by Phil Parshall
It is a great calling and privilege to be a missionary. It is my joy to have rubbed shoulders with hundreds of foreign missionaries over the past two decades. By and large, they impress me very positively.
It is a great calling and privilege to be a missionary. It is my joy to have rubbed shoulders with hundreds of foreign missionaries over the past two decades. By and large, they impress me very positively.
The missionary calling has unique features. The missionary must be reasonably well-educated, cross geographical boundaries, leave loved ones behind, sacrifice financially (though not always), adjust to another language and culture, and work on a closely-knit team. At the same time, missionaries must open themselves to criticism, both from friend and foe. They must be willing to reevaluate sacrosanct methodology. "Change" must not be a dreaded word, as we consider the qualifications and methods of missionaries for the coming decade. I speak from a heart of love and concern – from within the camp.
Dr. Saeed Khan Kurdistani was an outstanding Iranian Christian who died in 1942. In 1960, a man went to the area where Dr. Saeed had lived and ministered. An aged man of the community was asked by the visitor if he had known Dr. Saeed. The elderly man caught his breath and whispered – "Dr. Saeed was Christ himself!"1 Reverently, it can be said that this is our goal. But as we head into the 1980s, we need to take a hard look at such practical matters as missionary finances, housing, intellectual life and ministry with churches.
FINANCES
There is an overwhelming difference of opinion on this subject. Some feel it is imperative to "go native" and to denounce all who do not meet their standard. Others feel strongly that they must live on a western standard for the sake of their family’s mental and physical health. They defend their position by saying the nationals will understand their needs. Between these two extremes will be found every conceivable view.
Many Third World countries are economically depressed. This fact sets the stage for the conflict between the living standard of the western missionary and the national. Chaeok Chun, a Korean missionary in Pakistan, comments on this tension. "I think it is significant that today’s image of the Christian missionary endeavor from the Asian receptor’s point of view is an image of comfort and privilege. Hence, Asians tended to reject the missionary and misunderstand his message."2
The Irish monks of the seventh and eighth centuries were wellknown for their asceticism. Their entire outfit consisted of a pilgrim’s staff, a wallet, a leathern water bottle and some relics. When they received money from the wealthy, they quickly gave it away to the needy.3 Is this a proper model for the contemporary missionary? In this vein, Dr. Donald McGavran suggested that the missionary from affluent countries lives on a standard far higher than he needs to. What is called for – if we are to meet this problem head on – is an order of missionaries, celibate or married without children, who live in Bangladesh on rupees a hundred a month (i.e., ten dollars). But any such move is at present unthinkable, alas".4
I would, at the risk of being controversial, like to pull some thoughts together on this very important issue.
1. It does matter what nationals thinks about the financial profile of the missionary community. Generally, they are appalled at the gap between the living standard of themselves and the western missionary. If we turn away from this concern with indifference, we are in danger of being insensitive to Paul’s clear teaching about being a stumbling block to others.
2. Singles and couples without children can more easily make the adjustment to a simple life style. This should be encouraged but not legislated.
3. Experimentation should be allowed. One couple with a newborn infant is living in a bamboo hut with a mud floor in a Muslim rural village. They should be supported, but at the same time, not made to feel embarrassment when at any time they feel withdrawal advisable.
4. Each family should be open before the Lord on this subject. They should prayerfully evaluate their own physical and emotional needs. The goal is to live as closely as possible to the style of life of their target people without adverse results to anyone in the family. Balance is a key word.
5. Often the missionary can reside in stark simplicity in a rural area and then take an occasional week-end trip to a nearby city for relaxation and necessary shopping. This accommodation to our cultural backgrounds is not, in my view, an act of hypocrisy. We must be realistic concerning our needs and various levels of capacity to endure deprivation within foreign culture.
6. It is permissable to moot this issue with missionaries, but idle criticism, a judgmental attitude, and self-righteousness must be studiously avoided. Often, missionaries living in extreme poverty or those living in great affluence are the most opinionated and self-defensive. For the sake of unity in the body, it may be wise to avoid entering into heavy discussions with these particular missionaries on this subject.
HOUSING
The day of the "mission compound" is by no means over. These western enclaves are still found throughout the developing world. They are often misunderstood and, in some cases, despised by the nationals. A convert questioned their existence by asking, "Am I wrong if I say that mission bungalows are often a partition wall between the hearts of the people and the missionaries?"5
It is my personal conviction that remaining mission compounds should be dismantled. This would free the missionary to move into the community and share his incarnational testimony among them, rather than being shut off in a large plot of land that has a very negative appraisal in the minds of the people. It is preferable also for the Christians to scatter out among their non-Christian townspeople rather than live in a sealed off community. Light must be diffused to be of any benefit.
Our first five-year term living in a small town in Bangladesh was a great learning and sharing experience. Just outside the bedroom window of our rented home lived a Muslim lady who was separated from her husband. Her two young daughters lived with her. Quickly we became very intimate friends. The girls were always coming over to borrow a spice or an egg. We felt free to do the same. When the youngest daughter had a raging fever, we brought her over and nursed her. From our bedroom window, we learned more about Muslim culture than scores of books could ever have taught us. A mission compound experience would not have made such a life style and involvement in the community possible.
There needs to be some latitude as regards city, town or village life. The main concern is to relate to the group with whom one is working. Student work in a university area would demand facilities quite different from a rural village setting.
INTELLECTUAL LIFE
Missionary work has undergone a radical transformation since the end of the colonial era. New approaches and attitudes have been demanded. Pioneers like Dr. Donald McGavran have popularized the science of missiology. Hundreds of case studies and textbooks are now on the market that can be utilized as resource material. Outstanding graduate schools with mission studies include Fuller, Trinity, Columbia, Dallas, and Wheaton. Extension study for the missionary on the field is offered through Fuller and Wheaton. Journals like Evangelical Missions Quarterly and Missiology keep the missionary abreast of fast-breaking concepts and practical outreaches around the world.
One relevant bit of advice to missionaries is that they should "keep an open mind, realizing that times change and one must make adjustments. Tactics of ten years ago will not work and even those of five years ago are outdated".6 It is always sad to see older missionaries become rutted and inflexible. Their orientation and allegiance to traditional methodology makes it seem to them to be almost a denial of truth to move carefully into new areas of sensitive experimentation. Younger missionaries arriving on the field become frustrated. Their ideas and zeal are often lost in a patronizing "Keep it under your hat for a few years. Experience will mellow you and mature your input." There must develop a fresh and non-threatening relationship between the senior and junior missionary. One adds experience and the other brings the latest in theory and enthusiasm. United, they are almost unbeatable. Divided, they are a catastrophe, not only to the inner team of missionaries, but also to the perceptive onlooking national community.
Our commitment to Jesus Christ means that we want to be the best servant possible for his glory. It means stretching, not only in Spirit, but also in intellect. True academic excellence leads to greater effectiveness, not to pride or snobbery. We must beware of vegetating on the mission field. Both are hearts and our minds must stay alive and alert.
ATTITUDES
Still fresh in my mind are the words Harold Cook, for many years professor of missions of Moody Bible Institute, told his missions class, in 1959: "Students, the single most important area of your life and ministry will be in the realm of attitudes. It is here you will either succeed or fall as a missionary. Attitudes touch every nerve end of life. Your relationship to Christ, fellow missionary, national believer and non-Christian will be deeply affected by proper or improper attitudes."
There are a number of ingredients to a positive attitude toward nationals. One is empathy. Let me illustrate. Each morning at sunrise, a Hindu neighbor in our village would rise up, wash, and go out and stand near his cow. He would then look up at the sun, fold his hands and go through a ceremony which involved worship of both the sun and the cow. I watched our Hindu friend perform this ritual scores of times. One day the cow became ill and died suddenly. Grief struck the Hindu household. It was indeed a tragic loss to them. I personally disagreed with worshiping a cow, but I had somehow entered into the world view of that Hindu. He hurt and I hurt. Quickly I learned a few appropriate phrases (as we were new in the country) and went along to his shop. I stuttered out a few incorrectly pronounced words about being sorry that his cow had died. My Hindu friend was deeply touched. Though we were worlds apart in culture and religion, yet I cared. I had for a brief moment stepped into his life.
There is an old adage that contains a great deal of truth. "The gift without the giver is bare." Missionaries are giving people. Their job demands that role. They may be engaged in relief, teaching, medical work, or some other ministry that necessitates the act of sharing. But the act of giving is inadequate in itself.
What is the force behind the action? Is there love? Is there a deep concern for the other person? Has giving become a professional obligation? Have the poor or the heathen become a product to sell? These are heavy questions.
MINISTRY
It is time now to consider the ministerial focus of the missionary. When we turn to New Testament missions, we find that Paul’s involvement was exceedingly temporary. He came, stayed a few weeks or months, or at most a few years, and left to go into new areas. The churches he planted did not remain in his control. Even if an heretical influence came into the churches, Paul could only exhort the Christians to walk in truth. He had no funds to cut off. The believers were totally free. Certainly the contemporary picture of missions is different from Paul’s day.7
Leslie Newbigin writes of Paul totally entrusting leadership into local hands. He pungently comments that Paul didn’t do what modern missionaries have done, "He does not build a bungalow."8 George Peters maintains Paul could have rightfully said, "Here is enough work for me to do. This is where I am." Paul resisted the temptation and kept on the move.9 Roland Allen points out that Paul didn’t neglect the churches. He continued to visit and correspond with them. But the basic leadership responsibility was all put in local hands.10
Now, western missionaries have a very difficult time completely turning over control to the younger churches. At times, missionaries may be withdrawn as denominational budgets flounder. Even in these cases, funds continue to go directly to the churches, thus perpetuating dependence. And worst of all, the missionaries are not deployed in a virgin area in the task of church planting. Rather, they are brought home under the camouflage that now the emerging church can take care of its own evangelistic responsibility.
In other situations, missionaries have been content to be resident in one mission station working among a small cluster of churches for a full missionary career of thirty-five years. In many ways, the ministry is fulfilling. One experiences joy in seeing children born, later becoming Christians, getting married and on to settling into good professions. There is a continuity and routine about such a life. National Christians, too, feel good about having a foreign missionary around to assist them in their times of need.. However, this is inadequate strategy for the 80’s.
The missionary must move on as soon as possible after worshiping groups have been established. Converts must not transfer their dependence onto the missionary and away from the Lord.
Having travailed, given birth, and cared for young churches, the missionaries (whether Tamilian or Naga or American or Australian) should turn over authority to indigenous leaders…Travail must not go on too long. It must he followed by weaning and pushing out of the nest. Then the missionary goes on and repeats the process.11
The missionary must keep before him constantly the imperative of pressing out to new frontiers.
CONCLUSION
I am an optimist concerning the decade of challenge that lies just before us. There will surely be opening doors, closing doors, and revolving doors within the great challenge of reaching the nations for Christ in the 80’s. A beautiful picture of a ship on an ocean in the midst of a storm graces my bedroom door. The inscription reads, "A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." The front line of a battle is risky, but no victory has ever been registered in the annals of history as having been won solely by those supportive people who linger far behind the range of enemy gunfire. Our task calls for reflection, decision and engagement.
Endnotes
1. Bashir Abdol Massih, "The Incarnational Witness to the Muslim Heart." A position paper presented to the North American Conference on Muslim Evangelization, Colorado Springs, Colo., 1978.
2. Chaeok Chun, "An Exploration of the Community Model for Muslim Missionary Outreach by Asian Women." An unpublished D. Miss. dissertation, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., 1977.
3. Sister Mary Just, Digest of Catholic Mission History (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Maryknoll 19 Publications, 1957), p. 22.
4. Donald McGavran, letter to the author, March, 1979.
5. D. A. Chowdhury, "The Bengal Church and the Convert," The Moslem World Vol. XXIX, 1939, p. 347.
6. Joseph A. McCoy, Advice From the Field (Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1962), p. 144.
7. Donald McGavran, How Churches Grow (London: World Dominion Press, 1959), p. 114.
8. Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret (London: SPCK, 1978), p. 144.
9. George W. Peters, "Issues Confronting Evangelical Missions," Evangelical Missions Tomorrow (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1977), p. 162
10. Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), p. 151.
11. Donald McGavran, Ethnic Realities and the Church (South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1979), p. 130.
—–
Copyright © 1979 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.
