Everything degenerates with age. Even cheese, which is said to improve
over time, can age too much. I wonder if the modern practice of missionary
support has also degenerated? With the current ease of travel missionaries are
able to canvass almost the entire country as they seek those funds needed to
get to the field. And with the current economic circumstances in America ,
those same missionaries often find it needful to cover the whole country and
then some to raise the support so vital to life on a foreign field.
Missionaries are often forced into accepting support from churches they
are not in doctrinal agreement with (perhaps over the ordinances, the local
church, or some philosophy of ministry) and find themselves quietly holding to
themselves a conviction of conscience for the sake of the dollars needed for regular
support. This quiet compromise may be at the root of the problem of so many
missionaries having a surface relationship to practically no relationship with
those churches that support them; too close of contact could potentially expose
that there are real differences between the missionary and the churches
supporting him.
This tension then leads to what I am calling a "missionary machine"
mentality. Missionaries travel quickly from one church to the next. They keep
their kids away from church kids. They attend one service in a church (either
supporting or potentially supporting) and rush off after a quick meal to make
the next church within driving distance. In their minds this makes perfect
sense. After all, churches need missionaries to obey the Great Commission, missionaries
need lots of churches to get to their field and close relationships with local
churches will just keep them busy longer doing what they don't really want to
do anyway.
- It's a machine
- It's a business
- It's nothing personal
- It's not scriptural and
- It’s not healthy
Our missionaries need to be more loyal to those churches that support
them. They need to become personally involved with them. It will require more
of an emotional investment on the part both parties but it is the only way we
can get missions support back where it belongs; a ministry rather than a
machine.
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
