In my series on Rethinking Mission Work , I tried to take a few steps back and ask, “Are we as a fellowship really doing missions the best we can?”. Based purely on my personal experiences with many churches and on anecdotal evidences, what I see is
- General dissatisfaction among congregations with their experiences in supporting foreign missions.
- Broad dissatisfaction among American missionaries with their experiences with supporting churches.
- Trend toward replacing evangelistic work with humanitarian aid as the definition of mission work.
- Greater emphasis on local evangelism as opposed to foreign evangelism.
Thinking is hard enough, but re-thinking borders on the impossible. I know this because I taught Freshman Composition at Oklahoma Christian for twenty-four years. Once a student forces himself to sit down, to gather some ideas from somewhere on some topic, to write at least five paragraphs that in his/her mind relate to a single topic, and then to check it for spelling—once a student has done that much work, she is finished! That’s it! What more could be required?? That first draft is perfection!
Virtually all great writers know that the first draft is trash, maybe even the tenth! Envisioning is certainly the first step in the process, but re-visioning may be the most important!
William Faulkner said about revision, “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” To add to our difficulty in re-thinking is our tendency to make “our darlings” into “our doctrines” We put the stamp of biblical perfection on our assignment and turn it in!! And we expect to get excellent marks in recognition of work well done!
As I read and re-read some of your comments during the series, both on my blog site and on other sites where the series was re-posted in some form, I was continually reminded of how difficult it is to re-vision, i.e., to re-see something so familiar to us.
Some commented that their experience at their congregation was just great and that their congregation was doing a wonderful job!
In reply, let me say that describing general conditions always leaves one open to refutation by the Exception! Of course there are congregations doing a great job and great mission committees who have schooled themselves and love their missionaries.
I will say, however, based on my classroom experience that the writer is not necessarily the best judge of whether the writing is good. Heeding the proverb to “Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips,” (27:2), I would suggest a first step in rethinking is to have an outside evaluation—especially at those churches that have our best mission programs.
If I were coming to help your church look at its mission program, here are some of the questions I would want to ask:
- Why do you want to be involved at all in foreign missions?
- Where do foreign missions rank in your congregational priorities?
- Do you care more about whom you send or where you send them?
- What is “non-negotiable” or “untouchable” in your mission program?
- What is determining the full capacity of your mission efforts? Available workers? Available funds? Available time?
- Does your capacity match your goal? And is there any room for God to expand any of your capacities?
- How do you determine if you are meeting your goals?
- How many people in the congregation are involved in the mission efforts in any way, including intentional prayer, private support, short-term missions to your mission sites? Are you happy with the percentage of involvement?
- How many are involved in missions outside of the congregation’s program? Are you happy/concerned about this? Is it a reflection on the church’s program in any way?
- Do you ask for honest feedback from those you send, and are you humble enough to receive fair criticism from them without it threatening their support?
- How long have your current mission strategies/policies been in place? Do you have a planned periodical review of all policies?
- If you could wave a magic wand and change one piece of your mission program, what would you change? What keeps you from making this change without a magic wand?
Next, I’d like to look at how to start re-thinking at churches who already know they have some serious issues in their mission program.
[…] Part 11, Mark has a post responding to the opinions of some (myself included) that the traditional “missions committee” model is salvageable. He […]
This series has been interesting as well as benificial. I’m going to be heading for Lubbock, TX pretty soon to start the AIM program. After that I’m really hoping to do full time mission work as long as I can. This is all helpful information, excellent thoughts.