MISSIONARY CARE: HOW IS THE TWO-THIRDS-WORLD CHURCH DOING?
Milward Mwamvani, MA
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Introduction
Many writers and preachers repeatedly stress the missiological role of the church. Emil Brunner, as cited by Van Engen (1991) said, “The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning” (27). Although this refers to the Worldwide Church, it may also apply to the local congregation, even as Van Engen (1991) observed, “My thesis is that as local congregations are built up to reach out in mission to the world, they will become in fact what they already are by faith: God’s missionary people” (17).
Increasingly, the Church is acknowledging this honorable responsibility and taking its rightful position. With this rising involvement in missions, however, comes an observation of various trends and their related issues, which, if not properly checked, become detrimental to the missions enterprise. Guthrie (2000) looked at a number of such trends and issues in good detail. This article analyzes one such trend including some of the related issues. The analysis focuses on a specific world region and its relationship to the Biblical mandate and the Mission of God (missio Dei).Trend Identification
A lot has been written and said on the qualifications of a missionary. Various proposals and guidelines addressing areas of calling, recruitment, screening, training and commissioning of missionaries have been put forward over the years. For example, Cheesman (1989), writing on missionary selection, categorized qualifications in divisions such as physical, academic, psychological, and spiritual (117 – 120). Admittedly, “the best” should be sent out as missionaries. The Bible gives us an example of the first church that purposed to send out missionaries; they sent out their best (Acts 13:1 – 3). However, how can missionaries remain the best? This now calls for proper missionary care. This article desires to address the challenges of missionary care from the Two-Thirds World. Additionally, it gives suggestions of ways to mitigate the various shortfalls in missionary care, thereby reducing missionary attrition, which is rife in the Two-Thirds church mission agencies. Guthrie (2000) makes a striking comment that “the non-Western missions movement is better known for sending people out than keeping them on the field” (31). An observation like this is very disturbing, and, though very sad, it is very true. The Church needs to critically look at this and find ways of reversing the situation. He further observes that there are three key contributing factors to this trend, viz. “lack of training, a lack of on-field pastoral support, and a lack of finances” (Ibid. 2000, 31).
Statistics abound with information showing that there is an increased number of missionaries from the Two-Thirds World. However, Guthrie (2000) demands the provision of missionary care to avoid missionary attrition. Following Guthrie’s cue, other pertinent and analytical questions should be asked to diligently deal with the issue of missionary care. How will the Worldwide Church sustain missions if the major sending force cannot retain the workers on the field? Does a missionary have any say or determination as regard to missionary care issues on the mission field? Who determines missionary needs, and how much is decided by the missionary? Does the missionary have the right to demand relevant care? Who sets the standard? What channels could be used?
Missionary Care in the Light of Biblical Mandate and Mission of GodThe salvation of “the nations” has always been at the heart of God. Clearly, the theme of all Scripture (the Bible) centers on missio Dei (York 2000). Shenk (1993) also shows this fact when he states, “Mission … has its source in the nature and purpose of God,” and Steyne (1992) said that it is not possible to understand the theology of the Bible apart from God’s mission in the world (303). Van Engen’s thesis stated above, emphasizes the missionary responsibility of the church. Commenting on the significance of biblical theology in understanding missions, Goldsworthy (2000) observed that the rationale for a comprehensive biblical theology rests on the consistent recognition of the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth as the goal towards which the whole Old Testament moves.
Having an understanding of the mission of God as the whole mandate of Scripture helps us follow the theology of sending better. God’s mission always involves sending (and being sent). Biblical examples like that of Jonah may show us how God cares for those He sends out (Jonah 4:6). Jesus, when sending out the disciples, made sure to address the aspect of care and provisions because He knew these would be a concern to the sent (Matt. 10:5 – 16; Mark 6:7 – 13; Luke 9:2 – 6). Furthermore, Jesus clearly contrasted requirements of a short-term missionary to those of long-term (cf. Luke 9: 2 – 6 vs. Luke 22:35 – 38).
The New Testament text reveals that the spirit community included people God sent out as apostles. Acts 13:1 – 4 confirms and amplifies the apostolic motif as earlier practiced by Jesus (John 20:21). Although the English translations for verses 3 and 4 both use the word “sent”, the Greek rendering for the word used in verse 3 is “apolouo”, which means “to free fully or dismiss” (cf. Matt. 14:22; Mark 8:9; Luke 8:38), while verse 4 uses “ekpempo”, meaning “to dispatch or send forth” (cf. Acts 17:10). This shows that the Holy Spirit (God) sent forth Saul and Barnabas, while the church set them free to go. This is critical to understanding the sending theology and to help us understand that God is central to sending. The reception of the apostles on their return journeys further reveals the church’s responsibility and participation in the sending of the apostles. Just as Jesus prepared a debriefing time for his disciples whenever they got back from ministry (Luke 10:1 – 20), Saul and Barnabas also went back for debriefing to their “sending” church (cf. Acts 14:26 – 28). These accounts show that there was some kind of continuous link and care for the “sent” by the “senders”.
Kane (1976) advises that missionaries, pastors, and all with a vital interest in the evangelization of the world, should search the Scriptures in order to come to an understanding of the biblical basis of the Christian mission (16). Reflecting similar intimations, Burbank (1996) said, “The ministry of sending is biblical, and it is wonderful to study Paul’s communication with the people who sent him” (164). Doing member care reflects God’s heart and kingdom values. All through the Bible, God challenged and stretched His people. He keenly desired their development into all they could be, to His honor and glory (Swanson, 2002, 436).
Agreeing with Swanson’s remarks, Pollock (2002) said, “Barnabas separated from a rewarding, positive, long-term relationship with Paul in order to care for a wounded disciple named John Mark. The latter ultimately recovered to become ‘profitable’ to Paul (Acts 15:36ff; 2 Tim. 4:11)” (31). This shows that with God’s calling of the church into the missions enterprise, He desires appropriate care for those going out to fulfill the missions mandate.
Historical Review of Missionary Care
Although there is adequate information of the missions work in history, our historical review of missionary care starts with William Carey, who is popularly referred to as the father of modern missions. Barker (1969) defined Carey as an “indefatigable pioneer of the modern missionary movement” (62). Carey’s personal life, however, was full of tragedy, with his children and wife all succumbing to the diseases and climate of India (Ibid, 63). Unfortunately, modern observers fail to appreciate the challenges of pioneer missionaries. Thus, the foregone description of Carey’s situation might not give a clear picture of its gravity. A clearer picture can be seen in the light of the experiences of other pioneering missionaries of that time.
Missionaries did not just face challenges of preaching the gospel to unbelieving communities, but they also faced their own physical, emotional and psychological battles. In the 1700s, David Brainerd, a successful missionary, suffered depression and loneliness. This and Dorothy Carey’s increasingly well-known story of mental breakdown in India are but the earliest examples of the involvement of psychological issues or symptoms in the life of the missionary (Lindquist (1996, 76). Adoniram Judson responded to his wife’s and daughter’s death with mental disorder and recovery. J. Hudson Taylor exhibited depression and related difficulties. Mary Morrison (1800s) struggled with adjustment, depression and related mental breakdown, and Mary Livingston was sent back to England alone with her children where the church ignored her, and she struggled with alcoholism (Ibid).
Terrible, sad, and disturbing. Why did this happen? What could have been done differently? Take the issue of Mary Livingston, for example. What happened for the church to ignore her? Could appropriate and necessary attention not have been rendered? Are missionaries such “disposables”? Clearly, there was serious lack of care for the missionaries.
The examples cited above are from Western countries. Over the years, the Church in these countries has found out that there is need to deliberately emphasize missionary care. Bothering is the fact that the Two-Thirds-World countries seem to be making the mistakes made by the Western Church in the infancy of its mission emphasis. The saddening fact is that “the health of African missionaries has not yet received much attention in many quarters. Generally, there is a lack of organized, consistent, ongoing provision for healthcare” (Famonure (2002, 104). Famonure noted that due to this inconsistency a large denominational church in the Central African region got jolted into the practical reality of the need for pastoral care when one of its trusted, proven, and reliable workers returned home devastated, broken, and possibly never to go back to the field (96).
Many African missionaries work under very austere conditions, and often they are stressed by many factors, including long years of work without vacation, lack of adequate provision, family and children’s issues, trauma from civil or religious wars, communal clashes, and so on (Ibid. 105).
Missionary care should not be mistakenly identified as only a responsibility of the sending body. It also depends, to a reasonably large extent, on the missionary. There is a part that the missionary plays and a part for the sending church. Unfortunately, due to this confusion of provision of the missionary care, many missionaries go out, not only without skills, but also without adequate field supervision, mentoring and appropriate care. In some cases, missionaries go out by themselves without the support of any sending church to unreached and difficult fields. In most cases, these untrained missionaries crash woefully and return home broken. Others manage to weather the storms and stay on, ‘spoil’ the work, and consequently, shut the door to further mission efforts among the people group they serve (Ibid. 96-97).
Although the malaise of lack of missionary care predominantly affects the African Church as observed by Famonure, occasionally one notices seeming confusion with the missionaries from the West too. Once a well-known missionary from an established missionary-sending country set up a viable street children’s program on a mission field; but somehow she became arrogant, stopped fellowshipping with the missionary community around, and defied counsel offered by leaders who made an effort to come from the home country to the mission field to help restore the missionary. During the process threats were made to expose all underground missionaries in the sensitive country. Eventually everything failed, and the missionary left the country escorted like a criminal, but not without causing much damage to the missionary community. This story underscores the fact that both the missionary and sending agencies significantly determine the quality of missionary care.
Classification of Care Issues
Missionaries, despite being caregivers, equally need care themselves. Undoubtedly, Two Third World Missions still struggle with the modalities of extending the care to the people sent to the mission field. This section identifies and analyzes three missionary care issues that deserve immediate attention from the African church: those of finances, training, and pastoral care (Guthrie 2000). Many words are used to describe what takes place in missionary care. These include words like friendship, encouragement, affirmation, help, and fellowship as well as sharing, communicating, visiting, guiding, comforting, counseling and debriefing. All of these, and more, are facets of care given by someone who understands the special needs of missionaries (Koteskey, 2003, 183).Financial Care
Statistical evidence for the Church movement indicates the Church has gone to the Southern Hemisphere. Inevitably, the world’s typical new missionary is quickly becoming one from the Two-Thirds World. The phrase Two-Thirds World gets its meaning from the world of economics. Demographers use “developing” and “developed” countries to contrast the Two-Thirds World and the Western World. These terms reflect the economic status of the respective world regions. Although all nations of the world face economic challenges, the Two-Thirds-World nations suffer the most. Unavoidably, the Church reflects similar challenges. This also affects the number of missionaries that go out, and affects the resources for missionary support.
Economic hardship affects missions in two ways. Either it slows down the missionary-sending momentum, or it radicalizes missionaries with a philosophy of going out in faith. This radical form of mission, also known as faith mission — a model of doing mission without a clear promise of support from a sending agency—characterized the mission enterprise of the 19th century. Most Pentecostal missions, such as the Assemblies of God, at the inception of the 20th century followed this model. Finance was not the determining factor in the going forth of those early missionaries. For the most part, they ignored missionary organization and simply trusted God for support and guidance. However, some of them had more zeal than knowledge (Carpenter 1988, 92).
Presently, the Two-Thirds-World missions endeavor faces similar challenges to those that Western mission agencies faced in their formative stages. While zeal is there for missionaries to go out, the finances limit the process, and we may have a few examples of adventurers like those mentioned earlier. These adventurers boldly declare, “I don’t care for a mission board to back me up with pledged financial support, but I must have people of like precious faith to uphold me with their prayers and fellowship. I know the Lord’s method of sending forth missionaries (according to Acts 13:1 – 4) is for the Spirit to call them, then the church to send them” (Carpenter, 94– 95). Such declarations may help keep the fire burning and workers going forth.
The philosophy that drives the faith mission model is not necessarily wrong; it just reveals the necessity of coordinated efforts from the sending Church. When such wisdom fails, radicalization becomes the only option. The twenty-first-century missionary force from the developing nations is sometimes poor, but almost always spiritually radical and, therefore, juxtaposed to the wealthy, conservative church of the West. The new missions force is more in touch with poverty, oppression and the supernatural (Shibley 2001, 167). However, the conditions of the remaining mission fields may no longer favor the faith mission model. The world is dynamic, and though missionaries today are called to go out in faith, situations in the missionary fields are not the same as they were half a century ago.
One challenging fact about missions today is that the Two-Thirds-World missionary might not be the first one to get to a particular field. Usually there might be a few other missionaries already there, and there is a high probability that these would be from the West. Generally, these are better off financially. Two negative social behaviors assail such situations. First, if the Two-Third missionary is not careful, they fail in the dambos of self-pity when they compare their living conditions to the Western missionary.
Second, because the Two Third World missionary (especially those from Africa) do not have financial resources to share with the local national church like the Western missionary, the receiving church resorts to treating them as inferior to their Western counterparts. These are real issues and so traumatic that some missionaries leave mission fields. This reality brings one thing to the fore: it is not possible to successfully be involved in the missions endeavor without the necessary financial support or its equivalent. Zeal without knowledge leads to frustration and disappointment.
Additionally, the extended family networks characteristic of Africa, place undue pressure and burdens on the missionaries. Because in most cases the missionary may be the first to get the chance of good education, parents and the rest of the extended family look to them for financial support. The situation worsens by the fact that from the secular point of view, people feel that if an organization sends you to work in another country, then you get a lot of money. Unfortunately, the Two-Thirds-World missionaries may go to a country where the cost of living is even higher than in their home country and, hence, live below their perceived economic standard.
Generally, the extended family does not know the actual dynamics on the mission field, and yet they still harbor high expectations for the missionary to support them, even more so now that they are living abroad. This aspect stresses the African missionaries whenever they realize that they do not have enough to support their parents. This is similar to the Chinese scenario. Many Chinese Asian missionaries continue to give their parents a monthly allowance while they are away. It represents a token of their gratitude for their parents’ care and provision for them when they were young; actually most parents expect this token even if they may not openly ask for it (Wiarda, 2002, 47 – 48).
Lack of financial discipline stalks the missions’ enterprise of Africa’s sending churches. Unfortunately, lack of transparency on the usage of the mission funds stands as the biggest hurdle in financial discipline and reporting. At times missions funds are ill administered. For example, churches and individuals make pledges towards the support of a missionary, and yet every so often administrators direct such funds to areas of need in the home church/office. This causes missionaries to go without the support they desperately need and expect. To make it worse, there is usually no communication to let the missionary know the financial situation. Dishearteningly, leaders care for the issues at home, which they could maneuver around instead of allowing missionaries to starve for lack of resources. This is bothersome. One wonders if mission leaders would make similar decisions if the roles were switched.Pastoral Care
Appropriate pastoral care (the ability to shepherd and care for missionaries) constitutes a powerful element of missionary care lacking in most Two-Thirds-World mission enterprises. Actually, the impact of the lack of pastoral care outweighs that of financial insufficiency. Good pastoral care takes care of most issues arising from financial concern. For example, effective and adequate pastoral care would easily affirm and counsel a Two-Thirds-World missionary living in self-pity for not having as much as the Western colleague.
Admittedly, when a missionary worries over such issues all alone for too long, they eventually give up. However, a perceptive pastoral team from home that regularly communicates with this missionary by sending their encouragements, persuades a missionary to develop a perception that the sending communities believe in their (missionary) success. Loneliness and a feeling of not belonging play a major role in contributing to missionary attrition.
Mission work is hard, extremely hard at times. To a large degree workers need to hang on and tough it out, honoring their duty to the Lord’s call. However —and this is a huge however —the vast majority of good, hardy workers wear out if they are not developed or cared for, not just the “weak” ones (Swanson 2002, 437). It is not necessarily weakness that leads to the failure of missionaries, but missing good pastoral care. Nevertheless, we should hasten to submit that the missionary plays a vital role in the implementation of effective pastoral care. Thus, for this to work properly, mutual agreement between missionary and sending church should be set through necessary policies, procedures and infrastructures.
Pastoral care supports the missionary physically, emotionally and spiritually. It is an essential component determining the ultimate success of the missionary. Would it be radical to postulate that most missionaries fall into sin because of lack of pastoral care? Pastoral care includes accountability partnerships that may be set up on the field. Careful reading of even the most eulogistic missionary biographies of the past reveals the need for, and sometimes acute absence of, pastoral care of the missionary (Fife 1970, 19).
Although the need for pastoral care is constant for the missionary, there are some particularly crucial periods when the missionary desperately needs such care (Fife, 1970, 21). The missionary’s experiential phases include pre-field, field and re-entry. This cycle is repeated many times, as long as the missionary goes back home for fundraising, itineration, furlough, medical reviews, etc, or whenever they change the field of operation. Each phase has its own financial, psychological and emotional challenges. Missionaries experience cultural shock on varying scales either when they go to the field or when they return home. Understandably, missionaries desperately need pastoral care in all the itemized phases.
The Two-Thirds-World mission, especially the African church seems to be trying to fine-tune the ability to offer pastoral care to its missionaries. Sadly, casualties to mission attrition increase every year due to the fact that leaders of the sending churches are short sighted on the issues, coupled with the lack of financial resources. For example, most African Churches do not have in place a system to take care of the missionary during re-entry. Issues of deployment, re-assignment, re-entry, pension, etc, must be included during the recruitment process so that the missionary might know how to prepare for homecoming. Jordan (1992) likened the returning missionary to a spaceship returning to earth (14 – 22). As such, there is need for continuous monitoring and re-entry preparations. Tentmakers could be easy victims of the reverse shock because many people do not think that tentmakers need as much care as the career missionary.
The sending body has a very important role with regard to pastoral care. Well-nurtured missionaries pass on the same to the community in which they minister. Missionaries are expected by the receiving nationals to always give from their spiritual reservoir. With passing of time, missionaries fail to minister to others if they themselves are not replenished. Undoubtedly, the sending body has a great responsibility to spiritually support the missionary. Unfortunately, missionaries may go about praying for other people, while no one prays for and with them. There is need to set up avenues for the church at home to pray and to tell the missionaries that they are praying for them.
Communication is one of the most important attributes of any successful organization (if not the most important). Observation shows that Two-Thirds-World senders neglect this attribute. Two-way communication between the missionary and his home church and friends forms a lifeline that must never be cut. Like a diver in the depths of the sea, the lifeline enables him to perform normal actions in a different environment. Cut the lifeline, and the diver struggles for life and abandons attempts to accomplish anything. When missionaries reach that stage, they are tempted to give up (Lane 1990, 95).
Organizationally, successful sending churches establish clear channels of communication. With clear channels, missionaries communicate and offload their burdens, both personally and in relation to the sending body. Western missionaries have systems in place that even include a visit from one’s home church on the mission field just to encourage the missionary. From a Two-Thirds-World perspective, this might seem (or indeed be) costly. However, total neglect of the missionary is another extreme that a sending body would not want to get into. In such cases, mission field-based partnerships play a vital role.
Knowing that missions is from all nations to all nations, one field may have missionaries from various sending agencies. Missionaries have the opportunity of developing two forms of partnerships. First, the missionary establishes partnerships with other colleagues from agencies and regions. Second, there are other official partnerships created by various sending organizations. Thus, partnerships established by both the missionary while on the field and the sending body in its official capacity, go a long way in taking care of many of the pastoral needs.Training
Missionary training is significantly and intricately linked with missionary care. Effective training ensures significant discussions on bothersome missionary-care issues. Training, as part of the missionary recruitment process, helps to let the missionary know issues they face on the field. The first Eleventh Hour Institute (EHI), a mobile training institute, conducted in Lilongwe, Malawi, enlightened me on this. The institute also acted as an orientation for us as we prepared to go on our first mission assignment. My most favorite topic was “Surviving and Thriving in the Hardest of Places”. Admittedly, I enjoyed this topic because the facilitator shared practical issues of missionary life in the country that I was going to. This training prepared us more on real-life issues and portrayed many strange issues of the mission field as normal in their context.
Training prepares the missionary for the realities they face on the field. Regrettably, as Guthrie (2000) notes that lack of training contributes highly to Two-Thirds-World missionary attrition. Training should be robust and dynamic, and should encompass different models. Training is even essential while the missionary is already serving; refresher courses during their terms of service help very much. Effective training addresses financial and pastoral issues adequately; it is outcome- and field-based to the end that it includes suggested topics from practicing missionaries. Input from a missionary is essential and should be used with appropriate consideration and reflection, for it is based on experiences.
Lack of adequate training is the foundation to the abuses of missionary care. Sending a missionary without training is like commissioning a carpenter without tools. While training alone does not make a missionary, there is a direct relationship between the quality and amount of training a missionary receives and his or her long-term effectiveness (Pate 1991, 256).
Besides Guthrie (2000), other authors also note the need for the church in the Two-Thirds World to emphasize the area of missionary training. Famonure (2002) observes that African missions, like their predecessors, have not grasped the need for training or for the patient, careful selection of missionary candidates (96). In some cases, it is not necessarily that the church does not grasp the need, but that these is the pressing need for workers urgently, and that there is lack of necessary resources.
Rapid church growth in many countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America heightens the challenge to train leaders able to nurture new Christians (Butare and Snodderly 2004). There is need for alternative models of mission training both in Western and non-Western worlds today (Ibid). Ninety-five percent of the two million church leaders in developing nations have not had the opportunity of formal training for ministry in a Bible school or seminary. However, it is known that most of these are on the front lines of spiritual combat just the same, slugging it out with little training and few resources (Shibley 2001, 168).
Although this is an encouraging commendation of the Two-Thirds-World workers, the Church still needs to work at ensuring that those untrained workers receive appropriate training. The returns from such an investment would be astounding as these same workers, now trained, go back to the field and do things differently to the glory of the Lord.RESPONSE PROPOSAL
Two-Thirds-World mission enterprise needs alignment with regard to missionary care. If the trends and issues discussed in the above sections remain unchecked, the missions endeavor of the Two-Thirds-World church will be a tragedy. Western missions, after stumbling over the same in its infancy and seeing disastrous outcomes, have in the recent past involved various specially-instituted bodies to handle various missionary-care issues (Guthrie (2000). Half a century ago people did not give serious consideration to caring for missionaries, but during the last quarter of a century many agencies have become interested in what has come to be called member care. Today many agencies have member care departments and conferences are held on the topic (Koteskey, 2003.182).
The question that one may ask is, “Does the Two-Thirds-World Church need its own Dorothy Careys and Mary Livingstons before appropriate action is taken? No, the Church has enough examples revealing the necessity of missionary care before tragedy strikes. Knowing that casualties keep arising on the mission fields where Two-Thirds-World missionaries are involved, this section proposes the following specific intervention for mission enterprises from Africa. Essentially, a well-coordinated and dynamic sending church is better suited to handle the lingering, yet bothersome, issues of missionary care already identified as the worst challenge for the Two-Thirds-World mission.
First, despite the increased missions awareness and preparation through many training/mobilization approaches such as the EHI, a need remains for more regular, localized trainings to meet the specific needs of prospective missionaries from Africa. Besides localized EHIs, there should be other forms of training addressing specific issues of concern with input from serving or returned missionaries. These would benefit both serving and prospective missionaries, since they address practical issues. Additionally, national missions departments should arrange missions training schools to orient missionaries. This might not necessarily mean that the church sends out a missionary every year, but annual missions-training models are a good habit to get into as the church gears for growth that leads to sending at least a missionary each year. Local congregations can also organize missions-training sessions to sensitize and mobilize members.
Training is essential and greatly helps in dealing with unresolved issues in prospective missionaries’ lives, which only become more haunting on the mission field. Specific information relating to the life of a missionary on the field should be available to missionaries. It is crucial that personal issues be resolved before the missionaries leave, because nine times out of ten, the resources are not available on the mission field to deal with them, and missionaries will have many more stresses on the field than in their own culture with their own support system (Burbank 1996, 162).
As already mentioned, pastoral care is very crucial in the survival of the missionary. Admittedly, different sending agencies have developed various pastoral care activities. It remains controversial as to whether established systems are accessible to the Two-Thirds-World missionary. This section suggests ways the African church can provide pastoral care to many of its missionaries. Both the national church systems and local congregations need to urgently put in mechanisms to cater for the pastoral care of missionaries. Pastoral care includes the practices of following-up, counseling, praying, and caring from the sending community.
Apart from the supervisory channels, the church can establish smaller communities for pastoral care. A specific group of people can be set to continuously communicate with the missionary after leaving for the field. These people, chosen as the permanent representatives, need to be encouraged to recruit other people to join them in praying for and communicating with the missionary. The flow of care begins with the prospective missionaries’ relationship to the local body of believers and moves to the relationship with the sending agency, whether it be the same local body or a mission agency (Pollock 2002, 25). For every missionary there should be at least ten very committed people for support. Any person going overseas should not leave home without a group of people who are equally as committed and excited about that mission (Burbank 1996. 164).
Missions committees both at the local congregation level and the national level are also a source of pastoral care and oversight to the spiritual life of the missionary (Ibid. 165). The mission committee’s responsibility is to follow-up those that pledge to communicate with the missionary to make sure they are doing it. Mission executives or supervisors are the closest to the missionary and, therefore, need to be the earliest to provide pastoral care. They communicate personally with the missionary, not only on official issues, but also on personal issues, just to know how the missionary is doing. Missionary supervisors should source personal prayer needs that the missionary wants to let the church know. Part of missions committee responsibility would be to plan to save money to allow the supervisors to visit the missionary periodically or during times of desperate need.The African church needs to embark on partnerships considering some of the care issues that were pointed out by Guthrie (2000). With the fact that the Western church is already established in various areas, it benefits the African mission-sending agencies to link up with existing organizations and agencies. Of course, whatever form of partnership, it should aim to empower and not dwarf the African church. Issues of partnership agreements must be tabled openly, discussing all possible ramifications. In this regard, questions like the following should be discussed: Can Africans be recruited by Western mission agencies? Can a Two-Thirds-World missionary access the care systems established by the Western mission agency (Turaki 2000)?
One of the most vexing aspects of missions is re-entry. The re-entry process and necessary pastoral care surrounding it should be included in the missionary pre-field orientation and the Eleventh Hour Institute (EHI), referred to earlier, should include discussions on the re-entry process of a missionary. The local church missions training awareness can add this to its training curriculum. Besides the curriculum, there is also need for every leader to undergo training also on how to care for returning missionaries. This is eventually passed on to congregations because every church member needs to know that returning missionaries need some special kind of handling just to help them re-adjust into the society.Financial Care for missionaries is a crucial and sensitive area demanding attention in the African church. First, it is evident by facts and experiences that support towards missions is inconsistent and insufficient. The Church should do all things to increase the financial base for missionary support. Mission executives would do well to intensify visits to stakeholder churches in order to develop a good financial base. Developing a healthy financial base helps in easing most of the finance-related issues. When a missionary is well supported, visits suggested earlier on as part of pastoral care are a possibility. Since lack of finances is noted as being a major contributor to missionary attrition, there is need to consider investing in some way so that adequate funds are raised for missions.
The African church stands between the rock and hard place. Despite insufficient financial income for mission work, there is necessity to invest thereby increasing missionary funds. Currently, the picture of mission income is pitiful and discouraging, but with wisdom and sacrificial spending the financial base will grow healthier and eventually become increasingly adequate to send more missionaries from investment returns.Alluded to earlier is the fact that there are times when sending agencies divert finances intended for missionaries and use them in other things while the missionaries starve. To stop this structural abuse and maladministration, instituting a strict mission financial policy ensures that the missionaries get their monthly support. Strict accounting procedures are essential in the administration of the mission funds. It is essential also that the funds are administered by someone who is not a beneficiary of the same in order to reduce bias in administration. Depending on various models of raising funds, the missions-sending agency should develop financial safety nets for the missionary. In the absence of adequate financial support, the sending mission agency should financially cover the missionaries until they (missionaries) are ready to begin the fundraising activity.
Knowing the level of mission involvement in Africa, it is essential for every missionary to accept that the system is in the formative period. Therefore, every pioneering missionary must work with the national executive leaders in developing the necessary structures and models of missions. Rarely do you find the missionary on the field being part of the sending agency team; whatever the situations, pioneering missionaries must be ready to develop and tweak different models to different situations. Missionaries must be personally involved in the dynamic development of the sending theology, structure, philosophy, etc. As experienced practitioners, missionaries are better suited to develop training models in which they include aspects of missionary care and procedures such as specialized preparatory and re-entry training. Skilled missionaries can be challenged to help develop training materials essential for those training programs. Of most urgency is the setting and developing of financial policies for missionaries and the missions’ board. Additionally, people with financial and investment understanding can be asked to investigate on investment ventures to develop a sustainable financial base for the missions department.
Conclusion
“Missions is central to the nature and purpose of the church” (Pate, 1991, 242). Christ has a kingdom that is to be proclaimed in its power to the ends of the earth. It is the duty of all Christians to engage in the proclamation of this kingdom, whether the time allotted by God for the fulfillment of this purpose be long or short (Neill 1964, 222). The church in the Two-Thirds World has grasped this, and the shift of the missions sending momentum from the Western World to the Two-Thirds World is an interesting development.
Fortunately, despite financial lack, the Two-Thirds-World church (such as the African church), believes missions is possible. Evidently, however, lack of adequate financial support, lack of pastoral care, and lack of training continue to threaten the development and prolonged involvement of this new missions force. This realization should force the African church to urgently put in place mechanisms that help this new missions force to grow and thrive.
All these are supposed to characterize any missions-minded church. There is need for adequate care to be provided for those that respond to the call for them to go out and serve in other areas. We can make a difference by taking steps towards changing the situation as we put in place the necessary requirements and mechanisms.
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