Beyond ‘Paying and Praying:’ Engaging the Church in Member Care

EMQ » April–June 2022 » Volume 58 Issue 2

By Rene Rossouw

One of the most valuable resources in the kingdom of God is His children, faithfully following in obedience, laying down their lives to glorify Jesus among the nations. They deserve our prayers, respect, and support.

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I had the privilege to be called by the Lord to serve him for 18 years with an international mission organisation, of which four years were spend on a difficult field in the Middle East. Although I personally do not think of myself as a great extroverted relator, the Lord had the sense of humour to direct me towards member care. During one of my seasons, I had to mobilise the sending churches of our missionaries locally to move beyond merely paying and praying for their missionaries.

In Acts 9:25 we find this beautiful image when the believers held on to the ropes at the wall to help Paul escape to the nations. Paul’s life was in their hands holding on and letting him go. I’m deeply convinced that God first of all wants to extend the blessing of missions towards the whole church community. This means getting involved pastorally, logistically and ministry wise as partners of their missionaries, making the most of their inheritance among the nations (Acts 20:23; Psalm 2:8; In Christ we have an inheritance in the nations).

Currently I am serving the missionaries as a staff member in one of our larger churches in South Africa and I have the privilege to care for 51 missionaries.    

We are familiar with the phrase of many churches viewing the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18–20 as the Great Omission that only has bearing on a few. Invariably these few called ones have to compete for budget resources, exposure of their ministry, awareness, the favour of their pastor and leaders, and a consistent change of familiar faces in the pews leaving many of them feeling estranged.

Why are We Struggling in Churches?

The irony is that many churches love to boast about their missionaries and their involvement in the nations, while they are actually neglecting the saints serving on their behalf. There are a couple of reasons why this happens: 

• Churches are busy organisations. “Out of sight; out of mind,” seems to be the primary reason for neglect. They get so passionately involved with local ministry that they simply forget to stay focussed and involved with their external ministries and missionaries.
• Ignorance. There are very few resources available to churches with a mission vision on how to take care of their missionaries. My own church seemed to be absent in my career until I understood that they simply didn’t know how to handle the situation. They were completely unaware of my special needs and challenges in ministry because I always used my exposure time to promote the ministry and not myself.  Since my pastors have never been exposed to a multi-cultural foreign lifestyle, living in faith, having to cope with extra-ordinary ministry demands, they could not really support me emotionally and spiritually. (Some elders even thought I was on an extended, all expenses paid holiday.)
• Lack of communication. Some missionaries really struggle with communication and when there is no dedicated person on the inside to advocate on behalf of the missionary, involvement unravels over time. Pictures of missionaries in the foyer quickly become part of the furniture and gathers dust.
• Lack of vision. Unless a church has evangelism and discipleship as a foundational biblical core value, their involvement and dedication to missions will fade while the missionary is driving off into the sunset.
• Lack of commitment. Not everyone in the pew will understand the need for world evangelism. “What about the need right here?” is a very familiar argument. The smart answer is that the congregation is right here to do the job and that is why a missionary needs to serve elsewhere. When there is no commitment on the part of a church to honour Jesus’ sending out unto the whole world, missionaries will always have to fight for the right to be obedient to God.
• Change of leadership. I consoled many heart-broken missionaries who lost their church while they were serving on a foreign field. The new pastor had no regard for the vision and convictions of the departing pastor. Pastors pretty much rule the vision and direction of their church.

There are probably many other reasons why missionaries struggle to keep the church involved with their ministry and vice versa, but I want to focus on what CAN be done to make the best of missions in a local church.

How Can We Fix It?

Unless the leadership of a church respect and understand the Great Commission as an integral part of God’s calling for HIS CHURCH, you need to skip the next few paragraphs. The Bible is the starting place and should be the judge of every argument and any discussion about the church’s obligation to be involved in world evangelism.

Evangelism and discipleship are seen as the calling of our church. Everything we plan and do pivots on this foundation, including the budget and resources. Our church is by no means perfect, but perhaps we can offer some ideas that might just be of value to folks who really want to prioritise missions. We have a number of structures in place to help us maintain missions and evangelism as a priority in our very busy church.  

• Member care. I work alongside a dedicated pastor providing member care in all its facets to our missionaries. We maintain solid stable trusting relationships with our missionaries on a regular basis and offer counselling services. Social media is a great tool for ongoing conversation. We have also networked our missionaries into a close fellowship and interest group. Many times they minister to each other. Communication is always a two-way street between church and missionary. They know exactly what is happening on the home front and are actively involved in praying for us as we pray for them.
• Prayer and exposure. Since our church is so BUSY, we expect our missionaries to recruit their own prayer shield members. We really fall flat in providing enough exposure opportunities. It is always a major challenge, but we do make a meal out of the faith promise renewal service and evangelism services through-out the year. Our church is set up with online prayer groups, and we use it for special missionary requests.
• A dedicated budget and faith offering. I have yet to meet a church who said YES to evangelism and missions who are not able to honour their financial commitments. God always supplies according to our obedience against all odds. There are two paid positions allocated to evangelism and missions – a manager and a mobiliser. Although the faith offering doesn’t cover the whole budget, it does involve a whole lot of ordinary church members in missions.
• A management committee. This needs to represent all the ministries in the church, the church council, and ordinary members from the congregation. It is in place to approve the budget, special expenditure needs, appointments of missionaries, and our annual goals setting.
• Policies. Approved policies guiding anything from missionary appointments to missionary projects. Policies and guidelines are great instruments to promote best practise and buffer against shifts in leadership directions.
• Partnerships with mission organisations or like-minded non-profit organisations. Although I am appointed as the fulltime manager of missions, we do not send missionaries to the field without a partnering organisation. It is just a practical consideration. We do not have the resources or capacity to manage and care for people who are thousands of kilometres and a different currency away from us. We need a team with our missionaries on ground zero to help with care giving and direction. 
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). An MOU between the church, the missionary, and the sending organisation provides clarity in member care about everyone’s responsibility and boundaries.
• Accountability. Once a year our missionaries need to complete an annual report that enables us to find red flags for special attention and give us leverage to be able to give account on any missionary to anyone who are asking – especially the church council.
• Skills support. We have established a ministry among our congregation members requesting them to tithe their professions and skills towards serving our missionaries and struggling congregation members free of charge. It is called Helplift. Medical, legal, computer techs, and a wide range of other professionals have offered their services which is well-managed and controlled. 

Conclusion

We are sincerely grateful to the Lord for guiding and directing our church in its missions involvement over many years. I trust that you will find these practical pointers useful to implement in part or whole at your church to more fully participate in missions and with missionaries.

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EMQ, Volume 58, Issue 2. Copyright © 2022 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.