In light of the last blog on the new re-entry book resource, I wanted to post some coming home deep thoughts from a colleague who just returned from a STM trip to the Democratic Republic of The Congo (DRC).

I think you’ll benefit from reading this honest commentary on doing mission the short-term way:

“DRC was an interesting trip and as usual highlighted all of the things I both love and hate about the place.

I love the hospitality and generally the whole feel of Africa, I love their singing, no-one can quite sing like the Africans. As usual we visited the prison in Lubumbashi and it just amazes me the way they pick up a metal bar and an old wheel and between that, their clapping and their amazing voices the sound is incredible I could listen all day. I love the way that people can be so full of happiness and joy when they have nothing of the things that we base so much of our happiness on i.e. material possessions!

But the things I hate about Africa are the squalid poverty and the corruption and violence; it so often seems to me that there is so little local effort to make life better. I get so disillusioned when we spend all year frantically raising money and the spend even more money and time to go there and build a hospital and then so many of the locals just stand there all day watching you build but rarely offer to help, there are always exceptions of course. I get disillusioned when I hear of the incredible violence perpetrated there for reasons that I will never understand. So every time I go it’s like I sink into a depression and think what is the point, why bother when everything around is such a mess.

At that point I then have to make an effort and look around at the women and children who have been forced into their circumstances and pick out some faces and say we are here to make “your” life better and if slowly one life and then another can be changed for the better then hopefully one day the country can be changed for the better, and that is the hope I cling onto and the reason I keep going back.

Of course I got sick as a dog for a week, which doesn’t help, but as I was laying in bed feeling awful, I was reading a book about refugees who when they got sick where lying in a makeshift tent in 42 degrees heat, with no toilets, no drugs or anything, so even then I was able to be thankful that at least I had a bed to lie in and antibiotics to make me better and a doctor who kept stopping by to check up on me.

So overall it was both good and bad, by the time the hospital is finished in the next few months it will be state of the art in terms of what was there before and I know it will be such an amazing blessing to those that need it.”

Obviously, there are ups and downs involved with STM. Some say coming home is harder than going in the first place. The injustice, corruption, poverty, and disease you can witness while on mission can be enough to drive you into a dark place inside. Like my friend observed though, if you can help make one person’s life better, you’re doing your small part in a much bigger picture. Imagine what we could do with 1000s more people doing their small part?

Unearth: Exploring a Land with No Name, by Christy Vidrine and Autumn Rogers. Waukegan, Illinois: Plethora Publishing, 2008, 94 pages. US$8.99; bulk discounts available.

Being a missionary can sound glamorous until you find yourself in the thick of culture shock, team conflict, and burnout. After such experiences, even short-term missionaries return home hoping for a reprieve from the intensity they felt overseas – only to find the challenges of reentry just as great.

Vidrine and Rogers, former college roommates whose first adventure together was a semester abroad, have participated in 21 mission trips between the two of them. Both have worked for mission agencies, training and leading short-term teams and walking with others through struggles such as they experienced themselves. They wrote Unearth to acknowledge the chaos of reentry and encourage participants to persevere.

The strength of this book is in its fresh, contemporary voice – it has a postmodern feeling that should speak well to a younger generation. Pioneers USA is putting copies in the hands of all its returning summer missionaries this year. Get more details and read an excerpt on the book’s website, here.

I have bought these in bulk, imported them into Canada, and they are available for order through us here.

Myth #10 – God Has Given Up on Americans / Westerners

by Shane Bennett (an American

Conversely, some believers consider the growth of the non-western church and the decline of the church in many Western lands as an indication that God no longer uses people like Americans/Westerners. Or maybe he primarily wants to use our financial resources to fund the work of others. Two things: God certainly wants Westerners to use their financial resources to further his work. Even with the scary economic situation (The Dow closed down over 400 points while I was writing this!), Americans/Wseterners are still among the richest people on the planet. As we have been given much, we are expected to give much.

Secondly, God is free to use whoever he wants, however he wants. His decisions in this regard are often surprising and puzzling for us. Our role is to think carefully about what God is doing and how we might best join in. Sometimes that means writing a check for a budding mission agency in Eritrea. Other times that means writing a cheque for a passport application, a plane ticket, immunizations, and an Arabic phrasebook!

Myth #9 – God Only Uses Americans and Other Westerners (like Canadians!)

by Shane Bennett (an American

Perhaps this is less myth than practical assumption. God has gifted Americans generally with a sense that we can overcome problems and accomplish worthwhile goals. It might go without saying that this gift has been unwrapped and used to whack our siblings on the head more times than I care to count. I’ll say it anyway, just so you non-Americans hear that we Americans (at least some of us) acknowledge and regret this.

Being gifted thusly by God, we can sometimes think we’re the only ones concerned about God’s global kingdom. When we venture to other countries (maybe yours!), we might think that God arrives when we do. We’re pretty sure he wasn’t here before we showed up!

One of the most hopeful trends of my young life is the growth of the church and the embrace of God’s purposes for all nations from the global east and south. God is increasingly raising up mission efforts from Africa, South America, and across Asia. Praise God for you, our brothers and sisters, who are joining or re-joining this great global cause.

See also: The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (and other works) by Philip Jenkins.

Myth #8 – All Mission Effort Has the Same Strategic Value

by Shane Bennett

Say we limit “missions” to work done for Jesus in a different culture. Should we then further distinguish value among different mission work? This is a dicey business and not for the faint of heart. Therefore, let me defer to my friend Rick, in Michigan, as he shares some of his frustration with this myth and myth number six.

“I think the unstoppable myth in our congregation (so far, anyway) is that there is really no difference between shoveling my neighbor’s sidewalk, doing relief work in the slums of Manila, and planting churches among unreached people. So of course in the absence of direct supernatural revelation from God, most people reach for the snow shovel. There is no consensus at all for the priority of frontier missions, and not much idea that the gospel has a purpose beyond making us nicer people who help other people to be nicer too.”

The value you place on a certain activity rises or falls based on the goal you’re shooting for. One of things I appreciate about Perspectives is its emphasis on starting something among all people groups. (See core ideas 10 and 11 here.)

If that is our goal, we prioritize the least reached and the unengaged.

Myth #7 – It’s All Missions

by Shane Bennett

One of my early attempts to share my passion for unreached nations took place a small country church some years ago. I gave them my best. Even so, I’m sure the predominant thought was, “Isn’t that youngster a dear,” not “Let’s go to the ends of the earth!” The pastor also felt it necessary to mitigate my remarks and blunt my passion for the unreached by assuring his flock, “We’re all missionaries to our neighborhoods and workplaces!” I was thoroughly deflated.

If you’re a white 75-year-old named Mrs. Johnson and your neighborhood consists predominately of Arabic-speaking Yemenis with a smattering of “Goth” teenagers thrown in, and you’re building relationships with them because you love them and love Jesus, then, yeah, you’re a missionary to your neighborhood. Otherwise, maybe you’re not.

Not all outward efforts for the gospel is missions. Not all that is good and “of Jesus,” is “missions.” That doesn’t mean it’s not good, just that it’s not missions.

See also: Alan Hirsch on looking at our communities with the thoughtful, loving, eyes of a cross-cultural missionary.

Matt: This is a challenging thought, as many churches are calling any kind of outreach these days, “missions”. Is there a difference between missional activity and “missions” in the traditional sense of the word?

Myth #6 – It’s Just One More Thing

by Shane Bennett

Perhaps arising from the previous myth, this idea places missions on the same level as the rest of the ongoing duties of a church. What do you think? I live for the least-reached peoples, so let me admit, I could be a little biased in calling this a myth. I’m with twentieth-century theologian Emil Brunner on this one, “The church exists for mission as a fire exists for burning.”

I don’t know what Dr. Brunner meant when he said “mission.” Perhaps he would vehemently disagree with my take on the next myth. What I do like is a challenge to think about what Church is all about. What is the Church and what is its purpose? This is a huge discussion. But I think it’s about more than simply making sure we obey Hebrews 10:25; it’s about being and extending the Kingdom of God. Missions is somehow key to the very purpose of the Church.

Myth #5 – It’s All about Meeting Needs

by Shane Bennett

Because few things stir compassion and stir action like stories and photos of hurting children, much mission mobilization has been accomplished by inviting people to meet needs. The logical result? An assumption that this is what missions is mostly about.

Now God makes it quite clear that He is fond of widows and orphans. Jesus speaks eloquently about cross-cultural compassion in one of his best stories. And working to meet the needs of others is a good and godly response to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But mission efforts motivated by needs have this shortfall: More needs are always just around the corner. In order to keep compassion going, we may also feel like we have to describe more and more extreme needs. Rather than mobilizing, this can create a paralyzing sense of powerlessness in the very people we want to enlist in our cause.

I appreciate the framework Steve Hawthorne and John Piper (among others) have laid out for us: God is unfolding a wonderful plan to draw some from all peoples to himself. He is undertaking a great effort to restore all things and extend his blessing to all nations. Our mission? It’s about joining God in his great purposes for our planet. Meeting our needs and the needs of others is a part of it, but the main thing is bringing honor to God: He is central.

Matt: Well if it’s not about meeting needs, then what’s it mostly about? Do you really go to bring honour to God? How much does that line of thinking actually play a part in you going?

Myth #4 – It’s All About Money

by Shane Bennett

I raise support to fund my work and family. Maybe you raise support too. It’s been a part of the missions process for a long time.

Unfortunately, we seem to have given the impression that supporting missions is mostly about money. Mainly by saying things like this: “You, Lou and Sue in the pew, should give me your money, in smallish but regular doses.”

Since most missions efforts (at least as we approach them now) require money, how do we do what needs to be done and dispel this myth at the same time? One option is to only allow half of us to raise support. (Hmmm, which line do you want to be in?) Lately I’ve taken to challenging people to think in huge ways about how God might give them funds to pass on to missions efforts. “Imagine in 15 years you have the capacity to write a check for $12 million to endow a mission agency…” Other times I just breeze right over the money question. I’ll say, “Anyone can give money. What about your skills? What about your life?”

We who raise money to fund our ministry habit need grace and wisdom in this area. Maybe we need some new thinking as well. A friend and I are working on an article and maybe a book about how missionaries raise money all wrong.

Matt: If you have thoughts about that, or about any of these myths, feel free to toss in your $0.02 worth!

Myth #3 – Non-Christians (Especially Muslims) Are Hairy, Scary Meanies

by Shane Bennett

Caveat: Yes, many people are suffering at the hands of Muslims. Yes, some Muslims have done mean things on a massive and deadly level. Yes, some verses of the Qur’an suggest that Muslims should kill all who don’t believe like them.

That said, personally I know more mean Christians than mean Muslims. Don’t you? I know more Christians than Muslims, so I’m not trying to establish a ratio in absolute terms. I’m just saying maybe we need to challenge this myth about Muslims. I’ve been invited in and served food by Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists alike. I’ve seen Muslims behave like Jesus, another argument against the meanness assumption, more times than I could relate. And many times that Jesus-like behavior has been directed to me.

Without presuming to address all the issues this entails, can I encourage us as mobilizers to find ways to help people have one decent conversation with someone from another faith? Perhaps you’ve seen this in Missions Catalyst before, but it bears repeating: According to Dr. Todd Johnson, eight or nine out of every ten Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists do not personally know a Christian (referenced here). A lot of “us” have never met any of “them,” either.

A cup of tea and a chat might begin to dispel the “mean” myth.

Matt: My former Muslim neighbours Mohammed and Farnouche from Iran became great friends of ours. Over Persian food and Canadian BBQ, we had some great talks with them through the years. They loved on our young children and gave so freely of themselves. They sure helped break down any stereotypes I might have had of Muslim people. I can only hope that our lives broke down stereotypes of Christians they may have had.