The Mission. Pt. Four.

Good Stewards: Pt. 4 of a 4 pt. series on modern missions according to the American church.

I have many friends who were International Studies or Missions majors in hopes to come full time missionaries in other cultures. They went through a four year undergraduate bachelor degree, and upon graduating they stared at their framed degree representing “blood, sweat, tears” and more than $80,000 and they asked the same question I ask now… Is this the path that missionaries should feel pressured to take in order to enter into full time missions? Is this a representation of good stewardship with the things God has blessed us? Why not a free discipleship program funded by local churches? Knowing what they know now, that most mission agencies will not even consider supporting you unless you are debt free or close to being debt free, was dropping more than $80,000 into student loans the wisest decision?

(By the way, this is a question I struggle with for any person entering into a form of ministry. I will never say that the piece of paper representing my degree in Religion: Youth Ministry is worth more than $80,000, and that is not meant to reflect on the quality of professors who have instructed me, as I believe they are among the best in the world. I am just not sure that I should have paid three years of a typical pastor salary for my education. )

These are the thoughts that I have been struggling with in terms of missions. Yes, I am unresolved on these issues. I am not comfortable enough to settle and accept the current traditions that may be leading the church down a path unproductive and inefficient. In 100 years if the world has not ended, will the global church look back on American’s ideas of missions and ask, “What were they thinking? $80,000 for a license to travel to another country and lead people to Christ? Really? Six month mission trips, really? What happened to Luke chapters 9 & 14 when Christ called his followers to leave everything, the comfort of a pillow and bed, their family and friends, their hometown, count the costs, and put their hand to the plow working the fields that are white unto harvest and not look back? Confronting this issue I am seeking wisdom. I am not wanting to reinvent the wheel as you cannot reinvent the cross, which is the center of all that is done in the field of missions, but rather I am not sure the direction in which the wheel is traveling and the path that it is traveling upon is one that is the most biblical.

I hope this blog series has not offended you as that was not my intent. My hope is that your thoughts on modern missions will be re-evaluated and that you don’t fall into the trap of comfortable church tradition that can lead to dead religion.

Don’t be silent. Sound off. Let me hear your thoughts.

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