Yes, we love missionaries. But they are not the object of mission - the mission itself is.

Focus on Human Communities, Not Missionaries

Churches discover that mission involvements are energized and made more attractive and sustainable when the focus is not on the missionary but rather on the targeted human community, or people group, itself. True local church mission happens when we escape that centrifugal force and begin to love and focus on the targeted human community that is beyond ourselves.

A leader of the PCUSA's own mission personnel office once summed it up nicely: "Missionaries aren't the mission -- the mission is the mission."

Yes, the Bible says that blessed are the feet of those who bring good news. We love missionaries. But the truth is that missionaries are only one resource among many that we can deploy to express our love and spiritual hopes for God's work among those peoples and human communities. They are not the mission themselves, nor the best focus of our prayers and concern and relationships.

By focusing on missionaries, local churches rob themselves of the joy of true human connection and the natural interest that comes from interaction with actual members of the human community a church is attempting to express Christian love and witness toward. Very frequently, too, missionaries want the churches that support their work to focus on the people group they are working among, rather than on the missionary and his or her family.

This involves reframing the place and position that missionaries occupy in our concept of mission. They will no longer be the object and aim of our mission interest - they will be co-laborers with us (and other ways that we seek to impact a human community) on Christ's behalf. They are fellow partners with us, peers in the mission task.

In a sense, it comes down to whether we focus on ourselves (and the missionary as an extension of ourselves), or on the truly "other," the cross-cultural group.

I'll put it as directly as this: If we focus only on missionaries, and care only for them, we may only be promoting an ethnocentrist view. Our care and love still will not have escaped the centrifugal force of loving ourselves.

True local church mission happens when we escape that centrifugal force and begin to love and focus on the targeted human community that is beyond ourselves.

Here's a table that summarizes the differences that happen between these two focuses. (Scroll down)

Mission: Just Whom Do We Focus On?
If our focus is on the missionary (a part of "us,") we tend to...	If our focus is on "them" (the target group), we tend to...
think about the missionary	think about the target people group
care about missionary trials and hardships	care about the people's trials and hardships
consider what the missionary is giving up to be there	consider about what the target people are gaining
think about our own out there	think about our Lord out there
sense how God is being active through us	sense how God is being active in them
pray in church for the missionary and the missionary's needs	pray in church for the needs of the very people our missionaries hope we would care about!
want to get to know the missionary personally	want to get to know the people group personally
shift our interest to wherever the missionary goes	integrate new personnel and methods into our continuing interest on the target group

Some observations and questions:

1. CONNECT. When we send a youth on a mission trip down to work with an orphanage in Mexico, for instance, whom do they talk about when they return? The orphanage's leadership, its administration, the missionary contact leader? No, they rave about the Mexican kids who won over their hearts. Our own experience tells us that one people encountering (and loving) another people is the more wonderful aspect of mission involvement. We do better when we focus on that people-to-people connection.
   
   
   What does this say about the common hope of churches and mission committees to "get to know the missionary better" as one of their chief aims? Very frequently churches are frustrated over how hard it is to get regular communication from their missionaries, all while believing that a major goal is to help their congregation "get to know the missionary during very brief visits." I suggest another goal: Help your church fall in love with an entire people group. "Adopt" a people group, not a missionary! Watch how much deeper your connection can grow.
   


2. PRAY. When we pray for mission in the Sunday prayer, about whom do we pray? For missionaries and their needs, trials? Of course we love, care for and pray for missionaries, but even they desire us to be praying for the people we are working among! Try having a single Sunday mission prayer time when you pray deeply for the peoples and tribes your missionaries and agencies are working among - and this time, don't mention the missionaries or agencies at all. Just dwell your prayer on the people, and sense the different direction that takes your mission concerns.
   


3. CONTINUE FOCUS. When one of your supported missionaries transfers fields, shifting from one nation to another, does your interest in the former field simply evaporate to follow the missionary? What does that say about your commitment level to the field, not just the missionary?
   
   It is an indictment upon us when all interest in a field disappears when the missionary leaves! What does that illustrate about our true interest in the very people we were supporting them to be in ministry and witness to?
   
   Consider valuing each people group or human community so valuable that when one supported missionary leaves, you will search for another way to continue your devotion to that same mission focus. Make your commitment priority clear: It's to a human community, not to a specific mission worker.
   


4. IDENTIFIERS. When your church lists its mission commitments, such as in the bulletin, on a mission bulletin board, or in the budget, does it list missionaries and agencies, or the peoples they are trying to reach or touch with Christ's gospel? Try this discipline: Rewrite your lists, including your budget line items, to indicate not the missionary but the field.
   
   Instead of "Sam and Marsha Box, Thailand" (a made-up name), put it "The Matsha Tribe of Northern Thailand" (a made-up name). This simple shift will help refocus your community's awareness that your church is committed in some way to the people group in whatever ways the Lord might lead you to express that. One way will be by supporting the ministry of Sam and Marsha. But hopefully you will broaden that commitment as you discover the rich array of other ways to reach out in Christ's love and with his gospel to the Matsha!

-- Dave Hackett