In a previous article, I discussed the issues of deputation (missionary support-raising) and the Bible. In this article, I’d like to answer two questions that pastors or other church leaders might ask:
- Why should missionaries visit our church?
- Who’s joining whose ministry?
Why Should Missionaries Visit Our Church?
Having missionaries visit your church can always benefit the congregation, though your motivations for inviting missionaries can vary. This section highlights some common motivations—both good and bad.
Motivation #1: To challenge, inspire, and educate your congregation about missions.
Missionary presentations and sermons can be powerful motivators towards church health, as people witness how their prayers and giving can potentially bear fruit on a foreign field. Not every invited missionary needs to be a partner or potential partner, however, though it’s important you make your intentions clear and pay for their time. Such visits can encourage your people and benefit the missionary through exposure to potential supporters, love offerings, and prayer support. My family has traveled all over this country, and the Lord has often blessed us with prayer partners from visits that themselves never resulted in financial support.
Motivation #2: To fill the pulpit when the pastor is away.
This is best done with those who are already your missionary partners. If the missionary is new to your church, and if long-term financial support is possible, it’s best to have pastors present to meet them and to help with the vetting process.
Motivation #3: Because it’s the third (or fifth) Sunday of the month.
Traditions like inviting missionaries at regular intervals can be beneficial, but there’s always the danger of such visits becoming routine, clouding their very purpose. If your church is in this rut, consider scheduling fewer missionaries or adjusting the schedule so missionary visits become events not merely routine.
Motivation #4: To consider financial partnership.
If long-term support is possible, you might consider this first visit like a first date, keeping the potential for “marriage” (partnership) in the back of your minds. Do you agree on basic beliefs? As you learn more about each other, might this first meeting lead to others and eventually to lifelong partnership? Beware of leading the missionaries on, making promises of a beautiful future that you never mean to fulfill.
A Final Note about motivation:
Whether long-term support is possible or not, use these visits as opportunities to bolster relationships through prayer and communication. Ask questions. Relate to the missionaries as people. Seek to be a mutual blessing and, if possible, invite them to stay for a day or more, allowing several church families to host and get to know them. Request (and read!) their prayer letters. Even if you cannot support them now, you can pray for them. God may lead you together in the future, so build that relationship now!
Who’s Joining Whose Ministry?
While the missionary-supporter relationship is multifaceted, this basic truth must be established: anyone choosing to financially support a missionary joins the missionary’s ministry and that of his sending church, both of whom help the supporter fulfill the Great Commission. This perspective matters when considering both the missionary’s beliefs and their accountability.
Beliefs
A sending church (which generally cannot fully support its own missionary) commissions its missionary to raise support, not by joining other churches but by asking other churches to partner with them in ministry (a ministry of their sending church). While missionaries should likely read and agree with a prospective partner’s constitution, doctrinal statement, mission’s policy, etc., it’s far more important that the supporter read and agree with the missionary’s beliefs and those of his sending church. The supporter chooses to enter a missionary’s ministry, not the other way around.
Accountability
Missionaries are accountable first to God, then to their sending church, then to their supporting churches and/or mission agency. To confuse this order is to overburden the missionary and is ultimately detrimental to the cause of Christ. If you place specific, non-negotiable demands on the missionaries you support—demands their own sending churches don’t have—you hamper their ministry.1 You must remember that you are their financial supporter, not their employer.2
Conclusion
I hope this article has been an encouragement to you as you consider partnering with missionaries in the future. Subscribe to Rooted Thinking to be notified about other articles on topics important to the church, including the next in this series, “The Challenges and Benefits of Missionary Deputation.”
- If your church requires missionaries to fill out an excessively long questionnaire about doctrine and methods, consider why you assign them homework instead of researching this yourselves. Many if not all the answers to your questions are already available on their church and agency websites. Have you done your due diligence? ↩︎
- Considering missions agencies and boards, be wary of any that treat their missionaries as employees, essentially usurping the role of the local church. Watch their behavior, not merely their terms and claims. The local church is a biblical institution; the mission agency is not. The local church sends missionaries; the agencies exist to assist. ↩︎
Photo credit: Eric Pouzet on unsplash.
