Lie #9
Adapted, with copy right permission, from the book, The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripken
This is a 6 min read
“This lie has paralyzed mission endeavors across the globe.”
Without senders, the missionary can not go.
There is no arguing that.
Reflections on our eight years in Mongolia remind me that we had a list of donors that seemed to never end. Many of our supporters gave $5 - $10 a month for eight entire years. Faithfully. It all added up to keeping my husband and me on the field for the marathon. Givers are the reasons most missionaries are able to stay.
Today, as a missions mobilizer, it’s one of my greatest joys to hear of a missionary receiving a new monthly supporter or a check for the project they have felt God lead them forward in. I’ve spent much time thanking God for this kind of provision.
Having said that, I’m going to flip the generous donor coin over and show you what is sometimes on the other side.
I wish I could convey how often I heard these words from a generous giver:
“I’m happy to write you a check...as long as it keeps me from having to go myself.”
No really. It’s true. Test it out, ask some of your missionary friends if that is something they hear too because they will likely confirm it. It’s a thing. People don’t want to go, and they try to pay their way out of it. There is a sort of line in the sand between church and missions and it’s made out of dollars.
Nik Ripken address this in Lie #9 as he writes:
“Even so, if the majority of missions support it defined primarily by the giving of money, as vital as financial support is, there can develop a line between the church and the field. This leads to a “them” and “us” mentality. Missions can become something the church does rather than defining who the church is.”
Unqualified
Before we were missionaries, we had a ten-year plan. The word missions was in it, but we were not the missionaries. Instead, we made a plan to give “like we’d lost our minds” Okay, for real, it wasn’t my plan, but it was the plan my husband Troy came up with and was doing everything to sell me on it. We had two missionaries we really liked, and we wanted to bless them financially. In our case, as may be the case of many churchgoers, we just hadn’t even considered missions for ourselves because we felt too unqualified. Giving was the next best thing.
And then God called….us.
For the first time, we entered into the thing we were so good at funding. And it was not easy. But I soon learned that missionaries, you know those cute little families super glued to a map on your church bulletin board, yeah those guys... they are simply Christians who obeyed a call to go. Upon entering the mission field, they didn’t get super spiritual capes or missionary powers. Although they likely have stomachs of steel. They listened and obeyed and went. A lot of them are struggling, trying to balance home life, and marriage, bills, and teenagers right alongside global poverty, orphan care, and food programs. But God is with them, He strengthens them, and the Gospel is preached and received because of it.
Suddenly it mattered to me, that people were doing more than just sending me a check to stay in country. I needed them to pray.
“I used to think that missionaries who came to your church and asked you to pray for them were just being polite. I thought what they really wanted was your money. But I was wrong. I know now. They want both... and if you could come and work with them, they would take that too.””
Nik continues:
“How can a church determine if it has given in to the lie that can sometimes hide within even sacrificial giving? Listen to how the church talks and prays. Does a church pray “for” the missionaries or does a church pray “with the missionaries? Can church members articulate what missionaries have done with “their” money among the nations? “
SHORT STORYTIME
#1
A wealthy man became interested in our ministry. He funded our work in large checks. But do you know what else he did? He came to visit us. He called Troy and talked for hours at a time, invested in prayer and conversation about what we were really going through. He knew the nitty-gritty, and he followed up to see how it would turn out. We felt like he knew us, and he believed in what God was doing through us. It was the push we needed to continue.
#2
In 2013 my sister and her husband spent their savings to fly to Mongolia with their kids and spend a few weeks with us. They did whatever we did. They followed us around, met the people we loved, attended the Bible studies, even got sick in Mongolia without proper health care (a whole other story of how I cured my sister with expired antibiotics and google).
I had shown them pictures, shared the stories, but now they were seeing it with their own eyes. Driving up the hill to our home, the night they arrived, my sister said,
“Oh my goodness you really do live in the slums. ”
Conversations with them about Mongolia and missions were never the same after that. The burden I often carried alone felt lighter. They understood. To this day, I cherish the memories of that month, and I appreciate the love it showed to enter in with us. They could have just sent us a $10,000 check, and we all would have missed out on the blessings of a burden shared.
“We would be wise to erase the line between the church and the mission field. The offering that God requires most is not only financial: His required offering leads ultimately to the giving of our lives and the willing surrender of children and grandchildren to god’s purposes. When those priceless gifts are offered, the local church is finally walking alongside the overseas workers rather than seeing missions as simply another item in the church budget. ”
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