The Alliance eCommunity: The Alliance eCommunity -> Bob Fetherlin's Blog

"If we go to country X, can the C&MA assure us of our safety there?" Just as it was impossible for the US government to assure the safety of American citizens in New York and Washington on 9/11, it's impossible for the C&MA to assure 100% the safety of its personnel. However, the C&MA as a missionary-sending family of churches works hard to provide sound advice and helpful guidance when it comes to missionary safety.

Here are three key elements of this effort:

1) The principle of not intentionally putting personnel in the path of martrydom is strongly embraced.

2) Healthy, strong connections are maintained with good sources of safety-related information. That information is then passed along as needed and appropriate so that wise precautions can be taken.

3) A broad network of people pray regularly for God's protection over C&MA personnel involved in cross-cultural ministry around the world.

While these and other safety-related steps are designed to help assure safety, risks cannot be eliminated. Acknowledging that ultimately the lives of God's people are in His hands, the C&MA will continue to be diligent to do all it can to help assure the safety of its personnel.

An African proverb describes a group of hunters getting a hippo. The big task is to drag the huge carcass back to the village where it will be butchered, then divided. After tying ropes to various parts of the hippo, they start to pull . . . but in the confusion of the moment, they pull in slightly varying directions. A village elder steps forward stating they'd never move the hippo unless they all pull in the same direction. Once this correction is made, the hunters are able to get their prize back to the village.

A strategy helps everyone pull in the same direction, toward the same objectives and goals. Through field and team structures, C&MA workers develop their shared strategy in concert with leaders of the developing church. Regional leaders help hold them accountable and adjust that strategy for increased effectiveness. A strategic field review every five years sharpens the strategy and strengthens the accountability even more. The aim is to see healthy, reproducing, missionary churches . . . Christ-centered, wholistic, communities of faith . . . established. Those with least access to the good news about Christ are of greatest concern in all of this.

This is a very important deliverable. Without it, the hippo is never pulled back to the village! Stay tuned for another deliverable in my next entry.

Shepherding, or pastoral care, is another key deliverable provided through our C&MA missionary sending structure. Some of the many delivery channels / methods are pastoral care couples from US churches who help care for a specific field team, a developmental assessment process designed to help missionaries in their personal growth and development, and professional caregivers who provide specialized help in response to specific needs. The US C&MA seeks to care well for its missionaries!

A Member Care Team helps oversee the shepherding of US Alliance missionaries. This team has put together a paper describing a helpful model of member care, and is working to improve the quality of this care for missionary personnel.

Through a member care audit, more than twenty specific elements of current member care were identified. Many people in the US and around the world contribute to the provision of these various expressions of member care.

Each year member care specialists gather for a "Mental Health and Missions" Conference involving many US-based mission agencies. The C&MA participates in this event. Papers are presented, ideas are shared, and networking is done at this event with the goal of improving the quality and delivery of member care.

How can we best come aside personnel in their personal growth and development journey? What do we do when a missionary encounters serious personal or relational problems? What does gracious intervention look like when a missionary is struggling with effectiveness? These and many other issues are a part of the shepherding equation. May God help us shepherd missionaries well . . . they're too valuable to lose!

A local church trying to do cross-cultural mission overseas on its own would need to figure out how to answer these questions:

1) How much money each month does our missionary need, and how do we get that money from here to our missionary?

2) What do we do about health insurance and health care when this missionary is serving outside the United States?

3) What about some kind of a retirement program enabling our missionary to prepare well for the later years of life?

4) We want our missionary's children to have a quality educational opportunity preparing them for an eventual transition to life / college back in the United States. How can we best work this out?

5) What's the best way to obtain visas for the country in which our missionary will serve?

6) If our missionary gets into trouble or needs specific, focused help while on the field, to whom do we turn? What do we do?

7) How do we handle all our missionary's finances in a way that meets with the approval of the government of the country of service as well as the Internal Revenue Service?

8) If our missionary wants to ship some needed household items and supplies to the field, what's the best way to do this? And if the shipment has to go through customs, how does that work?

These and a myriad of other questions emerge in missionary sending. Over many years, the C&MA has discerned best practices in responding, providing high level, quality services for missionaries and international workers around the world. Highly trained, deeply committed people . . . very committed to Christ and his mission . . . serve within the C&MA's infrastructure to provide these and many other much needed, greatly appreciated services! Without them and the services they make available, missionary sending can be very complicated indeed!

I'll talk about another deliverable in my next posting.

One of the questions I've wrestled with is, "Why a missionary sending structure? Why not just have every church send its own missionaries instead of a using a sending structure supported by Alliance churches across the country to help with the sending process?" I see at least seven key deliverables that our sending structure provides . . . all are critical and valuable.

Deliverable #1 is SELECTION. An assessment process has been developed and fine-tuned over many years to select those missionary candidates who have high potential for impactful, cross-cultural ministry. Some make it through this assessment process, others with good reason do not.

The danger is that sending everyone who wants to go . . . and has the financial backing to do so . . . can result in people being sent who have not-so-easy-to-discern issues in their lives that often preclude effective cross-cultural ministry. It could be rigidity . . . or physical problems that can't be treated well in many overseas settings . . . or low potential to learn a new language . . . or unresolved personal / family history issues which unaddressed hinder effectiveness . . . or psychological issues that tend to be magnified with the stresses of cross-cultural living . . . or relational difficulties. These and many other dimensions of a person's character, ministry gifting, track record, physical / mental health, and history are important to assess. The end view of the assessment process should be answering the questions, "Does this candidate have what it takes to make a positive, helpful contribution in a cross-cultural ministry setting? Are they likely to thrive . . . or just barely survive?"

An objective assessment including the hard questions is difficult for those in a local church context to do on one of their own. That's why having a third party assessor who has lots of tools and experience to do a thorough assessment is a huge, much-needed deliverable.

The C&MA has this . . . and its purpose is to serve the local, sending churches. They are still the senders . . . and this deliverable enhances the effectiveness and impact of their missionary sending!

I'll talk about other deliverables in future entries.

A few weeks ago I was sitting in the living room of some US Alliance workers living in Ecuador. They serve in regional ministries helping train leaders in several Latin American countries. The US C&MA is in the process of transition from Ecuador because our family of partner churches there has shown very encouraging signs of strength and maturity. While the idea of transition is very difficult, while missionaries don't want to leave and we want to continue a healthy relationship with the Ecuadorian Alliance, we are intentionally moving forward with transition from Ecuador. A key reason for this is access.

The concern is having access to the good news about Jesus Christ. And here are the specifics this couple shared with me that evening in their living room. "If a person walks out their front door in Ecuador to seek someone who can share how to be reconciled to God through Christ, that person has to talk to four or five people before finding someone who can do this. In Spain, a person seeking the same help has to talk with five hundred people. In (a North African country), it's thirty thousand people."

What does this mean? Relatively speaking, the gospel is quite accessible to the people of Ecuador. The accessibility factor is much lower for the people of Spain, and extremely low for the people of (the North African country). Where, then, is the greatest need for help in making the gospel more accessible? In (the North African country).

It's essential for the Church of Jesus Christ to understand this reality . . . and respond to it with the heart and passion of Christ! In doing this, we need His grace, resiliency, wisdom, and courage. There will be a cost, but He is absolutely worthy! He is the resurrected Lord.

In a May 2007 study done by the Joshua Project (www.joshuaproject.net), Central Asia was put forward as the region of the world with the highest concentration of least reached peoples. The report indicates that 96.3% of the people of Central Asia are "least reached". (For North, Central, and Latin America, the number was less than 1%.) This means for Central Asia to be reached, it's necessary for Christ-followers to cross ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and even national boundaries to present by Word and deed to the peoples of Central Asia the good news about Jesus Christ. Otherwise, there aren't enough Kingdom resources among the peoples of Central Asia for them to do this on their own. Outside help is absolutely essential.

Here are some honest questions as I think about Central Asia. Would I be willing to go through the pain and hassle to move there with my family, to learn the language and culture of a Central Asian people so as to be one of Christ's representatives among them? Would I be willing to have my children educated in Central Asia instead of North America? Would I live in a small, somewhat Spartan apartment where frequent cuts in electricity are common? What about being far from the excellent medical care available in North America? Would I accept life in political and economic situations that are much less stable than my own country, where security is far from being assured? The restaurants and recreational, leisure activities I enjoy now wouldn't be there. Many I love would not be there with me . . . they'd be thousands of miles away. Most of the people of Central Asia would not even want me there . . . some would overtly oppose my coming and could even be threatening to me. How would I respond? What would I say?

Could it be that the comfort, great opportunities, and security my generation in North America enjoy could be lulling us to sleep? Bottom line: If these mean more to us than anything else in the world, God will have to call on others to reach Central Asia . . . or wait for a another generation like the Alliance workers who headed to Vietnam in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

Some of those brave, committed souls never came home. They're buried in Vietnam. And the Alliance family of churches there now numbers over 1,000,000 believers as it continues to grow.

As they laid themselves in the line for the peoples of Vietnam, may we today be ready to lay ourselves on the line for the unreached of Central Asia . . . and wherever they're found throughout the world! This is our mission, given by Christ . . . who is worthy of our giving our all for Him. He died to redeem these people, and we're the ones called to bear this message.

One of the new wineskins God is using in increasingly powerful ways in 21st century mission is business. Christ-adoring business professionals are using their training, entrepreneurial skills, and spiritual gifts in missional business ventures. These are being used by God to:

1. Help the poor in Christ's name, providing desperately needed jobs in challenging economic contexts.

2. Give legitimate, helpful rationale for Christ-followers to be in places where intentional barriers have been established to keep missionaries out.

3. Provide opportunity for Christ-followers to make connections in the market place with people far from God.

Christian business people are a part of the laity . . . and over 99% of the Christian church around the world is comprised of laypeople. A mistake some clergy types like me have made is to look at business laypeople as the source of financial support for "our" ministries. They can do so much more . . . God's plan A for reaching the world is for everyone to be involved, and there is no plan B. There is a place for business people in the mission of Christ!

This comes into sharper focus when we refuse to see what's done from 9 am to 5 pm as secular, and that which we do in "ministry" on evenings and weekends as holy. No such dichotomy exists in God's book: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it ALL for the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). Business is holy when done for God's glory!

There's a growing group of committed people seeking to do business as mission in collaboration with the C&MA around the world. More than just collaboration, they're a part of us. They're a part of Christ's body. And I believe they have a huge part to play in completing His mission!

"Let us never forget the special calling of our Alliance work. It is not to form a new religious denomination. It is not to duplicate a work already done. It is not to advocate any special system of theology. It is not to glorify any man or men. It is first to hold up Jesus in His fullness, 'the same yesterday, today, and forever.' Next, to witness to the imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as our millennial King. And finally, to encourage and incite the people of God to do the neglected work of our age and time among the unchurched classes at home and the perishing heathen abroad. God will bless us as we are true to this trust." -from the pen and heart of Dr. A.B. Simpson, The Alliance Weekly, November 11, 1899

What kinds of international workers are we looking for to establish prevailing churches (or holistic, Christ-centered communities of faith) among the least reached where all the odds are stacked against us? Here are the characteristics I long to see:

"We want men and women who are thoroughly converted and know it.

We want men and women who are fully consecrated to God, sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit-so saved from themselves that they are at leisure to work for others.

We want men and women who are burning with a love for lost people and are longing to lead men and women to Christ.

We want men and women who have already begun to work for Christ and have led many to the Savior. One of the first questions asked a missionary candidate is, "How many have you led to Christ since you were saved?" The best place to begin foreign missionary work is at home.

We want men and women who can live simply, endure hardship, deny themselves, put up with every discomfort, who are not particular about their outfits, who do not want things "just so" for their wardrobes, who do not need two or three trunks and a great amount of baggage, who can travel with a knapsack like a soldier and sleep in their boots without grumbling about it, who have gotten over the romance and novelty of travel and are going to foreign countries for one thing only-to win people for Christ.

We want men and women who are easy to get along with, who have died to self and self-will, who can keep sweet and can submit themselves to their senior missionaries until they have learned the language and become qualified to be leaders, who can keep rank as David's soldiers did, who are adjustable, good-natured, ready to meet persecution and insult without getting angry, and who can live the gospel of Christ among the unbelievers even as the Master did.

We want men and women who are strong, vigorous, rugged and healthy; or at least have such a hold of the Lord for their bodies that they are not afraid of climate, hard work, inclement weather and physical pressure; who now are having victories in their bodies and are able to stand strongly against exposure and hardship and do real work for God.

We want men and women who know the Lord so well they can have His joy under all circumstances; who will not be afraid of loneliness nor privation; who ask no greater recompense than the privilege of serving and pleasing Him; and who go out not wanting sympathy, but rejoicing in the name of missionary and the privilege of enduring suffering or shame for the name of Him who died for them.

We want men and women who have such a distinct call to the mission field that they cannot stay back, and that even if we do not send them they will go somehow.

May the Lord send us a thousand such men and women."

These words, published in 1892, are from the heart and pen of Dr. A.B. Simpson, founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. We continue to look for people living out these characteristics today!