Dangers with long term missionaries? Is that even possible? I wanted to deny it, but after thinking for only seconds, I realized that there are not just dangers in short term missions, but also in long term missions.
The job of a missionary is to work himself out of a job. Paul stayed in one city as a missionary for three years max, his average was 6 months. He went to the cities, preached the gospel, organized the believers, appointed elders and moved on.
The main “danger” that I thought of when I read over a comment from a fellow missionary is dependency. In mission started churches, often the church is dependent on the missionaries. Obviously, it needs to be at the beginning, but as soon as possible, nationals should be taking over. The national's mentality though is “why would they need to teach when there was a better qualified missionary available to teach?” The missionary needs to de-emphasize himself and re-emphasize the gospel and God’s word as the real need.
We need to be careful and conscious of “rice Christians” (those who see the financial benefit there is to being a Christian and “converting” for this reason). This topic might have frustrated me most about being on the field because it is hard to tell who your true friends are. My neighbor always started to ask spiritual questions right before he would ask me for a favor. He was really obvious, but most are not so obvious. Long term missionaries need to be careful with how they help out so as not to create an easy atmosphere for false converts.
I loved living in the Amazon and could see myself there forever doing plenty of needed ministry. But with that I could envision myself forgetting the idea of working myself out of a job. Missionaries need to keep that in mind as they train leaders to whom they may pass the baton.
What are the other dangers in long term missions?
Steve Everett My 1st thought on this is that I feel you have really touched on one type of missionary here. The church-planting missionary. If that is what you are referring to, then I agree with this whole heartedly. There are very dangerous things to think about and be aware of as a long-term church planting missionary. But...there are many different types of missionaries that this line of thinking would not or does not work. What about the Doctors and nurses? They aren't really there to work themselves out of a job. Then there are the seminary teachers, they aren't working themselves out of a job, they are there to train. Then there are ones that are running a Retreat center or Camp ministry...perhaps there are no real goals in working themselves out of a job either. They are there to provide a place for training, growing, fellowshipping... and so on.
ReplyDeleteThe missionary, regardless of type, should always be empowering the local people of God. In the age in which we live there is no long-term guarantee that our presence will be allowed by the government of that country. If we don't train and resource locals then the future of the ministry may be in jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteThere are other dangers to long-term missions: 1) the missionary starting something he/she never finishes, 2) not seeing and treating nationals as equal and valuable, 3) trying to change the culture of that country instead of seeking to redeem it, 4) manipulating people and situations to satisfy supporters back in the USA. Good accountability to others in the local family of God helps cure most of these ills but is difficult for most American missionaries to accept accountability to others, especially national pastors/believers.