Look in on this email conversation between the mission pastor of New Life Church (NLC) and the director of a mission agency called Bread Company to the World (BCW).
To: Director, Bread Company to the World
From: Mission Pastor, New Life Church
Subject: Appreciation
I’m writing to thank you for the good interaction we’ve had with Bread Company to the World Mission about our missionaries Joe and Sally Kuhl. Our church here used to think that you were out to beg for money and steal our best people. We also thought mission agencies like yours were bogged down with needless overhead. So we decided to cut out the “middle man” and send our missionaries directly to the field. Boy, did we get in trouble! We had to hire extra staff here at NLC to handle training, shipping, visas, overseas banking and dozens of details we never thought of before. We didn’t have a clue how to provide schooling for the Kuhl children or language study for the parents. We couldn’t provide field administration, accountability or pastoral care. When the Kuhls arrived they weren’t part of a team and struggled to develop personal relationships with the national church. And guess what? They ended up using a lot of the services that mission agencies had put in place. We’ve learned to appreciate you folks at BCW and understand now why there has to be some administrative overhead.
To: Mission Pastor, New Life Church
From: Director, Bread Company to the World
Subject: Re: Appreciation
Well, thanks! I’m afraid that we mission agencies have been at fault for not working closely enough with churches like NLC. I’m so sorry that we didn’t learn to listen to each other sooner. We used to accept candidates even if they didn’t have strong references from their churches. When missionaries hit difficult times, we tried to help them but failed to communicate with their church. I’m so glad we now insist that each candidate has a home church, and we’ve learned to pay careful attention to your references. We also gained a lot of valuable input when our mission leaders spent a day with you and other pastors to listen to your vision for outreach. Our role is to help you fulfill the missionary vision God has given you for your church. I’ll send you a copy of our “end-of-term” evaluation with Joe and Sally Kuhl. We listed several areas where we need your advice on how to help them prepare for their second term with BCW.
The partnership between churches and mission agencies has not always been harmonious. At times churches have charged mission agencies with taking their people and funds while allowing little opportunity for local church ownership. Individual churches sometimes set up their own sending agencies only to discover the inefficiency of providing services and accountability.
I’m delighted at the growing cooperation between mission-focused churches and mission agencies. Mission organizations have been listening to sending churches, and sending churches have grown in their appreciation of the unique help of sending agencies. We need each other.
Throughout history sending churches and mission agencies have been wonderfully used of God to plant and nurture churches in every country of the world. The Bible illustrates the distinct but complementary role of church and mission. Mission agencies fulfill the traveling prophetic and apostolic role and churches carry out the local priestly and elder function. Prophets and apostles are sent out; priests and elders are called to local evangelism and nurture. The local church and mission agency form an interdependent bond, each needing the other and both included in the Church, the worldwide Body of Christ.
While harmony is growing, we could do more to strengthen the partnership and accomplish Christ’s worldwide commission.
Suggestions for Mission Agencies
* Collaborate closely with sending churches in the selection and placement of missionary candidates.
* Expect candidates from para-church backgrounds to take part in the life of a local church before sending them to another culture
* Ensure that missionaries communicate regularly with their sending churches and relate closely with the pastor and missions committee.
* Keep churches up-to-date on special issues as they arise, or from end-of-term evaluations.
* Create forums for listening to the vision of pastors and missions committees. Then find innovative ways to help them fulfill their vision.
* Suggest mission resources, sermon ideas and curriculum for pastors, missions committees, small-group leaders and Sunday School teachers.
* Expect missionaries to invest time with their churches while on home assignment, realizing that missionaries have a responsibility both to plant churches in another culture and to be a blessing to their sending church.
Suggestions for Sending Churches
* Teach God’s plan for the nations in every facet of the church, including the pulpit, Sunday School and small groups.
* Challenge church members with cross-cultural ministries, coming along side them to select a ministry, mission agency and location.
* Support home staff missionaries who amplify the effectiveness of field missionaries.
* Give freedom to the field ministry. Even mission agencies must allow flexibility in strategy for their field teams.
* Partner with the mission agency in the ministry of healing for missionaries who face burnout, frustration and depression.
* Expect regular interaction and prayer requests from those you send.
* Assign missionaries to Sunday School classes and home groups for consistent prayer and communication.
* Draw the whole congregation into prayer for missionaries. World missions is the joyful privilege of every Christian, not just those serving in another culture
* Honor missionaries on home assignment and those returning from short-term trips with opportunities to stimulate missions and enthuse the church with God’s plan for the world. Too often missionaries come home from life-changing experiences with no occasion to communicate their passion.
The Body of Christ includes both the church and the mission agency. When the two join together in harmony, the local church is richly blessed and together they become a powerful tool for influencing the world.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Local Church and Mission Agency - Working Together
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Strategic Stumbling About In Search of Surprises
Precise long range planning isn’t difficult. It’s impossible!
We often talk about the need for a gracious and humble revolution in mission leadership, but we are vague about precise objectives. I suggest that powerful leaders must have a compelling vision, but they seldom are sure of precise outcomes. They recognize success when they see it, but aren’t sure what it will look like ahead of time.
Many books by management experts proclaim that the first thing a person needs is a measurable goal. They say “If you don’t know where you are going, you may end up some place else.” Some management consultants teach the need for precise long-range goals, divided into short-range goals and then put on a time chart They say you can not plan unless you have predictable goals. But leaders disagree. They say if you have precise, predictable goals you are aiming at something of secondary importance. Peter Drucker writes: “the non-profit organization exists to bring about a change in individuals and in society.”[1]
1. The most important goal is to glorify God and help others come to Christ and progress in their pilgrimage toward Christlikeness. Such goals are imprecise and will not be fully accomplished this side of the Jordan River. It is impossible to predict how much progress pilgrims will make in the next few weeks or few years. But when we see growth toward maturity we will recognize it and rejoice. We cannot predict where the path will lead, but we know where it will end.
2. The means for facilitating Christlikeness are also out of our control. We are involved in a spiritual struggle with forces not made of flesh and blood. The best teacher plays only a minor role in the process of Christian maturity. Spiritual growth comes only by the grace of God, not by precise methods. We need to be committed to the methods God uses to bring us to himself.
Tom Peters, famous for the book In Search of Excellence, writes in a recent article:
"Plans? Goals? Yes, I admit that I plan and set goals. After I’ve accomplished something, I declare it to have been my goal all along. One must keep up appearances: In our society “having goals” and “making plans” are two of the most important pretenses. Unfortunately, they are dangerous pretenses -- which repeatedly cause us to delay immersion in the real world of happy surprises, unhappy detours, and unexpected byways.
Meanwhile, the laurels keep going to those mildly purposeful stumblers who hang out, try stuff with reckless abandon-- and occasionally bump into something big and bountiful, often barely related to the initial pursuit.”[2]
Too often, business-oriented management theory dominates Christian views of leadership. According to management theory, leaders need specific, measurable goals. “If we aim at nothing specific, we’ll hit it every time.” Or, “what gets measured gets done.” But precise goals are alien for pilgrims who are facing unpredictable dangers on the road. There are too many precarious experiences along the path. Pilgrims must have a strong sense of direction and destination, but they are not specifically sure where the path will lead in the near future. Leaders who get bogged down with measurable, short-term objectives often miss unfolding opportunities that arise around them. By definition measurable and predictable goals are not eternal! We are headed to a heavenly city. We are concerned with the inner character development of pilgrims. We are fighting for the souls of people. The most important things in life and in eternity are not measurable: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17).
Yet pilgrim leaders don’t lack vision. Effective leaders must have an obsession for the glory of God and a passionate love for other people. They have a picture of how eternity can be different because of God's influence through them. They have a strategic vision for eternal goals and they know how to respond to the opportunities unfolding around them in light of that vision. Christians may achieve excellence as managers and administrators and yet damage pilgrims. Good management can be a useful tool, but management should never be confused with leadership. Pilgrim leaders are people with a passionate love for God who use their spiritual gifts for developing other pilgrims.
Pilgrim leaders are also concerned to stir up a clearer sense of vision in other pilgrims. They study God’s vision as explained in the Map of the Word. Their focus in not on short-term activity, such as “covering” a certain amount of material, but on the long-term development of people for the glory of God (pp. 71,71).[3]
Pilgrim missionaries who are deeply committed to promoting the development of people for the glory of God are not afraid to stumble about. But the stumbling is not random or irrational -- but purposeful. We need to plan with much common sense and clearly focus on a vision. But for some reason, God intended life to be unpredictable -- at least from our perspective. We long to be in control of results. But while God gives us a significant task, he does not allow us to be in control of our own lives or want us to control the lives of other people. And yet our stumbling is not aimless or purposeless. We stumble about led by the unseen hand of a loving Father who delights in giving us joyful surprises.
“Since future victory is sure, be strong and steady, always abounding in the LORD’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted.” 1 Cor 15: 58
[1] Drucker, P.F. (1990). Managing the non-profit organization. NY: HarperCollins.
[2] Peters, T. (Feb. 1991) in The Bookstore Journal.
[3] Plueddemann, J.E. & Plueddemann, C.E. (1990). Pilgrims in progress. Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers.
We often talk about the need for a gracious and humble revolution in mission leadership, but we are vague about precise objectives. I suggest that powerful leaders must have a compelling vision, but they seldom are sure of precise outcomes. They recognize success when they see it, but aren’t sure what it will look like ahead of time.
Many books by management experts proclaim that the first thing a person needs is a measurable goal. They say “If you don’t know where you are going, you may end up some place else.” Some management consultants teach the need for precise long-range goals, divided into short-range goals and then put on a time chart They say you can not plan unless you have predictable goals. But leaders disagree. They say if you have precise, predictable goals you are aiming at something of secondary importance. Peter Drucker writes: “the non-profit organization exists to bring about a change in individuals and in society.”[1]
1. The most important goal is to glorify God and help others come to Christ and progress in their pilgrimage toward Christlikeness. Such goals are imprecise and will not be fully accomplished this side of the Jordan River. It is impossible to predict how much progress pilgrims will make in the next few weeks or few years. But when we see growth toward maturity we will recognize it and rejoice. We cannot predict where the path will lead, but we know where it will end.
2. The means for facilitating Christlikeness are also out of our control. We are involved in a spiritual struggle with forces not made of flesh and blood. The best teacher plays only a minor role in the process of Christian maturity. Spiritual growth comes only by the grace of God, not by precise methods. We need to be committed to the methods God uses to bring us to himself.
Tom Peters, famous for the book In Search of Excellence, writes in a recent article:
"Plans? Goals? Yes, I admit that I plan and set goals. After I’ve accomplished something, I declare it to have been my goal all along. One must keep up appearances: In our society “having goals” and “making plans” are two of the most important pretenses. Unfortunately, they are dangerous pretenses -- which repeatedly cause us to delay immersion in the real world of happy surprises, unhappy detours, and unexpected byways.
Meanwhile, the laurels keep going to those mildly purposeful stumblers who hang out, try stuff with reckless abandon-- and occasionally bump into something big and bountiful, often barely related to the initial pursuit.”[2]
Too often, business-oriented management theory dominates Christian views of leadership. According to management theory, leaders need specific, measurable goals. “If we aim at nothing specific, we’ll hit it every time.” Or, “what gets measured gets done.” But precise goals are alien for pilgrims who are facing unpredictable dangers on the road. There are too many precarious experiences along the path. Pilgrims must have a strong sense of direction and destination, but they are not specifically sure where the path will lead in the near future. Leaders who get bogged down with measurable, short-term objectives often miss unfolding opportunities that arise around them. By definition measurable and predictable goals are not eternal! We are headed to a heavenly city. We are concerned with the inner character development of pilgrims. We are fighting for the souls of people. The most important things in life and in eternity are not measurable: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17).
Yet pilgrim leaders don’t lack vision. Effective leaders must have an obsession for the glory of God and a passionate love for other people. They have a picture of how eternity can be different because of God's influence through them. They have a strategic vision for eternal goals and they know how to respond to the opportunities unfolding around them in light of that vision. Christians may achieve excellence as managers and administrators and yet damage pilgrims. Good management can be a useful tool, but management should never be confused with leadership. Pilgrim leaders are people with a passionate love for God who use their spiritual gifts for developing other pilgrims.
Pilgrim leaders are also concerned to stir up a clearer sense of vision in other pilgrims. They study God’s vision as explained in the Map of the Word. Their focus in not on short-term activity, such as “covering” a certain amount of material, but on the long-term development of people for the glory of God (pp. 71,71).[3]
Pilgrim missionaries who are deeply committed to promoting the development of people for the glory of God are not afraid to stumble about. But the stumbling is not random or irrational -- but purposeful. We need to plan with much common sense and clearly focus on a vision. But for some reason, God intended life to be unpredictable -- at least from our perspective. We long to be in control of results. But while God gives us a significant task, he does not allow us to be in control of our own lives or want us to control the lives of other people. And yet our stumbling is not aimless or purposeless. We stumble about led by the unseen hand of a loving Father who delights in giving us joyful surprises.
“Since future victory is sure, be strong and steady, always abounding in the LORD’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted.” 1 Cor 15: 58
[1] Drucker, P.F. (1990). Managing the non-profit organization. NY: HarperCollins.
[2] Peters, T. (Feb. 1991) in The Bookstore Journal.
[3] Plueddemann, J.E. & Plueddemann, C.E. (1990). Pilgrims in progress. Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers.
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