Greetings from IBC’s Missions Council (MC) Chairman
Most of you know that there has been a planned rotation in IBC’s elder body and consequently, in IBC’s Missions Council (MC). As a newly elected elder, I have been asked to lead the MC. Louise’s and my 13 years of service on field teams in SE Asia with a large sending agency and our current role as substitute teachers of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) at this sending agency’s launchpad, gives us an up to date perspective to cross culture missions (CCM) work. Additionally, I intend to lean heavily on past and present MC members who have personal knowledge of IBC’s missions history and individual missionaries. These complimentary streams of missions experience will be used to help IBC focus on two major initiatives going forward.
The first initiative will focus on missions pathways and missions education. Missions pathways will include carefully planned and scheduled missions service opportunities. Short term missions trips will be the primary pathway by which IBC can provide ready made options for CCM ministry. Experiences gained through short term missions are often instrumental in shaping and affirming a person’s call to a full time CCM commitment, as well as providing physical support for IBC’s current missionaries when they request direct involvement from us. Missions education will first be implemented by creating a dedicated webpage on IBC’s website that will offer short primers and tutorials on missions related subjects. It will promote books, articles and videos to advance missions education. Down the road, we will assess interest in in-person training coupled with practicums, which will give participants the opportunity to directly implement what they have learned.
The second major initiative will focus on comprehensive preparation and care for both prospective missionary units and those units currently supported by IBC. Missions practitioners agree that it is the role of local churches to provide the bulk of preparation, support, care and continuing affirmation for both new and current missionaries. Although missions agencies offer indispensable services that can be more efficiently implemented en masse, it is the responsibility of the local church to consistently affirm and support missionary units. The book of Acts clearly shows us the Biblical model for this. 3 John, verses 6-8 speak to this, as well as Phil 1:3-5.
It’s a stark reality that there are too many negative influences in cross cultural settings that can distract CCM workers from their ministries. This is why it’s incumbent upon local churches in coordination with sending agencies to ensure that missionary units are sufficiently resilient, flexible and prepared to face the challenges of cross cultural contexts and to establish accountability measures that assure the Gospel of Christ is consistently advanced and protected through their presence and their work. The local church should act as both a proving ground and a pit crew for its sent ones.
To summarize my personal stance on this second initiative, I will quote from the preamble of a missionary pre-field questionnaire I recently developed to assess missionary units’ advance preparedness for their future roles:
“It is my personal conviction that a sending church is cooperatively responsible, along with a sending agency, for the total care and advocacy of all cross cultural missionaries it sends out whether to a new field or to the same field after stateside assignment. Types of support should include: pre-field, on the field, return from the field and return to the field care. Complete and continuous 3-way information sharing is essential in order to maximize a missionary’s preparedness, effectiveness, resilience and retention on the field.”
Stand by for updates from the MC in the coming days and for the roll out of the missions education webpages within a month or so!
So All May Worship,
Bob T.