ABWE Feature Story
Are Mission Agencies Obsolete?
By Michael G. Loftis, ABWE President
For over a century thousands of missionaries departed the shores of North America for parts unknown around the world. Most of those missionaries were approved, equipped, and assisted to the field by a faith mission agency. Such agencies served a coordinating role that allowed churches and individual donors to pool their limited resources for the great cause of world evangelization. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the question arises, “Are faith mission agencies now obsolete?”
Recent writings indicate that traditional faith mission agencies may be struggling to maintain their relevance and thus their appeal to the younger generation. Some even claim that such mission agencies are no longer effective due to outmoded structures, and expensive, top-heavy administration. Some agencies are reportedly even struggling to maintain credibility and support from their traditional support base of churches. (Engel & Dyrness, pp. 143-172) Simultaneously trendy efforts call for replacing American missionaries with promises of “cheaper but better” counterparts from developing nations. Technological advances have made possible the electronic transfer of data and money to almost anywhere on the planet.
In light of this, is it time for the American missionaries sent out under faith mission agencies to go home? Is it time for such agencies to close their doors? Before making that judgment, it is important to consider the consequences.
Agency Services to Missionaries
Perhaps the most obvious reason mission agencies exist is to provide assistance
directly to the missionary. A basic list of services includes donor receipting
and accounting, tax assistance while overseas, payment of USA bills, worldwide
medical insurance coverage at group rates, educational assistance for missionary
children, housing assistance, pension programs, retirement planning and investment
programs. In addition the mission agency provides for personal care issues
such as counseling, pastoral care during family emergencies, and evacuation
during international crises or natural disasters.
Often mission agencies today provide legal services, representation to various
national governments, professional platforms for legitimacy of ministry in
restricted access nations, and even assistance with visas and travel. In recent
times, primarily due to international terrorism, many governments have become
understandably suspicious of unidentified individuals drifting in and out of
their nations without an attachment to some legitimate organization with a
track record of benevolence in their region. This is now proving to be the
case for international missionaries from any country, not just those from the
USA and Canada. In most cases, these functions require experienced specialists,
such as may be found serving on the staff of most reputable mission agencies.
You may ask, “Why not let the missionaries handle these things on their own?” The answer is simply a matter of efficiency and effectiveness. By allowing trained specialists to take care of many of these tasks, the mission agency is able to achieve a fairly high level of efficiency, meeting needs more rapidly and reasonably. By handling so many details in behalf of the missionary, the agency frees the missionary to focus effectively on his field ministry. Such services also provide an umbrella of identity and protection for each missionary while enhancing his relationship with supporters.
Agency Services to Supporters
The above-mentioned menu of services also extends to the donors that stand behind each missionary. Rarely is a local church or even a wealthy donor prepared to handle the legal, financial accounting, or the administrative and strategic planning needed. In addition, the mission agency provides information about missionaries and the state of the church around the world. Further, the agency serves a very important role as an interpreter of international culture, communicating information about mission strategy and effectiveness over generations. Finally, the mission agency carries out widespread promotion of missions and recruiting of new missionaries. All this provides a context in which the church or donor can intelligently set priorities for missions giving and have confidence in the ministry in which their missionary is involved.
Missions Accountability
Sometimes newcomers to missions ask, “How can I know that a mission agency is doing all these things according to their promises?” Most mission agencies are directed by a board of trustees who oversee the president and administration and hold them accountable to operational effectiveness, financial integrity, and doctrinal stability. Missionaries are in turn held accountable by an administrative team for language learning, teamwork, ministry goals and reports, cost controls, and project funding.
One reason that churches, donors, and missiologists are able to hold up traditional missions to such scrutiny is that mission agencies have reported honestly on their failures as well as their successes. This is only possible because of the structures of accountability that mission agencies put in place. Without such accountability processes, the very reports that others now use to decry mission agencies would not even be available.
Missions Strategy
How do missionaries decide where to go and what ministries to initiate? Rarely has an individual been able to carry out an effective strategy for evangelism, discipleship, and church planting on a national, regional, or global basis. Yet mission agencies commonly develop strategies to evangelize entire countries and regions through church planting, literature campaigns, and Bible translations, seeking ways to network with sister missions and independent missionaries.
Mission agencies also have the capacity to network around the globe with one another or with individual missionaries. While USA-based mission agencies do receive most of their funds and labor force from North America, their vision is certainly not limited to that scope. The dream of many mission leaders today is to multiply the total number of missionary laborers in the world through partnerships with indigenous national partners.
When proponents of alternative approaches offer the opportunity to support trained nationals more cheaply in place of “expensive American missionaries,” we should ask, “Where did those trained nationals receive their training?” Chances are, they were evangelized and mentored by missionaries serving with a traditional agency. The issue is a matter of effectiveness.
Missions Economics
In order to answer the question, “Are American missionaries now too expensive?,” two crucial issues must be faced. First, the cost of missions in the mind of many is often years behind the reality of international life. Fifty years ago many missionaries were going out for less than a hundred dollars a month. Today, missionaries are hard pressed to live in an international urban center for less than three thousand dollars a month. As national believers from other nations begin moving into similar urban situations as missionaries, they are often shocked to discover that the prices for them are no cheaper than for American missionaries. This is the hard reality of our global economy today.
The second crucial issue is theological. How do we view the great commission of Jesus Christ to the church? Did Christ give a simple direct command to all His disciples or not? Some now seem to be making their response to Christ's command a matter of economics. But for those who believe the command was for all, then the sticker price is not the bottom line issue, but rather obedience. As the cost of missions continues to rise, remember that Jesus did not say, “Go into all the world and make disciples—as long as you keep the cost of operations under $3.99 per convert.” Instead the Lord taught his disciples in Luke 14 that the cost of obedient discipleship should be carefully considered.
Moving into the 21st century, the church in North America is now weighing the cost of obedience. Will we someday stand before Him and explain that we didn't go because it seemed better stewardship to pay others to go? At the judgment seat stewardship surely will be important. But will obedience not be most important? Whatever our conclusions about the role of the mission agency, we must move cautiously lest our zeal for a better approach lead us down a primrose path to disobedience.
Biblical Support
Most mission agencies today would characterize themselves as modern equivalents of the Biblical model of teamwork in missions. The Apostle Paul rarely did any of his missions work alone. Some estimate that he may have coordinated as many as two dozen people at any given time as he moved about the Mediterranean. What began with just a small party of two men soon grew into a whirling complex of missionary activity as Paul mobilized his team to expand in multiple directions. And while Paul's team was not from any one local church, it was nonetheless accepted and supported by many churches as a worthy ministry serving far beyond any given local community of believers.
While some may consider Paul's example to be unique, it does provide us with a valid New Testament example of a ministry that is broader than one man or one church. In fact Paul's ministry might today be called a mission agency, starting new churches and then coming alongside those churches to assist them with teaching, counsel, and leadership training. (Severn, pp. 320-326)
Through such teamwork we find that continuity of ministry may be maintained. When a missionary must return to his home country for reporting to his supporting churches, medical treatment, training, or family needs, the ministry on his field can continue forward through the networking structures of a mission agency.
Historical Foundations
While some critics point to the long-term history of mission agencies as a liability, the opposite is actually true. The crucial services described above could not be provided if it were not for several generations of missionaries who walked pioneer trails and preserved the difficult lessons gained in cross-cultural ministry. The present-day agency tradition of accountability, care, services, and strategy is built on the foundation of a strong track record. It is precisely this legacy that has given missions agencies the kind of hard-earned credibility they still receive from churches and donors across the nation.
The lessons of history have enabled mission organizations to continually improve the manner in which they operate. The wisdom gained through the years has often been captured in the policies of the agency and passed along to the missionary through training prior to field ministry, and through mentoring by veterans once the newcomers arrive on the field. All human institutions have the potential for deteriorating into rigid and meaningless focus on preservation of organizational policies. Mission agencies are no different in that respect, but most mission agencies today offer creative ministry approaches and rapid responses to new windows of opportunity. Pioneering efforts and new approaches are still needed, but certainly not at the expense of traditional mission agencies.
Conclusions
Having considered the above concerns, the question of the continued relevance of mission agencies lingers. The answer must surely include the fact that not all such agencies are in decline. Many are thriving and experiencing record growth both in financial support and career missionary candidates.
Are mission agencies obsolete in concept? Not as long as service to missionaries and churches remains a need to be filled; not as long as billions of lost souls remain to be reached with the gospel; not as long as accountability, stewardship, and strategic planning remain crucial; and not as long as they continue to follow the biblical model of teamwork with fellow saints from every nation.
In the current state of world needs, we dare not be wrong about such assumptions. The modern missions movement in this country had its roots in the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings and gathered momentum for over a hundred years before blossoming into the missions movement of the past century. It would be unwise to walk away from the resulting ministries until we are certain we can replace them with something better. If we ever lose the current momentum, how difficult might it be to regain and how soon do we expect another great awakening in this country? As we move into the 21st century, we face a critical task of evaluating all types of ministries, but none more important than world missions.
March, 2001
Engel, James F. and William A. Dyrness, "The Missions Agency—Time for a Renaissance," Changing
the Mind of Missions. pp. 143-172; Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press,
2000.
Severn, Frank M. "Mission societies: Are they biblical?" Evangelical Missions Quarterly. Pp. 320-326, July 2000.