Is the Day of Sending Out Missionaries Over?

Fall 2015 - Marttunen article quote imageWhy are we still sending out missionaries? Isn’t it true that nationals reach their own better (more cheaply and more effectively) than a foreigner can? 

Statistics alone present compelling evidence for national support. Over a third of our world’s population is still unreached. This equates to more than two billion people. It is also fact than nearly 75% of the missionaries currently deployed and 90% of the combined missions' budgets of the world are being spent on the already reached populations.This leaves 25% of the Christian mission force with only 10% of the budget to reach the unreached and under-reached people of our world. While mission agencies send and spend among the already reached, more than two billion people live with no hope. 

But also consider these additional facts. Within the 10/40 window (from ten degrees south to forty degrees north) are 90% of the world’s poor, and 95% of the unreached and under-reached. This region of the world is the heartland of non-Christian religions. Every year eight million people die within it, too poor to survive. The largest number of unreached people groups (around 8,000) and the largest groups of unreached people live in the 10/40 window.1  

Given the staggering need it makes sense that we should use our resources to support national workers within the 10/40 window. However, there is another challenge to face. Within the 10/40 window the majority of national workers are bound by invisible restraints formed by culture, society, economics, history, language, and poverty. When underestimated or ignored these restraints become impenetrable barriers to the progress of the Gospel. As nationals are fueled by external dollars the issue of dependency also creates a paralyzing barrier.   

Supporting nationals inside the 10/40 window is only one part of the equation for reaching the billions within it. However, more than redistribution of wealth is required. I believe the answer is found through the formation of teams who share money, passion, and knowledge to overcome the barriers to the spread of the Gospel. 

Jesus told us that all His followers, including us in the West, were being sent like He had been. He came, remarkably, as God stripped down to a human body.  He was, to our continuing amazement, Someone who came to be up close, personal, and present; Immanuel, God with us.  It was in His human form that He died, was buried, and rose again. The weak, (a human and dying Saviour) confronted the mighty (sin, death and the Prince of power in this world—Satan) and won. Today, Jesus commands of us a similar incarnate action; He sends us.  

E.M. Bounds had it right when he said:  “Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods, while God is looking for better men”.2

For some the call to support nationals only has at its heart a veiled absolution that attempts to excuse us Westerners from the hard and necessary work demanded by God’s call to incarnate the Gospel; “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.” 2 Corinthians 3:2. We dare not shrink back. 

I see, as the way forward, teams of nationals and expatriates formed and deployed strategically within the 10/40 window to find, train, and release new national leaders. And while it is in my estimation a good strategy, it comes glaringly and perhaps appropriately flawed with human weakness. Of course, the key to surmounting the weakness is a spiritual one that is its internal strength.  Hear again the dramatic words of Jesus: "without me you can do nothing" John 15:5

As your gateway to the nations Fellowship International will continue to discern, develop and deploy willing and well-trained agents of the Gospel in both national and expatriate forms. We are finding nationals within our borders who want the benefit of our training and who are willing to enter into the exquisite and challenging dance that we call partnership. Fields like Indonesia and Cambodia demonstrate the effectiveness of trained and supported nationalsdeployed to their places of origin. Many of our existing fields are demonstrating an effective mixture of nationals and expatriates working together as the primary church planting teams. Consider Spain, France, Colombia and Chile. We are determined to achieve together what nationals and expatriates cannot achieve effectively on their own.

Return to the original question: Is the day of sending out missionaries over? NO, it is not.

1. Two sources of this information are: The Joshua project and Frontier ventures
2 E. M. Bounds Power through Prayer page 4.

 

—David Marttunen is Director of Fellowship International.