Missions: Marathon or High Hurdles?
By Bill Commons
The short answer? Both. Missions is a long and tiring race with many obstacles to overcome. Some acclaimed “runners” drop out from fatigue or trip over a hurdle after taking their eyes off the goal. The race is not for wimps, nor for heroes, but for committed servants prepared to endure—no matter what.
Yet there is another side—missionaries have a lot of fun! Wonderful people join us in the journey. Churches and supporters are generous and thoughtful. Nationals become our closest friends—more precious to us than we ever dreamed possible. There is no more boisterous laughter than when a bunch of missionaries get together and let their proverbial hair down.
So now that we have balanced the picture somewhat, consider the obstacles in the entry process:
- determining “the call”
- choosing a mission agency
- meeting the qualifications (completing education, etc.)
- selecting a field
- deciding when to attend Candidate Seminar
- determining when to quit work and do full-time prefield ministry
- discerning where and how to discover the support team God has planned for us
- researching how to move goods and family across the globe
Sometimes the qualifications require more time in preparation before attending Candidate Seminar. A field survey may result in changing location. Prefield may take longer than anticipated. To gain experience, a short-term assignment may be recommended before gaining career status. Flexibility becomes a prominent component of completing the race to the field.
Motives for Missions
Candidates often mention having missionaries as guests in their home during the growing-up years, reading missionary biographies, going on missions trips during student years, and experiencing personal crises in which God touched their lives providentially, any or all of which contributed in moving them to consider missions.
Some international ambassadors for Christ said they never experienced a particular “call,” but simply followed Christ wholeheartedly and learned to share His Calvary love for a lost world. Missions for them became an extension of discipleship. God’s hand directing them was not evident until they could look in the rearview mirror and see how He led step-by-step.
For others, learning about their spiritual gifts, and how they could be used in international ministry, was the key in discerning God’s direction. “How can my giftedness be used by God to spread the gospel worldwide?” was the question that opened the door to missions for them.
Other missionary veterans testify that they simply heard of a need for the gospel in a certain country and determined before God to head in that direction unless He closed the door, which He never did. For them, a commitment to missions was a logical choice in light of the disparity between the number of Christian workers in the homeland and the lack elsewhere.
So what is the role of “need” in discerning strategic life investment for the glory of God? Need does not constitute call, but it does demand an investigation. How can a thoughtful Christian not consider the 10,000 still-unreached people groups that have no Bible, church, Christian or missionary to share Christ with them?
Those who become missionaries often discover a contentment and fulfillment they never knew before. “Missions is what I always wanted, but didn’t know it,” said a veteran ruefully. Despite the long journey and daunting obstacles, there is no greater joy.
When major life decisions (such as a commitment to missions) seem complex and overwhelming, it can be helpful to consider how God led others in sorting things out and taking steps of faith in obedience to the Great Commission.
On Reaching the Field
There is no single proven way of getting there, of completing the “high hurdles” on the way to the field. God is unique in every life. He alone is Lord, and we walk with Him by faith and not by sight. He is the author and finisher of our faith and our life’s journey. Each of us is totally dependent upon Him. We dare not presume to reduce His ways to a system or program. Yet after decades of observing His ways, we can discern some common ingredients in the missionary process.
The local church is the key. What makes some local churches effective in getting their missionaries to the field without undue delay? The primary factor is the sending church taking on a major chunk of support. Assuming thirty to fifty percent of required support is the sending church’s announcement of confidence in the missionary, and indicates a level of commitment that inspires other churches to partner in the process.
Consortiums are increasingly popular as several churches band together to get their missionaries to the field, each committed to assume a certain percentage of the total support package. Pastors are stepping forward to lead the way, taking responsibility to get their missionaries to the field rather than sitting back to see if the missionary “makes it.”
It takes a committed sending pastor who will rally other pastors to get his missionary to the field by helping to schedule meetings in those churches, and then following up to gauge interest and motivate pastor-friends and their churches to team up in this adventure of faith.
So behind every effective long-term missionary is a committed sending pastor, along with other devoted supporting pastors, in the homeland.
Is the prefield process distasteful? “I don’t believe in begging for money,” some say. Neither do we! Join the club. ABWE prefield missionaries go to give, not get. As they serve local churches through ministries of education, inspiration, and information, God sovereignly raises up the support team He planned before we ever started. It is an adventure of faith, a marathon with many hurdles that build spiritual muscle. We learn to trust God for the “impossible” now, before we go, not only after arriving on the field.
Hurdles on the Field
Once the obstacles have been overcome in getting to the field, new mountains confront us when we get there:
- surviving culture shock
- gaining language fluency
- adjusting to the climate, food, and living conditions
- becoming part of a team made up of colleagues who are flawed like us
- enduring long-term culture stress
- overcoming government hassles and red tape
- developing close relationships with nationals
- learning cultural effectiveness in ministry
- supporting a spouse who struggles to adapt to difficult conditions or can’t seem to understand the language
- guiding children through homesickness and health crises
- coping with homesickness and fear of failure
- wanting a hundred times to quit and go back home to the “easy life” (greener grass syndrome)
- finding furloughs the hardest part of missionary life, after the adopted country and people become “home”
A marathon? For sure, but the journey also includes endless hazards and hurdles. Each of the above obstacles merits serious discussion and requires sincere preparation.
Some rare missionaries say they never experienced such overwhelming exhaustion or discouragement that they were strongly tempted to throw in the towel, but an informal survey conducted with several hundred overseas personnel indicated that most nearly gave up and quit during a crisis—some in their first term, others in the second or third. Most of us reached the cliff of despair and nearly went over the edge, at least once in our missionary experience.
Going through the decision-making process in entering international ministry careers, followed by the daunting procedures of application, screening, training, approval and prefield ministry, test and prove the new missionary’s mettle. It is a faith-building venture that transforms us from tentative, insecure wannabes into tested and proven servants of God who are ready for the greater challenges ahead on the field.
Some prefer the “normal” professional process of becoming a salaried missionary, as with a denominational board, to the more difficult and daunting procedures with a “faith-mission” like ABWE. But we who have endured the marathon testify that the prefield experience was necessary in building a walk with God that would carry us through the struggles and crises of missionary life. The contrast is amazing between the tentative new appointee starting out on prefield and the proven, confident missionary at the end of prefield as he leaves for his adopted homeland overseas.
Besides, your beloved churches and supporters become true partners in the testings and triumphs of serving Christ as He builds His church among the nations. Often church missions teams consisting of laypeople come to the field to assist with various projects, resulting in lifelong friendships—sometimes producing new missionaries who come out of those teams and return to join you on your field long-term.
In fact, the faith-mission dynamic has proven so effective in producing quality missionaries, along with helping local churches get involved with their overseas personnel, that some denominational churches have moved toward individual missionary support and away from reliance on a denominational missions budget alone.
What Should I Do Now?
If God led you to read this article, perhaps He is moving you towards investing part of your life in international ministry. Start investigating. Knock on the door of missions—not timidly, but boldly. Seek information. Make yourself available and see what God will do.
We are in the race together. It is a team effort. You will never run alone. When one of us trips on a hurdle, the rest rush to the rescue. The race is hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, heart-to-heart (Phil. 3:13-14, 17).
COME, RUN WITH US!
Editor’s Note: While this article focuses on the hurdles to moving overseas, the Message does not want to exclude the hurdles faced by missionaries who stay in North America to serve. While they do not necessarily learn another language or adopt another culture, their hurdles are still difficult, but different. Most North American missionaries do not work with full support. They lack the resources they could use to be most effective in their ministries. Maybe God would use you to assist a North American missionary or ministry. Remember, you don’t have to go overseas to find a mission field.
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