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

We use suitcases to take what we need when going on a trip. Last week my wife Esther and I challenged new appointees at Pre-Field Orientation to make sure they pack the right things in their suitcases. All of them are headed out for cross-cultural service this summer with their first assignment being the learning of language and culture. They have some huge challenges just ahead, and having the right things in their suitcase is essential.

There are some items that should not be taken with us regardless of where we're going. Fear, the goal of upward mobility, an inflated need for affirmation, a sense of being superior, and self-centeredness are just a few of the many things we urged new appointees to not pack in their suitcases.

Other items should definitely be packed. A heart for God and love for people should go in every person's suitcase. Security in who we are in Christ needs to be near the top of our packing lists. There should be room for humility, love for the imperfect, earthly expression of the Body of Christ, a grateful heart, and the Bible (to master it so the God through His word masters us). It never hurts to pack some comparison vaccine, so that instead of comparing self with others, we rejoice in the gifting and blessings they have. Small open spaces in our suitcases can be filled with words of encouragement to pass out after arriving at our new destination.

There are restrictions on the size, weight, and number of suitcases a person can take. That's why making sure we have the right things packed is so incredibly important. Our impact for Christ depends on intentionally leaving certain things home . . . and making sure we take other things with us.

Knowing those of us following Christ are pilgrims in this world, do you have the right things packed in the suitcase representing your life?

Financial support for US Alliance international workers comes primarily from our family of local churches. They provide this support through the Great Commission Fund. Instead of each one raising support individually, we all work together to raise our support corporately.

Some missionaries are great when it comes to fund-raising. At the same time, some Alliance workers who are very good in their cross-cultural ministry are not strong when it comes to raising money. Nonetheless, their support is graciously provided through the Great Commission Fund.

The important deliverable International Ministries provides is sending an appropriate amount of support to each missionary in a timely manner. The amount of support for Japan and Ecuador are very different . . . each is based on the actual cost of living in the respective country. Getting support from the US to over fifty nations around the world is no small task; it can be very challenging and complicated. Funds are sent monthly. Accounting, receipting, and reporting structures are in place to comply with all US and local government regulations. This support delivery infrastructure is a huge and much appreciated service!

If you'd like to help support Alliance missionaries, you can give through a local Alliance church or make your gift on-line at www.cmalliance.org. I urge you to invest, knowing an appropriate amount will be safely delivered in a timely manner to our missionaries around the globe.

A big challenge when a local church sends out its missionaries is supervising them. A Chinese proverb says, "Beijing is very far away, and the mountains between here and there are very high." In other words, it's difficult for leaders in Beijing to supervise what's going on out in the provinces. In a similar way, it's very difficult for a local church to supervise its missionary personnel half way around the world.

A key deliverable provided through the C&MA's sending structure is supervision. Through regional and field directors, and field leadership teams, personnel are held accountable to fulfill their assignment. If performance problems are discerned, those in leadership are responsible to work them out. The preferred result of good supervision is healthy resolution of the problems. When after significant effort it becomes clear this cannot be attained, transition from the field is arranged.

Holding workers accountable through good supervision is critically important. To do this well is good stewardship of very valuable personnel.

"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.