Pastor’s Post #11: “THE LONGER SHORT-TERM MISSIONS EXPERIENCE” (02/18’17)
We’re in the age of “The Global Village”: Radio, television, the “World-Wide Web”, You-Tube, Instagram, Social Media of every form – all bring the whole world to us – moment by moment.
While this has the potential to drain our senses – to paralyze us into inactivity, it also has the potential to drive us to service – to prod and prompt us to some form of activity. Couple that with a world-embracing Gospel – a message meant for the discipling of the nations PLUS the promptings of the Holy Spirit who blessedly burdens Christians to love their neighbors as themselves – and you have the recipe for missions of every sort. Some Christians devote themselves to full time missionary service on fields both domestic and foreign. Others sense the need (and have the desire) for just doing something to help with this massive enterprise of seeing people from every tongue, tribe, and nation become followers of Jesus Christ as Lord. This “something” increasingly takes the form of what are called STMs – Short Term Missions: Taking a week or two or sometimes more to “help” with projects in our nation and other nations – projects that give people the opportunity to be “part of the action” of the Kingdom of God.
We should be struck by the explosive growth in the number of those who have served (and who are serving now even as I speak) as Short Term Missionaries: 120,000 in 1989. 450,000 in 1998. 1 million in 2003. 2,200,000 (for a total cost of $1,600,000,000) in 2006.
On the one hand, this is thrilling. The planning, the prayer, the giving, the actual service all build a deeper consciousness of the needs of the world. On the other hand, many question the value of projects that do for others what they are well able to do (or can be trained to do) for themselves; and the value of rapid come-and-go trips that don’t build the relationships or community necessary for the sustained benefit of the people supposedly being ministered to. Are these quick tours honestly the best stewardship of time, talents, and treasures? Do we think of ourselves as short-term heroes or as long-term partners? Is the doling out of American wealth promoting cultures of dependence? And, thinking even more deeply, are we really doing this for the benefit of them, or for us – and perhaps for the church that sent us? Challenging questions, to be sure. Short of full time missionary service for ordained pastors, teachers, evangelists, and deacons, is there a better way for people to serve the Kingdom of God in a way that truly helps more than it harms?
There is a longer-term missionary opportunity that some call “Missionary Associates.” For a period of a year or two qualified men and women serve – usually on foreign fields – in ways that can be more of a blessing than a burden to full-time missionaries on the field. Those interested in this kind of commitment (and it is a big commitment!) have their gifts and graces for effective service assessed: Are they fascinated by different cultures, or put off by them? Are they flexible in being able to adapt to very different views of time, work, wealth, and leisure? Is there a genuine willingness to “become all things to all people that by all means they might save some”? How can their gifts be genuinely useful in a specific missionary situation? Missionary Associates take time to learn something of the history, culture, and mores of the nation and people among whom they will be living and serving. And, along with going with the heart of a servant, they go with the heart of a learner: They, too, are poor and needy – and they are ready to learn from the poor and the needy ones the Lord will put in their path as part of God’s work of ministering to them. God is on a mission for the missionary as well as for the mission field!
What’s the experience of a short-term missionary who gets more than a two-week high from the opportunity to travel to a distant land, see the sights, carry out a brief project, and return home to give an exciting report at church or at churches? What motivates a person to take one or two years out of his or her life to leave familiar family, friends, and surroundings to go to a remote place with very different people and a totally different language (or languages)? What’s it like to get past a quick romance with foreign missions and learn the hard realities of getting along with other members of mission teams, enduring strange sicknesses, eating foods far removed from pizza and McDonald’s hamburgers, and understanding cultural practices vastly different than what – as Americans – we have come to think of as “the norm” for everyone? Why would anyone want to go that far in “serving the Lord”?
All this brings us to our topic on today’s Visit to the Pastor’s Study – what I’m calling “The Longer Short-Term Missions Experience” – the experience of being a Missionary Associate for a year, or two, or more. And, despite the seemingly gloomy and foreboding introduction, I want you to think seriously about how you can be part of missionary work that really helps more than it harms.
I have two guests today – both young women who have served as Missionary Associates with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And each has served on very different foreign fields. My first guest is Miss Jackie Balchi, who served on what we’ll simply call a “closed field” – a nation officially closed to Gospel missionaries, but open to Christians who come and serve in different capacities.