Meeting my first missionary

I found out that the husband had to put his pants on one leg at a time, just as I did…And I said, “Wow, these are real people.”

I began to pray for them, and then I became interested in the other missionaries the church supported. That’s when God first began to grab my heart for the nations.

Missions was a big deal at the seminary.

I started a church, and these were going to be the foundation, expository preaching, and God’s heart for the nations. We were a small church in the beginning, but within six weeks of starting to meet, we began to take up offerings for missionaries.

After I had been at the church for 24 years, the Lord began to work in my heart and give me a sense of restlessness: It was time for me to leave pastoring and do something else.

Less than five prescient of the churches in North America were engaged in missions.

So I said, “Lord, if you can use me to mobilize this other 95% and help them become engaged in missions, then I want to be a part of that.”

Leaving pastoring to become a missionary

In pastoring a church, there are a lot of challenges.

Because I realize that my identity is not in what I did but who I was in Christ, I think that foundation really helped me not to go through any kind of identity crisis.

It was a change of roles. And God can change our roles.

I was sitting in my office one day and I thought what if God calls me to be a missionary? The immediate answer that came to mind was, well then I would have to raise support. And that’s something I would never do. So I know God is never going to call me to that.

I did cry a lot of tears because that was 24 years of my life, but I have no regrets. I know I’m doing what God wants me to do now.

Church Mobilization

We wanted to see a paradigm shift in the way Churches viewed mission agencies.

We’ve got a pastor now; he can connect with pastors.

We want to give you resources on the church’s role in missionary care.

It was amazing how many churches said yes.

The fact that we were paying and bringing them resources lowered suspicion, and it built trust, which is absolutely essential.

Relationships and trust are essential for every level of mission work.

And then Covid changed everything.

Resource Churches

Communicating to the church that, yes, our organization has a role in caring for your worker, but you have a role, you are an important part of the health and well-being of the worker that you’re sending.

We had resources for caring for missionary kids.

Churches expect their workers to communicate with them, but to emphasize to them, you need to communicate with your workers on a regular basis.

This gives the people in the pew a sense of ownership and responsibility in the Great Commission.

John Piper said, “You’re either a goer, asunder, or disobedient.”

We want to give you resources so that you can debrief your workers when they come home.

We said, “How are you doing?” And she said, “Oh, I’m fine. I’m great. I’m doing just wonderful.” And so we took that at face value, we didn’t probe, and we didn’t ask any more questions.

I wish I had debriefing resources so we could’ve known how important it was to sit down with her and not just take what she said at face value but ask probing questions so that we could better understand where she was at and how we could get her the help she needed.

Communicating with your church back home

Four things come to my mind. The first three are: Communicate, Communicate, communicate, and communicate. Workers need to be consistent in their communication.

Workers must remember that their home church is also a part of their ministry.

Workers can have the habit of just talking about the successes and the home runs.

It’s about creating personal links.

The leaders of the church need to be casting the vision to the congregation.

COVID changed everything

When Covid hit, people weren’t being sent. Churches went into hunker-down mode.

It was survival mode for churches.

Missions was put on the back burner.

When the problems that Covid had created, began to dissipate, the churches had created some new habits that weren’t good. They had stayed in survival mode. They had stayed in hunker-down mode. Mission stayed on the back burner.

And getting healthy again, the nations were left out of the picture.

Covid did a lot of damage and got people into a lot of bad habits that they were still trying to recover from.

Trends in sending

Marketplace workers are growing. Is it a fad? Is it a trend generated by the spirit? I don’t know yet.

I would lean towards something the spirit of God is doing.

It’s always easier to go from one extreme to the other, rather than staying in the center of biblical tension.

The challenge for marketplace workers is, how are you going to make disciples? You can go there and be a witness, but how are you going to go there and make disciples?

When marketplace workers go out, they are going out as workers. They need everything else a support-raising worker needs except this financial support.

Doing People Care

I was asking myself, “What am I supposed to do?” I was in a sort of wilderness experience, just saying, “Lord, why am I here? Am I still supposed to be here?”

Immediately, my heart said yes because God had prepared me for this.

I’m in a men’s discipleship class right now. It’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done, facilitating the discipline of a group of men.  That is one of the things that keeps me alive.

When workers think, I’ve got to get so much done, and so much depends on me, I’ve got to go go go go, and they don’t practice Sabbath. They don’t know how to take breaks. You’re working for the Lord so much that you’re not spending time with him. I think those are factors that I see affecting workers that contribute to burnout.

The idea that once I’m called to do something, I’m supposed to do that for a lifetime, not recognizing that roles can change and locations can change. God can call you to a different role.

Keeping close to the Father

I spend time every day with Jesus. And not just Jesus, but to try God.

One of the best books I’ve ever read about the Trinity is Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves.

It’s not on my checklist to do. I get to meet with God.

I try to always take the posture of a learner.

I’ve got to fight to stay close to Jesus. And fighting is difficult.