You know what’s silly?<\/p>\n
Thinking that planting a church in a different culture with an unwritten language is simpler than leading a church in your own culture.<\/p>\n
Who on earth could think that? Everyone who questions why New Tribes Mission has a four-year missionary training program.<\/p>\n
We expect pastors to have two to eight years of training to lead established churches in the country they come from. Yet most missionaries go out with a few weeks of orientation to plant churches in different cultures, often in different languages.<\/p>\n
How silly is that?<\/p>\n
You know what else is silly?<\/p>\n
Not valuing supporting missionaries in vital logistical roles.<\/p>\n
That’s usually expressed as, “We want our money to be used on the front lines!”<\/p>\n
OK, so let’s get this straight. A pastor’s primary role is equipping others for ministry and assisting them in their ministries, in a country where people have access to the Gospel, and the church pays him a salary. The church also pays other staff, perhaps even a secretary and groundskeeper.<\/p>\n
And yet the same church doesn’t see the value of supporting missionaries in vital logistical roles?<\/p>\n
How silly is that?<\/p>\n
Could anything else be that silly?<\/p>\n
Why of course!<\/p>\n
Believing that what takes years here should take minutes overseas.<\/p>\n
I exaggerate a bit, but the point is: Why would anyone think that the process of making disciples is a short-term task? <\/p>\n
We know that Paul, working in a culture and language he knew, spent months establishing churches among people who had some knowledge of the God of the Old Testament. We also know how long and difficult a process it is to disciple our own neighbors.<\/p>\n
Yet some people think we can do missions with short-term teams, and others expect to hear of great numbers of converts and church-goers soon after the arrival of missionaries.<\/p>\n
How silly is that?<\/p>\n
Let’s apply a little common sense, and a lot of Bible study, to our expectations about missions and missionaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Common sense sometimes isn\u2019t very common when it comes to attitudes about missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}