Media Missionary Focus

The Story Part 2 (the problem of "zero sum" missions)

Picking up the thought that I touched on last time, there are other problems with the story that the people in the churches hear from missionaries. It has to do with the “thrill factor”.

Very often, churches seem to think and act on the premise that missions giving is a “zero sum game”. In other words, they have “X” number of dollars for missions, and once it is gone, that’s it. So when missionaries contact churches, the first thing that goes through the church leaders mind is, “do we have any available missions funds?” If they let the missionary come to the church, after the missionary speaks it becomes a question of deciding between supporting missionary A or missionary B. So then it becomes, who has the more exciting stories; who has the higher “thrill factor”. This spills over into the missionary’s communication from the field, as well. At times it can be difficult for a missionary to write a newsletter when they don’t feel like they have anything exciting to report.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being in a church where a long time missionary friend of mine was speaking. This friend is an MK (missionary kid) who grew up in Kenya, and now is a missionary in the Sudan. He had ten minutes or so, and did a great job of presenting the need in the Sudan. By the time he finished, I felt like I should go to the Sudan (that always seems to happen when you get a missionary who is good at communicating their heart). Then I started thinking through what all he said, and how the people responded.

Now please understand, I am not intending to criticize what he said, or how he said it, or anything; I am just trying to paint a picture for you of what fundraising is like for missionaries.

There tends to be the idea that one ministry is more valid than another because of it’s location, or the “results” that a missionary has. People sometimes say, “missionary so and so has planted all these churches, and that other missionary hasn’t planted even one.” My friend even brought up some of these problems. He was talking about how some of the least reached areas of the world don’t tend to have many missionaries because it takes time and relationships to have someone become a Christian, so there’s not a lot of exciting stories for newsletters and things. But then it’s even harder for the missionaries themselves. They tend to look at what the other missionaries do and feel like they are failures because they aren’t seeing people saved every day. People in churches often reinforce this because they question who they should support, and sometimes will even drop missionaries who don’t seem to “produce” at a level they equate with a successful ministry, and pick up support for someone else (remember the zero sum game?).

The answer, as I said in my last posting, is in relationships. Only when people in the churches develop a relationship with a missionary, and understand what they do and why they do it, will they be moving beyond the “thrill factor”. In saying that I will also add that often it is the missionary’s fault. I’m not sying that they didn’t do what they should have on the field, but rather they failed in maintaining a good relationship with their supporters in order to educate and disciple them in how missions works in their area. I know of other situations where a church has dropped their support of a missionary because the missionary fails to communicate regularly with the church. Personally, as much as I hate to see any missionary loose support during their term, I think churches in this situation are often justified in their actions. But I am drifting a bit from my point about the “thrill factor” of one ministry verses another.

The Bible says that some plant, some water and some harvest, but all share the reward. All of them play vital roles. And it’s amusing that usually the “great” things we do aren’t the things that really make a difference anyway. Very often, the things that have real lasting impact for the kingdom of God are the little things that happen when we are least expecting it. And we don’t even find out about it until years later. But maybe that’s a story for next time…

I realize this posting may raise a few other questions, but let me finish by saying I don't believe that missions is a "zero sum game". I believe that God's plan, in God's timing will not lack God's resources. As we stretch ourselves to bless others, God will in turn bless us as well. Once we eliminate the "zero sum" missions philosophy, many of the other "thrill factor" problems go away as well.

Now, I don't think we should give regular support to every missionary that walks through a church's doors, but I do think we should pray and ask God what He wants us to do in every situation; I think it is wrong to just dismiss the possability of support just because we think we have hit our limit. We should pray about each opportunity and seek God's will and direction. Once that relationship has been made, it must be maintained by both sides to remain healthy and strong.

posted by Troy In Cambodia @ 10:59 PM