EMQ » April–June 2022 » Volume 58 Issue 2
By Isac Soundararaja
When our son or daughter goes through difficulties, how do we handle that situation? We admonish, but we don’t destroy. When the children of our ministry partner in the mission face a tough situation, what is our reaction? We love, but we do not allow them to go astray. Missionaries need this same kind of compassionate support. Missionary care, also known as member care, is not pampering. It does not make people lazy. It is simply loving one another.
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder, EMQLibraryInstitution”]In India, over 60,000 Christian workers are involved in cross-cultural mission with unreached people groups. Thousands of missionary kids and third-culture kids are a part of these missionary families. The challenges and the unmet needs of these Christian workers and their children are unique and need to be addressed holistically.
Why Does Member Care Matter?
Many words can be used to describe member care: friendship, encouragement, affirmation, help, fellowship, as well as sharing, communicating, visiting, guiding, comforting, counselling, and debriefing. Christian workers are on the frontline of a spiritual war between the powers of good and evil and their battles are fierce. They need support staff engaged in member care to share their inner battles with because they are literally in a war with the forces of hell.
Kelly O’Donnell says, “Missionary member care is important. It is not because Christian workers have more stress than others, but rather because they are strategically important in God’s Kingdom.”[1]
Our God is concerned about caring for missionary families. Qualified member care makes missionary families healthy and competent. It is the foundation of a God-pleasing strategy in missions. Christian workers who do not have a solid caring network in their mission organization and church can lose balance, and this can affect their efficiency.
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Missionaries alone cannot do the ministry God has sent him to do. There must be others who come alongside to care for them, and ensure their needs are met. Only then can our part in God’s work be accomplished. Togetherness increases strength and reduces vulnerability when the enemy attacks.
Member Care Challenges and Unmet Needs in India
Based on my experience in the last 10 years with the member care organization Missionary Upholders Trust (MUT) and observations from various studies, the following are a few of the challenges and unmet personal and family needs of cross-cultural missionaries in India:
Physical Challenges:
- Health: We have missionaries who are affected by major illnesses such as cardiac arrest, cancer, etc. Others experience prolonged health issues such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, or renal failure.
- Bereavement: Some missionaries face deaths in their family and others lose their dear ones early in their life.
- Unexpected crises: Sudden deaths in extended family, loss of properties due to natural calamity, persecution, etc.
Emotional and Spiritual Needs:
- Spiritual and emotional maturity is at different levels among the team members of the same organisation.
- The temptations placed before each Christian worker are different. But because the devil knows who is weak in what area, they succumb to temptations easily and quickly.
- Many struggle with fears, others feel lonely, and still others cannot bear pain or suffering.
- Some are highly sensitive while others are living with past hurts.
- Some do not have clarity in their life purpose; others are stuck because of faulty teaching before they joined the mission.
- The fruits of the spirit are few or not very evident in some people’s lives.
- Denominational differences can bring disunity; some are proud and arrogant because of such differences.
- Unlearning bad habits can be difficult for some members.
Challenges of Missionary Children:
Most Indian cross-cultural Christian workers put their children in boarding schools. This presents challenges:
- Missionary children in boarding schools are separated from parents. Parents only get three times in a year to spend a few days with their children: September holidays, December holidays (last week of December) and summer holidays (end of April to June). Some parents who serve in far off mission places do not come to visit or take their children with them in September or even during December holidays because of ministry commitments!
- Many children talk infrequently to their parents because their parents did not get the phonelines going or just failed to contact! Those children feel neglected by their parents.
- Sometimes children find boarding school discipline unbearable, or they may not feel love from school staff. They miss and long for love from their parents.
- Parents who greatly miss their children may be tempted, in their anxiety and desire to show their love, to do anything to please their children at every reunion. They pamper them to the extent that the children get spoilt.
- Some Christian workers negligently disregard relationships with their children. The children come to believe that their parents do not love them and that their parents have abdicated their responsibility to the school.
- Missionary children can feel deprived when they compare their lives to those Christian children whose parents have secular jobs. These children may benefit from a good education, comfortable life, consistent parental care, and love and care from extended family that missionary children may lack.
- Most of them openly say that they would never become Christian workers. Some may start to hate God and also their parents.
- Some children become rebellious and even go astray. Parents may feel helpless and depressed, and unable to do ministry work properly.
Challenges in Missionary Married Life
Hundreds of missionary couples are in deep trouble. From our experience, it is noted that these marriages are on the verge of breaking due to various factors including physical, emotional, and longing for the love of their children.
Challenges Posed by Retirement
Retirement is another significant challenge. As long as workers are healthy and energetic, they can continue to serve. Their faith journey and recollections of how God led them inspires juniors. But many are not at all prepared to retire when service is no longer possible. Take for example the Christian worker who had terminal cancer. While his wife was staying at the missionary rest house, their mission suddenly served them a retirement notice! They were devastated because they had not planned for this eventuality. Mission and churches must take the problems around retirement seriously.
Member Care in India
It was in this context that God enabled the India Missions Association (IMA) to make efforts to address the unmet needs and the challenges of Christian workers and their families in India. The seed for IMA’s involvement in member care ministry began in the ’80s. In the ’90s IMA developed a partnership with MUT. In the year 2000, a consultation was done with the member missions of IMA, including MUT, particularly to address the health challenges of Christian workers in India. MUT came forward to facilitate meeting these needs. As a result of this partnership with MUT, member care has been facilitated to over 15,000 Christian workers in India.
However, as many as 45,000 Indian cross-cultural Christian workers still need care. It is discouraging to hear, “God will help you; he will be there for you!” It is true that God will take care, but Christian workers also need to know and experience the visible care and support of their own mission organization. We also often hear, “the Christian workers are our heroes,” but in reality, the attitude of the mission organization and the church towards them is hardly that.
“Many organizations do not have a care department to focus on their leaders and staff,” explains Pramila Rajendre.[2] We need to see mission organizations build teams to facilitate member care.
However, an organization that develops a God-honoring and caring culture is more valuable than the care system itself. As Darell Davis indicates, “Member care is not a department added on to the administration, but a characteristic feature that determines the overall operations: a shepherd’s heart.”[3]
Brenda Bosch adds, “It is crucial that mission agencies and their leaders and members create a work and family environment for Christian workers where they are valued above their manpower, contributions toward work objectives, and achievements.”[4]
Local supporting-churches also need to participate because holistic care for Christian workers and their children is the mutual calling of churches and mission organizations. There are fewer chances of burnout or Christian workers leaving the field when mission organizations and supporting churches stand together with missionaries in all areas of support. Missionaries live in the context of sacrifice, stressful work, and prudent risk. In order to be the salt and light for God’s glory in places where Jesus is not known, Christian workers must have a community that cares for them.
Finally, we must heed the prophetic voice of Krishnasamy Rajendren, lest his words reverberate into our future, “If the Christian workers are not looked after, missionary endeavors in India will diminish. Missionary welfare is only one issue of a bigger missionary package or challenge.”[5] Prioritizing member care issues affecting the Church and mission community ensures that work among unreached peoples will not suffer and perish.
Isac Soundararaja, PhD (ags@imaindia.org),serves with India Missions Association. He became a Christian when he was 19 years old. He has had various responsibilities in missions in India including serving as specialized faculty in cross-cultural communication, facilitating non-formal theological training for rural church planters, and working in member care initiatives.
[1] Kelly O’Donnell, Global Member Care, vol. 1 (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2011).
[2] Pramila Rajendren, “Setting up a Care Department in an Organization,” Miila Consulting, June 30, 2020, https://www.miilaconsulting.com/post/setting-up-a-care-department-in-an-organization.
[3] Darell Davis, unpublished article on member care issues.
[4] Brenda Bosch (a freelance Member Care consultant), in discussion with the author at the Global Member Care Conference, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2013.
[5] Krishnasamy Rajendren, Which Way Forward Indian Missions?A Critique of Twenty-five Years, 1972–1997 (Bangalore, India: SAIACS Press, 1998).
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.
