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The Selection of Missionaries

If biblical eldership requirements are excluded from the formation of a global mission strategy, then often the result is the perception that everyone qualifies. The sending churches are no doubt motivated by a desire to be obedient to the Great Commission, along with a desire to be good stewards of their financial resources. They may even be deeply moved by the willingness of others to sacrifice their comfort and safety to live in a hostile region of the world. But whatever the motivation may be, the perception that virtually everyone is qualified can lead to an overwhelming number of individuals applying to become missionaries. In fact, it is quite common for churches to have between 25 to 50 missionaries on their monthly payroll. My wife knows of one church in West Virginia that, until just a few months ago, supported 150 missionaries! (Yes, 150! That is not a typo. They recently cut back to 65 due to COVID-19 limitations.)

​How Missionaries are Financed​

With so many missionaries to support, the missionary budget is stretched so thin that the sending churches are only able to support their missionaries at a miniscule amount of their total need. ¹ Specific dollar amounts tend to be a ​very​ small percentage of a missionary’s total need. It is almost unheard of for churches to support missionaries the way Paul encouraged Titus to “Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way ​and see that they have everything they need​” (Titus 3:13). The reality is that it is quite common for financial support to range between $25 and $250 per month, and if the salary requirements range from $4,000 to $8,000 each month (obviously, depending on a whole range of factors), this then forces the missionary to seek financial support from dozens of churches – typically between 25 to 50 churches and individuals.

In the end, what is the result of this dysfunction? What “fruit” do we see? Rather than leading to a greater Kingdom impact, it leads to a chain reaction of additional problems:

• The sending churches do not have a meaningful relationship with their missionaries.​ How can a church – whether large or small – have a meaningful relationship with 25 to 50 missionaries? How can the elders of the church provide meaningful pastoral oversight to that many missionaries? The answer is that they can not. I know of one missionary who is supported by a church that has about 30 missionaries on their monthly payroll. Recently, he told me that this church contacted him for the first time in 20 years and asked him how he was doing.
• The missionaries do not have a meaningful relationship with their sending churches.​ How can a missionary focus on serving the church overseas, and at the same time, have a meaningful relationship with the 25 to 50 churches who support him? When they do return on furlough, they must spend several months traveling to visit the large number churches who support them. The end result is that most missionaries only see a small fraction of the church members from their supporting churches. When they do actually visit, it is only for a few days once every few years. Over time, that missionary becomes little more than a tack on a map on the missionary bulletin board in the church basement.

• Churches set up an alternate set of qualifications to screen missionary candidates.​ When there is not a clear relationship between ecclesiology and missiology, ​churches then create an alternate set of extra-biblical qualifications as a way to pre-screen the flood of missionary candidates. For example, they may require their missionaries to:
  • be a member of their particular church ²
  • attend the sending church’s annual missions conference once every two to three years
  • produce a video describing their ministry on a periodic basis
  • find ways for members from the sending church to actively participate alongside them on the field – regardless of whether they are qualified or not ³
  • submit a quarterly report to the supporting church – this report is in addition to the quarterly or bi-monthly ‘prayer letter’ missionaries typically send out
  • provide monthly prayer requests to supporting churches—again, in addition to the standard prayer letter.
    

Some of these additional requirements may—on the surface​—appear good. But here is the key concern: ​multiply the above requests by the number of churches who support a particular missionary.​ If a missionary has 25 to 50 supporting churches, these additional requirements quickly add up! Typically, most churches only see their own small requests and so think they are insignificant. They do not see the big picture. The reality is that missionaries are inundated with a whole range of these additional requirements as a condition of ongoing support. The trend that I have seen over the past 10 to 15 years is that these requests have only been increasing—which then creates an additional, even more serious problem: with these requirements increasing every year, it diverts the primary focus of the missionary from the foreign field to maintaining the relationship with the 25 to 50 supporting churches. Thoughts of Acts 6:1-4 come to mind here. The Apostles were well aware of the danger of their ministries being divided between other valid concerns (“waiting on tables”) and their God-given calling of prayer and teaching / preaching the Scriptures. They took steps to ensure that their ministry focus was not compromised. In our day, missionaries need to do the same. Their ministry focus can easily be diverted away from their God-given calling on the foreign field in order to satisfy the requests of 25 to 50 supporting churches. ⁴

But the root of the problem, I believe, is that the sufficiency of Scripture is not understood or applied at this point. There is no need to create an alternate set of extra-biblical qualifications as a way to pre-screen the flood of missionary candidates when the Bible has clearly stated what the qualifications are.

• The foreign field is filled with people who lack the biblical qualifications to serve as missionaries. Tragically, the result is little or no fruit. ⁵ One way to illustrate this point is to look at several examples in mission church history where the sending churches did not ensure that those who went out were qualified. Perhaps the most stirring example is the history of Christian missions to China – particularly from 1807 to 1949. During the early years, the sending churches tended to screen missionary candidates with far more care, and, subsequently, sent out a number of exceptional missionaries such as Robert Morrison, William Chalmers Burns, and Hudson Taylor. But as time went on the emphasis shifted from sound doctrine and faithfulness to Scripture to merely zeal and passion with few or no commitments to truth. In 1922, for example, one missionary observed that “Missionaries have generally been chosen by the large [mission] boards because of their spirit rather than their doctrine…” ⁶ Another was even more broadminded: “Don’t apologize. All Americans are missionaries.” ⁷ In due course, the missionary community established 180 colleges, 262 hospitals, 19,500 churches, and 69 seminaries and Bible Schools.12 Yet, despite all this investment of money and personnel over their 142 year presence in China, what was the result? What was the “fruit” of their work? The number of Christian converts never exceeded 1% of the Chinese population. ⁸

Samuel Ling observed

…it was widely conceded by Christians and non-Christians alike that the missionary movement had failed to achieve its goals in the largest mission field of the church….In retrospect, the Chinese communist movement alone could claim success; all other systems of ideas and social movements failed to make a comparable impact on China. ⁹

A Watershed Moment

This divorce of ecclesiology from missiology has gotten the North American evangelical church into a rather deep hole. But there is hope! The Scripture is sufficient and has given very clear direction on how to move forward. The recovery of a healthy missions program begins with the rediscovery of the Bible’s view of eldership and the church. For some churches this may require a watershed moment in the life of their church as they completely rethink missions from the ground up by looking through the spectacles of biblical ecclesiology. When carefully understood, and each truth carried to its logical conclusion, a proper view of the church will have a domino-like effect, touching every area of your church outreach. In fact, many of the problems described above will be addressed and rectified, and will begin the process of moving churches toward a more effective missions program.

If all of this leaves you a bit overwhelmed, or with more questions than answers, may I offer a few suggestions on how to move forward? Start with the biblical foundation by making your first objective to train an elder – not a missionary. ¹⁰ This is the more difficult and time consuming path, and will likely involve years of training, but in the end your church will reap rich rewards – both locally and abroad. Let me give a remarkable example of one institution that put this principle into practice. In the 20 years that I have been serving as a missionary, some of the missionaries who were the most influential and had the greatest Kingdom impact were graduates of The Master’s Seminary. ¹¹ The reason they were so influential, I believe, is because the Seminary sought to ​first​ prepare men for the role of a pastor / elder in the church (exegetical teaching / preaching, shepherding, counseling, evangelism, church planting, worship, etc.). The idea of training a person to be a missionary without the qualifications of an elder is completely foreign to them. As far as this author knows, the seminary does not have any mission professors, nor do they offer a degree in missions, yet they consistently produce some of the most influential missionaries. This should not surprise us. A missionary without the qualifications of an elder is not going to plant a church abroad and then train up a pastor who ​is​ qualified as an elder. A person can not give what they do not have; they can not lead where they have not first gone before. It is only a missionary with the biblical qualifications who will train up a like minded pastor overseas. As our Lord said, “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master.” Matthew 10:24

Over time, as biblical eldership becomes more integrated into your missionary outreach, you may discover several very encouraging, albeit unanticipated, results.One of the first things that will happen is a much higher level of discernment in your congregation. There is a direct relationship between the level of understanding of biblical eldership in the local church and the quality of missionaries it sends out. The more a church seeks to understand and apply biblical eldership, the greater impact it will have on the kind of people they send out and the kind of ministry projects they support. As the church’s discernment grows, the flood of missionaries will soon become a trickle because the number of people who are both biblically qualified ​and​ are able to use their gifts in a foreign language and culture is quite rare. Plus, some may not have an interest in spending the time – oftentimes years – in the local church cultivating the spiritual leadership skills that are so critical to serving overseas. Some members of your church may initially view this as a negative because the number of missionaries is being reduced. But it is important to remember that the Bible never emphasizes numbers at the expense of truth, or in this case, the number of missionaries at the expense of the biblical qualifications for spiritual leadership.

Another benefit of fewer but qualified missionaries is that far more funds will be available for the people and projects that are truly worthy of support. ¹² Churches will be able to support their missionaries at a far higher percentage of their monthly need. If a church supports a missionary between 50% and 100% of their monthly need, then one to three churches may be sufficient. Not only is this good financial stewardship, but it also opens the door for far deeper relationships between the sending church and the missionary. The missionary will no longer need to spend several months on home assignment traveling to the 25 to 50 supporting churches. Rather, he will be able invest the majority of his time in the small handful of churches who support him. But the most important benefit of all is that the missionary will be able to focus more fully on the task to which he has been called: bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the regions of the world that do not know Him!

Soli Deo Gloria