Last week was the 10th anniversary of the day Seth began his work in South Africa.
10 years!
That seems like a respectable amount of time to dedicate to a people
not your own. I think we can officially be counted out of the "newbie"
crowd now. :) We have completed a full decade of missionary service.
(Well, actually, if you deduct furloughs,
all of those 10 years haven't been
here. It's actually more like 9 years.)
Now the pressure is on.
"10 years!
And that's all you've got to show for it?" If we were better
missionaries, wouldn't we have planted two churches by now? Or at least
one? I mean--that's our job, right?
10 years...
You
know, the first two terms people can excuse you mentally for your
failure to produce a self-supporting church. It's your first term!
Everyone knows that the first term is kind of a wash in the end.
Hopefully in your first term, you accomplished that huge job summarized
in an inadequate phrase called "learning the language and culture." Ha.
After ten years, you know that although you can get a good start on
those things in your first term, you never stop learning in those areas.
So if you've got nothing really tangible after your first term to show
for the furlough pictures except for a few converts and the
pronouncement that you've "learned the language and culture," then
that's pretty much all that can be expected from the first term.
And
even your second term failure to produce an independent church can be
excused because you're still just getting going. Your church is just
beginning. Your work is still in the baby stages.
But after
10 years,
no more excuses. We should start hearing pretty soon that you've got a
church standing on its own two feet, and you're already starting your
next one or two church plants. At least that's how I feel. No one from
the States really makes me feel that way.
I make me feel that way.
Missionary
work can be the most humbling job on earth. Every day, you receive new
little reminders of how you're not that great; or even if you think you
really are, how no one else seems to see it. :) (Why?! haha) Every day
you make language or cultural bloopers; people in your host culture
don't know about or appreciate the gifts you had that were appreciated
in America. They're not only not grateful that you've given your life to
them, but also seem everlastingly stymied at your purpose for being
there. (And we haven't even
begun to explain homeschooling yet.)
And
your churches in America have changed so much. People who cheered when
their church took you on for support have moved or grown up or fallen
away or died, and you've been forgotten by some. People who stroked your
ego in the past about how gifted you were and how you would change the
world are now quiet, outside of a soft question--"How's it going? How's
the church?"
How to answer? It's really the same...or a little
better...maybe worse right now. Please don't think we don't like to be
asked about our church. We do. We know you care if you ask! But we're
thinking, and wondering if our old supporter and friend is thinking, "After
10 years...how's the church? When will it be done? Accomplished?" That's what we'd all like to know, right?
Seth
and I joke that we're the Discount Missionaries. We are able to live in
this area for 50-60% of the usual costs of missionaries in other areas.
But sometimes we wonder if our churches feel the other way--like we're
the Discount Missionaries in output. You get what you pay for, you know!
When
we first came here, we had a 5-year, 10-year, and 20-year plan. Oh, the
wonderful things we were going to do according to that plan. (Did
anyone else have a Dr. Suess
deja vu moment there? "Oh, the wonderful things Mr. Brown can do!")
Sometimes your disappointments can cause you to be disappointed in God Himself.
"God, I gave up my life for You. Now YOU'RE supposed to make me
successful! I don't have the power to save, to convict, to draw men to
myself!" What can we do when His hand does not save? And how we long to
see true change,
revival in people's hearts--the kind we've
read about: the drunkard who sobered instantly and became a provider for
his household; the seekers walking five miles to hear the Word. So when
we aren't seeing those things, whose fault is it? Ours, God's, or the
cultures? Or all of the above?
All this can be summarized in the question: Why is it so slow? Why is missionary work so slow?
I've got a few thoughts on why that is so.
First, why would we think that it
would be quick? We come from a culture that increased its wealth and power
over centuries
because of a Biblical worldview. Why would we think that anything of
value would come quickly without hard work? Our culture has become hasty
with all of its technology and time-saving devices. We expect quick,
well-done work.
But even in the States, you don't see too many
churches experiencing explosive growth and revival. Most churches
struggle to stay at about the same membership rate, fighting against
attrition rates and love of this present world, trying to keep the
youth, trying to encourage members to have a heart for evangelism--to
get beyond needing marriage counseling and be able to have an outward
focus.
Most church plants in the States take several years before
they are self-supporting, even with all of the helps they receive
through other Christian Americans who join their church to help start
their membership or who help with advertising or come over to fill the
pews or do music for a big-impressive kickoff Sunday service. Why would
we expect things to move quicker in a place where there were no
Christians whatsoever to hop over from a former church, where there is
no Biblical worldview at all, and where literacy and education is
lacking or under-valued?
If in the States, we're bemoaning the
lack of passion for Christ and godliness in our youth groups, why would
we think a church built on youth in Africa, youth who have no Christian
parents and none of the advantages of those youth in American churches,
would be doing better, just for one example?
Secondly, think of
the nature of growth. Trees and men take twenty years to grow strong.
The Bible describes our Christian life with pictures of growth: babies
desire milk, so you should desire the Word; but when you grow strong,
you are able to eat meat. A church will be similar, because a church is
made up of all those people busy growing in the way the Bible describes.
It takes time to grow.
In the States there are many godly men who
serve the church as laymen without feeling called to the ministry. But
on the mission field, it seems like you should grab the first male
church member you get and throw him into the pastorate. "Lay hands
suddenly on no man." On the mission field, in our eagerness to declare a
church successfully planted, we put people into the ministry who would
probably not have been considered worthy in the States. That doesn't
necessarily mean they are unworthy. But even seminary training in the
States takes 3-6 years, with the already-laid foundation of church
background or at least a more Biblical worldview in the culture.
Think
about how many youth recently left your church to go study at seminary
in order to enter the ministry? If the percentage of people desiring the
office of a pastor is small in the strongest Christian nation in the
world, shouldn't we expect it to be MUCH harder to find a man fitting
the qualifications of a pastor in a heathen culture? And that it would
take MUCH more time to train him to be fit to lead a church in a very
dark culture?
When I read of Paul's missionary journeys, I admit
that I am baffled. He planted a church in three weeks (Thessalonica,
Acts 17:1-2)?! How? But when I think about what the typical missionary
in a pagan culture is up against, really, we should be
amazed and encouraged
at the evidence of the Holy Spirit's work. There have been true
conversions, and it is those conversions that give us special strength
and encouragement.
Brethren,
pray for us. Satan's forces are strong, and the warriors for our side
are few. In the next few weeks, I will share with you some of the verses
that have been the most encouraging to us to persevere in the
ministry--for
10 years! Praise Him.
"10 years!
And that's all you've got to show for it?" If we were better
missionaries, wouldn't we have planted two churches by now? Or at least
one? I mean--that's our job, right?
How to answer? It's really the same...or a little
better...maybe worse right now. Please don't think we don't like to be
asked about our church. We do. We know you care if you ask! But we're
thinking, and wondering if our old supporter and friend is thinking, "After 10 years...how's the church? When will it be done? Accomplished?" That's what we'd all like to know, right?
When I read of Paul's missionary journeys, I admit
that I am baffled. He planted a church in three weeks (Thessalonica,
Acts 17:1-2)?! How? But when I think about what the typical missionary
in a pagan culture is up against, really, we should be amazed and encouraged
at the evidence of the Holy Spirit's work. There have been true
conversions, and it is those conversions that give us special strength
and encouragement.
