Missionary Ink... are tattoos a line in the sand for missionary service?

I am sitting in a Starbucks in Las Vegas enjoying a hot cup of coffee on another hundred degree day.  As I look out the window, there's a couple sitting at one of the outside tables.

Both of them are fully tatted up with almost all exposed skin real estate below the neck covered in ink.

As someone who thinks almost constantly about how the church can reach out to new generations of people, the tattoo culture has intrigued me for a while.  How does the local church, not the hip, niche ones in urban centers around the country, reach out to people who have made their bodies a work in progress art project?

This is not an issue that is going away any time soon, and it impacts more than just the local church.

Let’s leave behind the local question and think globally... to the “ends of the earth” if you will.

In my role as a missionary in Mexico, I get a number of chances to speak to churches and groups around the US.  Receiving short-term teams and providing mission direction for churches is a big part of what I do.  One of the first things that hits me when I meet a group for the first time is how many people have tattoos.  

Years ago, tattoos were the exception, sported by only a few people, and rarely exposed in public.  Now, they are everywhere and we are confronted with them daily.  With this reality has come a new issue for those of us in the field serving people who might not share US sensibilities about freedom in Christ.

The apostle Paul famously said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “all things are lawful, but not everything is beneficial.”  Sadly, I think many are only taking the first part of his statement to heart.

I get asked all the time whether or not a Christian can get a tattoo.  To me, it almost seems like a trick question.  Sometimes a youth pastor has told his or her charges to ask the missionary, as if I have some sort of divine knowledge that they do not have access to.  Even parents send their kids to me, hoping I guess that I will deliver the bad news so they don’t have to say no themselves.

But for me, there is no easy answer on this.  Tattoos are not a black and white, or even a color issue in spite of the desire by many conservatives to stand on a specific line in Levitican Law.  

So what do we do?

I have no answers for how our church culture welcomes people covered in tattoos.  Just look around at your members and you’ll understand what I mean.  If your church is like a majority of churches in America today, I am guessing when that person walks in covered in tattoos, he going to get a few stares.  Okay a lot of stares.  Yet unless we are willing to write off an entire generation of young people, we must address this issue.

On the mission front I can only look back 19 years to a young man named Brian who served with me in Guadalajara for two weeks.  Brian came to know Jesus after he had been tatted up.  So as we talked about his options to serve, Brian came to realize that he should keep his tattoos covered while he was in Mexico.  That became part of Brian’s mission, or his offering to us and our partners in Mexico.  Fortunately, Brian was able to cover all of his tattoos.  Many people today are unable to do that.

So here’s my answer to all of you who have asked me whether a Christian can have a tattoo.  Sure you can.  But understand this... getting a tattoo may forever make it impossible for you to fulfill God’s calling on your life to go to the “ends of the earth.”

Let me put it another way.  

Your body is not your own once you give your life to Jesus and your decision on whether or not to get a tattoo could profoundly affect your ability to serve God on the mission field.  

I fear that even as we are seeing increased interest from young people in the mission field, whether it be long or short term, we may have to leave some of our most talented people at home.  Many of the places the church is serving, and the places with the biggest need of a Gospel witness are going to struggle with, or outright ban missionaries with tattoos.  

Why would someone choose to do something that could limit their ability to serve God in these areas?

Thinking about it like this, doesn’t it just seem a little selfish?

I’m just askin...

Give the Gift of Living Water... literally!

$100.00.

One Benjamin.  A C-note.  One bill.

What if I told you that by giving just $100.00, you could change a family’s life?  Would you do it?

What if I told you that $100.00 could be the single most important ministry gift you make this year because it could save someones life?  Would you make that donation?

And what if I told you that by giving one C-note, you might save a little boy or girl from dying of dehydration?  Would you empty your change jar and instead of turning it into Coinstar, give it to Adventures in Life Ministry?

Here’s the newsflash... it’s all true!

That’s right.  A single donation of $100.00 to Adventures in Life Ministry, in response to this appeal will literally save lives.

Let me explain.

More than 10% of all babies born to indigenous women in Mexico will die before they reach five years old.  I have personally heard from many parents that one of the reasons they have so many kids is that they assume at least one child will die young.

One of the main reasons for these early deaths is lack of quality water.  Many rural parents lack an ability to buy clean water and often, they are living in an area with no potable water source or sewer system.  That means two things... one, outhouses and two, water from polluted wells near those outhouses.

Taken together, this is a recipe for disaster, especially mixed with a lack of quality medical care when your baby does get sick.

So, how can you help?

With a Sawyer Water Filter.  

It really is as simple as that.  

A $100.00 donation will help a family in our little corner of Oaxaca, Mexico have a water filter that will literally change their life.  Pastor Chable, with whom I’ve worked for many years told me in March that his family has not been sick since they got their filter in August.  It is the first time in all his life that his family has ever gone 6 months without being sick!

Incredible isn’t it?

In an age when almost everything we want is at our fingertips here in the United States, our neighbors just to the south are needlessly dying for need of quality water.  And we have within our grasp the ability to change that equation for less than the cost of a few Vente Mochas at Starbucks.

Think about it.  

Every $100.00 will give us one filter to put into the hands of a family in Oaxaca and help support the ongoing ministry of Adventures in Life and Pastor Chable in this challenging area.

Are you able to help us save a life today so that we will have the opportunity tomorrow to share about an eternity with Jesus?  

If so, follow this link to our support page and then drop me a line to let us know you are on board.

Missional Living... is it time to cut the ties that bind?

The house looked like any other pastor’s house you’ve been in.

Neat, clean and comfortable.  Lots of books on the shelves, a computer desk; blender and coffee grinder in the kitchen.

The walls had pictures of the kids and the houses the family had lived in over the years.  There were a few plaques saying thank you from the various churches the family had served over the years.  Crosses adorned the walls in a few spots.

Underneath the television was a pile of Disney videos, an X-Box and a bible or two.

It was as if you were looking at some sort of Norman Rockwell painting of vintage pastoral Americana.

Except this house was not in America.  It was in Mexico, Romania, China, and Russia.  It was in Kenya, Brazil, Japan, and France.  And that is the problem.

US Missionaries living outside our country are increasingly choosing to live apart from the local communities whom they are called to serve.

Out of fear for their safety, both real and imagined, many missionaries who call on others to rely on God and preach a message of God’s provision are living as huddled masses cut off from the reality of the local life and people they are called to serve.

It should not be like this.

Last year I was speaking at a small bible college in Montana and during lunch one of the students decided to share her dreams with me.  Recently married, she told me she and her new husband were going to Latin American to be missionaries. 

When I asked her where, she said their plans were still not final, but that where ever it was, a major airport had to be close by.  I asked her why and she shared that she had diabetes and in case she had an emergency, she wanted to be able to get back to the US quickly for good medical care.  

She was not happy when I suggested she stay home because we do not need more missionaries in foreign lands inexplicably tethered to the US.

Contrast this example with a story shared with me recently about an American missionary serving in Turkey.  He has a serious illness and has decided to stay in Turkey and get treatment.  Will he survive?  Not unless God intervenes and changes the trajectory of his illness.

Yet this missionary, along with his wife and kids have made the decision that there is more to be gained for the Kingdom by staying put in Turkey during the illness and after he dies.  He will even be buried there and his wife will carry on the ministry they built, staying connected to the community they have served.

Which family will have the greater Christian witness over the long term?  The family that gets on the plane back to the US when something difficult crops up, or the family that is so vested in their new country and incarnational living that they cannot conceive of leaving their ministry, friends and the country to where God sent them, even in the face of tragedy?

Jeremy Parks of the Southern Baptist Convention in his excellent blog on this very subject calls it “Living Where You Live” and even connects it to ministry here in the US.

The bottom line is this.  Missionary effectiveness is compromised when those we serve can sense that our hearts reside not with them, but to our home countries and communities.  Effective long term cross cultural ministry cannot happen when we are inextricably bound to our home cultures and lands.

Sadly these tethers often lead to more harm than good.

Your thoughts...