Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
“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 …
“The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.” Ps 29:11- NIV
As a missionary kid, I always knew my parents loved me. In that way, I was fortunate.
I love working with brand new believers! Like toddlers, they say hilarious things. My neighbor who recently accepted Jesus posed a question the other day. I was teaching her about prayer. “Do you think God understands Chinese?” she asked. “Of course He does! He is …
“Missionaries arrested and jailed” were the newspaper headlines. What caused this? Unwise use of social media on the mission field. This headline referred to a group of short-term missionaries. These missionaries were working with an organization I provide training for. The girls suffered quite a …
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!
“I can handle quite a lot of difficulty and pain. I just don’t want my kids to suffer!” Most missionaries feel this way. If we couldn’t handle significant levels of discomfort, we wouldn’t have chosen this life. In my experience, missionaries have a higher than …
We all desire to be fruitful in the mission field. What does it take to live a fruitful life? Consider this (slightly foolish) story. The Foolish Goat Farmer A foolish farmer was struggling with her goats. Her flock was getting smaller and smaller. One …
In last week’s blog, “Why Sabbath Needs to Be One of Our Spiritual Disciplines“, we discussed how Sabbath is a crucial habit if we want to live faithful, fruitful and fulfilled lives on the mission field. It is so easy to make Sabbath a low priority though! You may be convinced it’s a good thing. But do you embrace it’s value enough to create the boundaries necessary to make Sabbath work? Sabbath benefits are many! It is worth the effort. Let’s not only begin this new habit but also train those we lead to do the same.
“Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” Hebrews 4:1- NIV
I can’t remember the last time I heard a sermon on holiness. In some ways, the move away from hellfire and brimstone preaching has been so important. We don’t want to coerce people to put their trust in Jesus because we’ve scared them to death! …