Month: August 2020

Some of the articles in this issue of Missio Dei were designed to deal with the vexed issue of partnership in Christian missions. Other submissions were not, yet they seem to be on topic. This is possibly nothing more than happy coincidence, but the fact is that the issue of partnership encompasses many matters. There are few discussions in contemporary missiology that have nothing to do with the practice of partnership. Is this because partnership is a catch-all category, ultimately too nebulous to delimit a precise set of concerns? Or is it the case that partnership is broad enough to provide a framework for integrating disparate questions? It is up to the reader to decide.

The present articles deal with issues including:

• Lessons Western leaders have learned about relating to Majority World partners in mission.
• The importance of cross-cultural partnerships for developing sustainable, reproducible missions endeavors that help rather than hurt.
• The possibility of international collaboration between local elderships.
• The relationship dynamics that partnerships entail.
• The nature of absolute poverty in one context and the local resources that can address it in a way foreign resources cannot.
• The foreign missionary’s self-imposition of economic strictures in order to ensure the use of local resources and change the relationship dynamics with locals.

There is a diverse set of interests and concerns among the authors represented here. Some key themes interweave their work, however. Like a tapestry, these themes together give shape to the question of partnership. The picture that emerges here is one of complex relationships fraught by cultural differences, a heritage of Western paternalism, economic disparity, unrelenting hope and goodwill, repentance and forgiveness, and the need for fearless innovation.

It is not clear, though, which relationships are in view: those of congregations, organizations, individuals, or all of the above in every combination? Indeed, the discussion of partnership at large lacks precision in this regard. At times it seems this is due to a certain insensitivity to the substantial differences between the diverse kinds of relationships involved in global missions. The way that a long-term cross-cultural missionary relates to local partners is radically different than the way short-term mission teams do (here is another of those missiological discussions that partnership encompasses!). Yet, a long-term cross-cultural missionary’s relationship with local partners differs so much more from that of, say, a US church “partnering” financially with a Majority World minister that it should be measured by a different order of magnitude altogether. Add inter-congregational partnerships and the role of parachurch organizations to the mix, and the effect is dizzying.

At other times it seems there is a lack of appreciation for the fundamental sameness of partnerships at home and abroad, as though partnership were a term reserved for international, intercultural entanglements. This is, of course, clearly not the case in highly globalized urban centers (globalization being another of those issues connected with partnership) where partnerships in the neighborhood can be every bit as complicated as those on the international stage. Even so, to limit partnership to such culturally conflicted relationships misses the point of the analogy with other types of collaboration in mission: a theological point about the way we relate to each other in Christ. The implications of local, intracultural partnerships for international, intercultural partnerships, and vice versa, may be more significant than the present limits of the discourse would suggest. At the very least, the analogy of these partnerships calls for more clarity about what type of partnership is in view in any given discussion. To that end, I offer a matrix for locating partnerships in relation to other types.

A Typology of Partnership

Two basic types of relationship are in view when we talk about missions partnerships: local and nonlocal. These are defined in terms of proximity: a scale of distance. Partnerships may be specified as regional, national, international, and so forth, but the point is not to assign an adjective. What matters is the effect distance has on the relationship.1 The bottom line is that distance makes meaningful relationship difficult.

Two more basic variables further delimit partnerships. One is cultural dissimilarity: a scale of difference.2 It goes virtually without saying that cultural differences make collaboration difficult. Nonetheless, it is fair to claim that partners in Christian mission often act as though such differences are superficial or that love and the guidance of the Holy Spirit will inevitably overcome these barriers. We need to recalibrate our expectations, and one way to do so is to clarify the significant differences between types of partnerships in a visual way:

Diagram 1: Distance/Difference Matrix

The scales of distance and difference are not technical measurements. There is nothing to gain by drawing a line at a certain number of kilometers and declaring we have reached low proximity. That would be arbitrary and inconsequential. Likewise, while we might utilize the methods of measuring cultural difference that do indeed exist—and the value of these is not to be underestimated—the diagram does not attempt to represent a definitive definition of similarity or dissimilarity. The diversity of analytical tools and the irreducible complexity of our cultural differences would make that, too, a futile exercise. What is not futile, however, is the evaluation of a partnership in order to appreciate what type of collaboration it is. To recognize that a potential partner is both very distant and very different allows one to form appropriate expectations. This will be a profoundly complicated relationship that will likely entail substantial misunderstanding and practical difficulty. If our approach to such a partnership looks essentially the same as our approach to other types of collaboration, we have likely underestimated the implications of distance and difference.

Most of the partnerships at stake in the current discussion are marked by considerable distance and difference, and even those that fall somewhere else on the matrix are complicated enough to merit the careful consideration of their unique challenges in contrast with other types of partnership. But locating a partnership in this way does not represent the complete picture. A third variable adds another layer of complexity.

The final variable is mediation: a scale of advocacy. Mediation refers to the involvement of an agent who works on behalf of the partnership. As an advocate of the partnership, the ideal mediator is one with the skills to help both parties deal with the complexity of their relationship by facilitating communication and mutual understanding. In nonlocal, intercultural partnerships, this is someone with the ability to be present with each party in lieu of partners’ proximity to each other and to communicate cross-culturally on behalf of each party. Skillful mediation can, therefore, reduce the difficulty of the relationship. This is also the case in other types of partnerships. Even local, intracultural partnerships often lack the skills necessary to communicate well, manage conflict, or carry out the work in which they seek to collaborate. Mediation, then, can add a vital third dimension to an otherwise two-dimensional partnership. Adding this dimension to Diagram 1 looks something like this:

Diagram 2: Distance/Distance/Advocacy Matrix

Mediated partnerships, though they still entail distance and difference, constitute an essentially distinctive type of partnership. They not only entail better-cultivated relationships in most cases but also involve additional relationships with unique dynamics. This model suggests the following eight basic types of missions partnerships.

Two-Dimensional Partnerships

• Local, Intracultural, Unmediated: culturally similar Christians/churches collaborating directly in a city or region. For example, various area congregations funding and supplying volunteers to a local soup kitchen or to an evangelistic endeavor.
• Nonlocal, Intracultural, Unmediated: culturally similar Christians/churches working together directly at significant distance from each other. For example, a US church financially supporting a US international charity.
• Local, Intercultural, Unmediated: culturally different Christians/churches collaborating directly in a city or region. For example, an English-speaking church sharing its facilities with an immigrant church in order to partner in serving the immigrant population of their common neighborhood.
• Nonlocal, Intercultural, Unmediated: culturally different Christians/churches working together directly at significant distance from each other. For example, a US church directly supporting a national minister in another country.

Three-Dimensional Partnerships:

• Local, Intracultural, Mediated: culturally similar Christians/churches collaborating locally in conjunction with a third-party advocate. For example, area churches collaborating in a local church plant under the guidance of an organization that specializes in church planting.
• Nonlocal, Intracultural, Mediated: culturally similar Christians/churches working together at significant distance from each other in conjunction with a third-party advocate. For example, a church relying on an international development consultant in order to evaluate and understand the work of a US international charity.
• Local, Intercultural, Mediated: culturally different Christians/churches collaborating locally in conjunction with a third-party advocate. For example, an English-speaking church collaborating with an immigrant church by supporting and depending on a bicultural minister.
• Nonlocal, Intercultural, Mediated: culturally different Christians/churches working together at significant distance from each other in conjunction with a third-party advocate. For example, a church supporting a cross-cultural missionary in another country.

Any given essay on partnership is unlikely to speak to every type of partnership, even though the tendency of the broader discussion is to generalize about partnership as a whole. Thus, while the typology indicates the diversity of relationships that can exist in missions partnerships, its immediate purpose is to help the reader situate the discussions engaged in this issue of Missio Dei. Of course, plenty of work remains: comparing and contrasting various types of partnership, nuancing best practices for specific applications, and ultimately forming more conscientious partnerships. Our present task, however, is to explore the insights these authors have already offered, remembering that what we talk about when we talk about partnership is complex and worthy of careful consideration.

Soli Deo gloria.

The strength of the church has shifted to the global south following the rapid growth of Christianity outside of the Western world. This reality is challenging mission servants in North America to rethink our role on the global mission stage. This article examines several lessons Western mission leaders have learned by listening, failing, and seeking to be better partners with others in the mission of God. The author suggests that collaborative relationships are the environment through which the gospel will spread in a new global missions landscape.

“I have never heard an American ask that question before.” This statement from a church leader in Southeast Asia began our journey in rethinking how we as American leaders work with our international counterparts. The question posed to this Asian leader was, “What is your kingdom vision for your region of the world and how can we help you with that vision?” His initial response came after a long pause. He responded somewhat out of shock: “You Americans come here with your visions and your strategies and ask us to join you. We are happy to do so, but no one takes the time to ask what are our visions and strategies for our country.” This response from a national leader led the team at Missions Resource Network (MRN) to amazing conversations and a huge shift in approach to our global partnerships. MRN is a mission ministry created in 1998 to assist Churches of Christ to accomplish their mission vision locally and globally. We equip churches and church leaders to make disciples, send and nurture their missionaries, network and partner with others, and vision strategically. In an effort to learn how to work globally, we have listened to national leaders in Singapore, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Rwanda, Russia, and Croatia, among many others. Our learning began by asking the right questions and then doing nothing else but listening.

At a Churches of Christ lectureship, the MRN staff gathered national leaders from various places around the world. We began to explain our desire to listen as they share their visions, victories, and challenges for their churches and their people. One sister, an African ministry leader came to one of our team members, took both of his hands, and said, “Thank you, thank you. I was converted and trained by American missionaries and I will always be indebted to them. But I have never heard an American speak as you speak with a desire to listen and know our dreams for the kingdom in our region.” These experiences with international partners grew and multiplied. It took time to develop enough trust in our relationships for them to be convinced that we truly wanted to listen. It also became a humbling experience to hear not only of the victories in American partnership around the globe but more often about the failures, the arrogance, the control, and the insensitivity the Christian world has experienced from their American friends. Of course, the great majority of US mission workers have very good motivations and intentions. We mean well, but a lack of cultural sensitivity has frequently been evident in our foreign mission efforts. Don’t hear these international leaders as saying that they do not appreciate kingdom partnership with the West, nor hear them saying that they do not want the US churches to continue joining the world in our global mission. Instead the American church needs to hear that our challenge is to learn how to best work with others in a world mission. What are the best practices we need to apply in a new global missions landscape? At MRN we are still listening and learning; however, here are some lessons we are striving to live out in our international relationships.

Lesson 1: Remember We are All Involved in God’s Mission

God has called his people to join him in making disciples of every nation, tribe, language, and people (Matt 28:18–20; Rev 14:6). We are to join God in his mission by planting and watering the seed of the good news and trusting God to provide the growth (1 Cor 3:6–9). God is at work around the globe and not just through the Western church. Global missions does not originate solely from North America. God is on mission, and our role is to join him in his mission. For too long we have asked God to bless what we have planned rather than ask him to involve us in what he is blessing. Dependency upon God through prayer is a mission principle that receives lip service but, in my experience, little obedient attention. Any movement of God is preceded by confession, repentance, and pleading for God’s presence. It has taken me years to recognize that prayer and faith belong in the same conversation. I have been impressed with what we call the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1–8. It is one of the few parables where the purpose of the parable is so clearly stated in the text. Luke records, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).1 The direct relationship between a consistent prayer lifestyle and perseverance is unmistakable. Yet, Jesus concluded this parable with a perplexing question: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). If the subject was persistent prayer, why bring up the issue of faith? Is the topic prayer or faith? The answer is that faith and prayer are one and the same. If you are praying, you are faith-filled; if you are not praying, you are faithless.

How does prayer to and faith in God relate to our global relationships? We are mission-less without God. We have no reason for existence without God. We have no power, purpose, or mission without God’s leading. This realization helps us to understand our proper place. It is not our mission but God’s. Therefore, we don’t arrive on a mission site with quick-fix strategies dependent upon our skills. We rather arrive with humility and submission in dependent prayer to the God of mission. We first join the leaders in a region in unrelenting faith-filled prayer to the sovereign Lord who leads and empowers his people.

Lesson 2: Listen, Learn, and Build Relationships

We tend to be good at telling, teaching, and giving a lot of information. Of course, there are always significant moments for preaching and teaching. Jesus went about teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing (Matt 9:35). However, when we are joining our brothers and sisters in their land, we first need to listen and learn. Jane Vella in her book Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults describes the steps in the development of a cross-cultural mutual learning process. One basic assumption she makes is that “adult learning is best achieved in dialogue. Dia means between and logos means word. Hence, dia + logue = “the word between us.”2 She also points out that the dialogue is not just between the teacher and student but also between the students themselves.

At MRN we have learned that our role is often the role of a facilitator, a coach, one who is creating the environment for transformational learning to take place. This learning environment is based upon relationships. We are not just developing projects or plans, but we are ministering in relationship with God and his people. Trust becomes the common denominator in these relational connections. Of course, time and ministry together is required to develop trust in any working relationship. Moreover, in some cultures, a relationship of trust is more important than a formal document (e.g., a memorandum of understanding) that spells out roles and expectations. I remember sitting with an African leader feeling a desire to refer to our MOU to make sure we were moving toward accomplishing the stated goals of our partnership. My good brother smiled at me as if to say, “you poor American, so rushed and driven by so much activity.” I cannot remember exactly all of the words spoken after that smile. But what I received was an encouragement not to worry so much about the piece of paper that describes our relationship, but rather focus on the relationship itself. I confess that I have often had to resist the temptation to feel that we are going too slowly in our partnerships and “not accomplishing enough.” My African brothers and sisters have shared their view of the importance of trusting relationships through a proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The art of listening and maintaining good communication and relational trust becomes vitally important to any international joint venture.

Lesson 3: Respect God’s Work Among National Leaders

One of the greatest blessings that I have received in my experience with our international partners has been to see God’s work through national church leaders. When traveling to listen, learn, and share with churches around the globe, a thought constantly rings in my mind: “I feel like I am walking on holy ground.” God is accomplishing amazing things through his people. I have been with South African leaders who have a vision for planting churches throughout the continent of Africa, in Pakistan, and in India. I have listened to servants in Singapore with a dream of seeing disciples made throughout all of Southeast Asia and beyond. They are willing to give of their resources, their time, and their very lives to see the good news of Jesus shared locally and beyond their borders. I have sat with disciple-makers in Rwanda and been amazed by a powerful forgiving spirit. Their focus on the transformation of broken lives is being blessed by God in the multiplication of hundreds and even thousands of Jesus followers. I work side by side with men in Mexico who are committed to change the culture of absent fathers and spiritually weak men. Good partnership practices demand that we first see where God is at work among these amazing servants of God. Jean Johnson describes the mistakes we make when we begin to implement our dreams and visions rather than respecting God’s work taking place among local leaders:

When Western missionaries use their ethnocentric influence and economic affluence in ministry, they inevitably birth ministries that are carbon copies of their expensive, Western forms of Christianity. This action makes it nearly impossible for local disciples of Christ to implement effective evangelism, discipleship, worship, acts of compassion, leadership training, and church planting by mobilizing their own local resources and cultural expressions.3

By not respecting God’s unique work among our international coworkers, we often impose our methodology upon a different culture, thus creating dependency or transplanting an American church and mission. When we seek first to listen and learn from national leaders, we are amazed at the power of God that is at work among them. As a result we are humbled and better able to discern the role to which we are called in a global mission.

Lesson 4: Adopt a “Learner-Servant-Story teller” Posture

Thomas and Elizabeth Brewster have adapted a well-known article from Donald Larson entitled “The Viable Missionary: Learner, Trader, Storyteller.”4 They encourage a model of ministry that does not operate from a position of privilege or expertise but rather from a ministry model that can be emulated. The learner-servant-storyteller posture is rooted in the teaching and incarnational ministry model of Jesus. Jesus’ early disciples were in fact “learners.” Jesus told these original kingdom learners, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt 28:18–20). For years I correctly quoted what we call the Great Commission, but I lived as if Jesus said, “teaching them everything I have commanded you,” instead of, “teaching them to obey [or observe] everything that I have commanded you.” More information does not necessarily bring about more transformation. Information and teaching are vitally important. Nonetheless, we must become fellow students together with our partners as we listen to the word of God and learn to obey the teachings of Jesus. We must renew our trust in the power of the word of God and the Holy Spirit’s ability to lead others into the truth as they apply the word of God in their lives, culture, and context:

The Learner-Servant-Storyteller posture provides a model of ministry that can easily be multiplied by others. To have a discipleship ministry in postures other than Learner, Servant, and Storyteller is to minister from the platform of a privileged, ascribed status. The model of ministry that is then provided may be perceived as out of the reach of those who are ministered to. They may not view themselves as having the necessary credentials or resources to carry on the ministry, and may therefore feel that the responsibility of making disciples or leading the ministry is something that only the expatriate missionary can do.5

Jesus challenges us to take the posture of a servant by following his example. “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who . . . made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil 2:5–7). The importance of listening is directly related to being a servant. We must develop a trusting environment where honest conversations can take place about true needs and healthy ways to serve one another. Continuing to follow the example of Jesus leads us to the role of a storyteller. Matthew states, “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable” (Matt 13:34). We are finding that creating an environment of discovery around the word of God with our international brothers and sisters empowers our mutual growth. We often use the Discovery Bible Study process, where together we are listening to the word of God, sharing what we are hearing from the text, and then exploring how we are going to obey Jesus within our specific setting. Discovering together keeps the foreigner from assuming the role of an expert and allows Jesus to be the teacher. As fellow learners of Jesus, we all join together as disciples seeking to obey all that Jesus has commanded.6

Included in this storyteller role is sharing the lessons we have learned from past successes and particularly past failures in global missions. As MRN was invited into a partnership with an Asian church actively involved in missions in their region, one local leader stated one of the reason they wanted a partnership with us. “You [Americans] have made so many mistakes, there is no need for us to make the same ones ourselves.” They want to learn from our mistakes. Missiologist Paul Borthwick suggests that one of our greatest contributions to the world as Western missionaries is the mistakes we have made in missions:

Someone once described an expert as a person who has made every possible mistake and tried to learn from them. In this regard, it is possible that the history of crosscultural mission over the last two hundred years has rendered North American experts. We’ve made (and are still making) the mistake of bringing too much of our Western cultures with us as we have gone out to serve.7

Another aspect of this storytelling role may be sharing how God is at work in other regions of the globe. In our global travels, we are often asked, “What is happening in God’s kingdom in other places around the world? What successes and failures do you see other churches experience? How can we learn from others?” Developing cross-cultural conversations and partnership is one service North Americans in global missions can render.

Lesson 5: Identify Our Best Contribution to the Partnership

So what do Westerners have to offer global partnerships today? With all of the mistakes we have made, surely global church leaders do not want our involvement. Actually, nothing could be farther from the truth. The solution to global partnerships is not removing ourselves from the equation but rather engaging in a healthy way. Jean Johnson suggests that to create healthy global partnerships we must take on the posture of serving in “someone else’s shadow.” Living in someone else’s shadow is normally an unhappy thought, yet Johnson has identified working under local leadership as the best role for Westerners in cross-cultural contexts.8 Perhaps we need to renew the spirit of John the Baptizer in his relationship with Jesus: “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). Learning to serve in the shadow of another is essential as we identify our best contribution to global partnerships.

One of the most important steps in growing as a healthy disciple and a spiritual leader is increasing our self-awareness. Reggie McNeal argues that one way we develop ourselves as servant leaders is the pursuit of greater self-awareness or self-understanding. Likewise, those who partner in global missions have a responsibility to pursue greater self-awareness, learn greater self-management, and commit to self-development.9 The spiritual exercise of self-awareness can help mission partners ask difficult questions: “Why are we involved in this mission? What is truly motivating us? Is it for our benefit or for the benefit of the kingdom of God? Is what we are bringing to the partnership requested, helpful, and needed?” Unfortunately, one’s involvement in a mission enterprise can be self-serving, in which case false motives drive the agenda rather than healthy kingdom commitments. Global partners must remain constantly aware of the spiritual dynamics that motivate us and determine our actions and role in the mission. Recognizing our strengths and weaknesses as Americans is an important aspect of growing in self-awareness and developing trusting partnerships.

We have already discussed several of our weaknesses; however, one deserves special attention as we seek greater self-awareness. Majority World Christians have the perception that American Christians are unwilling to live with the difficult problems faced in their countries. We want to fix everything and fix it our way. Jean Johnson tells the story of Steve Saint, who was developing a DVD series called Missions Dilemma: Is There a Better Way to Do Missions? Saint interviewed Christian leaders from around the world. He asked, “If there is one piece of advice you could give to North Americans about how to do missions better in your part of the world, what would it be?” Steve’s first interviewee, Oscar Muriu, a leader in Kenya, responded with these words:

You have an amazing capacity to resolve problems. Now, it’s a great thing about Americans: the ability to innovate and to resolve problems. The downside of that is that when you come to our context, you don’t know how to live with our problems. You see our poverty. You see our need. You see the places we’re hurting. And, you have a great compassion to come and solve us, but life can’t be solved that way. Many times well-intentioned Americans will come into our context and they try to fix my life. You can’t fix my life! What I need is a brother who comes and gives me a shoulder to cry on and gives me space to express my pain, but doesn’t try to fix me. When Jesus comes into the world he does not try to fix all the poverty, all the sickness, all the need, the political situation. He allows that to be, but he speaks grace and he speaks salvation and redemption within that context because there is a greater hope than this life itself. Now, this tendency to fix it has become a real issue so that some of the reserve we feel as Africans or as two-third worlders is so many people have come to fix us that O’ Lord, please don’t bring another person to fix us. We have been fixed so many times we are a real mess now. Please allow us to be us. Allow us to find God and to find faith in the reality of our need.10

Our American desire to fix everything often leads us to an assertiveness that unwittingly fosters dependency and exports Western institutions and structures that cannot be maintained by the local people with their own resources. One such example, provided by Neil Cole, challenges us to think about the difference between planting institutional churches and planting the presence of Jesus within a community:

Our mission is to find and develop Christ followers rather than church members. There is a big difference in the two outcomes. The difference is seen in transformed lives that bring change to neighborhoods and nations. Simply gathering a group of people who subscribe to a common set of beliefs is not worthy of Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us. We have planted religious organizations rather than planting the powerful presence of Christ. Often, that organization has a very Western structure, with values not found in the indigenous soil. If we simply plant Jesus in these cultures and help His church emerge indigenously from the soil, then a self-sustaining and reproducing church movement would emerge, not dependent upon the West and not removed from the culture in which it grows.11

Therefore, our best contribution may not be the exportation of Western institutional structures, but rather partnering to see the good news of Jesus planted, watered, and spread through the power of God.

Paul Borthwick, in his insightful book Western Christians in Global Mission, speaks honestly to the North American church as he identifies some of our best contributions to a global mission.12 One our greatest strengths is our experience in leading missions worldwide. Even though we have made many mistakes, the Majority World still sees the West as having the ability to bring various nations, world leaders, and churches together to empower a global mission movement. With this leadership comes our North American optimism and belief that change is possible. Many churches and church leaders are stuck in the past, fighting old battles and disbelieving that any type of positive change is possible. Our “can do” attitude tempered with a humble listening spirit can be a gift to the global church. This optimism leads to another strength which is our generosity and economic wealth. However, it is vital that we realize money alone is not the solution to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Nor is it always the most helpful resource to empower the Majority World church to share the good news among its peoples. We must become aware that this strength, if not used wisely, can create dependency and become our greatest weakness. Missionaries have experienced too many stories of good-hearted Americans who visited the mission field and began to provide financial help to one in need without consulting the national church leaders and ended up hurting rather than helping. Giving God the glory for our strengths and using them wisely while recognizing our weaknesses and submitting them to God, who accomplishes the impossible through his people, is vital to identifying our role in the mission of God in a diverse world.

Considering these lessons, strengths, and weaknesses, MRN has identified three of our best contributions in global mission partnerships:

(1) Sharing Equipping and Training Resources. Americans offer resources for equipping and training, particularly in the area of leader development for a global mission. We have been blessed with theological depth in our training programs, which should be shared and transferred in appropriate ways. The Western world can also provide certain technical skills and expertise in areas such as the medical field, water well drilling, business, and accounting. Borthwick interviewed one Majority World church leader who calls the American church “to help train and mobilize the indigenous church in areas such as governance, church planting, orality ministry, organizational development and discipleship training.”13

I recently had similar learning experience both in Asia and in Africa. We were asked to share team-building processes with leaders on both of these continents. One African leader said that their form of leadership is similar to a pyramid or a “top down” leadership model. He described his impression of an American model of leadership as being more “flat” or allowing leadership to come from a team rather than just one person. As we created an environment for them to experience team-building principles and discover body-life principles from Romans, 1 Corinthians and other biblical texts, together we were able to explore various leadership styles. MRN wants such equipping processes to create an environment where participants can learn from Scripture and the experiences of others who have struggled with similar issues. On this basis, local leaders identify core principles and possible models, which they can contextualize for their unique environments. The training provided must empower our international friends to follow the call of God in ways that engage their world and their people. In Acts Paul’s statement as he said farewell to the Ephesian elders at Miletus reveals such an empowering spirit. He reminded the elders of his service among them with great humility and tears. He taught them publicly and from house to house. However, as he said goodbye for the last time he entrusted them to “God and the word of his grace” knowing that it was God who would build them up and give them an inheritance among those those who are sanctified (Acts 20:32). Providing equipping and training opportunities, which empower and embolden national leaders to trust God and his word, can be one of the best contributions the Western church can make to a global mission movement.

(2) Coaching and Mentoring. Christian coaching is an ongoing conversation that empowers a person or team to live out God’s calling in their life and ministry. Coaching is the process of coming alongside another servant of God, listening well, asking appropriate questions, and journeying together with them as they discover their next step in following Jesus. It is amazing how active listening can truly empower another leader. MRN was asked to do some basic leadership coach training, again in Africa. The training focused on using coaching skills rather than just providing information about coaching. One of the group’s first assignments was to divide up in pairs and take turns just listening to one another for thirty minutes. They were to share what was on their heart regarding struggles, joys, and desires for the future. As the group reassembled there was laughter, smiles, and a joyful mood. We debriefed regarding what they learned and experienced through the listening assignment, and I was amazed to hear what had come out of their conversations. They used descriptive words like energizing, empowering, powerful, comforting and helpful. I realized that I was looking at leaders who are constantly listening to others. However, they usually don’t have anyone outside their context whom they trust to listen well as they struggle through challenges, plans, and action steps. Coaching is described as “pulling out” what God has placed in a servant’s heart in order to empower them to discover options and action steps to help them move forward. Mentoring is often described as “putting into” the life of a servant leader by sharing wisdom, experience, and advice. Coaching and mentoring should not control or create dependency. They are tools that empower another to live a life being transformed into the image of Christ and fulfill their ministry in the kingdom of God. We are finding that our international partners are hungry for coaching and mentoring relationships from those they trust and believe will help them grow to be a disciple who makes other disciples.

(3) Stimulating Partnerships to Expand a Global Vision. Jesus prayed not only for his apostles, but also for those who would believe in him through their message. Jesus prayed for us: “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Often, though, we fail to utilize resources and manpower for a shared vision in a particular region or area of ministry. In the Western world we have experience and relationships which enable us to draw people together, stimulate vision, empower the development of global strategies, and share past successes and failures. Therefore, one valuable role that North Americans can play on the world mission stage is to serve in the background and bring brothers and sisters together to share resources for kingdom purposes. MRN strives to facilitate conversations between people in similar ministries with common passions in related regions around the world. Americans like to receive credit, so it can be difficult not to be center stage. But we trust that God will be glorified when his people come together for a world mission vision.

Conclusion

As I leave new friends in foreign countries to return home after listening, learning, and serving with them, we often talk about follow-up. What can we do for one another to further the kingdom of God. I have sensed a shared desire in both of us that says, “Let’s keep in touch. We cannot forget one another.” Unfortunately, some American missionaries (both short term and long term) have been characterized by short attention spans, often forgetting about the ones they have served with in foreign lands. Borthwick tells of a translator seeing him off at the airport who said, “Please, don’t forget us.” Reflecting upon that fear, Borthwick shares an important principle from Gary Haugen, the founder of International Justice Mission. Haugen advocates what he calls “compassion permanence”: the ability to stay focused on the specific needs of others and to work until we make a difference:

Compassion permanence is distinguished by two words. Compassion means coming alongside of people in pain, in an effort to serve or empathize or relieve the suffering. Permanence implies duration; we stick with this ministry even after the need is no longer publicized and long after our tearful emotions have worn off.14

Developing healthy reciprocal kingdom relationship across boundaries is not an easy task. We have failed often, as well as enjoyed encouraging successes. Yet, we must not let our few successes and multiple failures hold us back from listening, learning, and engaging our brothers and sisters worldwide. We must be willing to make mistakes as we help and receive help. Compassionate presence demands that we continue to learn and grow together as God uses his people to bring transformation and renewal to a world in search of his reign.

Jay Jarboe is VP of Ministry Operations and Director for Church Equipping at Missions Resource Network (MRN), a global network equipping the body of Christ to steward the mission of God. Before joining MRN, Jay served as the Lead Minister for the Sunset Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. During his twenty-five-year ministry with the Sunset Church of Christ and Sunset International Bible Institute (SIBI), Jay served as the Director of the Adventures in Missions (AIM) program, an apprentice missionary training program, as the Dean of Missions at SIBI, and as an instructor in the Sunset International Bible Institute. He is married to Sherry, and they have two children, Meagan (26) and Ryan (22). Jay and Sherry were missionaries in Mexico City and now they work with missionaries and churches around the world. Sherry works as the Project Site Coordinator for “Let’s Start Talking,” a ministry that sends out hundreds of Christians around the globe to share their lives and Jesus by reading the Bible with those seeking to improve their English. Jay holds a BA from Texas Tech University, a Masters in Missions and a Masters of Divinity (MDiv) equivalency from Abilene Christian University. His passion is seeking to be transformed into the image of Christ and helping others in that same quest.

Bibliography

Borthwick, Paul. Western Christians in Global Mission: What’s the Role of the North American Church? Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012.

Brewster, E. Thomas, and Elizabeth S. Brewster. “Language Learning Is Communication—Is Ministry!” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 6, no. 4 (October 1982): 160–64, http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/1982-04/1982-04-160-brewster.pdf.

Cole, Neil. “Organic Church.” In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, edited by Ralph Winter and Steve Hawthorne, 4th ed., 643–47. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009.

Johnson, Jean. We Are not the Hero: A Missionary’s Guide for Sharing Christ, not a Culture of Dependency. Sisters, Oregon: Deep River Books, 2012.

Larson, Donald N. “The Viable Missionary: Learner, Trader, Story Teller.” Missiology 6, no. 2 (April 1978): 155–163, http://mis.sagepub.com/content/6/2/155.full.pdf.

McNeal, Reggie. A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders. Updated Kindle ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Vella, Jane. Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults. Rev. ed. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.

Churches of Christ have a rich missions heritage. We have been instrumental in taking the gospel to many places in the world, planting churches, and doing relief work. But why have our planted churches often been ineffective at reproducing themselves? Why has our financial support lingered so long in one place instead of moving on to new locations where Jesus is not known? Could it be that our strategies have been lacking? Could we actually be doing harm to the churches we have planted? It is the author’s intent to introduce the reader to some concepts, principles, and considerations that can make mission efforts more sustainable and reproducible.

Helping Can Hurt?

During the last years of my career in forestry and timberland investments, I spent most of my time investing in eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. I helped my investors purchase thousands of acres of cattle grazing land and convert the pastures into intensively cultivated eucalyptus plantations. In the state of Minas Gerais, we could grow and harvest eighty-two-foot-tall eucalyptus trees in seven years. This kind of growth required intensive silvicultural operations that enabled us to produce a lot of value for the investors while also protecting the environment.

Yet there was not much about these plantations that was native to the region. Eucalyptus grows very well in much of Brazil, but it is native to Australia. The eucalyptus species that we planted had been genetically improved for rapid volume growth. The seedlings were clones so there would be uniformity—each tree looked and grew just like the one next to it. The native vegetation was mowed down and grasses were sprayed with herbicide to kill this competing vegetation. Fertilizers were brought in to augment the soil’s productivity. Pesticides were used to control the native leaf-cutter ants. Everything grew well as long as all these non-native resources and practices were applied. But, if our management were to stop these intensive practices, the results would have been very different, and it would have been impossible to duplicate the level of productivity we achieved.

What does this have to do with Christian missions? Planting churches can be the same. An American church that brings in a lot of outside resources to plant a church on foreign soil can get quick growth for its investment. The American missionary can bring in food to feed the hungry, medical supplies to heal the sick, money and people to build a church building, and preachers to teach the people. Generally people in need will be drawn to these resources. People will be fed, the sick will get well, children will be taught, individuals will be baptized, pews will begin to fill, and the church plant may look like a success. But is this a sustainable church plant? Are the people coming for a relationship with Christ, or are they coming to get their physical needs met? Are lives being transformed from sinful, destructive patterns, or are people dressing up their outside so they can sit in the pews and receive outside physical resources? Will this church plant be able to reproduce itself? Our experience tells us that it will not be sustainable. We teach freedom in Christ but unwittingly we promote psychological and financial bondage to an outside source. What does a sustainable mission look like and how can we fix these unsustainable situations?

What Is A Sustainable Mission?

I define a sustainable mission as an indigenous church that:

• Builds a Christ-following community that is consistent with its culture.
• Develops and supports its own leadership.
• Recognizes and develops its local resources to do the work of ministry.
• Uses its resources to take care of the truly helpless in its fellowship and its community.
• Reaches out and multiplies in other communities using its own resources.

Do you know of any mission churches like this? Is it even possible?

What Is The Issue?—How can helping hurt?

Before we can know how to really help, we need to understand how our helping can hurt. We will look at four issues that have hurt and continue to hinder our mission efforts:

• Man’s Broken Relationships
• Dependency
• God Complexes
• Disconnected Mission Efforts

Broken Relationships

In the beginning (in the garden) God created man with four relationships: with God, himself, others, and the rest of creation (the natural world).2 Before the fall, man was dependent upon God and all these relationships were in balance and in harmony. But man, in his desire to become equal to and independent from God, disobeyed God (sinned), and all these relationships became broken. In man’s effort to become self-sustainable, he became unsustainable. Man immediately experienced the shame of his separation and the consequences of his sin. He began to experience the difficulty of being independent from God—the hard daily requirements of living in a broken world. So in man’s desire to become independent of God, he finds himself becoming dependent on others and on things in unhealthy ways.

To fill the void that man experiences in his broken world, he turns to systems: religious, social, political, and economic.3 These are not evil in and of themselves. Scripture indicates that these systems are created and ordained by God.4 But man creates institutions within these systems and has used these systems in ways that God did not intend. They have become a substitute for the relationships that God created us to have and we expect them to perform social good they are not equipped to accomplish. Jesus’ work of reconciliation is to bring all of these four relationships back into harmony. It is in the church, the community of Christ followers, that God wants us to experience the four relationships in harmony again. We cannot develop resource-sustainable missions without addressing our brokenness in these relationships and embracing the healing that Christ came to bring. The more the church takes care of its responsibility to heal broken relationships, the more effectively the systems can work. Conversely, the more the church abdicates its healing role, the more man seeks to make the systems to fill the gap, but the systems do not have the tools or power to take care of the heart of the problem—the problem of the heart. The systems can provide law and order and take care of symptoms, but the systems cannot heal the cause of broken relationships.

Since the systems are God-created, the institutions that man has created within them are a part of our reality and should not be avoided. In fact, the more the church permeates its community with its healing work, the better these systems can work in providing law and order, developing and providing resources, and addressing some of the symptoms. I believe that as missionaries we should seek to engage these systems and let them work with us and for us where they can. In the area of resource sustainability, the economic principles that are consistent with the kingdom of God can work for us and be tools for supporting our mission efforts. Through resource stewardship and Christian businesses we can help reconcile man to the rest of creation and have an impact on developing more sustainable mission work. It is important that sending churches and missionaries understand these principles and plan and apply mission strategies that are consistent with them.

Dependency?

One typical result of these broken relationships is unhealthy dependency on outside resources. A definition of dependency is: “The unhealthy reliance on foreign resources that accompanies the feeling that churches and institutions are unable to function without outside assistance.”5

“Unhealthy dependency includes a material, psychological, and spiritual component.” These become chains of bondage keeping Christians inside a box that they cannot see out of. “All together, it creates a faulty self-perception that is death to effective indigenous church growth.”6

When individuals and churches become dependent on outside resources rather than discovering their own God-given talents and the resources in their own communities, they remain spiritually weak and immature. In their external dependency, they become irrelevant and ineffective in reaching their communities.

Bob Lupton, in his book Toxic Charity, succinctly outlines the progression of how one-way giving, outside of emergency situations, leads to dependency:

• Give once and you elicit appreciation;
• Give twice and you create anticipation;
• Give three times and you create expectation;
• Give four times and it becomes entitlement;
• Give five times and you establish dependency.7

God Complexes

A God complex is defined as “a subtle and unconscious sense of superiority” in which we believe we have achieved our superior position through our own efforts and have been anointed to decide what is best for those we have come to help.8

If we come to help without an awareness of our own brokenness, we may unintentionally abuse those we seek to help, and we will be blind to their capacity to address their own needs.

Consider the story of George Asimba and JohnKeen. My wife and I met JohnKeen while living in Kisumu, Kenya, in 2012. He was an elementary-age student with an infectious smile, loving eyes, and bright mind. But JohnKeen had a handicap. Besides being small for his age, he had a severe curvature in his spine that made it difficult to be as physically active as the other boys his age. But John more than made up for his handicap with his character. One day, while we were in Kisumu, JohnKeen’s spine suddenly snapped; the pressure on the curvature had become too great. In a moment he was paralyzed from his chest down. We were distraught and wondered how we could help. As soon as it could be arranged we took him to a specialist at a mission hospital nearly a day’s ride away. The specialist confirmed that the damage was irreparable. JohnKeen’s parents refused to believe that their precious son would never walk again. They went to many doctors and to faith healers. Many promised (for the right amount of money) to bring healing to JohnKeen’s broken spine, but the money was not available and the faith healers could not reverse the damage.

I also met George Asimba about this same time. George is an exceptional young man and Christian with a similar background. George’s spine broke from a similar deformity when he was in the seventh grade, and he became paralyzed from the waist down. After some time grieving his situation, he determined to not to give up on life. He realized that God still had a plan for him. So he enrolled in a special school for the handicapped and completed high school with high grades. When I met George he was enrolling for college. We wanted to help JohnKeen and his family through the process of grieving their loss and to begin to think maturely about how to move forward, but we did not know how. So we turned to George. George went with us to visit JohnKeen and his family and gave one of the most beautiful testimonies about his life and about the man born blind from John 9 that I have ever heard. Furthermore, George has continued to follow up with JohnKeen and his family. JohnKeen and his family are moving forward.

Our first reaction to JohnKeen’s situation was to use our American financial resources to solve JohnKeen’s challenges. But we realized that we are not God, that we are broken people too, and that we did not know what was best for him and his family in their culture. By engaging the local people and being careful in our involvement, and patient with God’s provision, both young men have grown in their trust of God and ability to develop their own resources.

Disconnected Mission Efforts

Within the autonomous Churches of Christ there are many amazing, wonderful mission efforts around the globe. We believe in the authority and responsibility of the autonomous church, but we must also believe in the brotherhood of the kingdom of God. Without more communication and more sharing of ideas and resources, the successes of those who are applying sustainable missions principles cannot be broadly replicated. Coordination is a key to stewarding the resources God has given us. Missions Resource Networks (MRN) works to bring individuals, churches, mission organizations, and businesses together to share ideas, successes, and resources. I have been cataloging mission agencies related to Churches of Christ, where they are working, and what they do. MRN has been working to connect agencies like Healing Hands International and Christian Relief Fund to share resources and work strategically to expand the kingdom at overlapping locations.

How Do We Extend God’s Grace?

The book When Helping Hurts has created a lot of discussion and interest about how best to help people. Some have objected to this book on two points:

1. Tell us not what hurts (we are aware of that). Tells us what helps.
2. God’s love is full and unconditional. Are we to “qualify” our love and help for people based upon their resources and ability to use them?

Regarding the first objection, I give some tips later in this article. The second objection is a valid concern. We need to make a distinction between God’s grace through his forgiveness of sins versus his grace (or provisions) for meeting people’s physical needs. God is love. His love and his grace for sins are full and unconditional. We must learn to reflect this kind of grace. A study of Jesus’ acts of helping the needy and helpless around him does not reveal any “qualification” for the healings and provisions of grace he gave. Although Jesus healed many people, relief of people’s physical pain was not the focus of his ministry. It was, rather, to seek and to save the lost, and that must be our focus too.

We are called to be conduits of God’s blessings. But I believe the question is not whether to give but rather what and how best to give. As I study Jesus’ examples of giving, it is clear that when he gave, he gave fully and without qualification. But he did not always give; sometimes he walked away from a village before all were healed in order to preach in another village. And he did not always give what was asked for but rather what was really needed in that situation. Therefore as we serve those in need we must respond thoughtfully. We must not ask for those we serve to qualify for our attention, but we must be discerning, as Jesus was, in order to respond appropriately. Life is messy. Helping people requires time, energy, and relationship. We Westerners like to help, but we like simple solutions, quick fixes, and moving on to the next problem. We like to be the hero. But this is not how Jesus did things. He walked with his disciples. He moved among the people, where they lived. He experienced their hunger and their pain. He moved slowly and intentionally. At his crucifixion, all his work appeared to be a failure. Even those he had poured his life into had deserted him. But he had equipped (developed) them in foundational ways that they had not yet understood. They wanted to sit beside him, on his left and right, on an earthly throne, but he had not given them what they asked for. He had prepared them for a different kingdom that they were about to understand. So also our giving must be with the eternal kingdom in mind and a long-term strategy for its expansion.

Are There Categories of Help?

Not all needs are equal. Different situations often require different types and durations of response. I have found it helpful to categorize help into three types:

Relief is “the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis.”

Rehabilitation “seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their precrisis condition. [A key feature is working with the affected population] as they participate in their own recovery.”

Development “is a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved—both the ‘helpers’ and the ‘helped’—closer to being in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.”9

If I can discern which of these three categories I am dealing with, I can better provide a response that is appropriate and helpful. Relief situations are disasters such as an earthquake, typhoon, tsunami, or severe famine. The need is urgent and immediate or more lives will be lost. The situation is often such that the local resources are either unavailable or insufficient for the crisis. Nevertheless, as much as possible, relief providers should partner with local leadership and local resources.

Rehabilitation is what happens after the crisis of a relief situation has passed. Some relief assistance might be needed, but once the situation has stabilized and people are no longer dying, rebuilding should start. At this point local leadership should begin to take control of their situation, make plans for the rebuilding, and start directing the efforts. They may need partners if they are not experienced in the relevant areas, and they may need some outside physical resources where their own are insufficient, but they are no longer just victims. Relief service is not what was needed in New Orleans a year after Hurricane Katrina. The most helpful form of aid at that point would have been rehabilitation.

The reality is that most needs in the world fall into the third category: development. Much of the needed resources, if not all, are locally or regionally available, but they may not be immediately identifiable or accessible. If they have been identified and accessible, they may need further development to be usable. For example, bodies of water may be available, but knowledge of how to make it potable may not be. Or there may be plenty of water in aquifers in the ground, but villagers may not know it’s there or how to drill a well. There may be leaders in a community, but they have not been asked to participate.

It is common to mistake a chronic issue for a relief situation. Starvation from severe, abnormal famine is a relief issue; chronic hunger is a development issue. Giving relief resources when rehabilitation or development is most needed takes away the dignity and initiative of the local people and inhibits the development of local resources. “There is a time and place for relief—at times of disaster. But relief given at times other than a disaster, creates a disaster.”10 For more information on this subject, see the books listed in the bibliography.

What Are Some Principles/Practices for Helping That Really Help?

1. Appreciate and Acknowledge the Cultural Factors

Culture matters. It is the lens through which we see our world and those that we seek to help. It is also the lens through which they see their world, including our help. Aside from this practical consideration, we also have a biblical basis for appreciating culture. Jesus came, lived, taught, died, and rose in the context of the first-century Jewish culture. Jesus “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3), but that representation was expressed in a Jewish culture.11 The nature of God and the principles of truth that Jesus taught are true everywhere, but their application is culturally defined. One of the challenges that Paul faced as he moved across Asia Minor and into the Macedonian and Achaean provinces was how to represent Christ’s teachings to a Gentile culture.

Culture has to do with the common beliefs and behaviors of a group of people or a society expressed in its language, customs, and arts. It is born out of the people’s history and worldview. The American experience is vastly different from the rural Tanzanian or Cambodian experience. Should it be a surprise that our cultures are different? And if our cultures are very different, should it surprise us that there will be some difference in the application of the gospel in each of these cultures? If culture is so ingrained, then how can a North American missionary divorce himself or herself from his or her own culture and present the gospel in a way that is understood in another culture and then applied appropriately in that culture? That is a difficult question.

Vincent Donovan, a catholic priest, describes his struggle with that question in his book Christianity Rediscovered.12 From 1955 to 1973, as he lived and taught among the Masai tribes in Tanzania, he observed that the mission practices of the West and of his fellowship were not working. Donovan realized that he had to find a new way to bring the gospel to this illiterate, pagan people group and that the message of the gospel had to be rediscovered and communicated in ways they could understand. Each step of the way he had to evaluate how best to communicate this truth or principle in a way that would be understood in their culture. For example, cattle are the Masai’s greatest possession. Much of their life revolves around taking care of their cattle. Farmers are seen as a lesser people to the Masai. Therefore, the Bible’s message must be interpreted and understood within the context of that culture. This makes understanding the story of the first farmer, Cain, murdering the first cattleman, Able, very difficult for the Masai. In their understanding, “Cain got away with it, just as farmers do today, and always have with the government backing them.”13

Certainly, much more can be said about culture, but it would be impossible to over-emphasize the importance of a proper understanding of cultural issues. Many resources are available for studying cultural matters.14 Workers concerned about specific areas can also find significant help. For example, African Friends and Money Matters, by David Maranz, is a practical book for learning about African culture.15 Missionaries who fail to appreciate and work within the local culture will likely provide harmful help.

2. Focus on Possibilities and Available Resources, not on Needs

When we focus on people’s needs, we focus on their weaknesses. By focusing on what they lack we foster a feeling of helplessness and dependency. But focusing on what people have and what is possible creates hope, opens eyes to resources that have not been seen, and fosters a “building” mindset.

The North Atlanta Church of Christ has been supporting a church in Almaty, Kazakhstan, since 1998. In the beginning, most of the resources came from the US. After two years the decision was made to partner with another US church to send an experienced American missionary. He brought in additional missionaries from Russia (native Russians that he had discipled while living there). While that influx of outside resources could have hindered the church’s development, fortunately these missionaries taught the local church to take responsibility for itself. Although the American missionaries have returned to the US, the church has continued to grow and impact its community. For a time they employed a native Kazak as a minister, whom they paid from their local resources. Now they are developing leadership from within their young adult membership. These men and women are volunteering their time to lead new ministries to meet the needs of people inside and outside the church community.

In 2013 the North Atlanta church began to wonder if the Almaty church was strong and self-sustainable enough to move forward without external financial support. My wife and I went to Almaty and spent ten days with the church and the leadership. During that time I led them through a visioning and goal-setting process. They identified the gifts, talents, and resources of their church and community and also named their dreams for the church over the next three years. Additionally, they developed goals that would lead them toward accomplishing those dreams. Now, on their own, they have been developing the specific application of these goals, and we have partnered with them, when requested, to help them leverage their local resources. North Atlanta has begun discussions about gradually reducing support for their local working fund and saving those funds to assist a future church plant. This again is a process of building mindset, leadership, partnership, and local resources. The process has not been perfect, but there has been a strong culture of partnership from the beginning, and a shift is taking place to lean on more local resources.

3. Develop Resources through Empowering Partnerships

• Work with and develop the local resources.
• Partner with other helpers.

Some take a hard line on this issue of dependency by refusing to bring in any outside resources and requiring that all needs be addressed organically and locally. I do not believe this is reasonable or biblical. We would not treat our own children this way, and thankfully God has not treated us this way. I believe that we start with helping people discover their own resources: their talents and gifts. If we bring in our resources before they have had a chance to discover their own, they have no incentive to discover their own resources, and their resources may look inferior to our Western material abundance. Their resources will be more culturally appropriate and in the long run more powerful and effective.

But we must also recognize, as they will, that there may be limits to the resources possessed by the small family of believers in the beginning of a church plant. God owns everything, and there are always more resources in their community that God would like to make available if we ask for them and learn how to access them. American missionaries must learn how to engage their target communities and must disciple native Christians to do the same. The same is true with host country resources. If the church, in partnership with the local community, begins to have a positive impact on societal issues, the government will begin to take notice. In some cultures, this attention will result in persecution, but often times this community service results in the local community and government joining hands with the work of the church.

Finally, there are the resources of the global Christian community. We are all a part of the same kingdom of God. At MRN, we recommend that the resources of the global Christian community be provided in partnership with local resources and then only as the local resources have been developed or as needed to help develop and empower local resources. We aim to help individuals and churches see outside their box, discover their God-given resources as well as the resources of their communities, and assist them to make the plans and connections necessary to develop them. This progression of resource discovery, development, and deployment is:

• Resources of Native Christians
• Resources of Native Community
• Resources of Native Country
• Resources of Global Christians.

In summary, our goal is to partner with local Christians in discovering local solutions and local resources for local issues.

This year I had the opportunity to visit with Jacob Randiek and the Rabour Church of Christ in Migori County, Kenya. As a young man, Jacob, a native of that region, went away to a preacher training school in the capital of Nairobi. After graduation he spent several years as a missionary in Tanzania. Upon returning home, he asked himself and God what he should do. His conclusion was that he could be a missionary in his home community. So he began to teach friends and neighbors what he knew, and people began to come to Christ. A small church formed. Unmet needs surfaced. So again he asked, “What shall we do and how shall we move forward?” Instead of seeking foreign support from people he did not yet know, he trusted God to provide. One of his first disciples had experience in sugarcane farming, and the area had a good sugarcane market. So together they rented a small plot of land and began to grow a crop. God blessed their efforts, and they used profits to begin to build a small church building. As the church membership grew they realized that there were many orphans in the community who were not getting an education. So, using what they had, they started a small school. Some of the church members adopted orphans and raised them as their own. Pretty soon the community began to notice what they were doing and began to join in. And after some time the local government began to partner as well. They continued on this path of trusting God to provide, using what they had, and involving their community.Now, a number of years later, there are five churches in the area. All of them have some form of church building. There are two primary schools with over two hundred students in attendance. And now the local government is paying for some of their older students to go to the same preacher training school that Jacob attended. Local resources that had not been available, or even recognized, are being developed and applied. Is every need being met? No. Have there been struggles and will there continue to be? For sure. Could they do more and develop more resources with some outside partnerships? I believe so. But the activities and fellowship of the Christians at the Rabour Church of Christ are sustainable, they are reproducing themselves, and they have learned that they can move forward with what God provides.

4. Develop and Implement Kingdom-Centered Plans

In business, any partnership or investment should start with a good plan. Developing resources in another country for kingdom work is no different. The elements of a sound plan, listed below, are essentially the same, but how they are developed and the extent to which they are developed is dependent on the nature of the project, the level of foreign involvement, and the culture of the target country. Typically, plans are developed by Americans and delivered to the local people. This is not sustainable mission planning. The locals who will execute the plan should play a central part in developing it. Otherwise, they will lack ownership, and execution will be poor.

Here are some essential elements of a good plan:

• Start with the end in mind.
• Define the objectives and goals.
• Identify who is going to do what, when, and how.
• Ensure participants have appropriate skills.
• Define funding/budgeting.
• Favor loans over grants when development funding is needed.
• Define who is accountable.
• Plan for shared responsibility.
• Identify the expected, measurable outcomes and how they will be measured.
• Provide for local onsite oversight.
• Follow up.

5. Trust and Adjust

Remember, plans are just that—plans. A plan is not law; it is a map to a destination. Obstacles may come up along the way, and detours may be necessary. New information may be discovered, or God may reveal additional opportunities or redirect the path. Therefore we must be prepared to trust God and adjust our plans.

• Recognize that there are no quick fixes.
• Be committed for the long term.
• Make plans but adjust with God’s guidance.
• Stay open to learning as you go.
• Create opportunities to fine tune projects.

6. Keep it Simple, Affordable, Sustainable, Reproducible

Westerners are good at making plans. Some of us, like me, tend to get unnecessarily complicated. However, if we partner with the local people, stay true to the local culture, and commit to developing local resources, then kingdom projects are more likely to be simple and affordable. And if they are simple, designed and led by local leadership, and affordable in the local economy, they are more likely to be sustainable. And if they are simple, affordable, and sustainable, then they are reproducible, and the kingdom will grow. That is bringing change from the inside out.

Conclusion: So What?

Remember the eucalyptus plantations at the beginning of this article? If you are investing in serving others, planting churches, and living the great commission, then ask yourself a question: “What kind of investment do I want to make?” One that grows fast from the input of many “foreign” resources and makes a lot of quick return for you, but then withers away when you have tired of investing? Or would you rather invest in something that is more natural and native and continues to grow for generations regardless of your future involvement? When I was charged with making financial returns for my timberland investment clients, intensive management and quick returns were good. But now I am investing for God, for the growth of his kingdom, for eternal returns. I want to invest in work that will last beyond me. How about you?

Does any of this ring true to you? Have I shed any light to the questions that I raised in the beginning? Have I sparked any new ideas about how to do missions more effectively, more sustainability? Did this article make you want to dig deeper? I hope you can answer “yes” to some of these concluding questions. I hope that you will dig deeper, and if you do I would love to hear about what you find.

Greg lives in Norcross, Georgia, with his wife Suzy but works for Missions Resource Network (MRN) headquartered in Bedford, Texas. In his role at MRN as Facilitator for Sustainable Missions he promotes resource sustainability across MRN’s global footprint, promoting the development of local resources for funding of local ministries. Before coming to MRN, Greg had a thirty-four-year career in forestry involving work with state government and commercial banks. He has been involved in international missions since 1992. During that time, he participated in fourteen short-term mission trips to Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Mexico, Guyana, and Kenya. He is passionate about developing people and organizations that incorporate godly principles to produce sustainable results for the kingdom of God. Greg can be reached at greg.williams@mrnet.org.

Bibliography

Corbett, Steve, and Brian Fikkert. When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself. 2nd ed. Chicago: Moody, 2012.

Donovan, Vincent J. Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1978.

Johnson, Jean. We Are not the Hero: A Missionary’s Guide for Sharing Christ, not a Culture of Dependency. Sisters, Oregon: Deep River Books, 2012.

Lederleitner, Mary T. Cross-Cultural Partnerships: Navigating the Complexities of Money and Mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2010.

Lupton, Robert D. Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and How to Reverse It). New York: HarperOne, 2011.

Maranz, David. African Friends and Money Matters: Observations from Africa. Publications in Ethnography 37. Dallas: SIL International, 2001.

Myers, Bryant L. Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. Rev. and exp. ed. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2011.

Rogers, Glenn. The Role of Worldview in Missions and Multiethnic Ministry. N.p.: Mission and Ministry Resources, 2002).

The article overviews a fifteen-year partnership between a Ghanaian and a North American congregation. The reflection provides a model for partnership based upon a structured proposal and considers five lessons learned from the experience.

The evangelistic partnership between the Nsawam Road church in Accra, Ghana, and the North Boulevard church in Murfreesboro, TN, emerged when several components converged. First, in the 1990s, workers in Ivory Coast had developed a number of contacts in Bamako, the capital of Mali, Africa, through French Bible correspondence courses and visits. Sustained follow-up was needed. Second, at the 1999 World Missions Workshop hosted by Oklahoma Christian University, Doyle Kee, long a worker in French-speaking Europe and beyond, approached me looking for a good church to take the lead in evangelizing in Mali. He suggested supporting three West African preachers at a school-teacher’s wage and furnishing each a motorbike for transportation. Third, most seasoned missionaries and readers of missionary research are aware of the numerous risks involved in direct financial support from one country to national workers in another country, so an alternative arrangement was sought. Surely some way existed for North American churches to steward their wealth so that it helps the kingdom rather than harms it. Fourth, by that time I had met Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah and learned something about the Nsawam Road church (approximately 1,400 members with impressive elders) in Accra, Ghana, and its history of sending out missionaries both nationally and in neighboring English-speaking countries. Fifth, this led to my developing a proposal that involved a North American church’s financial and spiritual support with the management or shepherding of the work by a West African church.

The Proposal

Samuel Twumasi felt the Nsawam Road (NR) elders would give serious consideration to working in a French-speaking, predominately Muslim country. With that in mind, I wrote up a proposal for the initial consideration of Samuel and the North Boulevard (NB) missions committee. Since the proposal was favorably received, slight alterations were made, and it was sent to the elders of the Nsawam Road church. Initially, the proposal assumed in principle that Nsawam Road should provide partial financial support, but when the proposal was made the Accra congregation was already fully committed to various ministries: evangelizing, helping refugees from Liberia, liaison with the government for water well drilling, and so forth. As developed, therefore, the proposal stated that North Boulevard would provide

all of the financial support, part of the prayer support, and limited personal contact with the Nsawam Road church; and that the Nsawam Road church select the appropriate personnel, decide on a just financial support level for the evangelists and their families, administer any working funds, supervise and evaluate the workers, and eventually bring the work to a conclusion.1

The proposal had focus:

We have in mind the financial support of these workers until such time as they establish several growing churches which can take up their support. In other words, we do not have in mind to continue support of the evangelists and their families unless they and we (NB and NR churches) agree upon their going to new territories to repeat the same process. It is not our intention, because we feel it unhealthy, for new churches to have someone at a distance provide support for preachers (like Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah, your preacher) for their work with churches large enough to provide their support.2

The intention was to teach churches from the beginning to accept financial responsibility as a part of their development.

The proposal also included the use of a working agreement or ministry covenant between Nsawam Road and the workers, spelling out precisely what they were to undertake in the initial stages of their work. A similar agreement was to exist between North Boulevard and Nsawam Road for the sake of clarity and understanding.

Worker Selection and Initial Work

The NR elders accepted the three families proposed by Doyle Kee and brought them to Accra to establish relationships. Those families spoke French and came from three different countries: Benin, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. Two of the families had attended the same Bible training school. Their assignment was to work as a team for evangelization and church planting in the capital city.

Contacts for study were easily made, even among Muslims, and all three evangelists seemed to be competent in teaching. It did not work out, however, for the three families to live in the same large living quarters. There were too many differences, some cultural and some personal. Besides, serious efforts had not been made in team-building among the three families. Africans, like many North Americans, do not easily and automatically become life-sharing teams, especially when they come from different tribes.3 Because Bamako’s nearly two million inhabitants populated a large area and its public transportation was poor, the evangelists decided to have two assemblies and divide their work geographically. That decision further hampered a team effort, but conversions to Christ continued. Bamako was being evangelized. Peter Ofori of Ghana began a radio broadcast with World Radio, a work that continues.

In time, the group noticed that many of their contacts were located in Kati on the outskirts of Bamako. It was a developing area that seemed to hold great promise. Thus, one of the evangelists decided to move there to work. It was not a group decision, but the NR elders approved it after considering the situation. It proved to be a good move, and the congregation has grown both numerically and structurally. Several conversions were realized, and among them were several siblings who had good jobs with entities like the United Nations and local businesses. People with leadership potential became believers.

While the three evangelists knew their financial support was coming from a North American church (deposited into a Mali bank account), they had to learn that the administration and direction of the work was to come from Accra. Time and again, the workers had to be told to discuss matters with the Nsawam Road elders. Having that arrangement prevented many of the classic blunders in cross-cultural relationships between foreign supporters and national workers.4

One evangelist had to be sent back to his home country because of morals and money problems. The problem was discussed in Mali when representatives from both churches met for a scheduled evaluation. Subsequently, the NR elders brought the brother down to Ghana, spent several days with him, and eventually decided he was not ready for that work. NB was happy for NR to handle the matter, and they did so with wisdom and justice superior to what any congregation in North America could have done.

The work undertaken by this partnership has been going about fifteen years (2000–2015). The relationships between the partnering congregations have been pleasant and fruitful, even though at times they had different perspectives. According to the initial proposal/agreement, representatives from both churches jointly engaged in evaluations of the work and revised “job descriptions.” Currently, there are six congregations in and around Bamako that are maturing in an encouraging manner—happy results in a predominately Muslim country. Additional workers have moved in to help. A Congolese family works with 200 children in five villages on one afternoon per week. A new worker from Ghana is now teaching rhetoric in English (for translators) on Saturdays at a local University, using the Bible and other works with about 40 graduate students who are Muslims.

Perspectives

What have the two churches learned about partnership in global evangelizing?

1. This has been a fruitful partnership. The six congregations are growing, though at different levels; the numerical growth varies and the nature of the members varies with the location of the work. Conversions to Christ continue. An encouraging number of members are maturing in their faith and developing into leaders.
2. Such a partnership as this is possible only when the supervising/shepherding church is strong and mature enough to carry out the responsibilities. While it is desirable and necessary to evangelize broadly and plant many small churches in new territory, it is also important to develop a few churches with sufficient size and maturity to carry out different levels of ministry, as in a partnering arrangement. NR already had considerable experience in sending out workers and supervising them in other countries.
3. In retrospect, both partnering churches agree that it would have been desirable for Nsawam Road to select its own workers or spend more time with the workers selected by someone else. Clearly, more time needed to be spent in team building since that likely would have forestalled some of the relationship problems between workers and unhealthy individualism. North Americans need to recognize the culturally conditioned tribal and national differences among Africans. Those differences often can be managed constructively through Christian commitments, sensitivity, and good communications; they will be ignored to the peril of the work.
4. One evangelist had to be dismissed and eventually sent back to his home country. The NR elders handled that in a manner superior to anything that could have been done by a church several thousand miles away in a very different culture. The African elders prudently exercised disciplinary action while affirming the worth and potential of the disciplined evangelist.
5. Partnering as described here involves cross-cultural church relationships. The NR church had previously attempted a partnership with another Western church that backed out of the arrangement, so NR was understandably cautious. Good front-end agreements and good on-going communications are vital when churches from different cultures partner in work. It is important to listen to each other’s perspectives, since both sides have strengths.

All in all, this has been a fruitful partnership. The participating representatives from both churches have enjoyed each other’s fellowship, especially as they engaged in evaluations and planning for the ongoing work. Variations on this partnership arrangement would seem promising in many parts of the world.

C. Philip Slate is a missions consultant for Churches of Christ worldwide and an adjunct teacher at Harding School of Theology. He holds a DMiss from Fuller Theological Seminary and has authored and co-authored numerous popular and scholarly works. Dr. Slate was a missionary in Great Britain for over a decade. He has also served as the dean of Harding School of Theology and subsequently as chair of the department of missions at Abilene Christian University.

Bibliography

Bonk, Jonathan J. Missions and Money: Affluence as a Western Missionary Problem . . . Revisited. Rev. and exp. ed. American Society of Missiology Series 15. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2007.

Missions Resource Network. “Resources and Suggested Reading.” http://mrnet.org/library.

Slate, C. Philip. “Proposal for Partnership between North Boulevard and Nsawam Road Churches.” Working paper, North Boulevard Church of Christ, Murfreesboro, TN, 2000.

Missionaries need ongoing care and counsel as they face the myriad of challenges posed by living in a cross-cultural context. Reactionary models of care have proven insufficient. How then do we care for those who serve overseas? What methods and means are most effective? This article explores these issues and presents alternative ways to provide holistic care to missionaries.

“I am done.” John uttered these three words over the phone resignedly, his voice thick with emotion. In the middle of his first term overseas, John’s world was coming apart around him. He felt hopeless, exhausted, and burned out. These three words run through every missionary’s mind at some point. These three words can break a person, fragment a team, divide a marriage, stymie a church-planting movement, or cause a family to leave the field completely. The silence that hung between us over the phone was palpable. Was it too late for John? How should I respond? Could his situation be salvaged?

Missionary care is an area of increasing concern among churches and sending agencies. The prevalence of burnout, depression, culture stress, feelings of isolation, and chronic anxiety among missionaries is a disturbing trend—one that demands our attention. While many churches and agencies require the missionaries they send to the field to undergo extensive screening, training, and education prior to departure, these issues continue to be a perennial element of the missionary experience. Why? Are our efforts to prepare missionaries inadequate? Are we failing to maintain sufficient support and care while they are on the field? When these issues surface, do we not respond in an expedient and effective manner? Are these issues unavoidable, something every missionary must endure with clenched fists and gritted teeth?

This article explores the adequacy, accessibility, and timing of missionary care services that churches and sending agencies provide. The methodological framework for this conversation will be the description of two specific case studies, including the engagement of these cases through critical reflection. It is my hope that this article facilitate discussion of these issues among those on the front lines of missionary care in churches and sending agencies.

In preparation for this article, I interviewed Jeff Holland, who has served as Missionary Care Counselor for Pioneer Bible Translators since 2008. He has a positive appraisal of the recent trends he sees in the area of missionary care: “In recent years, far fewer people are coming [to me] in a state of crisis, but because they have a safe place to come.” Jeff attributes this trend to more intentional efforts to maintain regular communication with missionaries on the field. Of course, those crisis moments still come. When I asked Jeff what his usual response was to people who come to him in a state of crisis in their first term, he said: “I help them understand that this is common. I tell them that everything they are feeling is valid but likely to change given time.” Jeff sees the role of the counselor or missionary care provider as walking alongside people, listening, praying, giving advice, and providing helpful resources.

The following cases provide examples of two missionary families. These examples are adapted from real-life situations, with names changed for confidentiality.

Case #1: Internal Bleeding

The Jones family’s first term on the field was disastrous. After years of prayer, planning, fundraising, team training, language learning, and other preparations, they departed for the field excited but daunted at the prospect of joining a team already in place in this particular field. The day after they arrived, they had their first team meeting, in which they learned of a deep, underlying conflict with missionaries from a partner agency who were working in the same area. This conflict had been kept from them intentionally in order to shield them from additional stress as they made preparations to enter the mission field. The nature of this conflict had become so severe that the partnership between these teams was in serious jeopardy. This wasn’t quite how they imagined their first day on the field.

The ensuing months were replete with struggles, trials, and disappointments. Tensions continued to escalate with the missionaries from the sister agency, resulting in the eventual dissolution of the partnership. Friction arose from within their own team over various issues: methodology, division of labor, how to proceed in light of the failed partnership, and so forth. The nationals seemed to resent their presence and, when they did express interest in them, it was for financial assistance, food, or some other form of tangible help. Their children were struggling with their educational needs. Relational drift began to creep into their marriage. They began to feel homesick.

The convergence of these factors led to a crisis moment on their journey. They questioned their call to missions, their sense of purpose, and God’s activity in their lives. They felt their commitment to this work slipping away. They began to despise the host country and resent the persistent requests of the nationals. In light of this, they decided it was time to call it quits. They contacted the staff person assigned to them in their agency’s missionary care department for a Skype call. They weren’t reaching out to ask for help or to seek advice—they were notifying their agency of their intent to resign. They were ready to come home. They were done.

That Skype session was two years ago. This family no longer serves in missions. They now have jobs in the marketplace and no longer attend church. They do not maintain any contact with their sending agency or former teammates.

Case #2: Bandaged Wounds

The Smith family enjoyed the first several months of their initial term overseas. Their entry into the host culture went relatively smoothly. Their relationship with their teammates was strong and their engagement with the nationals was beginning to show signs of increased trust and credibility. There were certainly the usual bumps and adjustments, but they were pleased with the way things were proceeding.

About seven months into their term, John’s parents (who had been opposed to their decision to move overseas from the outset) began to put pressure on them to return to the United States. Phrases like “We need you here” and “We don’t want to miss our grandchildren growing up” became common in their conversations. Coupled with this, Mary had begun to struggle with depression, which had plagued her in previous seasons of her life. She felt her capability to homeschool the children diminishing and she withdrew into herself, becoming increasingly isolated and emotionally unavailable to her family. Then, their sole teammates found out that their home congregation would no longer be funding their ministry beyond the end of the year. John felt that things were unraveling around him.

The next few months continued the downward spiral. John’s parents were furious that they would not be seeing their grandchildren for Christmas and had virtually issued an ultimatum for them to return for the holidays. Mary’s depression became more severe, leaving John to pick up more of the domestic duties and homeschooling. Their teammates were consumed with their impending exit plans and strategy for procuring new funding or an entirely different job. As a result of these developments, the work itself had begun to suffer. Relationships with the nationals were starting to become distant due to lack of engagement.

The recent months had taken their toll on John’s emotional health. He felt hopeless. He was in a state of despair regarding the future of their work. John and Mary had been talking about these issues to some degree with their staff counselor during their regular monthly phone calls, but during this particular session things reached critical mass. When the counselor’s voice came over the line, they laid it all out for her—their frustration, their disappointment, their anxiety. Through tearful and painful moments, they peeled back the tender layers of ache surrounding their hearts. They confessed that they wanted to quit—to return home and leave all this behind. They were done.

After listening intently, the counselor urged them not to make any decisions about their future while in this state of mind. She prayed with them and gave them the name of a book she thought would be helpful. She suggested to them that some more focused care and counsel could do wonders, so she scheduled them for weekly phone calls for the indefinite future. As a last resort, she mentioned that the agency could purchase plane tickets home for their entire family out of an emergency fund from the missionary care budget. However, the counselor offered an admonition that research shows that those who leave the field early in their work to manage a crisis are less likely to return than those who complete their term while working through these issues. Taking her words to heart, the Smiths invested themselves fully into the additional counseling and were able to persevere through the healing process.

That phone call was six years ago. This family is still on the mission field, serving in the same country with the same teammates (who eventually found new sources of funding). Not only did this family persevere through these trials and “make it,” they are now active in mentoring and helping new, young missionaries through similar seasons in their own journeys. They are serving today as “wounded healers” who tend to the hurts of others out of their own experiences.

Teaching Exercise

For those involved in an academic or other professional context related to missions, I am including the following exercise as a way to facilitate further discussion of this topic. It is my hope that these cases be instructive and create evaluative dialogue within churches and sending agencies related to their missionary care strategies and protocols.

Objectives

• Students will analyze the nature of missionary care.
• Students will discuss the effectiveness of various missionary care practices.
• Students will consider the benefits and challenges of missionary care.
• Students will reflect on how issues raised in these cases intersect with their own experiences.

Instructions

Read both cases carefully. In groups of 4–6, have students filter each case separately through the following reflection questions.

Reflection Questions

• What stands out to you most about the Jones/Smith family’s situation?
• Were certain aspects of this situation preventable? If so, how?
• How do you characterize the behavior of the Jones/Smith family? What could they have done differently?
• How do you characterize the response of the sending agency? What organizational values does their response indicate?
• What lessons in missionary care does this case illuminate?
• What elements of this case connect with you and your current situation?

Conclusion

Stress, problems, tension, and disappointment should be expected parts of missionary life. How one deals with such issues is paramount to one’s success and longevity on the mission field. Reactionary models of missionary care are doomed to fail because, when problems are allowed to fester, help is usually sought after it is too late. When both missionaries and those who have sent them engage in a proactive process of preventive care involving regular communication, field visits, spiritual retreats, and other creative strategies, the ability to navigate the turbulence of missionary life is increased significantly. May all involved in the task and privilege of missions take stock of both their own self-care and the missionary care model of their agency or church. These issues are critical and warrant our careful reflection.

Recommended Resources

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life in Christ, by Peter Scazzero.

Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World, edited by Kelly O’Donnell.

The Reentry Team: Caring for Your Returning Missionaries, by Neal Pirolo.

Jeremy Harrison has served with Pioneer Bible Translators since 2013, coordinating translation projects among immigrants and projects involving a digital platform. His overseas travels have taken him to 10 countries, including Thailand, Hungary, Kenya, and Tanzania. He holds degrees from Abilene Christian University. He and his wife, Holly, live in Dallas and have two children. He can be contacted at jeremy.harrison@pbti.org.

Introduction

“Missionary care is simply the application of the biblical ‘one-another’ concepts to the context of missionary life.”1 In Churches of Christ, missionary care is the responsibility of the stewarding and supporting churches.2 Care means that the church will provide, as much as it is able, the things that would allow its missionary the necessary tools, education, training, and equipping that would make him or her an effective disciple maker in rigorous cross-cultural works.3 Missionary care is ongoing. It begins pre-field with the commitment of a church to support a missionary and continues through reentry and/or retirement post-field. Ideally care will be provided for every supported missionary or missionary family—and sometimes for other individuals or families on a team, or often even for converts. The purpose of care is to develop resilience, skills, and virtue, which are the means to helping missionaries stay healthy and effective in their work. Care involves both developing inner resources (such as perseverance and stress tolerance) and providing external resources (such as team building, logistical support, and skill training).4 Missionary care allows missionaries to remain on the field long-term and to fulfill the purpose for their going: to complete the task of the Great Commission so that every tribe, every people, ever tongue, and every race may learn the good news of Christ.

Missionary care resources can be organized roughly according to four domains: pre-field, on-field, home-assignment (furlough), and post-field care. Naturally, many resources address more than one of these. Organizations that specialize in various dimensions of missionary care are therefore the best place to begin.

Organizations Offering Multiple Resources

Missions Resource Network (http://mrnet.org) in Bedford, Texas

• Pre-field resources
• Assessment and training for missionaries
• Workshops on missionary care entitled “Offering Your Best to Your Missionaries”
• On-field resources
• Short term help, resources, and referrals for missionaries
• Parents of Missionaries Workshops
• Home-assignment resources
• Renewals for furloughing missionaries (in collaboration with Great Cities Missions)
• Post-field resources
• Renewals for returning missionaries (in collaboration with Great Cities Missions)
• Individualized debriefing
• Reentry Workshop, for stewarding and supporting churches
• Weekend retreats for adult third culture kids/adult missionary kids
• Publications
• Online articles, links, and videos
• A monthly newsletter, The Messenger

Great Cities Missions (http://greatcities.org) in Addison, Texas (for missionaries desiring to work in the Latin world)

• Pre-field resources
• Assessment and training
• On-field resources
• “Continent Care Connection,” renewals for South American, Middle American and Mexican missionaries and national workers, both men and women, on alternate years in October in Brazil
• Home-assignment resources
• Renewals for furloughing missionaries (in collaboration with Missions Resource Network)

Mission Training International (https://mti.org) in Palmer Lake, Colorado

• Pre-field resources
• A four-week program that includes training in cross-cultural personal skills, how to learn a new language, interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
• Children and adolescents have a comparable program designed just for them.5
• Post-field resources
• A reentry retreat for returned missionaries
• Debriefing for children and adolescents
• Publications
• Missionary care texts can be purchased on the website

InterMission Ministry (http://intermissionministry.org) in Edmond, Oklahoma

• On-field resources
• InterNational InterMission, an annual renewal event held in various countries
• Post-field resources
• ReEntry InterMission, two-day sessions that help returning missionaries adjust to the United States
• Global Reunion, a camp for 13- to 20-year-old third culture kids on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University, designed to facilitate family unity and bonding, including sessions for the parents and younger siblings of campers.

In addition to the resources and recommendations these organizations can provide, a variety of others deserve mention.

Pre-Field Care Resources

The provision of spiritual and psychological assessment, along with missions training, is the fundamental component of pre-field care.

• The Christian universities affiliated with Churches of Christ that offer missions courses or degrees also provide opportunities for foreign internships.
• Abilene Christian University (http://acu.edu/academics/cbs/centers-services/him/WWW/index.html)
• Harding University (http://harding.edu/cwm/internships)
• Harding School of Theology (http://hst.edu/programs/apprenticeship)
• Lipscomb University (http://lipscomb.edu/missions/mission-teams)
• Oklahoma Christian University (http://oc.edu/spiritual-life/center-for-global-missions/internships)
• Sunset International Biblical Institute (http://sibi.cc) in Lubbock, Texas, offers mission courses and assessment.
• Fort Sherman Academy (http://fortsherman.org) in Pinehurst, Idaho, offers critical incident training (avoiding and/or dealing with hostage-taking, confinement, and terrorism).6

On-Field Care Resources

Missionary Self-Care and Mutual Care

Self-care is the basic ingredient of well-being and longevity. Missionaries should especially take care of themselves spiritually.

• Spiritual Growth Reading List compiled by Scott E. Shaum (http://ethne.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Feb-2010-Issue.pdf)

Missionaries should stay informed about the political situation in their location and always register with their embassy.

• US citizens, for example, should use the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program: A Service of the Bureau of Consular Affairs (https://step.state.gov/step)

Other services can also help churches and missionaries stay informed about possible violence that might require evacuation. Daily reports can be obtained from sites such as:

• OSAC (https://osac.gov/pages/NewsLetter.aspx)
• Thomson Reuters Foundation (http://trust.org)

On-Field Renewals

• Come before Winter Renewals (http://comebeforewinter.org/renewals) offer missionary women and national workers who speak English two women’s renewals a year in different locations throughout the world.
• At Thrive: Empowering Global Women (http://thriveministry.org/retreats/our-retreats), “women are ministered to holistically—spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Our retreats provide a safe place for women to be themselves and share their unique challenges outside of their church and agency.”

Resources Available Worldwide

• OSCAR: The UK Information Service for World Mission’s “logistics” page (http://oscar.org.uk/opportunity/locations/logistics.htm) lists opportunities for missionaries to stay and be refreshed at reduced costs.
• Narramore Christian Foundation’s “Missionary Psychological Services” page (http://ncfliving.org/index_missionary.php) lists links to on-field short term counseling resources for missionaries in crisis. Clinics are located in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Children’s Education Options

A number of sites provide explanations of primary and secondary education options for missionary children.

• A2Z Home’s Cool’s “Expatriates – Homeschooling Abroad” page (http://a2zhomeschooling.com/concerns_homeschooling/homeschooling_abroad_expatriates)
• International Society of Missionary Kids’s “MK Schools” page (http://ismk.org/mk-parents/schooling/mk-schools.html)
• Ask a Missionary’s “If we move overseas, what can we do about our children’s education?” page (http://askamissionary.com/question/74)

One recognized option for online secondary schooling is:

• University of Nebraska High School (http://highschool.nebraska.edu)

For study at the university level without earning credit, free online college courses are available.

• Two leading platforms are:
• edX (http://edx.org)
• Coursera (http://coursera.org).
• Education Portal’s “Colleges and Universities that Offer Free Courses Online” page offers additional options (http://education-portal.com/articles/Colleges_and_Universities_that_Offer_Free_Courses_Online.html)

Home Assignment Care Resources

Retreat Locations

Various organizations offer missionaries retreats at little to no cost. These are times of spiritual refreshment rather than just vacation, but missionaries, with permission from the sponsoring organization, may choose to participate in extracurricular activities.

• Missionarycare.com lists five “Free Retreats for Missionaries” (http://missionarycare.com/links.htm)
• Mission to Missionaries (http://missiontm.org) serves missionaries through EdenRidge, a beautiful and affordable “missonary-focused retreat and vacation destination” located near Crossville, Tennessee.
• The Mission House (https://facebook.com/pages/The-Mission-House/202893763228825) is a two-bedroom house on the west side of Fort Worth that is offered to missionaries at highly competitive rates (as low as $7 per day) for up to 30 days per visit.
• A unique retreat option in Comfort, Texas, Haven River Inn (http://havenriverinn.com/ministry.html) offers special rates for ministers in addition to hosting retreats hosted by Lamb’s Tale Ministries (http://lambstale.org/retreats.html).

Residential Counseling Programs

• Link Care (http://linkcare.org) in Fresno, California, offers specialized Christian professional care for missionaries, including individual therapy, family therapy, pastoral counseling, as well as training and reentry debriefing.
• Marble Retreat (http://marbleretreat.org) in Marble, Colorado, is in an interdenominational Christian Counseling Center. Their eight-day program of individual and group counseling is led by professional counselors.
• Alongside (http://alongsidecares.net) in Richland, Michigan, offers retreats led by a caring team of licensed professionals who bring years of practical ministry experience to their work.
• Heart Stream (http://heartstreamresources.org) in Liverpool, Pennsylvania, offers licensed Christian counseling to missionaries and programs of restoration.

Post-Field Missionary Care Resources

MK Reentry Retreats

• Mu Kappa International (http://mukappa.org) “exists to encourage missionary kids, multi-cultural, and international students in their cross-cultural transitions to foster meaningful relationships with God, family, and others.”
• Interaction International (http://interactionintl.org/transition.asp) is “a catalyst and a resource working cooperatively in the development of programs, services and publications to provide and contribute to an ongoing flow of care that meets the needs of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and internationally mobile families.” Interaction offers Transition Seminars for missionary kids.

Recommended Missionary Care Websites

Missionary Care Resources

• Baptist Missionary Association of America, “Missionary Care Resources” (http://bmamissions.org/missionaryresources)
• Global Member Care, “Links” (http://globalmembercare.com/index.php?id=42)
• Global Member Care, “Newsletters” (http://globalmembercare.com/index.php?id=57)
• Member Care Associates, Inc. (http://membercareassociates.org)
• Missionary Care (http://missionarycare.com)
• Paracletos (http://paracletos.org)
• Pastoral Care for Missionaries, “Missionary Care Resources” (http://pastoralcareformissionaries.org/missionary-care-resources.html)
• Send International, “Web Links: Missionary Care Resource Websites” (http://send.org/resources/web-links-missionary-care-resource-websites)
• WEA Resources (http://worldevangelicals.org/resources)
• World Christian Resources Directory, “Missionary Care Resources” (http://missionresources.com/missionarycare.html)

Missionary Kids

• Michèle Phoenix (http://michelephoenix.com)
• Daraja (http://daraja.us)

Facebook Groups

• Parents of Missionaries (https://facebook.com/groups/parentsofmissionaries)
• MK Care Net (https://facebook.com/groups/MKCareNet)
• Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but TCKs…Mt. 8:20 (https://facebook.com/groups/17662020339)
• Missions Leader’s Hub (https://facebook.com/groups/MissionsLeaders)

Appendix

An Abbreviated List of Counseling Resources Associated with Churches of Christ for Missionaries and Their Stewarding Churches in the United States

Stephen Allison, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Associate Professor and Director of the Robert and Mary Ann Hall Chair of Psychology and Intercultural Studies, Abilene Christian University; Abilene, Texas (allisons@acu.edu)

Dan Altman, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Private practice; Fort Worth, Texas (danielaltman@hotmail.com)

Clifton E. Davis, EdD – Clinical Psychologist

• Private practice; Dallas, Texas (dr.cdavis@therapistservices.com)

Mark DeYoung, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Specialty is cross-cultural, cross-racial adoption; Fort Worth, Texas (drmark@deyoungconsulting.com)

Mark Gomez, MEd – Licensed Professional Counselor

• Counselor trained in trauma debriefing, Rapha; Irving, Texas (mgomez@rapha.info)

Dale Hawley, PhD – Marriage and Family Therapist

• Associate Director for Missionary Care, Missions Resource Network; Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, University of Wisconsin-Stout; Menomonie, Wisconsin (dale.hawley@mrnet.org)

Cathy Hernbeck, MS – Licensed Psychological Examiner

• Brentwood, Tennessee (cathyhernbeck@bellsouth.net)

Jeff Holland, MS – Marriage and Family Therapist

• Ten-year veteran missionary in Togo, West Africa; Marriage and Family Therapist, Pioneer Bible Translators; Dallas, Texas (jeff.holland@pbti.org)

Kenneth Hobby, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Associate Professor of Psychology, Harding University; Searcy, Arkansas (khobby@harding.edu)

Rebecca K. Holton, PhD – Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor; Mental Health Practitioner

• Director for Missionary Care, Great Cities Missions; Addison, Texas (bholton@greatcities.org)

Chris Johnson, MS – Licensed Professional Counselor

• Director of Missionary Care, Adventures in Missions, Sunset Church of Christ; Lubbock, Texas (Mexico4Jesus@hotmail.com)

Gordon MacKinnon, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Professor of Psychology; Chair, Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences; Clinical Director, Psychology and Counseling Center, Rochester College; Rochester Hills, Michigan (gmackinnon@rc.edu)

David McAnulty, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Associate Professor of Psychology, Abilene Christian University; Abilene, Texas (david.mcanulty@acu.edu)

Tom Moore, PhD – Marriage and Family Therapist

• Airline Church of Christ; Benton, Louisiana (ntmooremft@bellsouth.net)

Mike Parker, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Anchor Point Psychological Services; Little Rock, Arkansas (http://anchorpoint.net)

Eddie Parish, PhD – Marriage and Family Therapist

• The Parish Hermitage; St. Amant, Louisiana (phermitage2@gmail.com)

Dorris Schulz, PhD – Marriage and Family Therapist; Professional Counselor; Mental Health Practitioner

• Director for Missionary Care, Missions Resource Network; Bedford, Texas (dottie.schulz@mrnet.org)

Vann Rackley, PhD – Marriage and Family Therapist

• Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Harding University; Searcy, Arkansas (rackley@harding.edu)

Marilyn Stinson, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Private Practice; Arlington, Texas (marilyn.stinson@gmail.com)

Brian Stogner, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Professor of Psychology and Executive Director, Health and Behavioral Sciences Institute, Rochester College, Rochester Hills, Michigan (bstogner@rc.edu)

Ben Walker, MS – Licensed Professional Counselor

• Private Practice, Lubbock, Texas (806-798-8855)

Gary Walker, PhD – Clinical Psychologist

• Private Practice, Lubbock, Texas (806-798-8855)

Dottie Schulz is Director for Missionary Care at Missions Resource Network. She served with her late husband, Tom, as a missionary in Amsterdam from 1962 to 1971 and 1972 to 1977. Dottie earned her MS in Human Development and the Family and her PhD in Community and Human Resources, both from the University of Nebraska. Her dissertation was on missionary reentry. She holds licensure from the State of Nebraska Department of Health as a Licensed Mental Health Practitioner, Certified Professional Counselor, and Certified Marriage and Family Therapist. Dottie has worked as adjunct faculty in the Department of Human Development and the Family at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and served as Assessment Director of the Human Resources Management Program at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, where she was also Associate Professor of Family Therapy and Human Services/Psychology. Dottie had worked at York College in York, Nebraska, before earning her doctorate and returned there in 1991, where she was Professor of Psychology and Family Studies and Director of the Cornhusker Center for Human Development until coming to Missions Resource Network in 2004.

Missionary care (often known as member care) has come into its own in the evangelical world over the past 40 years. Although there were some writings in the 1970s, in the 1980s missionary care began to flourish. A series of international conferences on missionary kids (held in Manila, Quito, and Nairobi) brought people from different sending groups together to discuss common efforts in caring for missionaries. A conference on mental health and missions was established (and is still meeting) in Angola, Indiana, and two special issues of the Journal of Psychology and Theology were devoted to the topic. A literature began to emerge highlighting the emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of missionaries.

This literature can be divided into two streams. One stream is intended to educate missionaries on challenges inherent in their chosen path. Books and articles focused on a wide array of issues such as cultural adjustment, spiritual development, missionary families and kids, mental health concerns, and reentry speak directly to missionaries regarding their experiences, generally offering suggestions about how to manage transitions more easily. A second stream is geared toward missionary care specialists, many of whom have a background in mental health, pastoral care, and education. These writings generally emphasize understanding the experience of missionaries from a meta-level and tend to focus on assessment, training, and intervention.

Although this area of study has been around for close to four decades, research on missionary care is relatively sparse. The MK-CART/CORE study and the Reducing Missionary Attrition Project are two examples of large-scale studies, but these are the exceptions rather than the rule.1 I conducted an extensive review of research and discovered that a large portion of the studies were theses and dissertations and that ongoing research threads were virtually nonexistent.2 An examination of the PsychInfo database of publications in this area since my review suggests this trend has continued, although more articles on various aspects of missionary care have surfaced and there appears to be a burgeoning thread on treatment outcomes. However, it is fair to say that the emphasis in the missionary care literature has been on direct care and not on research.

Even if empirical work on missionary care has been sparse, there has not been a shortage of publications devoted to the topic in either stream of this literature. The amount of information available to missionaries and their caregivers is plentiful and has markedly increased with the advent of blogs and websites in recent years. Two examples of this are Missionary Care (http://missionarycare.com) and the Global Member Care Network (http://globalmembercare.org). The former is a website maintained by Ron and Bonnie Koteskey intended for missionaries and containing brief, pragmatic overviews of a wide variety of issues ranging from marriage to mental health. The latter is a website sponsored by the World Evangelical Alliance that serves as a resource clearinghouse for missionary care specialists. In addition to providing links to resources on a variety of issues, this network hosts an international conference for those working with missionaries. These websites are simply the tip of the iceberg; missionary care has become a topic of great interest and there is no reason to believe this trend will shift any time soon.

Clearly, an exhaustive annotated bibliography is beyond the scope of this article. Rather, I have attempted to identify several key sources from each stream of this literature. To help me with this endeavor, I enlisted the help of several missionary care specialists.3 I asked each for recommendations of resources they have found particularly useful in their work with missionaries. The following lists reflects their suggestions combined with my own. To narrow the scope, I have limited annotated sources to books. This by no means implies there are not useful journal articles and dissertations on this subject, but these may be less accessible for many readers of this article. In addition, I have largely included books that focus on missionaries rather than expats in general. There is a substantial literature focused on other sectors of the expatriate community (military, civil servants, corporations, etc.), and there are a number of similarities between their experiences and those of missionaries. However, the lives of missionaries are unique in many other ways and the applicability of more general sources is often limited. I have included a few sources that are not specifically aimed at missionaries because they are frequently recommended but most of the sources below focus solely on missionaries.

Books for Missionary Care Specialists

Andrews, Leslie A., ed. The Family in Mission: Understanding and Caring for Those Who Serve. Colorado Springs: Mission Training International, 2004.

This volume unpacks the most ambitious research on missionary life to date. It describes three large studies conducted by MK-CART/CORE, a coalition of researchers from several sending groups, over a fifteen-year period. The first was a study of boarding schools that sought to identify characteristics of personnel and families associated with success. A second study looked at adult missionary kids (MKs), focusing on their adjustment to adulthood. The third research effort studied missionary families, in particular their levels of family, spiritual, and vocational satisfaction as well as spousal dynamics. Overall, these studies found the experience of missionaries to be generally positive. In addition to identifying key results from the researchers, this book includes chapters from missionary care specialists that seek to apply the findings in ways that are helpful in ministering to missionaries.

Bowers, Joyce M., ed. Raising Resilient MKs: Resources for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers. Colorado Springs: Association of Christian Schools International, 1998.

A critical influence in the development of missionary care as a field has been international Christian schools. In past generations sending children to boarding schools was a more common experience than it is today, but even without the room-and-board component Christian schools offer an important option for parents who are looking for overseas educational alternatives. This book is a followup to the international conferences on missionary kids held in the 1980s. Like many books in this literature stream, it is an edited volume that draws on many authors who have contributed chapters. The early sections of the book focus on the experiences of MKs and missionary families. It highlights advantages of growing up overseas and focuses on transitions (including reentry) MKs often experience. The latter sections of the book are devoted to educational issues such as curriculum, language learning, and administrative and staff issues. Readers not associated with an educational institution may not find this section especially helpful, but the final section identifies trends in missions and missionary care which could be enlightening.

Bushong, Louis J. Belonging Everywhere & Nowhere: Insights into Counseling the Globally Mobile. Indianapolis: Mango Tree Intercultural Services, 2013.

This book is a valuable resource for mental health professionals who work with missionaries and other global nomads. Bushong is a marriage and family therapist who grew up in an international setting and specializes in working with third culture kids (TCKs). While the book does not specifically focus on the experience of missionary kids and their families, it does address many experiences common to those growing up overseas and seeks to help equip mental health professionals working with this population. In addition to providing a useful overview of what a therapist might anticipate in working with a TCK, Bushong also looks at common diagnoses (mood disorders, adjustment disorder, PTSD, etc.) through a third-culture lens and evaluates current therapeutic theories and techniques as they apply to this population (e.g., attachment theory, cognitive-behavioral models, and structural family therapy).

Hay, Rob. Worth Keeping: Global Perspectives on Best Practice in Missionary Retention. Globalization of Mission. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2006.

This book is a follow-up to the ReMAP project on missionary attrition (described below in Too Valuable to Lose). This research, however, focused on missionary retention and best practices associated with maintaining effective workers on the field. It surveys missions agencies in 22 countries on six continents. Factors associated with retention included a strong working relationship between the missionary and sending agency, moderate- to large-sized mission agencies, higher levels of education among missionaries, a selective screening process that results in a good fit between the missionary and the agency, a clear calling, and good physical and mental health. The study drew distinctions between new and old sending countries, finding some differences between countries that have been sending missionaries for a long time and those who started relatively recently.

O’Donnell, Kelly S., and Michèle Lewis O’Donnell, eds. Helping Missionaries Grow: Readings in Mental Health and Missions. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1988.

No one has been more prolific in publishing material for mental health providers in the area of missionary care than Kelly O’Donnell. This is the first of several books he has edited or written to address issues pertaining to the care of missionaries. This volume is a compendium of articles drawn primarily from journals such as Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Journal of Psychology and Theology, and Journal of Psychology and Christianity written in the 1970s and 1980s. Sections include missionary preparation, families, adjustment to the field, and special issues such as the role of women and repatriation (including a chapter by Clyde Austin). While the literature included in this book is over 25 years old, it still contains useful information and provides a historical perspective to this area of study.

O’Donnell, Kelly S., ed. Missionary Care: Counting the Cost for World Evangelization. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1992.

This edited volume might be considered the first handbook on missionary care. In this book O’Donnell invited a number of people who were recognized as experts in missionary care to write about various aspects of this work. O’Donnell identifies the term member care as synonymous with missionary care; since that time it has become the preferred term in the field. Like other edited volumes in this literature, this book is divided into several sections: an overview of what is meant by missionary care, counseling and clinical concerns, team development, and the collaboration of missionaries with sending agencies. Although it is over 20 years old, Missionary Care remains a vital resource for mental health professionals who work with missionaries.

O’Donnell, Kelly S. ed. Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World. Globalization of Mission. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2002.

Doing Member Care Well is an extension of Missionary Care. Like the previous book, it is a compilation of articles from experts in the field on issues for missionaries, and it builds on and updates a decade’s worth of progress. However, there are two particular advances that set this book apart. First, it has a distinctly international flavor. O’Donnell acknowledges that not all sending groups are from North America, and a significant part of the book is devoted to how member care is done around the globe, drawing on authors from five continents. Second, the book is structured around a theoretical model for missionary care. In the first chapter O’Donnell lays out a model of care that includes five levels: Master care, self care, sender care, specialist care, and network care. Coupled with the developmental model presented by David Pollock in chapter 2 (“Developing a Flow of Care and Caregivers”), a strong conceptual framework for working with missionaries is provided. The latter part of the book is devoted to providing member care within each of the levels of O’Donnell’s model.

O’Donnell, Kelly S. Global Member Care. Volume 1, The Pearls and Perils of Good Practice. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2011.

O’Donnell, Kelly S., and Michèle Lewis O’Donnell, eds. Global Member Care. Volume 2, Crossing Sectors for Serving Humanity. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2013.

In this series (a third volume is still in progress) O’Donnell builds on his previous work by broadening member care to include an emphasis on humanitarian aid workers. This seems a natural progression given that humanitarian aid often originates in faith-based groups and that mission efforts are broadening in many parts of the world to include humanitarian efforts. Volume 1 is written by O’Donnell. It includes an overview of the current state of member care around the world; a section on promoting health through unmasking dysfunction, promoting relational resilience, and supporting good management; and a section on ethics in a transcultural context. Volume 2 is an edited book that focuses on the crossover of various sectors serving the international community. Both volumes have a less specific application to missions with a greater emphasis on humanitarian care and global organizations.

Powell, John R., and Joyce M. Bowers, eds. Enhancing Missionary Vitality: Mental Health Professions Serving Global Missions. Colorado Springs: Mission Training International, 1999.

The Mental Health and Missions Conference held each year in Angola, Indiana, has had a huge influence in the development of missionary care, particularly among mental health professionals. Starting in 1980 as a meeting of a few people interested in serving missionaries, it has grown into a conference of several hundred people from across the evangelical spectrum. John Powell, one of the founders of the conference, co-edited this volume, which draws on presenters and topics that have been shared over the years. Sections include the role of mental health professionals in missions, dynamics of serving in a cross cultural context, preventive methods, clinical interventions, and ethical considerations. It is a useful handbook for mental health professionals who are looking for ways to serve missionaries effectively.

Schaefer, Frauke C., and Charles A. Schaefer. Trauma and Resilience: A Handbook. Condeo Press, 2010.

In recent years trauma has taken on a high profile in the mental health world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the missions community where exposure to risk is often higher than the norm. This edited volume is developed around a theology of suffering presented in the first chapter. Building on this, several stories of trauma are presented followed by chapters on normative reactions to trauma, effective community support, and psychological and spiritual resources for managing trauma. The message of the book is that trauma is part of the human experience and is often associated with spiritual struggle. It can be mitigated through a variety of avenues including the support of spiritual communities.

Taylor, William D., ed. Too Valuable to Lose: Exploring the Causes and Cures of Missionary Attrition. Globalization of Mission. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1997.

Missionaries leaving the field earlier than anticipated is a concern across the missions world. This edited volume reports on the findings of an ambitious study that sought to determine reasons why missionaries prematurely leave the field and to explore solutions to that problem. The Reducing Missionary Attrition Project (ReMAP) was sponsored by the World Evangelical Fellowship (now Alliance). It is unique in its international perspective in that it drew on missionaries from 14 sending countries. The initial sections of the book deal with the study itself, providing details regarding purpose, methodology, and results. Overall findings indicate that top reasons missionaries return prematurely are related to personal issues, concerns about marriage and family, and unpreventable circumstances. The next section presents more detailed results from a variety of sending countries. The book then turns to preventing unwanted attrition. Chapters from a variety of authors explore ways in which missionary screening, initial training, on-field training, and pastoral care can be improved to help reduce attrition among missionaries.

Books for Missionaries

Brayer Hess, Melissa, and Patricia Linderman. The Expert Expat: Your Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad. Rev. ed. Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2007.

Written by two diplomatic spouses with twenty-one international moves under their collective belts, this is not a book that is specifically written for missionaries. However, it is a practical guide to making a cross-cultural move. It is chock-full of pragmatic suggestions and tips for managing life in another culture. It includes chapters on language learning, preparing for a move, helping children adjust to a new culture, safety, initial adaptation to a new place, moving pets, and keeping in touch with the folks at home.

Donovan, Kath. Growing through Stress. Rev. ed. Berrien Springs, MI: Institute of World Mission, 2002.

It is perhaps an understatement to say that missionary life is stressful. While stress is often viewed as inherently negative, Kath Donovan points out that it has a positive function and that we can grow through our coping efforts. She suggests that approaches to the study of stress generally neglect a spiritual component. Her purpose in writing this book is integrating secular findings about stress with spiritual insights in order to help people develop more effective ways of dealing with it. The first part of the book seeks to clarify what is meant by stress, giving it clear definitions, debunking common misunderstandings, and providing a biblical perspective. The second part focuses on stress management. It draws on the stress and coping literature from psychology and provides a variety of practical management strategies. Donovan integrates Scripture and biblical examples to support her suggestions for coping. This is a useful resource for any Christian and may be especially helpful for missionaries who are working in a stress-inducing environment.

Elmer, Duane. Cross-cultural Conflict: Building Relationships for Effective Ministry. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Elmer has written several books on cross-cultural life in a Christian context. This one explores the differences between western ways of handling conflict and those of people in many other parts of the world. While Westerners tend to approach conflict directly (and have a hard time understanding how it could be done differently), people in other cultures may use an indirect, passive voice, rely on mediators, take one-down positions, and rely on storytelling as a means of resolving differences while saving face. The final section of the book discusses implications for the gospel message inherent in paying attention to how we deal with conflict in a culturally sensitive manner. While the message of this book is direct (in line with western thinking), its suggestions about dealing with conflict indirectly in other cultures may make living in another culture easier.

Jordan, Peter. Re-entry: Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home. Seattle: Youth with a Mission, 2013.

Although it has a publication date of 2013, this little book has been around for a long time—and for good reason. It is a quick, practical guide to reentry. Using a space shuttle analogy, it describes repatriation in two phases: winding down, or the preparation stage of returning from the field, and reentry, or handling things once the return has occurred. The first section deals with emotional, social, political, and family adjustments that need to be made in getting ready to leave the mission field. It includes practical ideas for leaving including delegating your work, keeping a journal, and returning with gifts. The second section discusses a variety of things returning missionaries often experience but are sometimes surprised by: identity struggles, reverse culture shock, disappointment with church life, and perhaps even hostility or apathy. Once again, the author offers specific and pragmatic suggestions ranging from connecting with the minister to maintaining a routine to ease the cross-cultural shock of reentry. This book may not have amazing insights you have not heard before, but it is an excellent and accessible reminder for overwhelmed individuals and families dealing with reentry.

Pollock, David C., and Ruth E. Van Reken. Third Culture Kids: Growing Up among Worlds. Rev. ed. Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2009.

Like any parent, missionaries are deeply concerned about the well-being of their children. For many years it has been recognized that growing up in a cross-cultural setting is a different experience for children than if they had been raised in their parents’ passport culture. The term third culture kid (TCK) has been coined to describe that experience. This book is the definitive volume on the TCK experience. David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken are both recognized experts in this area and each have a missions background, although the book is aimed at a wider audience. The book explains the term TCK and how TCKs’ experience differs from monocultural children. It explores both the benefits and challenges of growing up among worlds, describes personal and developmental characteristics often found with TCKs, and identifies common relational patterns and hidden grief associated with the third culture experience. The book also talks about handling transitions such as moving and reentry, using the RAFT model (reconciliation, affirmation, farewells, think destination) that is widely used in the reentry process. In the revised edition, Van Reken expands the notion of the TCK by introducing the term cross culture kid (CCK) to include a wider range of children (e.g., immigrants and international adoptees) who share similar experiences with traditional TCKs.

Savageau, Cheryl, and Diane Stortz. Parents of Missionaries: How to Thrive and Stay Connected When Your Children and Grandchildren Serve Cross-Culturally. Colorado Springs: Authentic Publishing, 2008.

Missionaries come with families, and sometimes the most difficult part of the cross-cultural journey is leaving them behind. Though it can be overlooked, this is also a challenge for parents (and, perhaps especially, grandparents). This book recognizes that reality and seeks to help parents manage the physical distance and stay connected to their kids and grandkids. The initial section of the book addresses the grief often experienced by parents of missionaries as well as typical developmental issues tied to this stage of life. The second section deals with managing transitions, including farewells and furloughs. The final section focuses on ways to stay connected as a family in spite of the miles between family members. Parents of Missionaries is a useful guidebook in an area that doesn’t get a lot of attention.

Storti, Craig. The Art of Crossing Cultures. 2nd ed. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 2007.

In this book about adjusting to a foreign culture, Storti begins by saying that many expatriates have a desire to adapt to the local culture, but few actually do. This is an especially critical aspect of missionary life, and his book presents underlying reasons that make cultural adjustment difficult. Essentially, Storti suggests that most of us are egocentric creatures who have a hard time understanding why people in the local culture act as they do, because their behaviors do not fit with our cultural expectations. This tends to lead to withdrawal, discomfort, and, in some cases, attrition. Storti offers a model that encourages people living in another culture to become aware of their negative reactions and to seek other meanings for the actions of locals that, in turn, can shift their expectations. The book does not provide a host of details about making cultural adjustments (as in The Expert Expat described above), but it offers some basic insights that are key for thriving in another culture.

Storti, Craig. The Art of Coming Home. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 2001.

As challenging as moving to a new culture can be, reentry into one’s home culture after living abroad can be more difficult. This book is frequently recommended as a practical guide for people who are returning home after living in another culture. It focuses on all types of expatriates, with chapters at the end of the book focused on special issues related to exchange students, peace corps volunteers, military personnel, and missionaries. Initially the book describes common concerns experienced by returnees such as disorientation with what used to be familiar, changed relationships with friends, and loneliness. It identifies a series of stages people frequently progress through in reentry including leave-taking, the honeymoon, reverse culture shock, and readjustment. Finally, it describes experiences that typically occur in the workplace and at home during repatriation and offers suggestions for dealing with them. The Art of Coming Home is an easy read that addresses a difficult transition in a straightforward and understandable manner.

Teague, David. Godly Servants: Discipleship and Spiritual Formation for Missionaries. CreateSpace, 2012.

Often the focus of missionary care is on psychological, emotional, and cultural adjustment. However, spiritual health is vital for surviving and thriving as a missionary. David Teague served for years as a missionary and brings this perspective to bear as he explores spiritual disciplines and developing a deeper life with God. The book is divided into three sections: communion with God, practicing spirituality within community, and impacts on ministry. Teague draws on familiar writers on spiritual disciplines such as Richard Foster and Henri Nouwen, and much of the content is similar to other sources. However, the lens he uses in writing this book makes it particularly useful for missionaries.

Van Reken, Ruth E. Letters Never Sent: A Global Nomad’s Journey from Hurt to Healing. Rev. ed. London: Summertime Publishing, 2012.

Ruth Van Reken has had a critical influence on missionary care in spite of the fact that she has not focused on it directly. As co-author of Third Culture Kids (see above) and founder of the Families in Global Transition conference, she has spotlighted the experience of families living cross-culturally. Van Reken’s professional journey into this world started with this book, but it began long before as an MK growing up in Africa. Sent away to a boarding school at an early age, she encountered many hurts that lasted well into adulthood. Using the format of letters that she would have written but never sent, she creates a poignant memoir of her experiences, from the pain she sustained to her healing process. Originally published in 1988, the revised edition includes an epilogue in which she offers further reflections from the vantage point of someone in her 60s. Although shaped by a different era, Van Reken captures some of the emotional struggle experienced by missionaries today.

This sampling of sources on missionary care reflects both historical and current developments. Efforts in missionary care are expanding as senders increasingly recognize that the importance of supporting those in the field goes beyond providing for financial needs. Undoubtedly, as trends in missions change, the needs of missionaries will shift as well. As they do, missionary care specialists will need to develop new resources and conduct additional research to best address those needs.

Dale Hawley is Program Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. He also serves as Associate Director of Missionary Care at Missions Resource Network (http://mrnet.org). He has worked with missionaries on and off the field for nearly twenty years.

Bibliography

Andrews, Leslie A., ed. The Family in Mission: Understanding and Caring for Those Who Serve. Colorado Springs: Mission Training International, 2004.

Hawley, Dale R. “Research on Missionary Kids and Families: A Critical Review.” In The Family in Mission: Understanding and Caring for Those Who Serve, ed. Leslie A. Andrews, 277–92. Colorado Springs: Mission Training International, 2004.

Taylor, William D. Too Valuable to Lose: Exploring the Causes and Cures of Missionary Attrition. Globalization of Mission. Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1997.

Missionaries are on a journey that challenges every aspect of their lives. The Lord has promised to be with them, but can they count on senders to be with them in a caregiving way? Attrition among missionaries is sometimes preventable when appropriate, seamless, and comprehensive care makes a difference in the longevity and wellbeing of missionaries. Churches and mission agencies should therefore journey with the missionaries they support, for the good of the kingdom and the glory of God.1

Life happens! A couple finds out they are pregnant. First heartbeats are heard. Birth eventually comes as doctors and nurses are busy with the details of caring for the mother, child and, yes, the father at times. Children are taken for immunizations. While on vacation a child gets a deep cut in his hand from whittling with his knife. A rushed trip to the ER in an unfamiliar town gets help. As an adult you schedule your annual physical and discuss important health issues with your primary care doctor. An ambulance screams down the street carrying a patient to the ER. Families wait as the gentle hospice caregivers provide tender care for the patient and family, waiting for the expected end. Each of these life experiences is an example of health care. Medical care is attending to emergencies as well as helping individuals and families manage their lives in the best way possible.

These descriptions of health care are similar to the care mission teams need as they go through various stages of team life. Whether providers call it “missionary care” or “member care,” they need an approach that is both seamless (pre-, on-, and post-field care) and comprehensive (all aspects of missionary/team life). Frequently, churches and agencies responsible for missionary teams discover that the care they provide is similar to the care given in the ER. Yet, routine care providers need to know their limits and be willing to refer the missionary to someone else for additional care when needed. Moreover, they find themselves responding to emergencies because an immediate need arises that demands attention. The unfortunate reality of providing only this kind of care is that it places the caregiver (church or agency) and team in a reactionary relationship. A comprehensive and seamless approach to missionary care will place the interaction between the team and their supporters in a more positive framework. Their interaction will not be perceived as only addressing problems but will be seen as vital to the team’s health and ongoing success. This article will, therefore, deal only with routine care, not crisis or trauma care.

The Realities of Member Care

Interest in member care has been growing during the last two decades. It has emerged and developed in response to the circumstances in which missionaries find themselves in our changing world. Several realities are particularly important when considering member care in the context of mission teams.

The attrition rate among missionaries is unnecessarily high. Steve Sang-Cheol Moon states that “more and more missionaries are coming back home before the expected time, and more and more missions agencies are experiencing missionary attrition.”2 Moon goes on to list the major causes of attrition, including “problems with fellow missionaries, health problems, change of job, lack of call, weak home support, disagreements with sending agency, and poor cultural adaptation.”3 While some attrition is natural (retirement, family needs, completion of the job, etc.), Moon’s list makes us aware that some of the causes of attrition are preventable.

1. Team Conflict should be expected.

The Christian community has been forced to come to grips with the truth that Christians can and do hurt each other, and if conflict is common in the church we should not be surprised to find it in a mission context. We should not expect missionaries to rise above what is true in human community, even for Christians. The belief that conflict should not take place and the surprise when it happens may indicate that we, knowingly or subconsciously, hold missionaries to a higher standard. It is normal to have high hopes for them and their work, but it is also necessary for care providers to acknowledge their humanness.

The thought that Christians simply need to pray together and “all will be well” is naïve at best and biblically unfounded at worst. New Testament mission efforts were not very far along before conflict between missionaries erupted. The conflict involving Paul, John Mark, and Barnabas illustrates this (Acts 13:13; 15:36–41). Missionary activity in the New Testament shows us that reaching others involves God’s partnering with very flawed, broken humans. Through the study of New Testament churches, it is apparent that healthy communities result from spiritual teaching along with much difficult, intentional work.4 Even when missionaries are committed to following spiritual principles, working them out is the great challenge. One mission team I worked with was so broken they could not worship together. This did not make them any less Christian, but they needed help to work through the causes of the brokenness that had intruded into their lives. That essential work of addressing and resolving personal issues opened the door to renewed worship and praise.

Difficulty with fellow missionaries is a primary contributor to missionary attrition. In his book, Cross-Cultural Conflict, Duane Elmer illustrates this point from his work with sixty North American mission executives. They all acknowledged that the missionaries’ greatest need stems from the breakdown of interpersonal relationships between one another.5 Another corroborating example comes from Ken Williams, former Bible translator and retired member care professional with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Williams states:

Many studies on missionary attrition have found poor relationships at or near the top of lists of reasons for leaving. Recently one large mission asked all their personnel what they needed help in most. The greatest need, reported by 78%, was help in relationships. This may be representative of missionaries in general—yet we do so little to train them how to thrive in their relationships.6

Positive interpersonal skills are needed and can be taught. Because teams are relational communities, the strength of personal relationships ebbs and flows, suggesting an ongoing need for giving attention to interpersonal skills among mission teams.7 The relationships between missionaries on a team are an easy target for Satan. If he can create conflict among a mission team, he can quickly diminish the effectiveness of their work and tarnish their example. After all, teams carry the gospel while they model the gospel as Christian community. By passing on tools for interpersonal health, care providers can help reduce attrition due to poor team relationships.

2. Training before leaving for the field can greatly enhance a team’s potential.

In his article summarizing the past five decades of member care, Kelly O’Donnell references Kevin Dyer as an early advocate for extensive pre-field training in the 1960s.8 Dyer acknowledges:

Merely bringing people together and sending them to the field wasn’t enough. They needed time for in-depth preparation and interpersonal bonding. They came from all kinds of sub-cultures and religious backgrounds and minor differences in personal taste that became magnified when living and working in the team situation.9

Additionally, the challenges of becoming a team are magnified within the context of cross-cultural living. The kind of member care Dyer proposes is a proactive preparation that will produce better results than simply bringing people together and hoping and praying that an effective team emerges.

My wife and I were part of a three-family team that came together on the field. We had only met one of the families before going to Kenya. Even though both of our families were supported by the same church we only had a few opportunities to interact with our teammates before they moved to Kenya, while we stayed behind to bond with the church. Later, we met the third family upon arriving in Kenya. Our team experience was a good one. Good things can occur when people are brought together without prior team building. However, our team experience would have been enhanced greatly by intentional team development.

3. Missionaries often fail to be self-reflective.

This lack of self-reflection is particularly true in our Western culture. Our culture is fast paced and self-absorbed. We hardly reflect on anything. Even though we may have the capacity for self-reflection, we also excel at self-deception. We tend to let things “ride” until they become unmanageable. Missionaries have some responsibilities to care for themselves and their fellow team members, but it is helpful to have a trusted third party provide an additional perspective. When this is done at regular intervals, rather than only when a team is at a breaking point, the team gains insight into themselves and those they work with. The end result of encouraging further self-reflection is that the individuals and the team have the potential to become more resilient.

4. Stress has a major impact on missionaries.

This is true whether one works on a team or not. However, cross-cultural stress certainly intensifies challenges, and this would especially be true for team relationships. Ken Williams contrasts the secular and biblical perspectives on the effects of stress. He asserts that the secular world primarily understands stress as a physical response, while the biblical view sees stress affecting the whole person (spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, and socially).10

Stressors are present in all aspects of missionary life. The list is long: physical, professional, financial, cultural, social, linguistic, political, educational, and spiritual.11 I would add: personal, relational, familial, and organizational. There is bound to be some overlap in these designations, yet adding to and being more specific about descriptions of stressors is helpful.

Investing in missionary care can address the preventable attrition among missionaries.

Ultimately, though, the goal is greater than just helping the missionary stay longer. Member care should seek to enhance and strengthen a missionary’s life in order that (s)he will not only endure but thrive and be resilient. Deborah Ford puts it this way:

A “thrival,” rather than a “survival” understanding of missionary care focuses not only on curative, but also preventative measures, seeking to reduce painful attrition through an emphasis on wholeness and effectiveness. The ultimate aim is to develop inner resources within the missionaries, as well as providing external resources to help them with their work.12

The price of failing to provide seamless and comprehensive care is great:

The cost of not doing member care is revealed when a worker “crashes and burns.” There is the human suffering of the worker, his/her family, and colleagues. Lower morale sets in when workers perceive they are only valued for their work, not for their person. There is lost credibility with the people of the host country and with donors back home. Huge amounts of money are expended in salary, start-up costs, training, and repatriation. The quiet cost of not doing member care is revealed when a worker limps along, joyless, powerless, and ineffective.13

Other costs include the resulting broken lives and loss to the kingdom. These costs are very significant. If we want to avoid them, then we need to be serious about providing care that is comprehensive and seamless. As Prins and Willemse acknowledge:

If we consider the time, energy, money, personnel and prayer invested in new missionaries before they go to the field, should we not invest just as much time, energy, money, personnel and prayer in helping them through their problems after they reach the field?14

Having been involved in missions as a missionary, a church mission committee member, and a trainer and care provider, I know how challenging it is to maintain a commitment to continuous care once a missionary team is in place.

An Example of Member Care

Teams must be able to do their work and also maintain meaningful relationships. What does that look like? O’Donnell describes the characteristics of a resilient team as follows:

• Coping ability
• Commitment
• Appreciation
• Communication
• Time together
• Understanding
• Structure
• Spiritual wellness15

These characteristics need to be the outcomes for any pre- and on-field care. Going forward I want to share some examples from personal experience that will help illustrate healthy practices related to comprehensive and seamless care.

Pre-Field Care

Caring for a mission team can be described as “spiritual formation.” Thomas Kimber, for example, cites two studies of teams on the field that underscore the relationship between a strong awareness of God and good team relationships all the way along the path to eventual reentry.16 One of the assessments the Halbert Institute for Missions (HIM)17 uses throughout the missionary life cycle includes a measure for how missionaries feel about their spiritual lives. Frequently, missionaries characterize their spiritual lives as either lacking or dry. Part of the reason for these feelings is because they give of themselves deeply, often neglecting their own spiritual wellbeing. Therefore, an overarching purpose of missionary care is giving attention to their spiritual lives.

At HIM, pre-field training focuses on topics such as:

• Relationship with God
• Practice of spiritual disciplines
• The theological core of missions
• Calling
• Getting to know the team (spiritual journeys and genograms)
• Diversity (personality profiles and spiritual gifts)
• Theological fit within the team and with the sending agency/church
• Fund raising
• Stress assessment (CSA)
• Conflict resolution
• Team covenant (descriptions of what it means for this team to live in Christian community)
• Trust/openness
• Team health assessment (PATH)
• Site specific training (may include a survey trip)
• Leadership and decision making (Dynamic Governance and Statement of Grace)
• Team, families, supporters weekend

These components give attention to a person’s walk with God and his or her relationship with the team. They also illustrate the value of diverse personality traits and spiritual gifts, measure the compatibility of theological perspectives, draw attention to areas of personal stress, examine how well the team is working together, provide a dynamic understanding of team leadership and decision making, and experience the realities of team interaction as they visit their future mission context. These topics and others are covered during five long weekends plus additional times with a team.

Team building should not be seen as a one-time experience, but as a continuing process that extends through the life of the team.18 HIM is blessed to be involved with Abilene Christian University and, therefore, have extended interaction with teams that are forming. The length of team training, then, can range from six months to two years. Some are students at ACU while others move to Abilene, Texas, to be trained. While the best training is certainly face-to-face, the challenges of costs and schedules have forced us to develop a flexible, hybrid model in which we train at ACU, travel to a team’s location, and do some training online. Utilizing longer, varied training periods and methods assists in developing cohesion and trust among team members.

On-Field Care

Once a team is in place the real work, for them and for caregivers, begins. A question that must be asked is, “Who is best to provide the care?” The answer is multifaceted. The research of Högström and Gingrich articulates three sources of such care: friends and colleagues, in-house member care providers and pastoral workers from the sending church, and mental health workers external to the organization.19 Their research also illustrates that the missionaries, in regard to all three categories of care providers, preferred to have someone who has experience in missions themselves.20 One missionary was quoted as saying, “I think it is less important that one is a ‘professional’ counselor and more important that it is someone who has been where I have been and walked many of the same steps that I have walked.”21

An argument can be made for the value of care from third parties instead of the supporting church or organization. When team members are supported by various organizations or churches, which can give care to the team as a whole? Who among the supporters can be completely objective? A third party, especially if they have been involved in the training of a team, can probe deeply, yet the team members feel free to respond openly. When the third party has a relationship with the team and has previous mission experience his or her effectiveness and credibility increases.

HIM commits to providing regular team development (seamless care) for the teams we train. Sometimes care providers make onsite visits, while other times they make contact via Skype. These visits have several concerns: the missionary, the family, the team, and the work. Two months prior to an “official visit,” I write each missionary (husbands, wives, singles) and ask for their input about what issues need to be addressed. I make sure they understand that we may not be able to address all the issues. In one instance every person mentioned the same sensitive issue. None had been able to bring it up amongst themselves because of its sensitivity. During the visit the team felt comfortable enough to discuss the issue and did so in a beautiful way.

One month before making the visit the team takes two assessments: CernySmith Stress Assessment (CSA) and Periodic Assessment of Team Health (PATH). Overall, these help both the third party and the team members prepare for the visit.

The visit usually takes two weeks, which includes travel time. This allows us enough time to stay with each family unit and engage them in casual conversation. This time is very special and important as it expresses our interest in the missionaries themselves. During the time in each home we debrief the CSA.

The CSA is an assessment that measures stress by examining five domains: organizational, cultural, relational, behavioral, and personal.22 Each domain has various scales that are used to measure a person’s stress, including stress related to spirituality. While taking the CSA the missionaries have opportunity to write in their own words what they believe is causing the stress and the level of that stress (extreme, quite a bit, moderate, a little bit). I have given the CSA to a new team, and among them they listed over thirty items as sources of “extreme” stress. The power of this instrument is in its debriefing. Because of our past missions experience we were able to normalize the stress and coach them to find ways to mitigate it. This process not only encouraged them but also gave them hope.

Over a five-day period we usually spend four to five hours in the mornings doing team development. During the meeting times we begin with worship. Each household is given responsibility for one of the worship times. During these meetings we debrief PATH. This is an assessment that grew out of my Doctor of Ministry project thesis.23 PATH has seven domains: team commitment, diversity, communication skills, conflict resolution, leadership, decision-making, and trust/openness. Each of these domains has five Likert scale questions followed by two write-in questions. One write-in question asks the missionary to reflect on him- or herself and the other asks him or her to reflect on the team. PATH has proven to be very helpful in surfacing needed conversations about both the tasks of a team and maintenance issues (relationship issues) related to a team.

These two assessments, CSA and PATH, are given each time HIM makes an official visit. Value comes from seeing the progress of an individual or team over the years. Once I asked a team to look at their CSA from two years before and to compare those results with their lives presently. They were amazed to see the progress they had made in dealing with difficult stress issues. A team will always have things to talk through. PATH helps them raise those issues and maintain healthy relationships.

Often a team’s emails alert me to the fact that they want or need to talk about the work, perhaps regarding some decisions they are facing. We make sure we give time to hear these concerns. When questions arise as to how to move forward, the DRAWN process has been very helpful.24 DRAWN means: D for “desire/dream;” R for “reflect on resources and reality;” A for “attend to ABBA;” W for “weigh what you heard;” and N for “next steps.” This is a spiritual process for discernment using one’s reflection on deep desires and resources, listening to God, hearing and weighing what he says through everyone, and out of that process, along with prayer, deciding what is the next appropriate step.

Transitions are a major challenge for teams. Losing or adding team members are, therefore, good examples of the kinds of issues that require continuous on-field care. Sometimes members of a team leave the mission context and return home. When this happens it is important to help the team member “end well.” Leaving without closure can often hurt those leaving and those staying. Providing a time of remembering and blessing is critical. The whole team can reflect on their coming together, training, life together in the mission context, and how they have seen God at work. Time is also given for the ones leaving to bless those who stay and for those who remain to bless those who are leaving. Whether the leaving is a good one or has some hurt connected with it, reflection and blessing are always appropriate.

Welcoming new members into the team is a critical time for team development as well. The existing team needs to pause and repeat some of the things they did in their initial training such as personality profiles and sharing spiritual journeys. These two activities help the new and existing members become familiar with each other. The team should take PATH and the CSA and recommit to the Team Covenant. These activities will help integrate the new members and even allow them to participate with the team in some reflection about their life and work together.

Whatever the situation, on-field care needs to be flexible and individual as well as team focused. A mentor needs to communicate in word and action that the lives of the team members are important, not just their work. One of the important pieces of feedback that Högström and Gingrich received from missionaries was that feeling as if you had been heard was the most valued feature of member care.25 Time is required for individuals and teams to feel like they are heard. After the morning sessions, Eunice and I participate with the team in their normal routines. If the women have a class or accountability time, Eunice attends. If the men do the same, I attend. I enjoy going with the men to see what they have been doing; whether walking with them to a local church plant or meeting their friends. They need to know that we care about their lives and are not simply there to assess them as a team.

After each visit a summary is written and sent to supporting churches or organizations. In writing such a report care must be given to the tension between giving a meaningful summary and protecting confidentiality. A copy of the report is first sent to the missionaries to make sure they agree with what was written.

Post-Field Care

As difficult as going to a mission context is, the often forgotten challenge is returning home.26 I was better prepared to go to Kenya than I was for returning home. Kimber says returning missionaries face isolation, confusion, and not feeling “at home” in their home culture.27 Returning home is not a “team sport;” it is faced alone. Still, the team left behind can have an impact, if leaving is done well, as mentioned earlier.

Reentry debriefing is important for returning missionary families. Giving the CSA at this time is helpful because it will show what stressors or challenges they are facing. Debriefing the CSA should be part of a lengthy debrief about their life in missions. O’Donnell describes a debrief this way:

The purpose of a debriefing session is to help a worker review his/her experience on the job. This debriefing is more of a routine nature and is not intended to be used with crisis workers or those who go through a traumatic event. During routine debriefing, the worker is given the opportunity to express feelings, explore the high and low points of work, express concerns, put more closure on unresolved areas, and get a better perspective on the overall experience. The interviewer’s role is to listen and help clarify, being careful to make sure the worker addresses the relevant aspects of his/her work. Debriefing does not involve counseling or performance evaluation.28

During the time of reentry it is important for a missionary to be heard. Giving him or her time to talk at length shows that you value the individual as well as his or her service. Churches and the missionary’s extended family are part of the “team” that helps with repatriation. The welcoming community often does not understand why reentry is so difficult or how important a role they play.

Along with providing for the immediate practical needs of returned missionaries, it is helpful for churches to be aware of the deep emotional and spiritual challenges many missionaries struggle with upon arrival in their home country. The returning missionary who is received by a supportive and loving community of faith may reasonably expect to experience lower levels of reentry distress as well as a more healthful transition, being reestablished in a community of faith, giving to others through meaningful ministry, and deepening relationships and meaningful roles in his or her community.29

It may seem like a daunting task to care for missionaries in such a comprehensive way. Yet, several events beneficial to returning missionaries are sponsored by organizations dedicated to improving missionary care (Missions Resource Network, Mission Training International, and Oklahoma Christian University).30 Missionary caregivers can prepare the family and church for their roles in a missionary’s readjustment if they take advantage of such resources.

Conclusion

There are many reasons to be involved in the care of missionaries and teams. The greatest reason is that when we care in sustained, concrete ways, we model our missionary God. He sent many leaders and prophets with words that promised he would go ahead of them and be with them. Jesus sent out his apostles (and the church) with the promise that he would be with them. The church should take her call to be the body of Christ seriously and do the hard work of journeying with those who follow their Lord into mission contexts. We should count the cost and do member care well, like our Father and to his glory.

Sonny Guild served 10 years church planting in Kenya. After service in Kenya he preached for the Southwest Church of Christ in Tigard, Oregon, for 14 years. Most recently he taught missions at Abilene Christian University for 21 years. He also was the first director of the Halbert Institute for Missions and directed it for 10 years. He is now retired and teaches adjunct at ACU. He also gives time to his consulting business, Culture Concepts Consulting (http://cultureconceptsconsulting.com) where he provides access to his PATH assessment for teams. He and his wife, Eunice, live in Abilene, Texas, and have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and eight grandchildren.

Bibliography

Dyer, Kevin. “Crucial Factors in Building Good Teams.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 22, no. 3 (1986): 254–58.

________. Team Building: Current Issues and New Alternatives. Addison-Wesley Series on Organization Development. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Elmer, Duane. Cross-Cultural Conflict: Building Relationships for Effective Ministry. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Ford, Deborah. “P(r)ay as They Go? Re-examining the Role of the Local Church in Cross-Cultural Missionary Care.” Evangel 22, no. 1 (2004): 4–10.

Högström, K. Elisabet, and Heather Davediuk Gingrich. “Experiences and Utilization of Member Care in an International Missionary Sample.” Journal of Psychology and Christianity 33, no. 3 (2014): 240–53, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Experiences+and+utilization+of+member+care+in+an+international…-a0385805842.

Kimber, Thomas R. “The Role of Spiritual Development in the Cross-Cultural Reentry Adjustment of Missionaries.” Journal of Psychology & Theology 40, no. 3 (2012): 211–19, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+role+of+spiritual+development+in+the+cross-cultural+reentry…-a0305103728.

Moon, Steve Sang-Cheol. “Missionary Attrition in Korea: Opinions of Agency Executives.” In Too Valuable to Lose: Exploring Causes and Cures of Missionary Attrition, edited by William D. Taylor, 129–42. Globalization of Mission Series. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1997.

O’Donnell, Kelly. “Building Resilient Teams: The CACTUS Kit.” In Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World, edited by Kelly O’Donnell, 391–98. Globalization of Mission Series. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2002.

________. “Global Member Care: Exploring and Celebrating Our History.” Member Care Associates. http://membercareassociates.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ODonnell-Global-MC-History-for-India-MC-book-26-Janaury-2012-2.pdf.

O’Donnell, Kelly, and Michèle Lewis O’Donnell. “Running Well and Resting Well: Twelve Tools for Missionary Life.” In Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World, edited by Kelly O’Donnell, 309–22. Globalization of Mission Series. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2002.

Prins, Marina, and Braam Willemse. Member Care for Missionaries: A Practical Guide for Senders. Brackenfell, South Africa: Member Care South Africa, 2002.

Williams, Ken. All Stressed Up and Everywhere to Go! Solutions to De-Stressing Your Life and Recovering Your Sanity. Colorado Springs CO: Relationship Resources, 2010.

________. “Training Missionaries in How to Relate Well: Pay a Little Now or a Lot Later. In Enhancing Mission Vitality: Mental Health Professions Serving Global Mission, edited by John R. Powell and Joyce M. Browser, 245–52. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg-Fortress, 1999.

Since the first century, the church has partnered with men and women as they spread the good news of the kingdom. The scriptural imperative of missionary activity is obvious. But what is the heart of God regarding the role of the church in relation to those sent? This paper will reflect theologically on missionary care—namely, self-care and the church’s responsibility for missionaries—through a portrayal of the patterns of Jesus and the early church.

Missionaries face a paradox of expectations from the sending church and those serving as sponsors of their work. There is a broad spectrum of care available to them. I’ve had the pleasure for the past twenty-seven years of working as a therapist and consultant with those called to minister to the church, both domestically and on the foreign mission field. The church’s high expectations for these workers are often coupled with little grace for their needs and struggles. Ruth Tucker states that the church’s theology of missionary care has often limited its role to sending and praying. She offers the oft-cited biblical rationale based on a statement of Paul in 2 Corinthians. As Paul spoke of the suffering he experienced on his journeys, he said, “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers” (2 Cor 1:9–11).1 Tucker mentions that this scripture has been used to the detriment of missionaries for years. The church viewed anything beyond sending and praying as a distraction from the sacrificial role required of those on the field. Like Paul, missionaries were being refined by the fire that was the mission context. It was the lot of those choosing to serve as an instrument of God.2

Although sending and praying are essential roles of the church, beyond these activities more investment in caring for missionaries is theologically necessary. The level of care missionaries receive does have a significant impact on the mission effort. This article will offer a reflection on the theology of missionary care. In the words of Powell and Bower, theology is defined as “an expression of our encounter with God in the realities of life.”3 In the realities of mission work, we will look at the church and the individual as they partner with each other and with God in the spreading of the word. The missionary must be responsible for self-care, and the church has a responsibility for creating a true partnership by engagement through mutual responsibility.

Self-Care

A primary aspect of missionary care and an important responsibility of the missionary is self-care—the ability both to be aware of and to address one’s own emotional, physical, and spiritual state. The mission field is wrought with challenges and struggles. There is no disagreement on that point. What can be at issue is the necessity that the worker cares for himself or herself and the level of effort that is given to that care. Churches and missionaries often hold the unconscious perspective that self-care is selfish and in some way takes effort away from the work of God. The typical scenario is one in which a missionary fulfills numerous roles—church planter, preacher, elder, janitor, worship leader, youth leader—as well as attending to the needs of their family as they adjust to and live in another culture. They push themselves beyond their physical, emotional, and spiritual limits and eventually crash. This philosophy of missions was more ingrained in the past, but is still prevalent today. Anything related to God’s work is placed as the highest priority. This takes a toll on both the individual and the family. One family on a team in an Asian country put the rest of the team to shame as they rarely paused to take a break. They had an open door policy and were available to the church 24/7. Conflict erupted on the team as this family chided other team families for the time they were not available. The other families felt torn between their need for rest and the guilt they felt in response to the chiding. But they were right in taking time for themselves. People are not intended to live without rest and rejuvenation. In order to maintain one’s focus on the Savior and the mission in the face of the struggles, the missionary must look to his or her own needs. In the abovementioned case, after a few years, the wife of the over-engaged couple developed a severe case of depression, and they had to leave the field.

This example is not unique. It occurs the world over—the overwork, the guilt, and the conflict. There is always a need to address, always a ministry opportunity. How does one find a balance? Jesus offers the best example of a balanced life. He unapologetically went away for time alone with God, as is clear in Luke’s account of the choosing of the apostles:

One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names: Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him). When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil spirits were healed. Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone. (Luke 6:12–19; nlt)

Reflecting on this passage, Henri Nouwen accentuates the pattern of Jesus moving from solitude to community to ministry. This pattern is portrayed in all of the Gospels. Jesus withdrew from the crowds and ministry and spent time in solitude with God. Nouwen states that this time in solitude made the ministry of Jesus possible. It helped him remember that his identity was based on his relationship with God and on God’s love for him. It is the way Jesus was able to maintain a steady focus on his purpose. With this foundation in place, Jesus then moved to community. After a night in prayer, Jesus went to his disciples and chose twelve apostles. He was able to move into community and remain centered. Because his identity was firmly based in God’s love, he was not tossed to and fro by the approval and whims of those around him. He did not need their approval! And finally, the community together went out and ministered. It is so often the case that those of us in ministry have this pattern backwards. We have a great idea for ministry and go full steam ahead with our talents and abilities. When we get tired or things go awry, we call in others to help, and at this point, we turn to God and pray. Jesus shows us the right order. This is the pattern for those of us called to a life of service to God.4 Luke 5:16 states that Jesus often went to a lonely place to pray. Jesus, God the Son, took time to rest and be with God. If it was necessary for the Christ, it is logical that those of us intent on continuing the work of Jesus would be even more dependent on this time with God.

I was recently talking with a missionary couple that had just returned from a week’s break. The wife shared that a few days into the break, her husband had collapsed and sobbed for several hours. Her theory was that he broke down during this time of rest because he finally found time for this luxury. He listened as she spoke and somberly agreed. He said for the past year, he repeatedly reached the end of himself and then kept plowing forward. He was weary beyond weary—at the end of himself. We talked about the need for regular time alone with God and he agreed with tears in his eyes. We have finite resources, but God does not! God has given each of us twenty-four hours in a day, and for some reason we believe it necessary to take on the weight of God’s role of saving the world. There is so much that needs to be done. Yet as a good friend has said to me repeatedly, “Jackie, you are not the savior of the world!” It is imperative that we say no both to others and to ourselves. The needs are neverending and the poor will always be with us (Mark 14:7). God does not expect the missionary to carry the weight of the work on his or her own shoulders. God invites us to let him shoulder the responsibility and, in his faithfulness, will help us as we seek to find balance in this manner. The more time that is spent alone with God, the more our identity rests in that relationship and the understanding that God loves us.5 We begin to view life with more clarity and balance. One analogy for this is walking in a river. As long as we continue to move, the mud in the water is stirred up and we can’t see. But when we stop, the silt settles and the water becomes clear. Priorities shift and fall into place, and we are better able to choose how best to serve. As we are more and more defined by God’s love, our choices are centered on what moves us toward loving God, others, and ourselves.

The Role of the Church

A secondary aspect of missionary care is the role of the sending organization—the church—in the life of the missionary and in their ministry. What does Scripture say about this role? What is required beyond the responsibility of sending and praying as stated by Paul in 2 Corinthians? We first look at Jesus and the example he gives and then move to the early church’s example of mutual responsibility.

Jesus spent his three years of ministry with two foci—first, loving the world through his personal teaching, healing, and relationships and second, equipping and caring for those he was sending out. John Mark Hicks suggests that the church was created to carry on the work of Jesus in this world—to be God’s healing love in this world and to encourage and equip others to do the same. It is one of the grand acts of the biblical story.6 The church participates in the work of our Lord by carrying the gospel to others and by being in partnership with those who carry the good news to others beyond its reach. Missionaries are co-workers in kingdom work. Unfortunately, this is not always the church’s view. At times the church views missionaries as employees to be sent out to do the work. At other times, the church sees its on-going role as minimal, such as sending a check once a month. Jesus portrays a much stronger partnership when he sends his disciples. In the sending out of the seventy-two disciples, his investment in their work is apparent. He instructs them on how to behave and minister and then sends them out with specific instructions. They then return to him rejoicing and he rejoices with them (Luke 10:1–24). His relationship with them was ongoing. He did not leave them on their own. That is the example for the church when a fellow believer decides to answer God’s call to carry the gospel to other lands. This is an opportunity that not every believer can take. It allows those of us in the church to assist and rejoice in the opportunity for the full-time focus on kingdom work. Our part is to sustain this co-worker in their efforts.

Another example is the manner in which Jesus invested himself in the growth and ministry of his disciples. As the disciples worked alongside Jesus, he continually taught, encouraged, and fine-tuned their understanding. He did not invite them into ministry and then leave them. We see in the Gospels the growth that occurred in the spirits and ministry of the disciples as they spent time with Jesus. We see them ministering in the early days of Jesus’ ministry, because he invited them to participate when they were not yet mature in their faith. He then saw to their growth as they walked with him. He did not move on to the next disciples but allowed them to remain with him. We, the church, see in this investment an example for the equipping of servants of the gospel. We help them work at the beginning of their ministry and continue in relationship with them in order to help them survive and thrive in their work. We invest as partners in the ministry that they do.

The early church also offers a model of partnership with those sent out. The church had a joint investment in the gospel being shared. In those early days, when the apostles were continuing Christ’s work on earth, the church oversaw the efforts and sent out people chosen specifically for leadership in other places. We see an emotional investment in the spreading of the gospel in other cities and countries. The church experienced both concern and joy for the various aspects of the work.

Peter came before the church in Jerusalem to explain his activities with the Gentiles in Caesarea. The church was concerned about the seeming departure from the intent of Christ, but after listening to his report, “they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life’ ” (Acts 11:18). They viewed the work of Peter in concert with their own work and rejoiced at its expansion. A later instance is when Paul and Barnabas were met with the question of whether or not the Gentiles should be circumcised:

The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles…It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” (Acts 15:6–20)

Again, this event portrays the investment that the church in Jerusalem had in the work of Paul and Barnabas. They viewed it as effort owned by all Christians. Throughout Acts and the Epistles, we see examples of the church sending, encouraging, exhorting, correcting, and caring for both the missionaries and the churches that began in different locations. Powell and Bower describe the development of a pattern from apostle-centered ministry to ministry focused on the mutual relationship of believers and to the ministry of pastor-teachers and cross-cultural workers. He makes a case for missionary care based on this developmental process. He portrays the language changing from that of teaching, preaching, and exhorting in Acts to that of encouraging, comforting, strengthening, edifying, and confronting—a shift to the mutual responsibility of believers.7

Conclusion

How wonderful to imagine the church unified in spreading the gospel to the entire world, a church in which individual members are aware that we each are different parts of the body—encouraging and helping each other to carry out our unique roles for the advancement of the kingdom. If I am not able or equipped to take the good news to another country, I relish the opportunity to do everything I can to make the mission work of another successful. I embrace this chance to encourage another to be Christ incarnate among those with whom I will not come in contact.

We are partners in kingdom work. My role may be to care for myself and my family, so that we can be the best possible instruments of God on the field. Or my role may be to do what I can to ensure that another has what they need to serve God where I cannot. This is the body of the God that I serve. This is truly “an expression of our encounter with God in the realities of life.”

Jackie Halstead is the Director of Education, Programs, and Connections at Scarritt Bennett Center, a retreat and conference center in Nashville, Tennessee (http://scarrittbennett.org). She is an adjunct professor of Spiritual Formation and Marriage and Family Therapy at Lipscomb University. She taught and chaired the department of MFT at ACU and then served at Lipscomb as Director of the Institute for Christian Spirituality and on the Bible faculty. She has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for the past twenty-seven years, specializing in clergy and their families. Dr. Halstead speaks frequently on the topics of contemplative prayer, spiritual formation, and mental health at the national and international levels.

Bibliography

Hicks, John Mark. Enter the Water. Come to the Table: Baptism and Lord’s Supper in the Bible’s Story of New Creation. Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 2014.

Nouwen, Henri. “Moving from Solitude to Community.” Leadership: A Practical Journal for Church Leaders 16, no. 2 (Spring 1995): http://christianitytoday.com/le/1995/spring/5l280.html.

Taylor, Glenn C. “A Theological Perspective on Missionary Care,” in Enhancing Missionary Vitality: Mental Health Professions Serving Global Missions, edited by John R. Powell and Joyce M. Bowers, 55–62. Palmer Lake, CO: Mission Training International, 1999. http://www.chinamembercare.com/en/PDF/S1/A%20Theological%20Perspective%20on%20Missionary%20Care.pdf.

Tucker, Ruth, and Leslie Andrews. “Historical Notes on Missionary Care.” In Missionary Care: Counting the Cost for World Evangelization, ed. Kelly O’Donnell, 24–36. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1992.

Though transitions such as reentry can seem overwhelming, missionaries can prepare well for these transitions by listening to and learning from the stories of others who have already walked that road. In this article the author shares constructive insights both from her family’s reentry story and from the InterMission ReEntry workbook.

In 1991, my family of six moved to Texas after having lived in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa for 15 years. At the time, research on missionary care was sparse. My resources in Africa were limited, and I could only find one book on the subject of reentry. This book was not just for missionaries but also for business and military personnel. Entitled Cross-Cultural Reentry: A Book of Readings, the book was edited by Clyde N. Austin.1 Published in 1986, the book was fairly new on the market when I was looking in 1988. We had met Dr. Austin while visiting Abilene Christian University, so I decided to give it a try. The book was probably recommended by Dottie Schulz when I took a seminar class on the Missionary Woman.

At first I thought it would be difficult learning about reentry just by reading a book that seemed to pertain to our family only partially. However, I persevered and learned how business, military, and missionary families shared similar needs regarding reentry and family adjustment. I began to appreciate learning from other kinds of expatriates so I could apply their experiences to my own family. I would like to share with you a few of the lessons that I learned at that time and applied to my family upon our return. These insights eventually contributed to the development of a new ministry called InterMission, which is designed to help others through reentry, as well as to help and encourage missionaries on the field. The second section of this article therefore presents some of InterMission’s reentry material.

Lessons from My Family’s Reentry

One of the first lessons that I learned was that we were not alone. Of course I knew that many families had returned from the mission field before us. My own husband’s parents and grandparents were among them. It was, however, a new concept to realize that all of the families of missionaries I had known had internally gone through many of the same struggles. From a distance, it was not easy to realize that other missionaries had trouble fitting back into US congregations, thought shopping was a nightmare of choices, and really did not know what to do with all the local family traditions into which they were expected to fit. One of the reasons for this difficulty was that I had not yet learned to ask about and listen to other missionaries’ stories about reentry. In retrospect, I remember hearing my husband’s grandparents, A. B. and Margaret Reese, having returned to the States after about 30 years in Zambia, lament that they no longer felt any purpose in their ministry or their life. They wished they had spent their retirement years in Africa where they could continue to bless others. (They blessed many in Arkansas but they could not see that as easily.) They did not feel that they really found their role in the US congregation. At one ReEntry Seminar with my InterMission team, I related a story about having so much trouble buying a hair bow for my daughter at Wal-Mart. I had been used to a limited range of choices, but at Wal-Mart there was a display five feet high and about fifteen feet long. I was overwhelmed. When I finished the story, one of the returning missionaries in the group said, “I thought I was the only one that had that trouble.” Everyone in the group assured him that they had each had the same experience with cereal, bread, or some other item. As missionaries we had also developed our own family traditions at holiday times. Coming back to being closer to family physically, we were expected to be at all holiday gatherings since we had missed so many. We were happy to do so but did feel the conflict with our own family traditions.

Another lesson was to say goodbye well to the country where we had lived so long and the people we had learned to love. Since we had been working in the later years with World Bible School follow-up, we had traveled and worked in many places. We made trips and said goodbye to some of our favorite people and places. We visited local congregations. We made personal presents for each family in our home congregation in Kempton Park, South Africa. When the day came for our departure, the entire congregation came to the airport. We stood in a huge circle and sang praises to God. One of the things we told them, our children, and even ourselves was that we would always be friends, no matter where we lived. (This was before email, Internet, and Facebook.) Twenty-three years later this still holds true. We are still friends with many there. We may not see each other often or even communicate regularly, but if one of us needs something from another, all we have to do is ask, and help is on the way.

The next major lesson I remember is that the missionary family needs to take time for themselves between saying goodbye on one side of the ocean and saying hello on the other. Since we were flying from Africa and already had to make a stop in Europe to change planes, we decided to spend two weeks in Europe on the way to the States. Lack of resources made it challenging, but God took care of all our needs, and the time allowed us to get our emotions on a more even keel. Arriving in Germany, we were exhausted from all the packing, cleaning, and saying goodbyes. Our first challenge was the heavy rain that ruled out staying in our tent and forced us to find a bed and breakfast. We spoke no German, but the proprietor could understand John’s Afrikaans. When we wanted to locate church services in Italy, no one answered the church telephone on Saturday. Since it was a long weekend, the banks in Italy were closed, so we could not change money or buy food. (This was before ATMs.) Finally, someone at the church arrived early for services and gave us directions over the telephone. When we arrived at the church building, longtime friends and teachers from Harding University were there at worship. They took us in for the next several days, feeding and blessing us both physically and spiritually. Though the holiday itself was taxing, we were in much better shape emotionally to fly to our sponsoring congregation and begin the process of being welcomed and cared for at “home.”

Before reading Clyde Austin’s book, I had not had much education in understanding Third Culture Kids (those raised in a culture different from their parents’ home culture). I was married to a TCK and was raising another four TCKs, but I did not have a larger perspective on the subject. I was not completely prepared for the idea that my children would fit the “hidden immigrant” profile, meaning that in the US they would look like everyone else but would not sound or think like their peers. When we arrived, we had one in high school, one in middle school, one in elementary, and one starting kindergarten. There were many foreigners in the public schools my children attended. The two oldest, however, did not want to appear different; they wanted to fit in with local peers. After three days of speaking with a lovely South African accent (sounding mostly British to US ears), my teenage children tired of answering the question Where are you from? and switched to a perfectly pitched Texas accent. They kept their thoughts to themselves and began to blend in and appear like everyone around them.

Since beginning to learn about reentry from Dr. Austin’s book, I went on to earn a master’s degree in Family Studies in 2002, writing a thesis on “The Strength of Missionary Families: A Descriptive Study of Missionaries among Churches of Christ.”2 One of the main places I found to do research on missionary families was in the library Dr. Austin had set up as part of the Robert and Mary Ann Hall Chair of Psychology & Intercultural Studies at Abilene Christian University. (Currently, Dr. Steve Allison holds that chair.) So again I was very thankful to Dr. Austin for helping me on my way.

Our personal reentry story has continued as my husband John and I established a ministry called InterMission in 2006 with other veteran missionaries. Clay and Cherry Hart, Kent and Nancy Hartman, Edward and Sharon Short, and John and I are all volunteers who serve other missionary families to help them in their transitions. Each couple has over 16 years of foreign experience, and two of us were reared as TCKs. We host a Global Reunion camp for TCKs and their parents each July, we hold ReEntry Seminars on weekends twice a year for those that have recently returned, and we go annually to mission points around the world to host a five day InterMission to encourage those on the field. More details are available at http://intermissionministry.org. In addition our own four children, their spouses, and our twelve grandchildren have all lived and served (or continue to do so) in five different mission fields on three continents. Helping missionaries is our passion and our pleasure.

Guidance for Reentry from InterMission

The following material is adapted from InterMission’s ReEntry Seminar handbook.

1. What is reentry?

This is the simple term that means a person has left a country that was foreign to him and returned to his home country. This time away could have been short or long or somewhere in-between. Reentry involves the adjustment back to the home culture.

2. Reentry begins when you leave home in the first place.

Reentry is affected by the leaving of the foreign culture. Were we able to say goodbye in a satisfactory way to our friends, the church family, the local shopkeeper, and the household help? How about saying goodbye to favorite places like our house, the park where we played with the kids, our get-away hiding place on the beach, in the mountains, or in the country—did we take time for this?

Reentry is also affected by our thoughts of the home culture while we were overseas. It is easy to glamorize thoughts of home when away for a period of time. Everything becomes better when we haven’t seen it for a while and are struggling to learn a new way. Coming home to reality can sometimes be a real shock.

Another part of reentry that happens before we return is the simple fact that we and our family have changed because of our experiences. As Christians, we missionaries pray for the Lord to mold and make us into better people. Without necessarily realizing it, we have been affected by our experiences. We have learned patience by having to work with rules we do not understand and governments that don’t really care. We have learned humility by working in a culture where we understand less than little children and where we find out there is more than one right way to accomplish a task. Our ability to love has been stretched to love many different kinds of people. Our adaptability has taken on new dimensions as we eat foods we have never heard of, shop in markets where we have to learn to bargain, and worship in languages foreign to our ears.

We also have to realize that the United States has changed while we were away. In the years away, new politicians have come to the forefront. New stars have become popular. The culture has been changed by movies, clothing styles, and let’s face it, lots of immigrants. The local congregation has probably changed as well. People have come and gone, new programs have been started and new people may be in leadership. Our friends and family have also had growing experiences. That loved one who died while we were gone is now going to be missed more than ever. That new baby you haven’t even seen is now a walking, talking person.

3. The arrival home phase

Most experts agree that reentry is much harder than first entering into a foreign culture. When we go to a foreign culture, we expect everything to be different. We expect to be misunderstood. We expect not to know the cues of the culture. We expect not to look or sound like anyone else. When we return to our home culture, we expect everything to revert to normal where we are easily understood and we recognize the cultural rules. Yet, because of all the changes that we have just discussed, this is not possible. The fact that our mind does not expect this makes it harder still. Just staying in the home culture there is a lot of difference between being a teenager or a college student and being a responsible adult with a young family. There are adjustments to make. If we leave our home culture not long after college and then return to pick up the reins of a career, we have all of those adjustments to make on top of reentry.

There are several major issues in this phase. One of the first we notice is that we have a hard time communicating our experiences. What can really be said at worship services when someone says, “Hey, great to see you. How was your time overseas? Aren’t you glad to be home?”? Even if you manage to get in a few sentences, you will soon be interrupted by someone across the foyer who stops by to invite your friend to lunch. Telling our stories is difficult. We have to summarize those feelings and experiences with words that are wholly inadequate. Then we have to find someone that is willing to listen for more than a couple of minutes.

Another issue, especially for the wage-earner in the family, is the feeling of a loss of time or even training. Others our age have advanced from entry-level worker to manager. A master’s degree is no longer good enough as all our peers are finishing their doctorates. Those who have been gone a while will find that somehow they missed out on investments and building up retirement. As missionaries, we have good experiences under our belt, but it is hard to translate them to marketable skills.

Fitting back into a local congregation in the US can be a big issue for a missionary. First, he has been the elder, preacher, youth minister, decision maker, direction setter, and more on the field. If he did his job well, he has transitioned out of those jobs on the field and helped others learn to take his place, but he was still in a position of respect and some authority. Back in the US, the missionary feels (at the beginning) no more involved than a long-time visitor. He has no jobs or role in the congregation. No one comes to him for advice on what to do. Often, in this day of the “professional” minister, he may not even get to preach for his home congregation. Ladies class, the local benevolence ministry, or the Bible class program does not revolve around the missionary wife as it might have done on the mission field. Also, there could be issues about independence. One recent missionary talked about how he had to get permission to buy a package of paper at the local congregation, when overseas, he had been in charge of making the decisions on spending the large building fund they had raised. Besides money, there is also the fact that the missionary, while he is on the field, is often accountable to no one. He has to make his own schedule, decide on his own work load, and set his own goals. He is accountable to the home church, but they are not with him every day.

Adjacent to this role change, the missionary has to redefine his or her identity. We have to be careful to define ourselves as “How does God see us?” rather than “How does man see us?”

Also related to this are the changes in the church culture while we were overseas. As mentioned, the church has probably undergone changes. Now we, as missionaries, have to work to catch up. Some of the changes will be easy to accept. We may have to wrestle with some of the changes to decide if they are scriptural. What if we decide they are not? What are our choices?

One of the most obvious issues that affect people on reentry, whether they have been gone one month, one year, or one decade, is their attitude toward materialism. Getting out in the world and seeing that most people do not live with the huge amount of choices and things that Americans have is quite an eye-opening experience. Coming back to overwhelming abundance can be very difficult. It is hard to throw away leftover food when you have seen the hungry. It is hard to throw away good plastic plates, cups, flatware just so we don’t have to wash them (in our dishwashers). It is hard to “run get something to eat” when you have lots of food in the pantry. It is still a shock to see what people register for on wedding and baby shower gift lists. How many choices do we as Americans feel we really need?

The last issue in this phase has been eluded to already, but it deserves more attention. The returning missionary family needs to find its sense of purpose in the home country. On the field, we often do things we wouldn’t normally do or endure things we normally would not accept, because we feel the Lord put us there for a purpose. Back home it is sometimes easy to get so caught up in the busy life that we feel God doesn’t purposefully guide us anymore. We tend to forget that there are people all around us that need the gospel.

4. The survival phase

The survival phase also starts before you ever get off that airplane. Experts agree it is beneficial to reflect on your time overseas as a family. This is a time to release your experiences mentally and say goodbye. When possible, it is best to do this before you have to say hello. If you did not have the opportunity to take some time off on the trip home, then make an opportunity as soon as possible upon returning.

Take the time to grieve over the things you have lost because you gave of yourselves to the Lord. Realize that this grief is real and don’t be afraid to express your feelings toward the issues you face. Realize that the grieving process takes time. You will also need time to heal and adjust.

Approach the home country as you did the foreign field. Take it slow in making changes and being critical. Take the time to find out why people do what they do. Don’t be overly critical.

It is important to your wellbeing to be able to tell your story. Find some avenue to do so, such as a friend who is willing to sit and listen. Use your experiences in teaching Bible class (but remember that it was inappropriate to make constant comparisons between the mission field and your home culture, and apply the same wisdom in reverse). Think of great lessons you learned and write articles for magazines and the like. That experience overseas has made you a better person. Use your transformation to bless others.

Take a little time to do some career evaluation. Since you are not the same person who moved overseas, maybe you do not still have a passion for the career you thought you wanted. Be willing to try it for a while to find out, but also be willing to change to what suits your new skills and emotions. You may find that your years overseas have given you new skills and opened new doors for your future. (There are counselors that do testing and counseling on career assessments if you need help.)

Be open and honest with your mission committee, elders, or family about your needs. Be willing to ask for help and guidance instead of feeling that you have to do everything by yourself.

Use your ability as a self-starter to benefit the local congregation. Let the other members continue to do what they are doing well, and look for jobs that no one has thought to do. Start that international outreach ministry with all the foreigners in your community. Who would know better that they need to feel loved and welcomed than someone who has walked in their shoes? Use your experiences and your new perspective to bless other ministries. Also, remembering your purpose, help others learn to reach out to their neighbors.

Because you want others to listen to you, you have the opportunity to learn to be a great listener to others. Put your compassion to work. Don’t just think about yourself and your needs but think about how to help others.

Life is full of transitions. May the Lord help you as you make this one for His service. May He bless you for the time you have given in other cultures for Him. May He make your life richer and fuller because of the experience.

Beth Reese worked with her husband, John, as a missionary for sixteen years in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. She worked in personal evangelism and ladies’ ministries. The family returned to the US in 1991.They led a number of God Bless Africa campaigns to Zimbabwe and Ghana. Beth earned an MA in Family Studies in 2002. Since that time she and John have taught classes on missionary families in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the United States. In 2006, they helped form InterMission, a missionary care organization that offers missionary care by and for missionaries (http://intermissionministry.org). She currently lives in Austin, TX.

Bibliography

Austin, Clyde N., ed. Cross-Cultural Reentry: A Book of Readings. Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University, 1986.

Reese, Joy Beth. “The Strength of Missionary Families: A Descriptive Study of Missionaries among Churches of Christ.” Master’s thesis, Abilene Christian University, 2002.