A member of the missions committee came to me two years ago with this question: “Why do we get such great attendance at our Christmas pageants but such dismal attendance at missions events?” I gave a few trite answers in immediate response, but his question got me thinking.
Was it because our presentations were shabby? Perhaps, but we had worked hard to see that they were well planned and well delivered.
Was it because our speakers were boring? Maybe, but we had hosted some of the top missions speakers in the country, and the turnout was still poor.
I finally realized that the focus of the two presentations was different. The Christmas pageant was a festive celebration of the gospel, culturally acceptable. The essence of cross-cultural missions is also the gospel, but in the form of cross-bearing unselfishness. Christmas pageants could satisfy those who came to receive; missions meetings were for those ready to give.
That evaluation forced me to realize that the task of building a “vision for world missions” in the local church is full of obstacles that demand unique solutions. We can respond, but we must be realistic. Here are four problems we have discovered-and four ways we’re attempting to overcome them.
Problem 1: The Task Is So Big
People come to church for a variety of reasons. Some have genuine spiritual hunger that they come to satisfy. Others are coming to meet social as well as spiritual needs. Children and young people may come at the will of their parents. Hurting people come to be cared for. The motivations vary, although spiritual growth is at least one of the driving forces. It’s safe to assume, however, that most do not come to church to get overwhelmed by statistics, needs, and guilt-producing overviews of the task before us.
Here we face our first obstacle: people don’t want to be overwhelmed, but the realities of our world are overwhelming:
 more than 5 billion people now living on earth;
 urban sprawls that will soon (if they haven’t already) exceed the populations of major countries (example: by the year 2000, experts predict that Mexico City will be home to 30 million, which will make it more populous than Canada or Australia);
 more than 700 million people bound in the fatalism of the karma of Hinduism;
 more than 800 million giving allegiance (sometimes fanatically) to the Allah of Islam;
 one out of every five people on earth (over 1.1 billion) living in the People’s Republic of China, and many of these without any knowledge of Jesus Christ;
 greater needs than ever with respect to sickness, hunger, and poverty.
And these statistics just scratch the surface. The numbers of “children of the streets” in some cities, added to the people carrying the AIDS virus, plus the people in our own country who are responding to non-Christian religions that have come to the United States (like “New Age” Hinduism, the Black Muslim movement, or popularized “Zen” Buddhism) add up to one word: OVERLOAD!
A college group called recently to ask me to speak on being a “Global Intercessor.” When I asked for more detail on what they wanted, they explained, “We’d like you to teach us how to pray around the world.”
When I explained that with more than two hundred nations, more than fifty thousand missionaries from North America, and thousands of Christian leaders all over the world, “praying around the world” would take all day every day, they were overwhelmed. We settled on “Praying with a Concern for the World” as my topic.
Since 1983, “missions” has been a part of my job description. I’m supposed to know and manage some of these facts and reduce them to understandable terms for our church. It’s overwhelming. And I know that if it’s overwhelming for me, the person in the pew will shun missions simply because the task is mind boggling, and “what difference could my puny efforts make in the total picture?”
I don’t believe people are apathetic as much as they feel the subject is simply too large for them to respond to. So they shy away from it, believing their own worlds are the only places where they can make a difference.
The Response: Manageability. World Vision once printed a poster that summed up the need for a manageable response. The poster had a picture in the upper corner of a mass of suffering humanity. The question that followed: “How do you help 1 billion hungry people?” In the opposite, lower corner was a picture of one malnourished child. The caption: “One at a time.”
Missiologists may be able to think in terms of thousands, millions, and billions, but I can’t. My capacity is closer to “one at a time” thinking.
Our church supports more than seventy missionaries. Even that overwhelms some attenders who want to know more about missions. So, rather than encouraging them to get to know “the missions family,” we encourage people to adopt one missionary family. We give them Prayer Packets (with recent newsletters, a picture, and a one-page summary of the missionary’s work, as well as a pre-addressed, stamped aerogram to get them started corresponding) to help them begin a relationship with one of our mission families.
In addition, we’re trying other ideas (some original, but most borrowed from other churches we know about through our affiliation with the Association of Church Missions Committees [P.O. Box ACMC, Wheaton, IL 60189]) to make missions meaningful, practical, and manageable:
 encouraging the adoption of one “people group” for prayer and research (the folks at the U.S. Center for World Mission [1605 East Elizabeth, Pasadena, CA, 91104] are most helpful here);
 making the Frontier Fellowship Global Prayer Digest available for daily use (available from the U.S. Center for World Mission);
 inviting people to read The Church Around the World (Tyndale House Publishers, Box 220, Wheaton, IL 60189) on a monthly basis;
 creating our own missions calendar so that people are encouraged to pray for two to four missionaries each month;
 focusing on one missionary per month in our “Hall of Missions” display and one missionary per week in our pastoral prayer;
 recommending starter books on missions-for instance, missions theology: The Great Omission (Robertson McQuilkin); missions biography: Shadow of the Almighty (Elisabeth Elliot); general vision: A Mind for Missions (Paul Borthwick) or Wanted: World Christians (Herbert Kane);
 getting people involved in service projects in nearby areas as well as in other cultures in our region and the world;
 challenging people not to overcommit themselves by promising to pray for and support dozens of missionaries but rather to make only those commitments they can manage.
It is our genuine desire to stir people to action and involvement in world missions, but we recognize our responsibility to prevent them from being paralyzed by the enormous size of the task.
Problem 2: Zealots Poison Attitudes
While most members may be overwhelmed by the task of missions, there are often a few in the church who catch a vision for missions and become totally devoted. They are on fire for missions, and they expect the entire church to join them in their zeal.
Some may respond, “I wish I had one person like that in my congregation” or “If I didn’t have such people, there would be no missions emphasis at my church.” Why do I consider these people problems?
Missions zealots are assets to the overall program, but if their energies aren’t directed, they can also be liabilities, so on fire that they consume the people they touch rather than enlighten them. Zealots can erroneously communicate the message that only the extremely committed (a term that may be synonymous with “fanatical” or “weird”) can be involved in missions. Thus, they aggravate the problem of missions’ being perceived as only for the specialists rather than a church-wide challenge that involves every member.
We have had our share of missions zealots. I think of the woman who could quote so many statistics about world needs that we nicknamed her “The Grim Heaper” because of her propensity to induce guilt. Or the man who thought every Christian should be as concerned about the 16,750 unreached people groups as he was (and to question him was to bring your own salvation into question). Or the young person who had no tolerance for those who desired to expend any monies on the operation of our church because “the needs over there are so great.”
All these people have ultimately served our missions programs effectively, but their zeal has been channeled so that missions has become an inclusive activity rather than an exclusive one.
Our Response: Balance. The challenge to church leaders is to provide balance so that the enthusiasts keep growing and the uninvolved are invited to get started.
Jill came home from college totally committed to missions. She took time off from her schooling to travel the country, campus to campus, with a team of “missions challengers.” She explained, “We go onto a campus, challenge students to get serious about God’s call to missions, and then we deal with those who respond.”
“What happens to those who fail to respond?” I asked.
Jill replied matter-of-factly, “We shake the dust off our feet and move on!”
“Aren’t you thinking of being a missionary in North Africa with Muslim people?” I replied.
“Yes.”
“Well,” I said, “if you carry that philosophy of recruitment to North Africa, you’ll have clean feet, but no one will be won to the Lord.”
Jill had failed to make the connection between the patience she would need with Muslim people and the patience she needed with average Christians for whom a commitment to world missions was a new concept. Helping our zealots learn this patience is the most difficult part of the balancing act.
In practical terms, balance is best achieved when we’re setting the example ourselves as leaders. If we can demonstrate patience and concern for the uninvolved, the enthusiastic ones are more likely to follow. I try to communicate to those who are on fire for missions that growth occurs best if they:
1. Realize God has given them a unique ability and concern;
2. Realize they are a crucial part of God’s big picture, but so are the missions-docile members of our church who need rousing;
3. See themselves as motivators of others (I challenge them to warm others to their fire for missions rather than consume them);
4. Dedicate themselves to the patience, understanding, and vision needed to invite others to join them in fulfilling the Great Commission;
5. Recognize that many growing Christians are uninformed about missions or what it means to be a “world Christian,” but that this is a result of lack of manageable information, not aggressive rebellion.
God has brought us many wonderful zealots for missions, and it’s been a joy to grow with them. For Rick, balance has come as a result of working with junior high young people. His enthusiasm for missions and service caused him to volunteer for youth ministry. He thought, If I can influence these kids, they will grow up thinking about missions service.
Rick’s goal has been achieved, but in a way different from what he expected. At first he pushed the junior high boys to “get serious about God and commit to his purposes.” We worked with Rick and encouraged him to challenge his students from a platform of relationships. There are now many young people who have been influenced by Rick in their understanding of and commitment to missions, but it has come as a result of his loving them and investing time in their lives.
Ann’s zeal for missions service has been tempered by her leadership in a small group. She has been sensitized to the fact that not every Christian is ready at the same time. Gradually, she has been able to influence others by presenting a bigger view of God in their Bible study. In Ann’s words, “I learned that exciting people about missions is like serving a meal-it’s better to serve up just enough so that people can’t wait until they eat again rather than stuffing them with the first serving so that they never want to see food again.”
By working to help people balance their missions commitment, we’re able to utilize the energies of missions enthusiasts to make missions an inclusive rather than an exclusive church vision.
Problem 3: Missions Seems So Outdated
We face another obstacle-the image of missions as shabby and outdated. Sometimes this image is of our own making.
We requested and were granted space for a “Hall of Missions” outside our sanctuary several years ago. We hung flags, put up missions pictures, and assembled racks for prayer letters. It was adequate, but not attractive.
We let the Hall of Missions stand until the day Bob said, “Paul, the Hall of Missions is a good concept, but it always looks like it needs to be dusted.”
Bob is not antimissions. As a matter of fact, he’s very supportive. He was simply being honest. Our display looked shabby.
Many of us have had similar experiences with missions presentations. Some of them need to be dusted. Franklin Graham wrote that as a young person, his impression was that missionaries were people who were “always out of style.” We all know the stereotypes: out-of-focus slide shows with a predictable closing sunset shot, ill-prepared missionaries who really should not be preaching. Working to overcome the poor performances of the past, we find ourselves swimming upstream.
Mrs. Elton, a missions leader at a nearby church, told me recently, “We have solved the problem of poor attendance at our missions meetings. We used to identify upcoming mission speakers in our bulletin as ‘Mr. So-and-so, missionary from XYZ Mission.’ For those services, our attendance declined. So now we just say ‘Mr. So-and-so will be speaking,’ and we don’t tell people who he is. Now our attendance is steady.”
We are all working to repair the bad image that has labeled missions in the past.
Our Response: Nothing Succeeds Like Success. We’re trying to apply to missions the adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” If we do finally get the opportunity to present a missions focus in a major church service, is the interview well rehearsed, is the projector in focus, is the material to be handed out reflective of the caliber of work we want to support? (Has the Hall of Missions been dusted?)
To help our missionaries, we produce an informational bulletin entitled Doing Your Best at Grace Chapel. In it, we outline our church’s constituency, our expectations of them as speakers, and our plan for missions long-term. We get specific about our expectations: the length of time they’re to speak, the clothing appropriate for a given meeting (and we provide a clothing allowance, in some cases), language that will needlessly alienate some of our people (using “men” when referring to both men and women).
Our missionaries have expressed gratitude for our candid assessment of our congregation’s particular expectations. It helps them be culturally sensitive as they make the adjustment back to the United States.
One final lesson we’re learning is that we must bring missions to the people. If people are going to see missions as part of their daily commitment to Christ, we must start where they live, even in church life.
Several years ago, we planned a missions conference. We made sure our church calendar was cleared for the conference week. Despite no competing committee meetings or choir practices, however, the conference attendance was still poor. Why?
Our cleared-out schedule backfired on us. Most people looked at the schedule and said, “Great, a week off!” The people who came were those who believed in missions already. We didn’t touch those who knew nothing of missions.
For the past two years, we’ve changed our strategy. Instead of canceling regular group meetings, we have asked groups to host a missionary speaker or feature a missionary focus that week. The result has been outstanding. Although we would still like to see better attendance at our main conference sessions, we are seeing more people than ever exposed to missionaries and world needs. Consider these examples:
 Our single-parent support group wanted a speaker who could address both a missions topic and the needs of the attenders. One of our missionaries spoke to the group on “How God Uses Our Lives in the Midst of Our Brokenness.” It was one of their best missions meetings ever.
 Our children’s Sunday school leaders meet monthly for dinner and planning. We provided a missionary who spoke on “How to Make Missionaries Real to Your Students.” It was a helpful evening for teachers who are trying to expand young children’s views of the world.
 The community Bible study for women was reticent to allow us to make a missions presentation at their meeting because “many of our women are from other churches, and we don’t want them to think we’re forcing them to be involved in Grace Chapel activities.” So we suggested a creative angle. At the close of their Tuesday meeting, we set up a phone call with two of our missionaries, one in West Germany and the other in Haiti, both of whom previously had been small-group leaders in the Bible study and knew many of the women. We plugged the phone into the church’s sound system, and the entire Bible study group “talked” with their friends who were now serving overseas. It was a great day for building missions interest in the Bible study.
Several groups have adopted missionaries, while others have undertaken special financial projects. Close to 50 percent of our congregation gets exposed to some specific aspect of missions (in addition to the Sunday services) as a result of this “decentralization.” In our former cleared-calendar missions conference approach, we averaged only 10 to 20 percent throughout the week.
Problem 4: It’s So Easy to Give Up!
A friend in ministry wrote to me, “We tried making missions a priority. We were going to learn about other countries, expand our missions budget, and add some missionaries to our support list, but we got waylaid by ‘other things.’ A few deaths in the church family, a hassle over the Christmas program, and a staff resignation was all it took for our missions plans to be tabled for another year. I simply don’t know how to make the ‘over there’ aspect of missions real to our people.”
Missiologist J. Herbert Kane writes in Wanted: World Christians, “After the second or third generation, Christianity tends to take on cultural overtones, and soon its members begin to take their heritage for granted and lose all desire to share their faith with friends and neighbors. The churches turn inward on themselves, and soon their chief preoccupation is their own survival, not the salvation of the world.”
How can we get our people interested in being world Christians when the needs nearby distract our attention? With all the pressure to be more community minded or to attend to pressing needs at hand, it’s easy to give up on missions emphasis.
Our Response: Endurance. Needs close to home will demand our attention, but we cannot let these needs diminish our overall commitment to see the gospel communicated to all people. We need “bifocal” vision, a balance of being concerned close to home (nearsightedness) and committed to world evangelization (far-sightedness). Persistence is important in developing such vision.
Tom came to our church with a desire to see us involved with international students. At that time, only two or three families were interested. Tom persevered. Three years later, our church hosted the annual Thanksgiving conference for International Students, Inc. Over two hundred students attended, representing more than forty countries. Almost seventy Grace Chapel families hosted students. Tom’s endurance is bearing fruit.
Endurance is the willingness to persevere even when there’s little apparent interest. In 1978, we started sending out young people on summer mission service teams. At that time, only a few of our adults supported the idea. Now, eleven summers later, the endurance has paid off: more than four hundred young people, collegians, singles, and couples have gone out on some sixty service teams. The teams expanded in 1983 to include adults, and we have sent people as young as 12 and as old as 69 into foreign cultures and needy areas of the United States. Summer missions service teams have been our greatest asset for building missions excitement and commitment at the grassroots.
Seeing Both Far and Near
International missions cannot be our solitary focus. If it is, we’ll cease to exercise the day-to-day love toward each other that identifies us as the community of Christ. A commitment to missions does not imply a one-sided view of ministry, but rather the nearsighted/far-sighted balance. Missionary statesman Oswald J. Smith said, “The light that shines the farthest shines the brightest close to home.”
Jack is a bright light. He’s committed to evangelism and, as a layman, leads our training program for evangelism. He’s an active Christian witness in his place of work, but he is solidly committed to world evangelization as well. He makes sure his Sunday school class knows and prays for missionaries; he involves others in listening to missionary station HCJB (Quito, Ecuador) over short-wave radio; he’s using his international business travel opportunities to learn more about God’s work in other parts of the world. Jack has a growing “bifocal” vision.
Our missions events may never match our attendance for concerts, Christmas pageants, or Easter services, but we can get our congregations aware of missions. When I’m prone to give up, I remember the changes in people’s lives as they’ve opened their eyes to God’s world and their hearts to his service. I remember . . .
… Bryan and Janet, who have opened themselves to full-time ministry in a “second career” phase of their lives because they’ve been surrounded by missions-minded friends;
… Marion, who chose to go to Haiti to serve meals rather than enjoy retirement in a rocking chair;
… Debbie and Norm, who got started learning about India by inviting an Indian family to their home for their first taste of pizza;
… Nathan, who, at age three, doesn’t have a broad world vision, but is learning to say “Africa” with excitement;
… Bob, who has worked out his own international vision by leading our service teams and by serving in our functions for international students.
All these are lay people who have enlarged their vision for the world through the perseverance of some and the prayers of others. These-and the dozens of others being changed by a greater view of God and his world-encourage us to face the problems and move toward being a missions-minded congregation.
Copyright © 1988 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
