Resources for Missionary Recruits Online by Marty Andry, Doug Lucas, and Chris Bushnell

Chapter 11

Questions and Answers About Sending Churches

What does the term "sending church" imply?

It can mean different things among different organizations and is probably different for each sending church. Here we define "sending church" as a church that provides the majority of the emotional, spiritual, and perhaps even ministry and financial supply for a cross-cultural missionary. Although a sending church can provide most or all of one's financial support, this does not necessarily have to be the case.

What kinds of churches can become sending churches?

All kinds! At one time, it was thought that only large churches could perform these functions. However, experience has shown that even a church of 100 people and perhaps less can rally behind a missionary sufficiently to provide not only the emotional and spiritual support but, in fact, most if not all of his or her financial needs as well. Of course, larger churches can muster even more resources for these needs.

What are some of the qualifications for a sending church?

Most of all, a sending church must be committed to the cause of world wide evangelism enough to be solidly involved in the oversight of their missionary. Note that this does not imply that the church must have "arrived" in every facet of world evangelism, but rather that they are "anxious" to participate in a larger way than simply writing checks.

Name some of the major areas of involvement for sending churches.

Sending churches need to be involved in at least three areas: growth, love, and trust. If the sending church invests heavily in laying a strong foundation in these three areas, it is possible that every other detail will fall into place.

What do you mean by providing "growth" for the missionary?

Each sending church should be sending "growth messages" to its missionary on a monthly basis. These messages need not simply be written notes. For example, inviting the prospective mission candidate to spend three months with the senior minister at the sending church can send a strong signal to a would be cross-cultural worker. It communicates a desire for partnership and shows that the church is taking responsibility. Furthermore, if the church elects to send a missionary to a conference on evangelism and church planting or even to an entire year of graduate school during furlough, the missionary will not only be involved in advanced stages of growth but will also sense the shepherding hand of the congregation that is serving as his sending church.

What is meant by "love messages?"

These don't necessarily try to teach the missionary anything. Instead, they simply communicate the church's care and concern. For example, the church might send the missionary a box of chocolate chip cookies during a long cold winter. Or the elders might call him on the telephone and patch him into the board meeting or, better yet, to the entire Sunday morning service. In doing so, the church communicates a very pronounced love that goes beyond check writing or reading a financial report.

What do you mean by "trust messages?"

Unlike the two forms of communication mentioned above, trust messages seek to establish a covenant of affirmation between the sender and the missionary. A trust message says, "We believe in you no matter what and we will stand by you regardless of the circumstances." For example, a church might set up a schedule whereby a different elder responds to each monthly report. In this way, the missionary can see broad support from throughout the entire eldership. A trust message might be as simple as placing the missionaries name on the church letterhead. By doing so the church is saying, "We are willing to step out on a limb and claim this missionary as one of our very own staff. We recognize that someday he might make mistakes but he is still ours, we still believe in him, and even when he makes mistakes we will stand by him (especially then) and help him through the mistake toward a higher level of service."

What are some of the ways that churches can communicate with their missionaries?

Churches can use letters, audio and videotapes, small packages which often go directly to the missionaries door instead of being held up in customs, prayer support, financial support, and actual visits on the field. These are just some of the many ways in which a church can be involved.

How can a church make sure that it fulfills its role as a sending church?

A church could set up an actual calendar with all of the months in the year listed down the left hand side of the paper and the three major communication areas across the top as columns. This "communication matrix" can help a church see its weak points and strong points. After a church graphs the types of communication it has sent over the past year, it will sometimes be awakened to its responsibility to send more than simple requests for additional financial reports.

If a church becomes intentional about this process, it will actually set up a schedule in advance. For example, one elder might be asked to be responsible to prepare an audio tape in July to serve as a growth message for the missionary. As such, he might decide to use a tape from the morning message and simply add an addendum to it.

Another member of the congregation, perhaps a Sunday School teacher, might be asked to prepare a video in November to serve as a love message. She might travel to different homes where families are putting up their Christmas trees and ask them for messages (on video) to the missionary family. Still another member of the congregation, perhaps one of the high-schoolers, could be asked to prepare a poster with a collage of pictures of the various teens together with a paragraph of prayer support for the missionary.

If the congregation fills in every slot, there will be 36 messages per year to the congregation's missionary. In some cases, this will be up to 36 times the number of letters that the missionary receives from any church in any one year, unfortunately. In other cases, it will simply serve to help the congregation make sure it is covering the breadth of communication types, and not just zeroing in on one area, such as is often the case, when a congregation simply requests financial reports.

Does this system have to be done exactly this way for the church to qualify as a sending church?

Not at all. But these kinds of activities characterize the kind of oversight that a sending church must provide. The secret is not to be involved in "busy work" but to be involved in real in-depth communication.

Must the forwarding agent come from the sending church?

No. But it is often the case that the missionary will want the forwarding agent to be from the sending church so that he or she may serve as a communication liaison with the church.

Who should begin the communication process?

It isn't as important to figure out who should begin as it is to clarify the expectation. In some cases, the missionary might wait for months thinking that the church will be contacting him or her first. Meanwhile, the church might be waiting for the missionary to make the first step. The bottom line is that expectations need to be clarified.

How can a congregation make sure it plans according to the ideas mentioned above?

Someone in the church needs to take responsibility for insuring that the planning process continues on a regular basis. This person, who could be called a communication coordinator, should also jot down reminder notes to those who have agreed to take responsibility for certain month's communication. In addition, the communication coordinator should also call together annual meetings for reviewing and planning the communication process.

You've talked a lot about what the sending church needs to do for the missionary, but what does the missionary do for the sending church?

Almost exactly the same kind of communication. The problem is, the missionary is only one individual, or in the case of a married couple, two. By contrast, the church should be able to muster the resources of all the membership in order to show this important relationship. As a result, the church leadership must remember that the missionary at times will be unable to respond in the same quantity of communication as the church sends out to the missionary.

However, by contrast, the missionary is typically full-time at his or her job. Church members must do all the above communicating in their spare time after work, in most cases. Therefore, it is to be expected that the missionary should make special effort to set aside time for correspondence and communication duties. Perhaps an hour a day could be used to communicate and do administrative office functions. Or perhaps one morning a week could be set aside for these activities.

What specifically will the missionary send?

We believe that missionary should grow to the point where he or she is sending exactly the same kind of communication back to the church, that is, growth, love, and trust messages.

But what kind of messages could the missionary send that would help the congregation to grow?

The missionary might write back and ask the congregation to be involved in a concentrated prayer emphasis for an entire unreached apartment building. He or she could request that the church set up a 24 hour prayer chain and give them specific names and specific apartments to pray for. Many churches would profit greatly from such an expansion of their prayer involvement. They would, in a sense, be growing as a result of the missionary's request.

Or a missionary could write up a worksheet to help each class in the Sunday School become more informed about his or her outreach. By preparing these sheets in conjunction with someone who has training in Christian education, the missionary could be providing a substantial expansion to the church's Christian Education Department.

How could the missionaries send love messages back to the church?

This is an easy one. For example, the missionary could get together some new national believers and cooperatively prepare a special banner or wall hanging to post on the wall of the church during an upcoming mission emphases Sunday. Nationals could write their own personal testimony and by doing so, the church back home who is doing the sending will be able to see results of their involvement and appreciation for their sacrificial giving and care.

The missionary could send back a cassette once a month or once a quarter to play during worship or during prayer time. In it, the missionary could offer genuine prayer on behalf of those who are giving and praying back home. The missionary could take testimonies on tape and send them back to the church so that these testimonies could be played during worship.

What are some ways to communicate between the field and the church?

Communications have revolutionized in the past decade. In the early 80’s, few churches or missionaries had access to fax machines. Now, the fax is obsolete! The Internet has changed forever the way missionaries and their supporters communicate. Finally, daily communication between supporters and missionaries is easy and quick. Most major universities use the Internet and with enough research, you’ll be able to get set up. Other Internet Service Providers (like AOL, Compuserve, and Microsoft Network) are rapidly globalizing as well.

How does the missionary send back messages of trust?

This is one of the most important areas of all. Because the missionary is using the congregation's financial resources, he or she can become the target for lots of complaints, unless initiative is taken in this area. Members who see constant checks going out to a missionary can assume that the missionary is receiving these same levels of funding from many other churches across the land. Only by sending honest and accurate reports can the missionary head off these kinds of suspicions.

Likewise, members of a sending congregation can wonder exactly how the missionary is spending these funds, unless they are getting back a categorical expense report in each monthly report. By sending this report, the missionary is not "defending himself" but rather he is reporting back in much the same way that Paul and Barnabas reported back in Acts 14:27.

Furthermore, by including a personal letter and prayer requests, even if the personal letter is photocopied to all, the missionary insures that at least once per month, the members of the sending church and all other supporters can hear back regarding the progress of the work and the needs of the work in the future.

Each special gift should be answered with an equally special thank you. If someone sends a box of chocolate cookies, the missionary is sending a trust message if he or she responds "in kind" and sends back a book mark with a specially prepared "thank you message" inscribed upon it. This is not to create a burden for the missionary but rather to communicate a trusting appreciation that should exist between points which are sometimes oceans away.

How can the missionary make sure that he or she is able to remember to communicate in these ways?

Once again, the missionary needs to take responsibility for planning out this kind of communication on an intentional basis. If these communication activities are not planned they will soon be shoved aside by the demands of field work. Missionaries need a communication schedule too.

How someone find out more about a sending church relationship?

The best way would be to find a church who has a successful sending ministry with a missionary. There are dozens of these churches giving full-time care to missionaries. They are large, medium size, and even small churches which have excelled in sending missionaries and caring for all of their needs. Check with churches in your area to find out if they are sending churches for missionaries. Also, churches other than Christian Churches/Churches of Christ may be sending churches. They could be excellent resources.

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