the circus freaks of Christendom
It was weird. My parents have told me that they'd be okay with me being a pastor. I wasn't okay with being a pastor. I just never felt the calling to be one. Then here I am telling them what I wanted to do... I think, maybe, I want to become a missionary. A missionary to a group of people that may never have the chance to hear the Gospel. To a land far away... an unknown culture, unknown society, unknown language, completely out of my comfort zone.
Then the questions come... How are you going to live? How are you going to get the money? and so on and so forth. Maybe I wouldn't have been so disappointed in those questions being asked of me if they weren't Christians. Have they not read the same command that Jesus mentions in my Bible? He said that we should "go and make disciples of ALL NATIONS". Is that command only to be obeyed if it was at our convenience and to be easily questioned and perhaps, disposed of, if it causes us inconveniences? Then they later tell me, why don't you work and then do your ministry... be a tentmaker like Paul.
I have a problem with comments like that... it is as if the mission work that is being done does not necessarily qualify as work. Like it's a hobby that I'm trying to indulge in. Now, I have no problem with the concept of working and doing ministry, don't get me wrong. I just have a problem when people don't see missionary work as real work. I wonder how would they react if I start questioning why the pastor gets paid out of the church's coffers for equipping the Body of Christ. Maybe he should be a tentmaker as well... get an outside job and on Sundays, go be a pastor. Somehow, someway, there's an unspoken rule that happens within the church: the pastor gets paid, but the missionary has to raise his/her own support. This just strikes me as an oddity within the Christian circle. It almost says that there is a hierarchy of positions within the Body of Christ... that pastors are viewed as higher than the missionary, even though their job is pretty much the same. The only difference between a pastor and a missionary is the fact that one equips the Body of Christ within a localized region and another equips the Body of Christ overseas. One would think that the missionary, because of the difficulty of the job, would be the one who would get paid. Of course, the difference that I have stated, does not do justice to the work that missionaries do. The chances that they are persecuted and basically deal with extreme difficulties are somewhat higher than what an ordinary pastor would go through. I, by no means, would want to belittle the jobs that pastor have. They have a very important role within the Body of Christ... I guess my problem is when we start having different attitudes towards different expressions of service within the Body. If missionaries have to raise their own support, why shouldn't pastors do the same?
And this is where the problem lies. Missionaries are almost like the circus freaks of Christendom... people on the fringes of society. How many times have I heard the question "Why do you need to go overseas when there are so many needy people here within your own city/country?" The burdens that a missionary faces is almost two-fold. Not only does the missionary have to bear leaving his/her own comfort zone to go to another geographic location, but also have to face the lack of support in their decision to spread the Gospel in another place. It's okay to be a pastor. The pastor represents normalcy...stability. The missionary represents different...unstable. Because of this, the missionary is almost treated in a rather flippant way. The pastor gets all the accolades while the missionary toils mercilessly without reward.
Yes, I know that the missionary's reward may not be in this world, that his/her eternal reward will far outweigh anything that s/he ever encounters in this world. The accolades from people are no match to the accolades that s/he will ever receive from our God. However, does this mean that they must be subjected to such a harsh reality? I guess what I'm just saying is that we need to re-evaluate the way we think of missionaries and the work that they do. They need to be encouraged, to be prayed for, to be loved. They are doing things that not everyone can do and are called to do. (WE are all missionaries in our own mission field... I'm simply referring to missionaries who go overseas because they are being called to minister to a certain people group). I think that if you, as a church, can put money in all the different various programs that are going on, perhaps even enlarging the size of your church, then you should also be able to support missionaries. Let's not forget the reason of the Church's existence. It is not to have people sit in the pew, sing some songs, clap their hands, listen to a sermon, then leave completely unchanged as when they entered. It is to build the army of God. Its purpose is to send out labourers into the harvest field and sow and reap. The Church's main purpose is the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Lest we forget and become the Laodicea of our age.
Then the questions come... How are you going to live? How are you going to get the money? and so on and so forth. Maybe I wouldn't have been so disappointed in those questions being asked of me if they weren't Christians. Have they not read the same command that Jesus mentions in my Bible? He said that we should "go and make disciples of ALL NATIONS". Is that command only to be obeyed if it was at our convenience and to be easily questioned and perhaps, disposed of, if it causes us inconveniences? Then they later tell me, why don't you work and then do your ministry... be a tentmaker like Paul.
I have a problem with comments like that... it is as if the mission work that is being done does not necessarily qualify as work. Like it's a hobby that I'm trying to indulge in. Now, I have no problem with the concept of working and doing ministry, don't get me wrong. I just have a problem when people don't see missionary work as real work. I wonder how would they react if I start questioning why the pastor gets paid out of the church's coffers for equipping the Body of Christ. Maybe he should be a tentmaker as well... get an outside job and on Sundays, go be a pastor. Somehow, someway, there's an unspoken rule that happens within the church: the pastor gets paid, but the missionary has to raise his/her own support. This just strikes me as an oddity within the Christian circle. It almost says that there is a hierarchy of positions within the Body of Christ... that pastors are viewed as higher than the missionary, even though their job is pretty much the same. The only difference between a pastor and a missionary is the fact that one equips the Body of Christ within a localized region and another equips the Body of Christ overseas. One would think that the missionary, because of the difficulty of the job, would be the one who would get paid. Of course, the difference that I have stated, does not do justice to the work that missionaries do. The chances that they are persecuted and basically deal with extreme difficulties are somewhat higher than what an ordinary pastor would go through. I, by no means, would want to belittle the jobs that pastor have. They have a very important role within the Body of Christ... I guess my problem is when we start having different attitudes towards different expressions of service within the Body. If missionaries have to raise their own support, why shouldn't pastors do the same?
And this is where the problem lies. Missionaries are almost like the circus freaks of Christendom... people on the fringes of society. How many times have I heard the question "Why do you need to go overseas when there are so many needy people here within your own city/country?" The burdens that a missionary faces is almost two-fold. Not only does the missionary have to bear leaving his/her own comfort zone to go to another geographic location, but also have to face the lack of support in their decision to spread the Gospel in another place. It's okay to be a pastor. The pastor represents normalcy...stability. The missionary represents different...unstable. Because of this, the missionary is almost treated in a rather flippant way. The pastor gets all the accolades while the missionary toils mercilessly without reward.
Yes, I know that the missionary's reward may not be in this world, that his/her eternal reward will far outweigh anything that s/he ever encounters in this world. The accolades from people are no match to the accolades that s/he will ever receive from our God. However, does this mean that they must be subjected to such a harsh reality? I guess what I'm just saying is that we need to re-evaluate the way we think of missionaries and the work that they do. They need to be encouraged, to be prayed for, to be loved. They are doing things that not everyone can do and are called to do. (WE are all missionaries in our own mission field... I'm simply referring to missionaries who go overseas because they are being called to minister to a certain people group). I think that if you, as a church, can put money in all the different various programs that are going on, perhaps even enlarging the size of your church, then you should also be able to support missionaries. Let's not forget the reason of the Church's existence. It is not to have people sit in the pew, sing some songs, clap their hands, listen to a sermon, then leave completely unchanged as when they entered. It is to build the army of God. Its purpose is to send out labourers into the harvest field and sow and reap. The Church's main purpose is the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Lest we forget and become the Laodicea of our age.