I love foreign missionaries. I love pastors. I love my co-laborers in the harvest. But I am sick up to my eyeballs of the guilt trips laid on American ministers and churches by folks who are fully funded to fulfill their calling. I want to be clear that most missionaries I know are hard working folks who give it everything they've got but, lately, I've come across a few who have a sense of entitlement and pride.
I become very annoyed by people who assume that foreign missionaries are the only people in the world who sacrifice and suffer hardship. In reality, many foreign missionaries live extremely well. They get "free" cars, appliances and many other perks. In the UPC, foreign missionaries are fully funded.
Here's the deal. It's one thing to know about, and be moved by, an incredible poverty among the people you're laboring to reach, another thing entirely to become personally impoverished specifically because you reach for that field.
When you have no power, no water, and few groceries you will have the right to lecture me about American laziness and apathy. As a former church planter, I have gone without those things so that the "work of God" could prosper, and so that others would not suffer. I do not say this to brag, or out of some plea for sympathy. I post it to make a point. There are men and women all around you that are waking to the fact that this continent is adrift. They are sacrificing everything to reach it, and giving to foreign missions as well. Reality is, you would have to change the way you operate if not for those wealthy, apathetic, Americans who are working their tails off to build God's kingdom here and there.
Don't insult their gifts and sacrifice by talking about the wealth and apathy of the American church.
If what I bolded is true, why don't you just focus on the majority of missionaries and not the few that you say exist? I would imagine that a few domestic pastors also have a sense of entitlement and pride. Should you choose to focus on what you recognize as a vast minority, it will taint your perspective, voice, and the level respect displayed for the vast majority.
PS: Just for the record, I would not wish deputation these days on my worst enemy.
__________________
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Yes and I'm there are home missionaries who move to California from the east coast away from family or friends. I know some actually. I guess its a matter of being 3 K miles away or 7K miles away. Sacrifices are abound for sure in the missionary field, at home or abroad.
I always wondered why there wasn't a system like foreign missions for Home missions in the UPC. However recent developments are showing some signs of it developing. The UPC (not sure about other orgs) tend to use the mother-daughter work concept. I wonder what would happen if churches used the same setup for missionaries? I suppose churches would not be able to support as many as they do.
It's not exactly the same thing. A man who is UPC and moves to Ca to start a church will have other brothers there to lean on, moves to an area that is still American in culture
BTW there is a system for home missions
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There is One God. This one God reveals Himself distinctly as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
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It's not exactly the same thing. A man who is UPC and moves to Ca to start a church will have other brothers there to lean on, moves to an area that is still American in culture
BTW there is a system for home missions
Are you saying that the culture is the same in every area of America? What is American culture anyway? America is a union of many different cultures. And missionaries go and usually find a group of believers they can lean on. For instance there are other missionaries there. I know of few countries that only have one set and MK's as I understand it look to ther MK's for fellowship, as they don't have an American church youth group. Missionaries of different denominations usually speak to each other more there also.
I mentioned there was a system for home missions developing and it is ever changing (however many choose the daughter work concept). Daughter missionaries might work also. However it is not as developed as foreign missions, would you not agree?
__________________ To be able to unite in difference carries more weight than all the opinions the universe can hold
I love foreign missionaries. I love pastors. I love my co-laborers in the harvest.
Yup, you are just a bundle of love.
__________________ "I think some people love spiritual bondage just the way some people love physical bondage. It makes them feel secure. In the end though it is not healthy for the one who is lost over it or the one who is lives under the oppression even if by their own choice"
Titus2woman on AFF
"We did not wear uniforms. The lady workers dressed in the current fashions of the day, ...silks...satins...jewels or whatever they happened to possess. They were very smartly turned out, so that they made an impressive appearance on the streets where a large part of our work was conducted in the early years.
"It was not until long after, when former Holiness preachers had become part of us, that strict plainness of dress began to be taught.
"Although Entire Sanctification was preached at the beginning of the Movement, it was from a Wesleyan viewpoint, and had in it very little of the later Holiness Movement characteristics. Nothing was ever said about apparel, for everyone was so taken up with the Lord that mode of dress seemingly never occurred to any of us."
Quote from Ethel Goss (widow of 1st UPC Gen Supt. Howard Goss) book "The Winds of God"
If what I bolded is true, why don't you just focus on the majority of missionaries and not the few that you say exist? I would imagine that a few domestic pastors also have a sense of entitlement and pride. Should you choose to focus on what you recognize as a vast minority, it will taint your perspective, voice, and the level respect displayed for the vast majority.
PS: Just for the record, I would not wish deputation these days on my worst enemy.
Don't you think it would be okay to wish it on Charnock? Just once? Just for a little while?
Been Thinkin
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Our home missionaries start small churches. They can work a trade, on the case of a nearby chruch, he is a school principal. In other countries, part of your condition of a visa is it is not to work. When my community sends executives to europe, the spouses can't get permission for jobs.
I came from a comunity that cranked out a lot of missionaries. For some they just weren't preacher material but wanted to get a pilot's liscense and work in Alaska. I don't worry about it. My aunts and Uncles sent my Uncle to africa. We and no churches funded him, We shipped a new farm tractor, vehicles, bought land, opened a school and he even recruited a cook and other workers from our community that we didn't pay for. They did great till the King saw the great success and took everything. They won a lot of souls and converted many Muslims. He taught a lot of missionaries that were locals that had to leave Africa after becoming infidels.
I have relatives buried there. My uncle can never go back and even visit the graves.
In reference to the title of this thread, I assure you that your characterization here is much more romanticized than Foreign Missions.
Touche.
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I'm (sic) not cynical, I just haven't been around long enough to be Jedi mind-tricked by politics as usual. Alas, maybe in a few years I'll be beaten back into the herd. tstew
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