A Call to CareA Ministry to our Missionaries

The call to Christ is a call to world missions. And the call to world missions is the task of the local church which serves as a base-camp for the missionaries its sends and supports. Who are these people we call missionaries? Missionaries are Christians who have prepared themselves for cross-cultural gospel work and carry out that work under the watch-care of their local church. Missionaries are like everybody else. They deal with personal health issues. They have different natural and spiritual gifts. They struggle as they experience heart and life change through the power of the Holy Spirit. They laugh, grieve, get lonely, have conflicts with their fellow Christians, and require encouragement like the rest of us. But in another sense they are not like everybody else. They have to adjust to different cultures. Material things have to be pushed to the edges of life. Good-byes are an all too frequent part of their relationships. Missionaries need every ounce of love that everyone else is to receive in the body of Christ. How then can the church that sends out these foot-soldiers of the cross engage in a ministry of care for its missionaries?

Missionary care begins in the hearts of God-loving, Bible-thinking, and Christ-centered people (Matt. 22:37-40; Phil. 1:8; 1 Jn. 3:16-18). The church is to be filled with gospel-people who look at the world from the standpoint of God’s redemptive purpose in the world. These same gospel-people know how relationships should be nurtured (love, time, attention) and focus their energy upon the exaltation of Christ. Missionaries must have a home church that sees the big picture of why the church exists in this world and how Christ’s love is to be demonstrated. This is the spring from which all missionary care flows.

Missionary care embraces the ministry of hospitality as the expression of Christ’s love for His church (1 Jn. 4:7-10; Rom. 12:10, 13). The church must be a place that is brimming with warm hospitality. American culture has some potentially harmful characteristics. Isolation, individualism, and busyness can suffocate the love that is to drive the missionary programs of the church. Love motivates the gifts of the Spirit within the congregation to help one another bear the burdens of life (Gal. 6:2). An uncaring church is a contradiction in terms. Hospitality is the fruit of brotherly love and gives witness to a watching world that we are Christ’s disciples.

Missionary care enlists all the members of the congregation (Heb. 10:24). There is to be no “missions club” in the church. Some may think that missions is a spiritual gift or “missions is just not my thing.” This is not acceptable. Missions is what we are about as Christians. We must all be involved in some way. Our church must work at keeping God’s global plan before us in all that we do (sermons, missions reports, Bible studies, Sunday School classes, etc.). This is one of the values of well-planned missions trips. Those who have participated in these can attest to their life-altering nature. You gain a new perspective and appreciation for what is involved in a missionary’s life and the overwhelming needs outside of our American bubble. The pastor must set the example and take his wife with him on missions trips. We are all in danger of creating a small world for ourselves with little or no real knowledge of what missionary work is really like.

Missionary care refuses to relinquish responsibility for its missionaries to mission’s agencies or any other outside organization (Eph. 4:11-16). Mission Boards perform a useful service to the local church. They can assist with missions strategy, networking, and the administrative details required to send and keep a missionary on the field. It is wise for the church to build a working relationship with the missions agencies under which their missionaries serve. This will involve good communication, visiting the mission agency’s home office, being thoroughly familiar with its doctrinal statement, and how it views the meaning of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). A mission agency that does not consult with the sending church of one of its missionaries when personal problems arise is working contrary to biblical principles.

Missionary care necessitates the full attention and participation of the pastoral staff (Heb. 13:17). The elders of the church must know their missionaries. As shepherds of the flock that will mean communication with their missions family. They will pray for their missionaries, provide spiritual nourishment for them, talk to them, listen to them, ask questions, counsel them as necessary, and will not “out-source” missions to the missions committee. It is wise for one of the elders to be a “missions pastor.” In this role he will have special oversight of the way his church does missions. The support level of the various missionaries will need to be monitored. When special needs arise (e.g., an automobile when a missionary comes home on furlough) the missions elder, working with the missions committee, will be a care-giver.

Missionary care requires a church that is engaged in a grace giving approach to finances (2 Cor. 8 & 9). Generosity is a work of God’s Spirit. Every member of the congregation must be committed to biblical giving. If the Holy Spirit is working in lives and the church is maturing in Christ, then good giving habits will characterize an increasing number of giving units (families, singles, children) in the church. The idea of grace giving is that God enables believers to give to support the work of missions. Getting missionaries to the field and keeping them there is a major financial undertaking. If we really believe that we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven and not on earth, the church’s missions budget will reflect it.

Missionary care happens as missionaries are viewed as an extension of the church (1 Cor. 12:27). Thinking that portrays the relationship between the church and its missionaries as one of “us and them” betrays the truth of the oneness of believers in Christ. Biblical “one-anothering” that takes place in the congregation will by necessity fold its missionaries into the life of the church. For this to happen, missionaries should be looked upon as global staff members and held to the same biblical standards as are the other leaders in the church (1 Tim. 3; Tit. 1). One way to experience the missionary as an extension of the church is to have some of its own members become missionaries. This will help to create a church-wide engagement with their plans and needs. It will also go a long way in bonding the missionary and the congregation in the work of the gospel.

Missionary care values meaningful and regular communication with the missionaries its church supports (Phil. 1:3-5; Rom. 16:3ff.). There is no end to the communication network potential through modern technology. Phone calls and emails open up a whole new world of connectedness. There is no excuse for not having fresh prayer requests from missionaries and staying on top of the issues that need the attention of the leadership. A missionary’s picture on the refrigerator is a good thing. But it should not replace the more personal lines of communication.

Missionary care takes place most effectively when the care-givers visit the springs of the heart (Prov. 4:23). The issues of life flow from the heart. For this reason missionaries need “full-coverage” care. They fight the same battles we all fight (temptations, anger, worry, fear, etc.). They go to hard places where there is often little or no stimulating body-life. Unbiblical and spiritually toxic teaching can infect their fellow missionaries. Missionaries will often carry the extra baggage of a painful past (divorced parents, sexual abuse, etc.). The pitfalls of immorality and marital conflict can sabotage church planting efforts. Returning home from the mission field presents a special set of challenges to work-weary missionaries. Culture shock, material needs, decisions regarding the education of children, the indifference of people, and loss of financial support reveal what is in the heart. And, for that reason, wise and loving attention to issues of the heart must not be overlooked.

Missionary care gives special attention to intercessory prayer for missionaries (Eph. 6:18). The very nature of missionary activity is invisible warfare (Eph. 6:10-20; 2 Cor. 10:4). The missionary, as well as all of his fellow servants, fights battles on three fronts; the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is much that can be done by those who intercede for their missionaries. Enlistment of other missionaries, financial provision, strategy, conversions, revivals, health and strength, government bureaucracies can all be significantly impacted when God is sought through our prayers. The church must mobilize it forces and devote itself to private prayers, group prayers, and pulpit prayers for the sake of world evangelization.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church