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International Ministries’ (IM) has a new model for missionary deputation: Missionary Partnership Networks (MPNs). In the past, IM has depended on generous support from American Baptist churches to the annual World Mission Offering (WMO) to fund its mission work around the world. In recent years, however, it has become evident that changes are needed for support and involvement, missionary deputation, and consistency in relationships.
Support and Involvement
In the last 30 years we have seen a shift in U.S. society away from support for historic denominational institutions and a growing enthusiasm for direct participation in mission work. This is especially true for younger Christians who want to be more involved in mission and want to be able to know a name, a face, and have personal contact with those whom they are supporting. This erosion of traditional giving and increasing involvement in para-church mission has shown that change is needed.
Missionary Deputation
Under the old model, missionaries on deputation fly to a different major U.S. city every weekend, speak at a handful of large-donor churches, and then fly home again—an approach that Dan Schweissing (Colorado missionary on home assignment this year) refers to as the "one-night stand" approach to deputation. Thus, rural churches that are not close to a major airport or small churches that are not large donors to WMO seldom, if ever, receive a missionary visit. During their past six-months of deputation, Dan and Estela Schweissing have been surprised at the number of churches they have visited that have not seen an IM missionary in well over ten years.
So we need to make sure that missionaries don’t only spend time with big suburban churches that give a lot of money through the World Mission Offering. They also need to spend time with small churches that don’t have a lot of money to give and, in many instances, might require more effort to reach.
Consistency in Relationships
When IM sends missionaries to the field for the first time, they are told that their first priority is building relationships, and that fulfilling their actual job description is secondary. That’s because without relationships there can be no long-term ministry. Ironically, while relationships are such a fundamental aspect of mission work overseas, relationships at home have not been taken seriously.
Regardless of where missionaries go to do deputation, they need to focus on building long-term relationships. That means the missionaries who visit churches, whether large and easily accessible or small and distant, should be able to assure folks at that church that they will return and visit them in the future.
This new approach means that missionaries are now being asked to develop a network of churches with whom they have an intentional, reciprocal, and ongoing relationship. For Dan and Estela, this means spending 60-70% of their home assignment visiting churches in their home Region, the American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains (ABCRM). To this end, the
Schweissings have spent their first six months of home assignment visiting rural churches in Colorado, Wyoming, and Eastern Utah.
Of course, Dan and Estela—like other IM missionaries—will need help following up on churches in their network, especially as their network expands and becomes more active. In order to do that, they have formed a missionary partnership team (MPT) made up of several individuals from their home congregation—Crossroads American Baptist Church in Northglenn,
Colorado. Basically, the MPT is the nucleus for their MPN.
Relationships between churches and missionaries can be compared to marriage. Both sides must make a commitment to one another if the arrangement is to work. In other words, relationships go both ways. There is no such thing as a one-sided relationship.
For too long, our relationships have been one-sided.
For too long, we have depended on the "one night stand" approach to deputation.
For too long, missionaries have breezed into churches, asked for generous contributions to the WMO, and then disappeared, never to be seen again.
As Dan has said, "By the grace of God, this is beginning to change. Why? Because we realize that God has not asked missionaries to be ‘Lone Rangers;’ rather, God has called us to be in relationship and partnership with our sending churches." Dan and Estela are thrilled about the new approach, as are the MPT members at Crossroads.
They pray that, as missionaries, they would be able to say with the Apostle Paul: "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ
Jesus" (Philippians 1:3-6 NIV).
Gary Thompson
Communications Coordinator for the Schweissing’s MPN
Editor’s Note: Additional information about MPNs is available on IM’s website at: http://www.internationalministries.org. Go to Resources, and you’ll find a free brochure to order. |
