by Jon Konnerup
Last month’s article closed with some very specific questions regarding the effectiveness of our Fellowship in caring for, retaining, and attracting missionaries.
- • Do we adequately provide care for our people serving the Lord in the cross-cultural world of ministry?
- Is our Fellowship backing our missionaries the way we should?
- Why are we experiencing increased attrition of our missionaries?
- Are we relevant to the needs of our missionaries today?
- Can we make adjustments in time to capture the potential of what our current and new missionaries attempt to do for the Lord?
The same article introduced the restructuring of the September offering from the Missionary Project Offering, which will be phased out over the next few years, to an offering that will be used to enhance missionary care. The Missionary Care Offering will enable us to serve our missionaries more effectively and strengthen our efforts by allowing us to provide the needed care to keep them on the mission field.
Missionary care is the responsibility of everyone involved in missions — fellow missionaries, sending churches, the Mission Office, and all the churches of the BBFI. Caring for our missionaries will help us do missions well. It strengthens missionaries so they can effectively love, evangelize, and disciple people groups, and plant churches. It will help them endure hardships and grow as individuals. When missionary care is done well, it provides a strategic way to fulfill both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
As new missionaries are approved and others begin the process of searching for a partner organization, a crucial factor in the decision process is whether the “agency” will provide the care necessary to meet their emotional, financial, and spiritual needs. Many of our missionaries never imagined or prepared for the various struggles they encounter. We must all do our part by coming alongside and supporting them.
Following are a few of the areas in which the Missionary Care Offering will benefit our missionaries. I will elaborate on each of them in future columns: the annual missionary family reunion, crisis training for all missionaries, international missionary retreats where field representatives and Mission Office staff participate, ministering to missionary kids, and sending-church assistance
The Mission Office wants to serve our churches, processing funds for their missionaries and assisting with missionary care. Our intended desire is not to usurp the authority of the sending church; however, when called upon, we want to be ready and available to assist them in the best way possible.