Obstacles in Missions

MISSIOLOGY

LECTURE 44

OBSTACLES IN MISSIONS:

CHURCHES & BOARDS

SENDING CHURCH OBSTACLES

1. Perpetual “Mission Work” status: the Missionary is sent out to ‘start a church’ but no church is allowed to ‘organize’,

seemingly, forever. The ‘thing’ that he has ‘started’, i.e. ‘the work’, is called a ‘church’, it functions like a church, he is

the ‘pastor’ of this ‘church’, but it isn’t a ‘church’…it is a Mission Work….whatever pray tell that is!

Some Missionaries desire to stay in this status for it might help legitimize their continual needy status for financial

support. Others would like to have all of God’s blessings on the ‘church’ and would like the freedom to be an

independent Baptist church…but no such freedom is granted. Also, if the home church’s pastorate changes, the new

Pastor may not care too much for the methodology of the Missionary and decide to have him ‘called off the field’.

2. Pastor (church) requires a large financial reserve prior to ‘going to the field’: One Missionary we support was told by his

Pastor that he would need to have about $27,000 saved up prior to him departing for the field. If you take God out of the

picture then that might be somewhat reasonable to make the transition (I think $10,000 would be a better amount); but,

there is a God, and He has promised to take care of His children as they serve Him!

3. Some Pastors promise to let them go to the field at such and such a time, but then as that time moves closer, they keep

extending it; they get flakey; they don’t really want them going; they are too dependent on them. They often will change

the pre-requisites for them going.

4. A Missionary usually figures that his own church will support him for a fair amount of money, but often it is just $100 a

month….kind of a letdown when your own church doesn’t put much ‘stock in you’!

5. A sending church may basically refuse to help with administrative tasks (banking and letter sending). It’s kind of like

they are not really ‘behind you’ in all of this. Once you’ve gone they kind of forget about you… ‘good riddance’.

6. If the Missionary asks for a 2nd man, rarely is one allowed to be given. That is just too much sacrifice on the church,

apparently.

7. Many a Pastor is wanting to ‘control’ “his” Missionary: He will try and run the ‘work’ from America, 1000 miles away.

The Missionary ends up just being a pawn, held captive to the Pastor’s limited viewpoint on how things should go in that

3rd world nation.

Possible ‘real-life’ scenario:

Bro. Hohmboee finally answers God’s call to the field of Cameroon. He informs his Pastor, Pastor Ocksgoad, but his Pastor is less than thrilled. Pastor Ocksgoad wants Bro. Hohmboee to align himself with a Mission Board, go out on Deputation for the standard 2 to 3 years and then the church will commission him. Two and a half years later, Bro. Hohmboee is finished with Deputation and is back at his home church. He is very excited about the prospect of finally getting to Cameroon. Pastor Ocksgoad informs him that he will need about $18,000 in order to purchase plane tickets, visas, container shipment, and first 3 months rent in Cameroon. Bro. Hohmboee is flabbergasted; he only has about $2000 saved up from his whirlwind tour of America these past 2.5 years. He sends letters to all his supporting and visited churches and waits.

In the mean time, Bro. Hohmboee feels that God is calling his friend in the church, Bro. Titephist, to be a ‘2nd man’ there; and Bro. Titephist agrees. Pastor Ocksgoad is totally against that idea, for Bro. Titephist is the Treasurer and Teen boy Sunday School teacher. Three months go by and Bro. Hohmboee has raised close to $10,000 and lets his Pastor know that. Pastor Ocksgoad informs him that he thinks it would be best to have $25,000…due to the frail world economy. Bro. Hohmboee goes away in tears. One year later, after working 50 hours a week at Wal-Mart, Bro. Hohmboee has saved up the required $25,000. Pastor Ocksgoad reluctantly shares it with the church body…the church folk seem less than thrilled. Some have even been wondering if Bro. Hohmboee is even called to be a Missionary because it seems like God isn’t really in all this considering how long it took him to raise support and initial travel expenses.

Three months later the church votes and commissions the Hohmboee family to Cameroon. They also voted to support the Hohmboee’s for $75 per month and gave them a love offering of $118. Pastor Ocksgoad then informed Bro. Hohmboee that they will exist as a Mission Work until the ‘work’ is self-sufficient (not needing any ‘support’ money). And, his Pastor informed him that he will need to be subordinate to him, as his Pastor, and the church during that time. Well, one year after arriving in Cameroon, Pastor Ocksgoad quits the church and a new Pastor comes along, Pastor Maykmydaaye. This new Pastor decides that Bro. Hohmboee isn’t winning enough souls and hasn’t seen enough fruit in the ministry there and the church follows his recommendation to ‘call the Hohmboees’ home for an early furlough, which turns out to be a permanent one. Three years later Bro. Hohmboee stops attending church altogether and ends up going back to his alcohol and smoking and soon divorces and he then ends up in jail for possession of Cocaine.

SUPPORTING CHURCHES OBSTACLES

1. Unfaithful, unpredictable giving of monthly support: out of a whole year maybe 5 support checks are received. It’s hard

to follow a budget when you really don’t know how much money you’ll be getting each month.

2. Some supporting churches will suddenly ‘drop support’: reasons might be a recent decrease in Mission’s giving; a new

Pastor who kind of ‘clears the board’ and starts with a clean slate; a change in Mission’s policy.

3. Churches can require things like in person reporting every 3 or 4 years; souls won quotas; monthly updates; staying

with Mission Board;

4. New Pastor comes on board and there is a whole new set of rules, regulations, expectations, requirements, etc..

Possible real-life scenario:

Bro. Ohvurzhelus finally arrives to his field of Gibraltar. He spent 3 years on Deputation, 6 months in his Board’s Missionary Orientation program, one year in required language school, 3 months packing and visiting relatives, and is now, almost 5 years after starting out on Deputation, in Gibraltar…praise the Lord!

His support level is at $5000 per month. In the first 3 months, $12,000 comes in ($3000 short). The next 3 months has $10,800 come in. The Ohvurzhelus’ have just enough money for their home rent, food, gasoline, and a church building rent. It seems that over the next year, the average monthly support that actually came in was about $3800 (76%). Things are tight for him, but they are surviving 2 years into their ministry there in Gibraltar.

A church in Illinois informs Bro. Ohvurzhelus that he will need to report how many souls are won each month; the Missionary begins reporting these numbers, which came out to about 3 per month, and then hears back from the Illinois church 3 months later that they have decided to drop him from support do to ‘lack of fruitfulness’ (new avg. is 74% of level).

A church in Idaho and a church in Montana both contacted him last month to inform him that they had internal financial difficulties and could no longer send support money (new avg. is 68% of level).

This month a large church in Texas contacts him that states they have a new Pastor now and he has decided to only support Missionaries associated with ‘his favorite’ Mission Board, of which Bro. Ohvurzhelus is not a part of (new avg. is now 63% of initial support level).

Bro. Ovurzhelus is having difficulty paying for the rents, food, gasoline, car payments, internet fees, cable TV fee, etc., and decides to take an early furlough (after only 2 years on the field) to raise support. While back in the States, 2 churches contact him and state that they are dropping support due to not adhering to their requirement of staying on the field initially for a period of 4 years before taking any ‘furlough’ (new avg. is now 60% of level).

Bro. Ovurzhelus is in the States for 1 year and raises his support level up to 80% and decides to head back to Gibraltar. Once back there, the church he had started has dwindled to just 10 people (before leaving it was 50); also, the man that was helping out with it has been voted in as their new Pastor. Bro. Ovurzhelus decides to move to a new field, Paris, and start a work. Upon notifying his supporting churches, 10 write back and inform him that they do not support a Missionary if he changes fields/callings. Now his support level drops to $2750 (55% of level). After 1 year in France, and with only about 20 people attending services, the Ovurzhelus’ decide to head back to America and recover from their stressful and disappointing time as Missionaries. Bro. Ovurzhelus never attempts to go back into pastoring and spends the next 30 years serving as Junior church S.S. teacher and church janitor…the church pays him about $1000 per month for this and he works odd jobs to make up the difference.

MISSION BOARD OBSTACLES

1. Can be hard to become an ‘approved’ Missionary: may take an extended period of time; may require some compromises

here and there.

2. Requirements can be a bit burdensome: attend 1 to 2 years at an approved language school; attend 3 to 6 months of

‘Orientation’; must have 100% support level reached (they determine the level) prior to going to field; pay a certain

amount of support monies to them; follow their methodologies exactly or be faced with termination.

3. Field representative has some ‘authority’ (seemingly) over you and your ministry: they will check on you every ‘so

often’ and then will report back to ‘headquarters’; a bad report could mean ‘termination’.

4. Intimidation tactics: if you don’t follow their rules then they may inform you that they will be contacting all your

supporting churches to let them know that you are ‘insubordinate’ and that they are ‘dropping you’ from their

organization. This happened to one of the Missionaries we support and the result was that almost all his supporting

churches dropped him; we didn’t though.

5. Non-reproducible church models: ‘forcing’ the new church plant to operate like an American church; wear white shirt

and tie; have an enclosed, fancy building; use only the KJV bible (but they are not English speaking); door to door

evangelism (Muslim countries?)…

6. Planting ‘Frog’ rather than ‘Lizard’ churches: Yes, this is a metaphor. Frog churches perceive themselves as ends

in themselves, sitting fat and complacent on a hill or lily pad (or main street), expecting the lost to come to them in search

of salvation. Frog churches hold meetings in places where they feel comfortable and require the lost to adapt to their

froggy world. Lizard churches are always pursuing the lost. Adaptable and ready for action, they move quickly into the

world through cracks and crevices seeking the lost. Lizard churches penetrate the homes of the lost with evangelistic

Bible studies rather than requiring the lost to come to their churches. They are willing to change their colors, expend

enormous energy, even lose their tails if necessary in order to bring the lost into the family of God.

Possible real-life scenario:

Bro. Meenzwhell was informed by his Pastor that he needed to try and get approved by BIMI in order to go on Deputation and finally get to his field of Barbados. Bro. Meenzwhell is not a big fan of Mission Boards, but abides by his Pastors recommendation. BIMI interviews him 3 months later and then 2 months after that officially approves the Meenzwhells as ‘their Missionaries’. Bro. Meenzwhell begins initial orientation classes at BIMI 2 months after that and finishes them 3 months later. Thus, now 10 months after contacting BIMI, he is now ready to start the ‘Deputation trail’. BIMI has a new policy that states that their Missionaries must only go to churches that ‘support other BIMI Missionaries’, and a list of these is given him. After 2.5 years on ‘the trail’, the Meenzwhells have gotten about 85% of their ‘needed support level’ promised. Bro. Meenzwhell then asks BIMI if he can make plans to get to Barbados, but they respond that it is BIMI policy that no Missionary be ‘allowed’ to leave for the field until 100% of promised support is actually coming in to BIMI headquarters. One year later (3.5 years into Deputation), the Meenzwhells reach this ‘magical number’ and they soon set off for Barbados.

While in Barbados for 6 months, the BIMI ‘Field Representative’ shows up unannounced and courteously quizzes the Missionary about his activities in the ministry there. It turns out that Bro. Meenzwhell is not following BIMI policy on the location of the ‘church’: BIMI requires that their Missionaries locate a church in or near a large Metropolitan area. Bro. Meenzwhell felt it was God’s calling to go reach the smaller villages up in the hills and valleys. The Field Rep. informs headquarters which then writes a letter explaining that their Missionary needs to follow BIMI policy or face potential dismissal. Three months later, the Field Representative shows up and finds the Meenzwhells still ministering in the more rural areas. Two weeks later the Meenzwhells are informed that BIMI has dismissed them as ‘approved Missionaries’ and has sent letters explaining this to all their supporting churches. The Meenzwhells support then drops dramatically…the next 3 months see an official drop of support by 70% ! The remaining 30% is about $1350 per month; just enough to pay for rent and food, but nothing else. The Meenzwhells decide that God hasn’t called them to be Missionaries after all and head back to the USA to redirect their lives.