Advice to Sending & Supporting Churches
By Ben Ebner
Several Frontline Field Team members are currently in the United States. They are here for a few months to visit family and to report to churches and individuals who are invested in their ministry. Hearing about the many locations these Gospel-workers will visit in the next few weeks turned my mind to churches across America who partner with missionaries. Offered below are three pieces of advice if you are a sending church (the missionary’s home church) and three pieces of advice for supporting churches (churches that financially support the missionary but are not the home church). This advice did not come from any Frontline Field Team member; it is a result of my observations over many years watching missionaries visit their partnering churches.
Sending Churches
When your missionary or missionary family is in the United States:
1) Give them forums to talk about their work. If you want to build a missions culture in your church, here is a great opportunity. There is no substitute for hearing directly from those who are doing Gospel work in difficult locations overseas. These opportunities to share should include the ladies who are working so faithfully to advance the Gospel — we need their voices and experiences to be heard. They are a vital part of God’s work around the world and their courageous ministry can encourage everyone in your church.
Consider pausing your normal sermon series if you invite your missionary to preach. Giving them latitude to share what God is teaching them and how God is inviting believers in your church to be part of His work will be a great benefit to your congregation.
2) Allow them to sit and grow. While it is important to give them opportunities to share, resist the urge to assign them ongoing preaching expectations. Let them sit and listen to the preaching. Let them sing and pray with the congregation without thinking about being involved later in the service. Allow them to be part of the church. They may not get another opportunity to be part of the church in this way for several years.
3) Listen thoughtfully. They may want to share frustrations and concerns with you. Don’t assume that you can overlay your American church experience directly onto their situation. What might have worked for you may not translate to their context. They are working in a different culture, in a different language, potentially in an area where there are very few Christians.
Ask questions that make it clear that you value the missionary’s opinion and experience in overseas work. Position yourself as a learner in this area and make it clear to the missionary that this is not your area of expertise, and your questions are because you genuinely want to learn and understand.
As you listen, always point them to Christ. Even if you don’t understand the location, language, or culture of the place where they minister, you will never go wrong encouraging them to fix their hope on Jesus.
Supporting Churches
When your missionary or missionary family is in the United States:
1) Be flexible. They need to reserve an amount of time for their home church that they won’t be able to spend with each supporting church.
Be ok with a virtual check-in. They may not be able to visit you in person every time they are in the United States.
Consider that you may be 1 of 20 supporting churches. While your church may use a questionnaire to gather information from your missionaries, is the very long questionnaire you ask them to fill out each time they’re in the United States reasonable if you multiply it by 20 different questionnaires from 20 different supporting churches? Work to narrow your questions and requirements of your supported missionaries to only those that are most important. Here are two questions to ask yourself: “Is this doctrine or philosophy question so narrow that the missionary would have to ‘un-align’ with 19 other churches in order to align with our church?” and “Is this a question that their home church definitely needs to be asking but it’s not really within the scope of a supporting church?”
2) Be sensitive to their children. Most 6-year-olds will not have a great day if you ask them to arrive at church at 8:00 am on Sunday morning, attend Sunday school, morning service, church lunch, afternoon Bible study, evening service, and a dinner that wraps up around 9:00pm. Consider asking the parents what will be helpful for their kids.
3) Maximize the brief time you have with them. Give them opportunities to share with the entire church what God is doing in the location where they minister.
Most of all, pray.
Whether you are a sending church or a supporting church, pray for your missionaries. When they are with you in person, pray for them during services, small groups, and Sunday school classes. Let them hear you praying for them. And when they are back overseas in their place of ministry, pray. Respond to their updates and emails letting them know that the church has prayed for the requests they mentioned. The missionaries we love and partner with need our prayers more than anything else we can give.
View more July E-News content below: