MissioMishmash explores how far is too far in adapting to your mission field’s culture

Something to suggest to your supporters: 13 Ways to Bless Missionaries Without Paying For Postage and How to Pray for Missionaries

Lessons from Apple applied to missions

With a strong opinion and faulty reasoning, the New York Times calls the missionary impulse “a lingering personality disorder of Western culture.” (HT: Patrol Magazine)

Against the Current asks if persistence in missions is a long-lost attribute (and yes, they link back to one of my posts).

What do The Blues Brothers have to do with being missional?

Related posts:

1. From the Missionary Blogosphere
2. From the Missionary Blogosphere

Over at Wrecked For the Ordinary, a young missionary has written a great piece about people’s perceptions (and, more importantly, misperceptions) about missionaries today.  Without knowing it, she’s summed up quite a few of the themes and threads here at my blog.  Best quote:

“It feels like what I am alluding to is something like this: ‘I am a professional at telling people about Jesus. And you’re not, cause you work a 9-5. Only, I shouldn’t say professional, because I am on (cringe) support. Wanna give me money?’”

Check it out here: “Lottie Moons or Ex-Pimps: We’re All Missionaries”

No related posts.

My church elder was talking about the latest conference he attended.  As he described the speakers and the books he bought, his face lit up when he remembered something.  “They’ve got this brand-new approach that they’re trying now, and it shows a lot of promise.  People in some areas are really excited about it.  Have you heard of a Coffee Shop Ministry?”

Sigh.  Yes.  Ten years ago in the States.

I’ve been involved in ministry and church planting now for almost half of my life.  It feels like the whole time has been peppered with the next new book, angle, approach, tool, technique, item or worship style.  Every idea has the aura of “this is the thing that will really work”.  And it seems like more conferences are popping up every year, each with their own subtle twist or perspective on how to “do church” the best way to get the best results.  I fear I’m at the point of programme overload.

I’ve come to this point in my life for two reasons: 1) the sheer quantity of programmes over a long period of time are too much to process, and 2) seeing ministry in a different cultural context has made me realise how culture-specific virtually all of these approaches seem to be.  I have no doubt that, for each of the methods or techniques available in ministry today, there is a place or people group that have responded really well and have become Christians through this.   Praise God!  I’m honestly glad that this has happened in that situation.  But I’m startled by the attitude that most Christians have: “If it worked there, it’ll work here!”

Perhaps I’m jaded because I’m a missionary in a first-world country.  Many assume that the transition would be seemless and people here would respond to a specific type of outreach that worked in the States, or even within another “socially-similar” country.  I’ve had well-meaning people forward books and programmes to me for considerational use here, yet when I read the literature through my “Western European Culture” eyes, the language would too-easily be interpreted as individualistic, boastful, or sometimes confusing or even vulgar due to slight changes within the English usage here.  Churches here with the best of intentions have used some of these programmes, and I have witnessed the backlash from the nationals.

It gives me the impression that ministry, whether local or foreign missionary, has become an industrialised commodity.  Grab the package of books/DVDs, send it over, get results, rinse, repeat.  Hey, it’s in the same language, what’s to change?  Yet even with translated literature, a lack of cultural understanding could really impede rather than impact a people group for Christ.

I’ve seen people hide behind the supply chain in order to avoid contact.  One man would get so excited about how many “Starter Kits” could be sent out for Bible studies, yet he was reluctant to even step foot in a Bible study himself.  Doing ministry at arm’s distance was good enough for him, so don’t ask him to go any further.  While distribution participation is certainly a valid part of ministry, if we use it in place of interaction with others or even God then perhaps a rethink of priorities is in order.

And I’ve known so many pastors that have a conference booked practically every month, travelling all over their country.  Even Christians in my mission field expect us to go to any and every Christian conference available here, as if it were un-Christian not to go!  One youth minister I know in the States was beginning to show signs of “sign-up-itis” early in his ministry, and his senior pastor wisely gave him guidance on this.  To go to any conference, the youth pastor needed to be able articulate why he needed to go and what he expected to learn.  Upon return, he was to submit three things he learned from the conference and planned to implement in his ministry.  A year from the conference, the senior pastor wanted to review the three things with my friend to see how, if any, worked and judge from there if further training or conferences were necessary at that time.  To some this may sound a little harsh, but I see it as a pragmatic approach to discerning the appropriate time to attend conferences and to gauge the effectiveness in that specific ministry.

To be clear, I’m not knocking the concepts of conferences, programmes, media or literature.  If one of these methods is working in your particular ministry situation (and by working I mean bringing people into a brand-new relationship with Christ, not just attracting the Christians from the church across town), that’s a wonderful thing.  Keep it up!  But discernment is needed when presented with the overload of so many options in ministry.  Would this work in my culture?  How many conferences do I need to attend?

So why the big “sigh” earlier?  I’m noticing that the (very small) evangelical presence in my mission field is mimicking the trends of American Christian culture—at a lag of about 10-15 years.  I’ve had a lot of these moments with my nationals; as they enthusiastically explain this “new” way of ministry to me, I’m silently thinking, “Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.  That ‘new way’ was already abandoned and they’re now on to something else.” And, in his eagerness to be just like the other, larger, urban-centred churches here, my elder is forgetting that our church is located in a sparsely populated rural area.  The local farmers would not be comfortable in a slick hipster Starbucks wannabe, nor do they even prefer to drink coffee.

The funny thing is, most of the people in our church would feel more comfortable if we were replicating another programme or method that was used successfully in another church.  It’s almost like they see it as a form of easy math: method that filled a lot of seats at Wherever Church=filling a lot of seats at our church.  Instead, we’re going in a different direction with our outreach services, not utilising a lot of the typically accepted practises in modern ministry because most would be off-putting to the culture around us.  We feel it would get in the way of how we should present the Gospel to a suspicious people who see God as an angry landlord.  Will it work?  Are we going in the right direction?  Time will tell, but I know most see it as a gamble and a “tested method” as a sure bet.

Even though we have the internet and lighting-fast ways of communicating in the 21st century, Western Europe is oblivious to the fact that those at the vanguard of modern ministry in the States have questioned an over-reliance on programmes, instead suggesting a focus on training and encouraging people on reading their Bible, plus building relationships within the church and those around them.  I’d rather the evangelicals here ignore the order of the last ten years of stateside trends and just skip to the realisation that making disciples of Christ requires genuine relationship building, and that takes time.  I don’t think there’s a trendy programme for that.  Yet.

No related posts.

Over at TheBodyBuilders.net, the latest newsletter focuses on the Top Five Mistakes in Support Raising.  I really identified with #5 “Jumped in Without Preparation” on the aspect of thinking I just knew who would give.  Just because someone is a wealthy Christian who adores missions doesn’t mean God will provide financial support for me through them, and I’m wrong to pre-judge anyone’s desire to give—or not.  #3 “I Asked Too Timidly” resonates more with me and God than with me and financial supporters.  I think that our mission field is such a tough one both spiritually and financially, and I didn’t want to “get my hopes up”, so I’d ask God that just a few people would show for worship.  Or I expected to not get access to the tools I needed for ministry or even day-to-day living, and God provided it anyway.  I’m not suggesting the Prosperity Path, but I think sometimes we can get dejected and swing very far the other way as if God can’t do anything and won’t provide at all.

As always, would love to hear in the comments your input on this and additional mistakes you’ve learned from your fundraising experience.

Related posts:

1. Top Five Myths in Support Raising
2. Obama Cost a Missionary Their Support
3. Top Five Fears in Fundraising

Early in our fact-finding trips to our mission field, we kept getting the sense that the nationals held a bit of a reservation about working with us.  They were certainly friendly and accommodating, but their comments and facial expressions held a barely discernible air of skepticism.  We knew that their interactions with a large majority of American missionaries had gone very poorly for a number of reasons, so we figured they were understandably hesitant to interact with us.

Fast-forward to about six months into living in the mission field, and the real reason for their hesitancy began to crystalise in my mind.  We had been here long enough to watch several short-term mission teams funnel in and out of the church, plus there were several other long-term missionaries attached to help.  Watching the interactions from the sidelines, I began to see what the nationals saw: most missionaries would only do ministry at arm’s distance.

This is going beyond the unfortunate handful of those with bad attitudes; actually, the majority were polite, respectful, and generally good people who were willing to help and work in many ways.  Yet even in the group of good-natured, well-intentioned people, there still existed a trace element of distance from the nationals.

Many of the missionaries lived near each other, and, in the case of singles, roomed with other missionaries, usually from the same country or stateside church.  Breaks and leisure time were spent using various social media to keep up with a very large amount of friends and family back home; in fact, this more-than-daily updating often overrode events or tasks during ministry time.  Any external interactions or attendance at non-church events were with other missionaries, including dinners or “get togethers” that excluded nationals.  While there is nothing wrong with comradery amongst those with a shared background experience, the lack of deviation from it gave the clear indication that the missionaries were not interested in engaging the nationals in the day-to-day experience of living.

From my sociology studies, I recognise that this is typical behaviour for most immigrants.  Understandably, there is a common bond through nationality; even I’ve experienced a bit of comfort when talking with a fellow American about a situation only we could understand or remarking about how odd a custom in this mission field seems through our eyes.  It also follows that immigrants would want to stay close to other immigrants when they share a language unlike where they now live.  But I had expected missionaries to differ purposely from this behaviour for two reasons: 1) in this field, there is not a language barrier (well, there’s an accent and word definition barrier at times, but for the most part we are all speaking English), and 2) their reason for being here is to effectively spread the Gospel, unlike most immigrants who are here primarily to escape a dangerous situation in their homeland or to make money.

The message of Arm’s Distance Ministry is: I’m here to get a task done, and I’ll be friendly to you during this ministry time, but when it’s over I’d rather not interact with you.  I’ve seen this happen quite a bit in the States as well in both paid and volunteer ministry, so I don’t believe it’s just a foreign missionary issue.  It just becomes that much clearer in the mission field, perhaps because of two distinctly different cultures interacting.

Is it our phraseology?  The term “outreach”, usually used for a special attractional church event, implies that we are reaching out to a place that we ourselves are not actually in.  Is it our training?  I am aware of one mission agency (note: this does not imply that they are all this way) that required a large amount of the “Way of Salvation” witnessing per month.  Were this required in my situation, I’d have to confront strangers to “make the quota”, yet not only does relational (and slow-building) ministry work better here, street witnessing would get me ostracised from my small village.

Perhaps it’s the Western concept of compartmentalisation of our lives that shapes our definition of reaching out to others during “church events” or when ministry is scheduled to happen—but that stops when the prescribed time over.  Maybe the few months or years the missionaries were scheduled to spend in the mission field made developing relationships with nationals seem moot if they planned to return permanently to the States.  Western Europeans can be much slower to “warm up” than most Americans are used to.  Whatever the reason was, it gave the impression to the nationals that the missionaries were primarily concerned with completing ministry tasks and nothing more.

While I had been pondering this concept for a while, it was an article linked from the How God Messed Up My Religion blog that pushed me to write this post.  The article recounts several lessons from a recent short-term mission trip to Africa.  Their team chose to stay at the orphanage they were helping, and a teacher from the orphanage told her, “people come to help, but they don’t really want to be with us and live our life with us.”  While it’s understandable that Westernised Christians would find it hard to live a week in third-world conditions, the sad reality is that the same sentence could easily be said by our Western European nationals today.

The word “missional” gets bandied about a lot these days, and it’s definition seems to be still forming.  As I understand it, the emphasis is on the body of believers acting like me, a foreign missionary, instead of a “Holy Huddle” in the church with the onus on the pastor as the “Hired Gun”.  I think it’s a great idea, but from what I’ve witnessed in the mission field, we’re sometimes not very good about being missional ourselves.  Whether it’s fear, or intimidation, or the fact that so few are encouraged to make missions, or a particular mission field, a lifelong (or at least open-ended) commitment, arm’s distance ministry can only go so far.  The nationals appear to understand this better than we do.

Related posts:

1. When The World Comes To Your Field
2. Pulling Your Hand Out of a Bucket
3. The “Just Be Yourself” Paradox

Sometimes hard truths about mission realities just have to be stated, and this video does just that under a minute and a half.  Though the speaker is from a Native American tribe, his words could easily be from the mouths of our nationals who have shared similar stories; they have experience both the issues of pictures and charity.  Best quote: “Very few people come for the sake of getting to know us and building relationship. And of those who do come for that, even less ever come back.”

By the way, as informed as I thought I was about missions, I have to admit I hadn’t considered the spiritual needs of the Native Americans until missionaries to their tribes commented on this blog in the past. (HT: Almost An M)

Related posts:

1. In the Culture of Now

Author Ann Dunagan asks, “Is Your Family Mission Minded?” (HT: Life.Outpoured)

How to avoid five pitfalls of Short-Term Mission trips

An MK learns about sacrifice and the value of protecting your health

NonModern explains why Evangelical Christians may be the worst witnesses in their own culture

An example of the church being a missionary to Russia

Related posts:

1. From the Missionary Blogosphere

The turn of the new year always gives us pause for reflection on the past and contemplation of the future, so the start of 2010 appears to be no different.  As I remember lessons learned over the past few years as a missionary, one theme keeps recurring: we are shaped by the environment in which we find ourselves, no matter how much we may resist.  And I have been very much influenced by my mission field’s culture which is an “in the moment” people group, something I like to call “The Culture of Now”.

Of course, the title is not indicative of a culture of wanting things or change to happen immediately (i.e., “I want it now”) but of a state of being in the moment, relishing the experience and not focussed solely on the future.  In an earlier cross-cultural course I had learned of the differences in such cultures, and I am grateful to have understood the technical differences before entering the mission field.

It was actually the change of decade that prompted me to take note of my personal attitude shift.  Reflecting on where I was (physically, spiritually, and emotionally) as 1999 slipped into 2000, I started to realise that I had been a much more agitated individual.  Always focussing on the next task, job, location, or goal, I wasn’t actually interacting in the moment.  Time with people, though often a pleasant thing, was seen as an obstacle to progress; because it was a necessity to interact with others, I felt at the time that it must be kept to a minimum.  While I would be present at an activity or function, mentally I was worlds away, going over tasks in my head or thinking constantly about what sequence of events needed to happen once I got out of the situation.

As I thought about how I enter a conversation now, I realised that my conversations of the past often centred on what accomplishments I planned for the near future, always networking and looking for that “next thing” that I could hitch my wagon to a star.  Essentially, The Present Situation was something to constantly aspire to get out of, and on to the next moment.  From my experience and recollection, it is a tiring way to live because it means there is no defined end in sight.

We had been well informed about our mission field’s cultural attitude, so we didn’t experience a huge shock when we arrived.  Things take longer, people move slower, and it’s just the way that it is here.  Our friend’s statement, “You’ll have loads of things to do, but if you get only one thing accomplished in a day, that’s considered amazing”, rang true and still does to this day.  But moving this information from knowledge to personal practice took much, much longer than we had anticipated.

Part of the reason it’s been so difficult is the fact that we still interact with our original culture, from funding supporters and churches to family members.  Firm plans and grand expectation of results are required from the American culture, sometimes even 5-10 years from now.  I’ll never forget a woman coming up to me after our fundraising presentation, where we had mentioned a minimum five-year commitment to this field.  “What will you do at the end of five years?”  she queried.  Taken aback, I mumbled something about we’d see what God laid on our hearts at that time.  “Would you return to America?” she pressed.  “Five years is so far away,” I said, “but if God wanted us to return at that time, we would.”

Her eyes lit up.  “Where will you live then?”  At this point I wasn’t sure where she was going with this or what I was supposed to say.  I mean, I’m putting all my energy into going on mission in a foreign country for a very extended (and open-ended) period of time; does anyone really know with certainty exactly what they will be doing in five years’ time?  “Um, I’m sure God will let us know where at that time,” I hastily replied, looking for anyone else to talk to.  She kept on with, “What will you do for work?  These are important things you have to plan for now!”  Yeah, I’ll just secure a job somewhere that they’re willing to wait five years (or longer) for me to return, though I’m not sure where that would be.  And, while I’m busy doing that, I’ll lock in a lease on some house that I won’t live in for at least five years, too.

I never got to say what I was thinking, which was, “Lady, would you just let me deal with the experience I’m in now before having to make firm decisions about the future?  I’m sure I’ll be a different person by then, and God doesn’t always share His plans for us that far into the future.”  Meanwhile, I’m not even five years into the mission, and I’m already dramatically different in my views and practise.

I fear that this monumental difference from the States’ forward-thinking/progress-focussed/instant gratification mindset is part of what makes it so difficult for American missionaries to stay long-term, but as I’ve changed I notice some unexpected benefits:

The only problems I see are two: 1) this way of life, if left unchecked, can lead to serious laziness; and 2) our Stateside supporters may struggle with a perception that we’re not doing enough or getting satisfactory results, though we’ve done our best to communicate the cultural (and spiritual) differences in ministry here.  Meanwhile, even in our “slowed-down” state, the nationals think we are a whirl of activity, going too fast and accomplishing things by leaps and bounds.

I fall back into my old habits every once in a while, and the discomfort I feel through it snaps me out of that future-thinking angst pretty quickly.  Entering the new decade gives me hope that I can better appreciate the present and enjoy the now.

Related posts:

1. You Said What?! The Importance of Context in Culture
2. Pulling Your Hand Out of a Bucket
3. The “Just Be Yourself” Paradox

MissioMishMash gives the answer to the question, “Is it safe to be a missionary?”

Life.Outpoured revisits Speaking Missionese. The video on Christianese is hilarious, yet true.

Missionaries already know they’re outsiders when entering a foreign field, but what if the church saw itself in the same way?

The Scriptorium Daily reports on the Urbana 09 student missions conference and includes some great missions quotes; they’re all good but my favourites are the first two.

Want to learn more about missions in Europe? The Upstream Collective is holding a conference in a week.

Related posts:

1. From the Missionary Blogosphere

While 2009 has been a year (and part of a decade) of ups and downs, both personally and collectively, the past 12 months have been possibly the most fruitful time in my writing since leaving school many, many years ago.  I believe the 72 posts on this blog for 2009 are representative of my creative faucet finally allowing my thoughts to flow.  It’s been quite a journey, and I’m humbled how many have joined me along the year.

A quick look at stats shows that individual visitors to Missionary Confidential more than tripled since the year began, and followers on the RSS feed and Twitter have shown rapid growth from the early single-digit days.  This is mentioned not to make me look good but to show that so many of you have joined in the conversation; there are over 200 comments made on this blog in 2009 (these are legitimate ones from real people; I pluck out all the spam and junk).  You come from countries such as the States, Taiwan, Canada, the United Kingdom (I know it’s not a country), Thailand and Australia, and I thank you for your participation and readership.

For the last Missionary Confidential post before we dive into a new decade, I offer links to some of my favourite 2009 posts from this blog.  These are not reflected in the “Our Best Posts” or “Popular Posts” lists you see to the right columns of the blog:

“Disappointment Avoidance”
“Obedience is not a formula, nor is it a means to an end, usually assumed to be success. Perhaps it’s a more Western ideal, even an American lesson, to put numbers and goals to ministry and heap attention only on those who accomplish this—all others need not apply.”

“The Best of Intentions: Missionary Superhero”
“Once you start labeling callings, then you have comparisons.  Is the man who loses his family connections when he converts to Christianity and becomes a pastor in his homeland less of a Superhero?. . .Must you give up things of earthly importance (possessions, status, career, relationships) to be a Superhero?  If one didn’t have to go through those things, yet is still following God’s calling, it doesn’t negate their ministry or make it any less special.”

“I’m Not There: Why the Missionary Can’t Have It Both Ways”
“Presence in a moment is something technology has yet to duplicate, and there’s just something more compelling about personal human interaction. For now, there is no substitute to physically being in the same moment, such as sharing a laugh in a coffee house or sitting in a park, experiencing the situation’s assault on your senses. Mission life is a dual reality, and the two can never completely merge.”

“Pulling Your Hand Out of a Bucket”
“For all the planning and preparation in coming to a mission field, it seems that the exit point (even in a year-only commitment) does not get much focus. I recognise that not everyone is built for the long haul, but if our witness is that we rush into situations and rush out equally as quick, we’re cutting ourself off at the knees.”

“Was, Not Am: What’s Wrong With Lifelong Missions?”
“In my experience, someone still active as a missionary was viewed as odd, especially if they had been in their field for a large number of years.  As we complete year after year of our foreign mission, the comments are becoming more pointed: “You will come back, right?”,  “I thought you’d get this out of your system”, or “You won’t do this the rest of your life, will you?”  Is it such a problem that I am planning on staying?”

No related posts.