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The Chapel Light - August 2008 |
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Shepherd's Scrips
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Written by Pastor Chris
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Saturday, 02 August 2008 |
Last month I spelled out how independent churches do missions. This month I’d like to explain some problems that we’ve encountered in doing missions.
Every month I get several missionaries requesting permission to come to MVC to seek support. Most of them I don’t know at all; they found our church on the mailing or phone list of some other organization. When I tell them that we are not presently taking on new missionaries, they always respond cheerfully and prettily: “That’s okay, I’m not looking for financial support; prayer support is so much more important!” I’m always tempted to respond: “Okay, I’ll put you on our prayer chain; no need to take up an entire Sunday service for your presentation if all you want is prayer.” Deputation is about raising money; it takes money to go to the field. The missionary knows that; I know that. Why do we have to try to sound so pretty and spiritual?
I always imagined that the bulk of a missionary’s support came from churches and was filled out by the regular gifts of a few individuals. I was shocked to find the opposite to be true: most support comes from individual donors. Should I just accept this as a fact of life and adjust our missionary strategy to it? Instead of the entire congregation sending a large monthly amount to a few missionaries, why not just open the door to every missionary who requests access, and let each person in the congregation decide which missionaries they want to send their monthly checks to?
Here’s why we aren’t going in that direction. The biblical picture is that a missionary is an extension of the local church. Our missionaries are an arm of Mountain View Chapel reaching out into the world. As such, I believe we should shoot for giving them as much support as possible. If one church can provide 60 percent (or better) of a missionary’s monthly support, the missionary doesn’t have to be on deputation as long and doesn’t have to worry so much about fund-raising; he can get on with the job he’s called to do. Furthermore, the missionary doesn’t have to be accountable to 100 different individuals in 50 different churches spread over three or four states, nor does he need to send out 100 different mailings or visit 100 different people while home on furlough. Instead, he can work primarily in and through and with the church that provides the bulk of his support. He can get to know us, and we him, and this keeps the church as a whole more involved in the missionary and his mission.
So this is the type of missions program that we’re trying to develop here at MVC. But if this is the governing philosophy (achieving a high-percentage of support for each missionary) then inviting missionaries that we are not going to support as a congregation just so that they may randomly “beg” for funding from individuals diverts those funds from the main objective, and seems counter-productive.
Along the same lines, this is one of the reasons we have reconsidered giving “church support” for short term missions trips. While we were doing the trips, I received a number of questions about short term trips to China from those who had contributed to those trips. Are these missions really worth all the money that is being poured into them? Do the two-week missions really accomplish anything that contributes to long-term success, or are the trips primarily benefiting the “missionary?” After all, if you’re in a place for a mere two weeks, unless you’re accomplishing a very particular task (e.g. building a building, teaching a class), you’re not really much more than a tourist. And how much effect can tourists really have? Our folks may have a great experience, but are we trying to give experiences, or are we trying to accomplish a deadly serious task in a foreign country? And if it’s “the task,” isn’t that task done more effectively by long-term missionaries who are on the field and “in” the culture?
The same goes for trips to South or Central America to build churches or schools. Isn’t it a more effective use of funds to send the money to the on-field long-term committed missionaries and allow those native to South America to build their own buildings? Is it good stewardship to send ten guys at $3000 a pop to work for ten days among people with whom they can’t communicate to build a building which becomes, in the eyes of the natives, the “Americans’” church – which means that when something goes wrong with the Americans’ building, the Americans will have to send another team down to fix it? Aren’t there workers in South America who can build their own buildings and maintain them for a lot less than $3000 a week?
These aren’t the whinings of tight-fisted stingy people, but thoughtful questions about wise stewardship from real committed givers. I know that our decision to not pursue short-term mission trips at this time doesn’t sit well with a few, but such trips are not contributing to the overall direction in which we’d like to head with our missions program. Nor does the idea of inviting in missionaries at random to skim off funds that we’d like to go to the support of those missionaries we choose…
And I’ll spell out some thoughts about choosing missionaries to support in the next installment of the Scrip…
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The Chapel Light - July 2008 |
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Shepherd's Scrips
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Written by Pastor Chris
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Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
Some folks have asked about my ideas regarding missions outreach. We have a number of folks who are from non-churched and denominational church backgrounds who may not understand how non-denominational churches do missions. So I’ll take this issue to spell out the process. Let’s get acquainted with some basic missions jargon:
Mission: The task of spreading the biblical message of Jesus Christ.
Missionary: The person who spreads that message is a missionary. So to some degree, we’re all missionaries.
Mission Field: The particular place or country where the missionary goes to spread the message. Palau is Rob Watt’s mission field; the greater Berks County area is our mission field. So is your neighborhood…and your school…and your workplace.
Evangelizing: Preaching the gospel and seeking to convert people to Christianity. This is also known, pejoratively, as proselytizing.
Church-planting: Traditionally, the main purpose of missions – convert people and teach them to put together their own congregation that keeps the mission going among their own people.
All churches have missionaries, but if you’re from a denominational church background you might not have known much about missionaries because those denominational missionaries tend to be sent by denominational headquarters, not by the individual churches. The denominational churches just send money to the headquarters, a percentage of which covers missionaries. The headquarters’ missions department decides which missionaries go to which fields and with how much money. Denominational headquarters also takes care of processing all of the visas and finances and flights and shipping and international relations.
Independent non-denominational churches operate differently. Each church is essentially its own denomination, and it is very difficult for one church to completely finance a missionary AND put someone on staff to handle that missionary’s finances, flights and international relations. Instead, mission-minded people have developed mission boards that focus on particular missions. A mission board is a parachurch ministry, i.e. an organization that works alongside of churches. A missionary-to-be chooses a mission board that works with missionaries going to a particular field or doing a particular type of work. The missionary goes through preparatory candidate classes to learn about the culture and language and the how-to’s of his mission field. Once this orientation is completed, the independent missionary begins the process of deputation. Deputation usually takes about three years of going to various churches, presenting your mission and hoping that the church will give you financial support on a monthly basis. A church that gives support is called a supporting church; the missionary’s home church which usually provides the largest percentage of supporters is called the sending church.
The average cost per month for a single missionary is $3000; a married missionary with children will be much more than that. In order to get on the field the missionary must have commitments for at least 80% of his support, plus the funds necessary to ship him and all of his stuff to the field (that can be anywhere from $25,000 - $50,000, depending on what needs to be shipped and where).
The missionary is an extension of his supporting churches; he is essentially part-time staff for each of those churches. Traditionally a missionary went to his chosen field for four years and would then come home to the United States for a one-year rest, called furlough. Some missions have shortened the terms to two or three years with furloughs of six to eight months. While on furlough, missionaries return to their supporting churches and give reports of what is going on with their mission; many times, because of rising costs or unstable economies where they minister, they have to raise additional support during furlough. Furlough is not vacation.
The purpose of the missionary is to spread the gospel of Christ. Traditionally this has been done through church-planting. Increasingly, however, people around the world are hostile to proselytizing and now many missions focus on providing medical help or hospital care, care of the poor or orphans, education or some other non-religious humanitarian work. Such assistance becomes the door for conversation, the forming of relationships with the native population, and the preaching of the gospel for the establishment of churches.
Presently, MVC supports four missionaries:
Bill & Kathy Miller are planting churches in Brazil with CrossWorld Mission
(http://www.crossworld.org/home/).
1) The Millers have been supported by MVC since before I was the pastor, and back in the 1970’s Bill was pulpit-supply for our chapel while he was a student at Lancaster Bible College.
2) Alan & Deanna Heathcote are planting churches in South Africa under Biblical Ministries Worldwide
(http://www.biblicalministries.org/).
3) George & Linda Hege, former assistant pastor at Colebrookdale Chapel, a sister church of MVC, started ministry under Liebenzell Mission USA (http://www.liebenzellusa.org/) in Ecuador taking the gospel to a mountain tribe (the Cuaiquer) that had never heard. Once the first Cuaiquer believers were established, the Hege’s came home and are presently using their Spanish skills to plant a multiethnic church outside of Reading, PA (Muhlenburg Area Community Church).
4) MVC’s former youth pastor and worship leader, Rob Watt, is also serving with Liebenzell USA, pastoring an English-speaking congregation and establishing a branch campus of Pacific Islands Bible College on the island of Palau.
Each of these missionaries has a bulletin board on the wall by our sound room. On each board are pictures and maps, as well as literature and monthly updates regarding each missionary’s work.
Feel free to browse and take some home.
In next month’s issue I’d like to mention some particular problems that I think need to be addressed regarding missions and the missions process, and the future of missions at MVC.
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The Chapel Light - June 2008 |
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Shepherd's Scrips
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Written by Pastor Chris
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 |
I enjoy collecting proverbs and concise pronouncements of truth from my reading. For your pleasure and benefit, here are a few that I've come upon recently...
Everything should be made as simple as possible - but not simpler. - Albert Einstein
We should love both: those whose opinion we follow, and those whose opinion we reject. For both have applied themselves to the quest for the truth, and both have helped us in it. - St. Thomas Aquinas
Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. - Will Rogers
To God, nothing is secular - not even the world itself, for it is His workmanship. - Justin Martyr (2nd century Christian philosopher)
The man surrounded by dwarves looks like a giant. - Jewish saying
We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice. - Isaac Bashevis Singer
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - President George Washington
The 'good man' is being superseded by the 'nice guy'. - Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. - Theodore Roosevelt
Go not for every grief to the physician, nor for every quarrel to the lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot. - George Herbert
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. - Benjamin Franklin
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. - General George Patton
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. - Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
If the church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has. - Anonymous
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The Chapel Light - May 2008 |
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Shepherd's Scrips
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Written by Pastor Chris
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
My wife and I are entering the next phase of life. The nestlings are getting their wings and moving out, starting homes and families of their own. My second daughter, Amy, will be home this month from Liberty University and we’ll commence working on her wedding, slated for July 26th – preparing all the decorations and flowers and whatever other paraphernalia accompanies such a glorious event.
I offered to assist in the choosing of the wedding dress, and spent some time perusing online dress catalogs with Amy. It was all very exciting, but I found that all of the dresses looked the same: white. Amy did not find my perception helpful. She wanted me to observe the crucial distinctions between cream, champagne and ivory. I failed not only at this, but at perceiving distinctions between various fabrics, designs and accoutrements – all of those highly complex and evasive mysteries of the highly complex and evasively mysterious feminine world – and so I wasn’t invited to go along for the actual dress shopping. I stayed home and soothed my wounded soul by watching a game and eating chips and salsa, I think, all the while going out of my mind wondering what the dress would look like, and all the while knowing it would be…white. After a few minutes I got over the rejection, and settled back into my old comfortable and well-suited role of “pack mule”.
Yes, I am a pack mule….the family pack mule. I’m not complaining. Just stating the facts. I love and enjoy the role. I’m a happy pack mule! The pack mule is not the center of attention, not the focus of every eye and every whisper, not a thing of beauty to be beheld or commented upon (though one thoughtful congregant upon seeing me in a tuxedo, said, shocked: “Wow! You clean up pretty nice, don’t you?”). No, friends, the pack mule isn’t a show horse. He’s there before the show, getting dirty behind the scenes. The pack mule bears the burdens quietly and patiently. He takes whatever load is placed upon him and pulls it. He takes joy in pulling and carrying. He pulls until he’s told to stop. He gets the job done. It’s not the pack mule’s to worry about the destination or the end result. He doesn’t have to know why he’s carrying what he’s carrying, or what it’s going to be used for. That’s high-minded weighty stuff – someone else’s business. Never mind all those technicalities. Don’t trouble me with details. Put the load on there, tell me which direction to head, and let me pull. Throw me some oats now and then, and some water, and an occasional rest to get my breath, but let me pull.
Pack mules don’t say much; they are actually pretty reluctant to speak (the Bible mentions one pack mule saying something one time, I think), but I have just a brief word to share regarding this upcoming wedding. Many of you have walked the Christian pilgrimage with my wife and me and our children for 10, 15, 20 and some of you for 25 years. We’ve shared joy and tears and disappointments and victories. We’ve grown to be friends at various levels, depending on how intimately our lives intersected. In the past five years that circle of friends has expanded with all of the wonderful new faces at MVC; some of you are still just acquaintances, and some have become good friends already. We love you all, and we invite you all to share the joy of Ben & Amy’s wedding, but if we don’t limit the number of guests invited to the reception, the pack mule is going to collapse under the burden and end up shipped off to the glue factory! Just mine and my wife’s families are a party in our own right (almost 70 people), but we thought it would be really nice to invite the groom’s family to the reception as well. Accommodating 500 MVC’er’s beyond that is just an impossibility for us, so one of the more difficult and unpleasant tasks of wedding preparation for both the bride’s and the groom’s families has been the trimming of the guest list. I speak for our family and the Galaskas' when I say that we’d all like to have EVERYBODY there, but we just cannot do it. If you don’t receive an invitation to the reception, I trust that your feelings won’t be hurt excruciatingly, that you’ll understand there is no animosity intended and I’d kindly beg the indulgence of your patience and understanding for a middle-aged happy pack mule.
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The Chapel Light - April 2008 |
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Shepherd's Scrips
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Written by Pastor Chris
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 |
During my morning commute I often listen to Michael Smerconish, an extremely intelligent, reasonably conservative Philadelphia attorney-turned talk-radio host and newspaper columnist. In January, after a Gallup poll revealed that 17 percent of the American public wouldn’t vote for the Mormon Mitt Romney because of Mormonism’s weird beliefs, Smerconish waxed sarcastic in his Daily News column… "…We're clearly aided by an ability to spot a whopper when we hear one, a skill obviously lacking in…Mormons. Maybe it's our grounding in the Old and New Testament that enables us to easily size up the preposterous nature of the customs that guys like…Romney follow. …After all, we know that the earth was created in seven days, and that the son of its creator was born to a virgin mother. Indeed, a star over Bethlehem led three wise men to the scene of Jesus' birth, and, 30 years later, he walked on the water of the Sea of Galilee.”
Presenting these thoughts on his talk show, Smerconish’s tone and phrasing sounded to me like this was a spiritual awakening of sorts for him – an “aha” moment. He’d always assumed the Christian religion to be reasonable; he simply accepted the biblical tradition, and had scoffed at the outlandish notions of Mormonism, Islam and the other religions. Now he was thinking differently. He wrapped up his article with: “Truly, one man’s faith is another man’s bunkum.”
I found Smerconish’s “aha” moment refreshing, because I think there are lots of nominally Christian people – including fundamentalists and evangelicals – who are having similar “aha’s” for the first time. Smerconish is two years younger than I; the USA of our early 1960’s childhood was still thoroughly baptized; Christian ideas were accepted and assumed. The atmosphere has changed radically and our religious beliefs and traditions are being cast in a much more skeptical light.
C’mon – can a virgin really get pregnant??? Can a man really walk on water??? Can a dead man really come to life without the intervention of advanced medical technology and start walking and talking again???
These aren’t new questions. A small number of scholars have raised them since the early days of the Christian faith. The apostle Paul faced those kinds of doubts on Mars Hill. The apostle had the scholars’ ears until he mentioned the resurrection of Christ. “…And when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked…” (Acts 17:32). What is new, however, is the more educated, more scientific, more ‘enlightened’ populace who understand and increasingly embrace the skepticism of scientific professionals.
In my youth it was honorable and respectable to be a religious Christian, even for educated people. That notion is changing; your sanity and intellectual integrity are questioned more and more. It’s an uncomfortable shift, but there is also something refreshing about it. Suddenly, the command to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” is no longer a simple thing. It is a confrontation to our hearts, our souls, our minds, our strength. We must think seriously about what we really believe. We must choose – and stand.
Many sermons will be preached this Easter Sunday in “Christian” churches which will attempt to sidestep the importance of believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s that unpleasant non-scientific thought that we’re kind of stuck with. Many people will be told that it doesn’t really matter if Jesus really got up from the grave. They’ll be told that the resurrection is really only a picture, a parable, an illustration of living life in a new and invigorating way, following the example of Jesus, and that is what’s really important about the story of the resurrection of Jesus.
Very pretty words, these. But not Christian words – even if the preacher who speaks them wears a cross around his neck. The apostle who met the risen Jesus on the Damascus road saw it much differently: “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise, for if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile – you are still in your sins!...If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” (1 Corinthians 15:14-17,19)
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