Figuring out limitless pathways…Problem #2 Solutions…

Professional missionaries and career Christians don’t know where to start for successful teaming.

In my last post, I gave a list of where we went wrong the first time in trying to team a professional missionary team and a career Christian on the field. The buzz in missiology right now centers around partnering these two together, to enable are larger missionary force. I coined the term “career Christian” to mean a person who has a normal everyday non-ministry job, called, sent out to the nations, in order to participate in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Others are calling them “missionary Christians.” Either way, the definition is the same. Non-professional ministry types in the market place sent out to partner alongside professional missionaries.

The idea is kind of brilliant and definitely answers a ton of globalization issues we missionaries are still failing to address. Things like restricted access nations, legitimate platform presence, low funding, or too small of a force to handle the remaining 6,000+ UPG’s.

The problem is that though it’s super visionary, it’s not totally realistic. Speaking about this blending, Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert declare in their book, The Gospel at Work, “Career missionaries who are already in many of these cities will be deeply encouraged by other Christians moving to their cities and putting their hands to the plow.” When I first read that statement as a professional missionary neck deep in the mess of our first screw-up, I laughed at how unrealistic that statement was. Then I cried. Because the lack of hard data from actual missionaries on the field was missing from their point.

All the mistakes we made the first-time, explain why we need to slow down and really work towards unity. Our worlds are just too far apart right now to handle easy intimate teaming. Our first failed experience isn’t even the only one out there. We have heard story after story of similar heartbreak, teams splitting up, and career Christians heading back to the U.S. after as little as a year on the field because of pre-existent false expectations.  We are never going to be successful if our career Christians leave the field early, thinking all professional missionaries are idiots who don’t understand real work. While professional missionaries are thinking all career Christians are work-a-holics who can’t share the gospel.

So, second time around, praise the Lord, we did things a little differently and surprise, it created a firmer foundation for what we hope will ultimately be long-term success.

1. We entered into a long-term mentoring relationship before the career Christian hit the field. Beforehand, we did a ton of work in preparation. Setting a realistic time-frame, developing a training plan, setting up meeting times, scheduled field visits etc. More importantly, we looked at this relationship in a covenantal manner. We expected from the beginning to hold each other mutually accountable to each of these aspects. When problems arose or meetings were cancelled for unforeseen issues, it never tempted us to abandon team. We continued moving forward.
2. We met together regularly (even long-distance) for prayer, encouragement, and training. For the first six months we met every week over Skype to train, talk, and pray together. These meetings formed a foundation to grow together as a team and build community intimacy. We cared about each other’s lives and prayed for each other daily. We were real and didn’t shy away from pain, hurt, or mess. But rather, clung side-by-side through the thick and thin.
3. We discussed and worked through all the pre-field expectations together. Both of us brought our real expectations to the table from day one. Not all the ooey-gooey, “how do I survive without my pastor?” and “what should I bring in my suitcase.” But the harder things like “I expect to work x hours a week.” “This is what I expect you to do.” “This is what I think our leadership structure looks like.” “What does team really mean to you?” “How can I truly contribute?” “Will you accept me for me?” What we uncovered were more similarities than differences and our honest communication and grace through each held us even more tightly together.  
4. We focused on previous lessons learned; good, bad, and ugly, as well as the advice from other really smart people who aren’t afraid to question everything.  We basically shared all our previous failures and what was learned from each one. We also dove into other resources together that gave us a better ideal to work towards instead of solely relying on our own vision. We read hard stuff and questioned together. When the lessons were hard to hear, we still focused on evaluation in order to improve.
5. We set out on a specific time-structured training plan that handled both the work/ministry balance and intentional church planting strategy. Our mentoring relationship wasn’t formed around a willy-nilly set of possibilities but rather set forth a specific action plan to provide a framework for full work/ministry integration. We discussed and studied church planting, incarnational global evangelism, teaming, business tactics and structures, specific work centered training, international adaptation, contextualization, and navigating life together as professional missionary and career Christian overseas. We also talked about the issues and problems we see on the field among some of our missionary colleagues and about both successful and failed attempts at work/ministry integration through the marketplace. Overall, we tried to cover as much as we could in order to both critically assess and plan for the future.
6. When we had blips in our relationship, we immediately addressed them and communicated freely and openly. There was a time when our career Christian had some serious doubts and began exploring other paths of quick access. He brought those to us and instead of shy away, we dove in together. We prayed and held hands through the doubt and stopped living afraid of losing. Instead we focused on unity even in indecision.
7. We invited leadership from our sending churches to constantly provide a barometer of discernment. We kept both of our sending churches informed every step of the way of our relationship and progress. Further, we welcomed their help and viewpoint. Sometimes this meant that we had to silence the nay-sayers even from within our own organization by simply ignoring their contradictory voices and reminding ourselves who was actually in the ring with us and who wasn’t.
8. We pursued Christ together. Bringing glory to Christ became the center of everything we focused on. We kept each other accountable to our own walk with God. We asked hard questions of each other and confessed when we didn’t have it all together. We also pushed into the non-comfort zone when things needed to be addressed in each other’s lives.
9. We discussed hard things and gave enough grace to explore without judgment. There were inevitably times we disagreed either on some strategy or trying to figure out what would work where. But this time, we allowed those differences to drive us closer together as we intentionally listened. Slowing the pace of our response and removing the typical labels, greatly helped us to see each other as teammates rather than rivals, vying for the same target. Our methods, though varied sometimes, bloomed from a spirit of unity.
10. We allowed each other to grow as uniquely designed individuals created with differing sets of gifts. Aside from fostering our personal relationship with Christ, this point probably made the greatest difference in success. At that start, we removed any boxed-in set of parameters for what a “real missionary” should look like. Instead, we evaluated each other based on our spiritual gifts, talents, skills, and life stage. We did not force each other into a tiny box, trying to mold them into something different. We gave each other space to be unique and individual. We didn’t move each other around a chess board, trying to use the other for our own gain. But instead, in love, we gave space for the Spirit to work in and around each of us.

The journey is ongoing and praise God this story has a much better ending then the first. As those focused on the future of missiological advance, we can’t keep going at our current pace in ignorance, not banking on a ton of casualties. I know the old adage about eggs and omelets. But really, these are human lives created in the image of God. True teaming will never happen unless we slow down and begin to apply that truth. Someone once said ministry is messy and that is so true. But it is arrogant and disobedient for us to use that as an excuse and fail to even try. For Jesus’ name and honor, we must be people of excellence and it only begins with honest evaluation about where the holes are.

*If you are interested in some of our resources, want a rough outline of the training plan we used, shoot me an email. Some of our go-to resources are listed on my resource page.

 

Figuring out limitless pathways…Problem #2

Professional missionaries and career Christians don’t know where to start for successful teaming.

In his book, The Evangelism Handbook, Dr. Alvin Reid uses Aristotle’s “three types of friendship” to define the best kind of mentoring relationships. “1. Friendship of utility, based on usefulness. 2. Friendship based on pleasure, based on pleasure in each other’s company. 3. Friendship of virtue, derived from mutual admiration.”

To enable limitless pathways, professional missionaries and career Christians have to link arms in effective teams. But too many gaps exist between the two for teaming to truly be successful right now. Long-term mentorship is the key starting point in building bridges between professional missionaries and career Christians.

We’ve had two experiences on the field that really led to this conclusion. Both started with trying to blend together a professional missionary team and career Christian through a community-centered business. The first one, failed miserably. Our own lack of understanding, planning, and humility greatly contributed to the relationship breaking apart. The second one, succeeded. Learning the hard way, we slowed down the pace and planned our walk together through a strategic goal-oriented mentorship.

What did we do wrong the first time?

1. We focused solely on fast-paced, hit-the-ground running, integration. Within the first seven days of arrival to the field, we already had the guy working. No language, no culture, no preparatory training. Just get in there and start getting your hands dirty. Oh yeah, and make sure you are sharing the gospel too.
2. We did not cultivate team life outside of work. We were too busy with ministry inside that there was no time left for team building outside. This left everyone feeling disconnected and isolated.
3. We did not create common goals based on what we all brought to the table. There were huge misunderstandings between who was doing the “real” work and who was “wasting time.” We spent way to long fighting for labels and misconceptions rather than accepting our true identities and learning to build bridges of trust.
4. We listened to the naysayers on both sides instead of trust our Spirit convictions. On the missionary side, we battled against the old-school methods that said business as mission is doomed to fail. On the business side, we struggled to give equal precedent to both gospel witness and running the business. We never successfully balanced these because there was a constant power struggle between which strategy should dominate, business or church planting. In the end, our failure to stand firm on our convictions led us to fight a battle destined to lose. This concession led to hurt and broken relationships.
5. We failed to train the career Christian and expected him to automatically know how to connect a church planting strategy with a “real job”. He wanted to be a “real” missionary just like us and he was passionate about sharing the gospel. But he had no idea how to carry this out from within the context of his job. He felt intimidated by our cultural knowledge and his own lack of work experience. What’s worse is that we completely botched his chances of truly integrating faith and work because we did not provide him a framework of operation.
6. When things started to go south, we pushed further away in relationship instead of drawing closer together. There were numerous times we could have sat down together, discussed all these issues, and exercised quite a bit more humility in hearing each other. But instead, we all stood with our heels dug in, convinced that each one had the right way. The day we stopped listening to each other, we lost any possibility of connecting as a team.
7. We didn’t go to our leadership and ask for help sooner. Even if we knocked on one organizational door and no one answered, we should have sought guidance earlier on when the struggles became real. Instead, we remained isolated from the greater team and our accountability sending churches which reinforced the false belief that we were all alone.
8. We stopped pursuing Christ daily both as individuals and a team. The heavier the ministry work-load became, the further apart we grew. This opened the door to quench the Spirit’s work in our personal lives which led to hard-hearts, anger, fighting, concessions, and spiritual manipulation.
9. We fought against each other instead of prayerfully seeking restoration. There were so many “hands in the pot” wanting and pushing for our success, the water became too muddled. Personal ambition took hold throughout the entire team and lines were drawn in the sand that had devastating results.
10. We had too many unmet expectations and furthermore we never discussed them until it was too late. On both sides, we each had a clear thought process to how we would team together as professional missionaries and career Christians. But we didn’t bring those to the table at the beginning and figure out how to effectively team together. So every time an expectation was left unmet it pushed us further from any mutual goal or successful teaming.

It’s taken over a year of deep prayerful introspection, to admit how much we all really screwed up. It can be scary to look back and really try to figure out what went wrong and then take ownership of our own sin. But in order for this to really work, we have to critically assess both our successes and our failures. Thankfully, the Lord gave us another opportunity to grow and team with a career Christian. And what we discovered is that the solution begins with a solid long-term mentoring relationship that focuses on building intimate community together, training, clear expectations, and strategic planning…more on that later.

 

 

Figuring out limitless pathways…Problem #1

Professional missionaries don’t know how to handle Christians coming to the field with a “real job”.

You’re either a missionary or a career Christian.  A missionary gives up everything, moves overseas, and evangelizes the lost. A career Christian has a job and makes money.  You can’t be both or so we’ve been told. But modern missionaries can and should be be both. This isn’t an easy thing to just simply figure out. Especially when traditional engagement strategies still largely pervade the missions world. At least now, there is a buzz of excitement surrounding rethinking pathways. And it is awesome to see!

Focusing on enabling career Christians to engage through their work, overseas, joining already established missionaries teams, is a brilliant idea! But there are a few things that need to happen for these two to link arms and be effective together. Let’s be realistic. They are coming from different places, different mentalities, and different points of view. When we bow to the Christian caste system, working together becomes a huge problem. When we still use labels for each other, we set ourselves up for failure because we haven’t destroyed the hierarchy of who’s working harder or who’s getting the job done better.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have different roles or jobs. We are learning to become a team together. In order for missionaries and career Christians to move closer together, we should just define both, as modern missionaries. Both require skills that empower a united team and joint effort to facilitate an authentic engagement strategy. Here are a couple possible solutions to consider.

Modern missionaries are required to be globalized entrepreneurs. More and more, people are moving from rural to urban. It’s not as easy to land in a city and figure out how to engage, if all you have is an antiquated access plan in your back pocket. Sitting around in a coffee shop all day, hoping to engage a lost person in conversation is not realistic. People are living life all around us. They work. They have sick families. They are sinking in debt. They need a real friend who walks beside them daily in authentic community. Before arriving, missionaries need to think through what will give them real presence and strategic viability. I’m not talking a pretend job either so you can focus your time on the “real work.” It’s western-arrogant to think lost people will be fooled by our fake life and then fall in love with a very real Jesus.

Modern missionaries need to learn how to exegete culture and then contextualize quickly. That means, figure out what society needs and then become a part of it. Too often missionaries jump on a plane with big ideas of what is needed and how they are going to give it, without even considering all the cultural norms, or how their presence could even affect a community. It also means we need to expand beyond our go-to methods i.e. English teaching and really explore other feasible options.

Modern missionaries must learn how to build communities around everyday life. For most people, this means through a job. Think about it. How many relationships could I make by sitting around the coffee shop for a month? 3? 4? Maybe 5? But what if I ran the coffee shop? And I made great coffee that people came back for everyday. And they told all their friends about the coffee shop because not only do they love the coffee but you know their name and their order. And all their friends started coming because they love to sit around the coffee shop together and this place has become a center of hospitality for them. You get my point…Communities are places where relationships thrive.

So, those thinking through the future of missiology, have to address the realistic dichotomy that exists between career Christians and missionaries. How do we legitimately bring them closer and help them engage together? If the gospel to the nations is the goal, then let’s be serious about dealing with the issues.