A few years ago my young friend Rick went overseas to work as a missionary in a foreign country. Before he left I strongly encouraged him to join up with an agency who would look after him and help him to get started in his new country. He didn't know the language or culture of the country where he was going. He talked to some agencies, but none of them fitted in with what he had in mind to do, so he didn't join up with one. His church decided to send him directly thinking that he could go without the need for an agency. He was able to continue working for his previous company by doing some work remotely and this provided him with enough income to sustain him without needing to depend on the church for financial support.
Rick has now been working as a missionary overseas for three years and I was able to catch up with him recently to see how he is doing. After three years overseas he has moved on from his initial ministry and is now working in a very different ministry. His current work is much closer to what most mission agencies are already doing there, which meant that if he had joined up with an agency from the beginning then he would have been trained and prepared for the work that he is doing now. Unfortunately he wasn't prepared. He did not receive any language or culture training so communication with his team of national Christians is very difficult. He finds the national leadership style very hard to work under. If he had joined up with an agency that trained him and prepared him then his situation would be very different today.
I often meet people who want to go out to mission as individuals. They do not see why they need to join a mission agency. The churches that send them sometimes do not feel that going as a part of a sending agency brings much value for the extra costs in the budget. Sometimes the sending church feels that it is more able to support and care for the missionary than a mission agency. After all the church has known them for many years by the time that they are sent. They also feel that it is a more "biblical" model of sending in that the church takes full responsibility for the missionary, rather than outsourcing to another organisation.
The unfortunate result is that many missionaries sent directly by their church are not adequately supported. The truth is that a local church is not often set up to support missionaries who are overseas. The primary function of a local church is to care for the members who attend weekly and to reach out into the local community. A local church has many other agendas and issues that occur while their missionaries are overseas which means that they can easily be forgotten. Out of sight means out of mind, even if they are on the church noticeboard. :) If the church is very big then they may have staff dedicated to sending and supporting missionaries and keeping them in front of the congregation. It's great if they are able to do this. Unfortunately it is rare.
There are other ways in which a sending church may not always be great at supporting a missionary who is working cross-culturally overseas. A sending church is often not aware of the cultural context of the missionary and may not be sympathetic to the cross-cultural obstacles that they face. This is even harder when the church supports many different missionaries working in different ministries in different parts of the world, and the church has to try and understand the context and culture of each one of these places. I have seen missionaries who are under great pressure to plant a church very quickly even though the national culture is very resistant to the gospel. A sending church in a "Christian" country may not understand how hard it is and how long it takes for a whole group of people to come to Christ in a very resistant country. Sometimes this can lead to using money inappropriately in order to produce visible results. In other cases it can lead to reports where the number of new believers is inflated in order to convince sending churches that the work is really effective when it's not. Again it can be seen in churches trying to replicate their model of doing church in a cultural environment where it is not appropriate. Our own values and expectations that we bring from our own culture may not be appropriate in the context of another culture. Church leaders of a missionary-sending church need to educate themselves about the cultural context that the missionaries are working in so that they can adequately support the missionary where they are working. Often this self-education and cultural insight is lacking and can lead to unrealistic expectations and tension.
These obstacles can be overcome if a sending church partners with a good mission agency. The agency should already have a team in place with experienced people who hopefully have already learned from past mistakes, speak the local language and are able to map our strategies that are suitable to the culture and the context of the team. There is often already a good network in place that has earned the agency credibility with the local Christian community so that new missionaries are welcomed and appreciated by them. Ideally there are national Christian workers available to help new missionaries settle in, learn language and get started in ministry and outreach. There are also experienced missionaries in place who provide accountability, direction and care during times of crisis. It would be very difficult for a sending church to provide this kind of support for a missionary working on the field.
My friend Rick has spent three years trying to minister cross-culturally in a context where he is still very much a beginner. He has learned some tough lessons by going it alone and having to find his own way in the jungle of a different culture and language without much support. It has been a really tough journey for him. I am praying that he will be open to joining an agency so that he can receive the kind of support and training that he could have had from the beginning. Mission agencies were formed for a reason, and the reasons why are still very valid today.
