Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
“One more kilometer to go, oh God, please help me do this.” My stomach was cramping from a recent bout with food poisoning. I was weaker than normal, but my heart was set on completing the race. My husband, running alongside me said, “Run through …
Let’s face it. Not everyone is a gifted language learner. It’s frustrating when your peers seem to race ahead toward fluency. They leave you behind, battling to get a normal sentence out without stuttering. Many very real factors affect our language learning abilities. Things like …
I was surprised (and a bit embarrassed) by the exercise. A seminar leader asked me to write down the names of 15-20 people I knew who were not believers. They were supposed to be people I interacted with in the course of my normal life. I was shocked that I couldn’t even list five names! This exposed the sad reality that I had very shallow relationships with the lost people around me. We can easily isolate ourselves in a “missionary bubble” full of ministry colleagues. We slip into lifestyles that invest little time in friendships with the
My goal is not to condemn. I do want to challenge us to change. Without a guilt trip, I want to exhort us to
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Matt 5:13-14 NIV.
This year I will be spending a few months in my home country, the United States. We’re doing our normal deputation as we reconnect with ministry partners. This has me thinking about mobilization. What I can do to raise the banner for unreached peoples and the cause of the Great Commission this year?
There is a troubling question on my mind though. What about mobilizing missionaries? What about us? Those of us who live on the mission field and in countries that are full of unreached people groups. Are we being light and salt in those places?
The exercise mentioned above is called creating a Lost and Saved List. Read more about it on my blog Pursuing Disciple Making Movements Among the Unreached. The simple activity of committing to pray regularly and specifically for lost people shifted my behavior in this area of life. Now my actions match my beliefs and values better.
I have a significant list of specific people in my neighborhood who are not yet believers. They are in my prayers and thoughts on a daily basis. Because I pray for them, I’m more interested in their lives. I stop to talk to them when I see them in the market. I ask questions about their children and engage with them in a different way. My “antenna” is always up, and I am looking for an opportunity to share my testimony with them. It’s much more likely I will stop what I am doing and pray for them when they tell me they are sick or in pain.
Sharing the gospel is more natural than it used to be. It happens in the course of my everyday life, not only when it is “evangelism” time.
I now enjoy deep and real friendships with neighbors who don’t know Christ. Some of them have become His followers! There is a much greater sense of fulfillment and fruitfulness, not only in “ministry time” but in my everyday life.
Again, I am not wanting to condemn but to challenge us. How many missionaries are busy with ministry activities but have few genuine friendships with lost people? We spend our days speaking, teaching, and attending meetings. There is much rushing around doing good things, but we don’t even know that our neighbor’s father is in the hospital.
It is so easy to say “Evangelism isn’t my gifting. My ministry is (fill in the blank).” Only a handful of missionaries find evangelism something that flows out of them naturally. We allow ourselves to think this is a valid reason to say we have no active responsibility in this area. You know that isn’t true!
We go there in our minds, perhaps because we lack confidence to do evangelism. Or maybe we have not felt successful in past efforts.
“Other’s will share the gospel with them,” we say. “I will be part of discipling, training, providing member care, organizing crusades…” the list goes on.
We as missionaries, like all Christians are first disciples, no matter what our ministry jobs are. Disciples must obey Jesus’ command to be His witness. All disciples must be light and salt.
Here are some hard questions, but ones we need to ask ourselves.
This is a mindset shift. It doesn’t actually take a lot more time. When you buy vegetables, pause for 30 seconds to talk with the seller. Ask their name. Put them on your list and begin to pray for them. Next time, ask them how their children are.
Be friendly. Give some of your time and energy to interacting with those around you who don’t know the Lord. Are you really too busy? What if you made time for just a 30-minute cup of tea with someone who doesn’t yet know the Lord? Determine to give
It isn’t all about sharing the gospel, though as we build relationships, that’s something we also want to be intentional about.
Be a curious learner. How do they perceive and interpret current events? What is important to them? As you dialogue and learn from those of other faiths, your life will be greatly enriched.
So much of evangelical Christianity is in an “us or them” posture. This doesn’t lend toward the kinds of real relationships with non-believers where we are light and salt.
What can we learn from their viewpoints and perspectives? Are we willing to listen and try to understand their perspective, even if at the end we don’t agree?
Why not start today? Take a piece of paper out. List the names of people who don’t yet know Jesus. Start praying for them every day this week.
Let me know in the comments, on Facebook, or by email if you did this. I’d also love to hear any questions or challenges you have with living a lifestyle that is “salty.”
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“People are feeling pressure.” I hear this from missionaries and leaders sometimes. Or I get an email from someone saying they feel pressurized – especially at the end of the year when reports are due. Others express genuine feelings of being overwhelmed by their work. …
It is predictable. Every spring when school fees are due in India, the messages and emails come. “We don’t have enough to pay for our kid’s fees this year!”
Desperate missionary parents send out appeals. Often they come in inappropriate ways. They beg people to help them. Their need is genuine and heart-breaking. This is not God’s desire for them. Many suffer in these ways. They barely have enough to pay for their food, housing, and travel expenses. Kid’s schooling is not a budgeted expense.
In fact, they don’t have a budget. They either threw that out when they started working in missions, or they have never learned how to budget. Whatever the situation, they are faced with a new school year. With it comes the tremendous weight of trying to find a way to pay for their kid’s tuition fees once again.
God desires for us to have enough finances as missionaries for our basic needs to be cared for.
That doesn’t mean we will get rich, and sometimes we will struggle. But we do not need to think that we will always live in extreme lack. It is not a good reflection of God’s kingdom and character when His people continually struggle to see their most basic needs met.
Can you relate to this? If so, you may have unintentionally embraced a poverty mentality. Or, there may be aspects of the character of God you have failed to understand. Or perhaps you have not taken the necessary steps to move forward in this aspect of your life. Maybe you have no idea what those are! This part of your life can change. There is hope ahead.
A few years ago we ran a fund-raising training in India for some of our fruitful church planters who were really struggling with their finances. This is the testimony of one of the participants.
“I thank the Lord for the fund-raising seminar. It was really a blessing for me, my family and ministry. Before the seminar, I was unable to share my needs with others. I didn’t know how to share.
In the seminar, I discovered how to share with my friends and relatives. I tried and after that, it really worked. I was able to raise my own support! It makes me happy. Now I feel I can raise support for myself. I am happy to serve mighty God. For 22 years I never shared my needs to others, because I didn’t know how to share. After I learned how to share I got a blessing. Now, I can do it. It is great for me.”
Twenty-two years is a long time to struggle in missionary life, never having enough for your basic needs to be met!
What a joy it was to come alongside this faithful, fruitful brother and help him see that he could do it. He could raise funds locally from within India itself and from his own network of people.
Before this, he was plagued by two major falsehoods.
One, he thought that he must depend on leaders to raise support for him. In his mind, they were the ones who had contacts with people who had a lot of money.
Two, he thought that if he wanted to have decent support for his work, he had to be able to communicate well in English. He needed to know how to produce a good newsletter and use a computer. He could speak some English, but writing well was very tough for him. And the only foreigners he knew were other missionaries. So where would he get support unless his leaders raised it for him?
This put him in a place of dependency on a few leaders, instead of on God.
In the training, we helped him see that there were more than enough resources within India. Sharing about his vision in his own language was possible! He didn’t need to speak English to raise up ministry partners.
Instead of looking outside the country, he began to see that God was able to provide from within. He found ministry partners within his own relational circle of friends and family. Also, he learned how to approach them, not as a beggar, but with freedom and confidence.
He invited them to become true ministry partners in his vision to reach unreached peoples. This was very different than asking them to give to him and his personal needs. Of course, his needs were a part of what was needed for his ministry. But the goal was not to ask people to pity him personally. The goal was to invite people to join him in his ministry and vision.
“Give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.” Prov. 30:8-9
There are many false teachings regarding money. One is a health and wealth gospel. This teaching says if we follow Jesus, he will make us rich. This is not in line with scripture!
As disciples of Jesus, we must be willing to make sacrifices for His kingdom cause. We must give up the pursuit of wealth. Jesus clearly taught in Matt. 6:33 that we must seek first His Kingdom.
God does provide for us. But that doesn’t mean that we can have whatever we want! It doesn’t mean that our kids will go to the best schools in the city, or that we will have a huge house and a nice car.
Our focus as missionaries is on building God’s kingdom, not on growing our financial wealth. When we put our emphasis on the wrong things, we go astray. We are in danger of loving money more than God (1 Tim 6:10).
Another false teaching says that our poverty and suffering is a sign of our spirituality. The more we suffer in our finances, the more holy we must be. This too is not Biblical.
That kind of thinking runs directly against God’s character as a good and loving Father. God loves His children. He is more than able to provide for them.
Sometimes He does that through financial miracles. My husband and I have experienced many of those! But more often, He does that by helping us to find ministry partners. These are people who believe in the calling on our lives and want to join us in our work.
Jesus Himself was supported by others! A group of women provided for his daily needs. If Jesus looked to friends and ministry partners for financial provision, why shouldn’t we?
There are a few people, who feel a special calling to follow the same path as George Mueller did. Mueller was an evangelist who started an orphanage in England in the 1800s. He felt he should not share about his needs, but trust God to provide. And God did!
They experienced many miracles of provision. As the children in the orphanage sat without food on the table, God would send them someone at the door with groceries. His was a unique calling and not for everyone.
Unless God has specially called you as he did Mueller to never share about your needs, learn how to do so in appropriate ways. Develop true ministry partners. There are some good books like Funding Your Ministry and The God Ask, that can help. Signing up for my free e-mail course is a good place to start.
Don’t stay stuck in this area of your life. Don’t wait until the school fees are due, then cry out for help. Take prayerful actions now.
What questions do you have about fund-raising? Let me know in the comments below or on the Missionary Life Facebook page.
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Recent events at Willow Creek Church have saddened the global Christian community. I considered Bill Hybels one of my mentors from afar. He was a leader to many. I had never met him, but I’d gained much from his books, especially the one called “Courageous Leadership.” You may not be familiar with Bill’s writing, the Global Leadership Summits, or recent events at Willow Creek Church. I’ve been processing what recently happened there. I am struck again by the dangers of the public ministry pedestal. There is a tremendous need for authentic accountability in our lives as ministers.
Some years ago, someone I deeply respect made big mistakes. I wrote a journal entry at that time. It was titled-When Heroes Fail. There is also a journal entry in my archives called- Leaders Are People Too. As devastating as fruitlessness is in our lives, ministry success can be a very real danger too.
I have no place from which to condemn Hybels or the others whose mistakes have become public. Honest humility, when we hear of others’ failures says, “It could have been me. Father, please keep me from sin.” Human nature wants to criticize and condemn. This is especially true when faced with disappointment in the people we admire greatly. This is, however, not the proper response. Bill is not the first, nor will he be the last respected Christian leader to go through a public demise.
What must we learn from this and other similar tragedies? We can have zero tolerance for inconsistencies between our public and private lives. There must be a deep, steadfast commitment to authentic peer and upward accountability. The more success you have in ministry, the more you need it!
It was pretty intoxicating, being a public figure in the limelight. I walked to the stage and stood in the pulpit. Ten people jumped to the front to take my picture. Wow. That had never happened before. After I spoke, crowds waited to be prayed for by me. People wanted my autograph. It was a strange feeling. In all honesty, it felt kind of good.
Then there was the airport pick up. Someone carrying my luggage, being taken out for nice meals and put up in a fancy hotel where I spoke. Again, wow. Had I arrived or what? There was a temptation to think I was finally getting the recognition I deserved. It was a very real threat to my vulnerable heart.
Another time, we were home on furlough. We attended counseling training at our church. My husband and I had issues we needed to work on. We needed healing and help. As in most of those types of training, before you can help others, you have to look at your own issues. I knew it would be good. I looked forward to the chance to face some of these problems in our lives.
Until we went into our small group at least. The first words out of one of the member’s mouth were “We are so honored to have real missionaries in our group!” I knew I was in trouble. Was I going to be honest with people here? I’d been put on a pedestal of perfection. I was a missionary! A leader whom others respected! Not because I had necessarily earned it, but just because of the type of work we did in Asia.
Would I hide and pretend I didn’t have any issues? Go into “ministry mode” and help the others there? They definitely would have let me. It was in fact, what they seemed to expect. It wasn’t easy, but most of the time in that group, I chose to be honest about who I really was. I climbed down off the pedestal.
I wish I could say I’ve always done that. The temptations are great and it isn’t easy to be a public figure. It can be in a small way, like when you are a missionary home on furlough. Or it can be, in a bigger way, as a best-selling author and speaker. Choices must be made to maintain authentic accountability.
What does authentic accountability look like? How do we find it?
It has to be a life value. It must be something you go after with great intentionality. Missionary life, with all its transitions and changes, lends itself toward isolation. So does leadership. So does travel. It is as if missionary leaders are set up to fail in this area. It is a bit of “swimming upstream”, but it can and must be done.
Bobby Clinton wrote an excellent, though a bit technical book called The Mentor Handbook. He describes four types of mentoring relationships. They are; upward, downward, internal peer and external peer relationships.
My main take away on this was the importance of having all four of these relationships in our lives. We need a broad spectrum of people we walk in mentoring-type relationships with. We are in danger when all the mentoring happening is downward. Prayerfully pursue and invest in upward and peer mentoring relationships.
People are often too busy to do that. Instead, find specific people to help and advise you in specific ways. Find a different mentor for fund-raising and for your marriage. Look for someone else for evangelism skills, spiritual transformation, or leadership areas.
What are the top 3 areas you want to grow in this year? Look for upward mentors in those. When you are specific about what you want from someone, they are much more likely to make time to meet with you.
Do this both with missionaries, but also with mature Christian leaders in the national church. It is easy to get a bit calloused after many years in missions. People come and go. We often experience a bit of “relationship building fatigue”. Don’t let that stop you from continuing to build friendships. Isolation is a dangerous option.
You can use these to have intentional relationships that give you authentic accountability. I have a particular friend I Skype with almost every week. Others I meet face to face.
If you can’t name three people you feel comfortable to call and share a personal struggle with, you may be facing the danger of the pedestal. Take action now. Schedule an appointment with a potential upward mentor. In spite of busy ministry demands, make time to phone a friend you haven’t talked to in a long time. Ask questions that give the opportunity for honesty and transparency.
In public ministry, you may not want to share your deepest, darkest secrets with everyone. That is not wise. But, you must be committed to having an inner circle of people you can be real with. Authentic accountability is not an option!
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