EMQ » July–September 2021 » Volume 57 Issue 3
By Hannah Kyong-Jin Cho
Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph Series, 3
Pickwick Publications, 2020
197 pages
US$26.00
Reviewed by Perlita Tan, who is the Paul Pierson scholar in Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Mission and Theology, and is currently finishing her research on a contextualized member care model for Majority World missionaries.
A member care book focused on Korean missionaries is a much needed and welcome addition to the limited, dated, and mostly Western member care literature currently available. Mission is now from everywhere to everywhere, and among the forty-eight countries in Asia, South Korea sends out the greatest number of missionaries.
Hannah Cho identifies a monocultural worldview, perfectionism, authoritarian and narcissistic leaders, conflict with co-missionaries, Confucianism-influenced hierarchies where women are devalued, and family pressures for singles to marry as some of the major factors that lead to burnout among Korean missionaries. Cho suggests that Western models of member care and strategies to overcome burnout, with their emphasis on counseling, are not culturally appropriate to native-born Korean missionaries (NBKM’s). She points out that many NBKM’s cannot even define what burnout is and are “suspicious of counseling” (41). After interviewing thirty-nine NBKM’s who recovered from burnout, Cho proposes “grace-based Self-Care marked by humble reliance on a source of help other than self (interdependent care leading to healing through healthy relationships with God and others)” as the best pathway to burnout recovery. This involves “Self-initiated Care, God’s assisted Care, and Others’ assisted Care” (92, 113ff). Recovery includes physical, spiritual, psychological, relational, and cognitive aspects.
The author’s solution to burnout recovery is biblical, involving a mindset transformation into a better understanding of the missio Dei (or the mission of God model where God is the center of mission). But, although the causes of burnout are distinctly Korean and East Asian, the author’s recommended solution looks remarkably similar to the West’s, except that there is a greater emphasis on the role of community care. On the other hand, this could be an advantage, because this burnout recovery pathway may be applicable to a wider group of missionaries.
It is unfortunate that despite being published in 2020, the author uses 1992–1994 attrition rate statistics from the World Evangelical Fellowship’s monumental research in 1997, led by William Taylor. Is it possible that more recent statistics are not available in a rich and mission-conscious country like South Korea?
Although the unique contribution of this work turns out to be the cultural background information about NBKM’s instead of the burnout recovery pathway, this book is still very helpful to Korean, East Asian, and Southeast Asian missionaries, as well as to mission agency leaders, member care practitioners, mission trainers, church leaders, and missionaries who are working with Korean missionaries.
For Further Reading
Hay, Rob, Valerie Lim, et al. Worth Keeping: Global Perspectives on Best Practice in Missionary Retention. Globalization of Mission Series. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2007.
O’Donnell, Kelly, ed. Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from Around the World. Globalization of Mission Series. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2002.
