great example of this are the US Standards of Excellence for Short-Term Mission.  The standards call us to understand that STM is not about us as goers, but those we are trying to serve.  Isn’t the view that STM is primarily concerned with their own participants one of the main criticisms of the long-term in field missionaries?

The STM community is not going away.  Rather than engage this community in a critical way, wouldn’t a more effective approach be to encourage and join in the process of improving the largest group of cross cultural missionaries in the world?  I believe the answer is a resounding yes!

Recruit and develop a new breed of long-term missionaries who understand the realities of, and can embrace the improving short-term mission community for the good of the Kingdom.

Let me explain.  With the current global networking environment, long-term mission will never again happen in a vacuum.  We need people in the field who understand this and are committed to working together for the success of the local church.  

Here is what that might look like.  Instead of working to develop his or her own personal ministry in another country, the new long-term missionary will see their mission as one of supporting and standing behind local leaders to help them become more effective for Christ.  

It is the approach Henry Blackaby championed 15 years ago.  Sadly missionaries today, both long and short-term do not value partnership with others and prefer to work independently, continuing to pursue their own agendas.  

We should expect long-term missionaries to be a encouragers like Barnabas.  Someone who can encourage the local leaders and also sees it as his mission to help mentor and facilitate the hundreds of thousands of short-term missionaries who for whatever reason, are only going to give 2 or 3 weeks of their lives each year for global mission.

Everywhere I go in Mexico, pastors and leaders tell me they can do the majority of reaching their people for Christ, they just need a little help and encouragement for some of the heavy lifting involved in their Herculean task.

Finally, use short-term ministry to fund long-term mission work that supports the STM movement.

Imagine the impact we could have if we developed a more effective way for these STM participants to support in country churches and missionaries.  The empowering effect that this would have on in field ministry, through encouragement, targeted resources, and enthusiasm cannot be overestimated.

I written on this before and am convinced that short-term mission holds the key to financing long-term global mission.  Research shows STM participants are more connected to the field, more enthusiastic givers and more likely to grow into long-term missionaries themselves.

Father Knows Best went off the air long ago.  It is now way past time for the Christian Church to rethink and re-imagine our global mission and leave Jim and his family behind.  The days of missionary Bill and the kids waving goodbye from the deck of the good ship Endeavor as the congregation weeps will never return.

Isn’t it about time we adjusted our mission strategy for dealing with this reality? 

  

Little Billy, Money, and Short-Term Mission

If you have not read it yet, I recommend you check out what Troy Jackson at God's Politics has to say in his provocatively titled essay, Time to Declare a Mission Trip Moratorium.

In a few short words he challenges the very heart of short-term mission [STM], perhaps without even knowing it.

Cutting through all of the clutter, he questions the entire practice of Americans spending over $2 billion each year on global short-term mission trips.

Wouldn’t it be better he asks, if instead of spending all that money on the travel, meals, and facilitation costs associated with STM, we invested it in economic and community development programs led by indigenous people themselves?

Troy, that is a great question. But there are no easy answers.

As Seth Barnes of Adventures in Missions has argued, without the personal involvement of American people in STM, the amount of money available would be nowhere near the $2 billion annually spent.

Basically it looks like this. Unless little Billy from Kansas sends a letter to his grandmother asking her to give financially and help him go to Mexico, Africa, or some other far flung location, we are not going to be seeing a lot of money from her for missions, no matter how effective, or worthy the cause may be.

I wish that were not true, but I cannot deny the demoralizing and cheapening effect of this on those of us serving in other countries.

Let me give you a concrete example. I am currently working with a group of people to get a sustainable co-op demonstration project up and running in Oaxaca, Mexico. Once we are fully operational, we will be able to work alongside indigenous Zapotec farmers to increase crop yields, conserve precious water resources, and help provide economic stability to some of the poorest people in Mexico.

The biggest impediment we face is the lack of an effective well. It will cost about $20,000 to have the well professionally done. Or, we could buy the necessary rig ourselves and drill it for about half that. We could then also use that rig all around the area to the benefit of thousands of local, indigenous, subsistence farmers.

But I cannot get anyone to help make that happen.

Understand what I am saying here. Because it does not involve personal participation, I cannot get anyone to help purchase a portable well rig that will literally save lives and, as part of a holistic Gospel ministry, give the local indigenous church an incredibly effective method for reaching the people of their own communities.

While it may indeed be time to rethink short-term missions, calling for a STM moratorium will not result in that money currently spent on STM being redirected to those of us serving in the field, and may in fact, lead to a dwindling of the precious resources necessary to sustain an outward focus global outreach.