Why is Missions Education So Challenging?

I want to digress for a moment and ask the question, why is missions education so challenging? Now that was my nice way of asking the question. The real question is why is it so difficult for local SBC churches to incorporate appropriate and effective missions education as a normal part of who they are as church?

Before I start to bend over to gather my stones to throw at others, let me begin by confessing my own shortcomings in years past. As a minister of education in a medium to large growing metro Atlanta church, except for Christmas and Easter, missions did not appear as a large blip on my radar screen very often. I was more concerned about our own church's growth and reputation as a growing church than I was about a lost world. I knew all the resources and I could "push" missions with the best of them from a purely head knowledge perspective. However, missions was not part of who I was as a disciple of Jesus Christ. In fact, I was once so bold as to state that if the missionaries would just listen to us church growth guys, we would have this everybody is in church challenge licked in a few years. I'm not sure I know how to ask for forgiveness for that one.

Having lived cross-culturaly serving as a missionary for 14 years now, I am ruined. The way that I see the world and the way that I view church has forever been challenged and changed. If my wife and I had to leave the field and return to the states, I'm not sure that there would be very many churches who would want us either on staff or as members. We just do not think and act the way we did prior to our missionary service. Please do not hear me say that we are now better or more spiritual than others, believe me, far from it. It's just that there are some things that just do not matter to me as much as they once did. Like who is going to be sure that there are flowers on the Lord's Supper table every Sunday or what color do we paint the fellowship hall.

All this is to say, why is it that the discussion of missions and missions education still seems to be such a foreign (no pun intended) aspect in normal church life? Having served as our regional trainer for the past several years it has been fascinating to see what I would describe as a complete disconnect between what new missionaries have experienced in their church life prior to missions and what we are asking them to do on the mission field. Here are but a few examples of what I am talking about.

1. In our region, somewhere between 80 - 85% of new missionaries state that they have never been part of a new church start. And yet, we are asking them to implement strategies that will lead to CPMs, or multiplying churches.

2. Many of our new missionaries come from an evangelistic culture that encourages Christians to simply invite their lost friends to church and it is at church that they will hear the Gospel presented. And yet, we are asking new missionaries to go where the church has not yet been started.

3. Almost all of our new missionaries have successfully completed numerous discipleship courses and programs both from within our SBC world and from other evangelical sources. And yet, when we survey them, most still say that their greatest challenge is in the area of personal spiritual growth.

4. Over 75% of new missionaries coming to our region have already been to our region on one or more mission trips. Some working with our field missionaries and other trips taken on their own initiative and leadership. And yet, when they come to us and we begin training them in CPM principles and strategies it does not match up with their previous volunteer experience.

My intent is not NOT to point a finger of blame or to cast stones, but simply to ask, how can such a disconnect exist between those who serve on the international fields and those who provide such an incredible amount of support be so great? Why is it that we have not found a effective way of incorporating an Acts 1:8 mindset into the life of the church? My heart really does break when I think that so many with such a wide diversity of giftedness is going underutilized simply because they do not know!


For another example of this disconnect in a home missions setting, go to Kiki Cherry's post.

I lost many years that could have been productive in terms of global missions participation and vision casting as well as what impact this knowledge could have had at home. I just did not have anyone to challenge my thinking and my practice. If you have found some ways that begin to bridge this gap, please let me know. I fear that if this gap continues to widen we will eventually see a razing of the progress we have seen around the world in recent years.

We have one practice that we call our Frontliners Conference. You can read more about this by clicking on the MAC Region Webpage link to the right and then click on the Frontliners button. This training event has proven successful and effective, however, in the last three years we have not been in front of more than 1,000 people, if that many. We need a more effective way of communicating.