The Kind of Missionaries the Global Church Wants
By Nathan Sloan, TGC.
Recently, a colleague and I made a two-week trip across the Middle East and North Africa to visit national pastors and mission teams. Since we lead a missions organization based in the U.S., we were asking this question: “What would it look like to send new missionaries to join you in your work?”
In one church, we met with some national pastors were hesitant to answer such a question. But a few hours into our conversation, after a level of trust was built, they began to share painful stories of missionaries who made great promises but failed to follow through. They told us of Western missionaries being in their city for years who never learned the language. These missionaries refused to play a meaningful role in the local church because it’d distract from their personal ministry. And they kept national believers at a distance so they could remain comfortable within their own expat culture.
I could see in their faces and body language the wounds left by missionaries who failed to see the national church and national Christians as genuine friends and colaborers. Eventually I asked, “You’ve been burned so many times; why work with missionaries at all?” And then they told me about Andrew.
Right Kind of Missionary
Andrew was a missionary from America who made many of the same promises others had. He wanted to bring his family, learn the language and culture, and make Jesus known. But there was a difference. Andrew and his family rooted their life alongside other national Christians. They played a meaningful role in the church’s life. They stayed through the hard times and treated locals as equal partners in the work.
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