Voluntarily "bumped"...

I write this sitting in a hotel in Erlanger, Kentucky. You may or may not know that I am the Board President for Mission Data International. I am on my return trip from a few days of board meetings in Siloam Springs, AR. The travel for this trip has be quite eventful.

When I went to Washington-Dulles Airport to begin this trip, I ran into traffic snags, construction and the lovely folks at TSA have also developed new and improved ways to hinder the flow of people through their checkpoints. I missed making my flight by 2-3 minutes. I didn't get onto the next flight because they changed the aircraft used on that flight...decreasing capacity by about 20 passengers.

This meant that I got diverted to Atlanta to make my connection. While I was waiting for my flight from Atlanta to Arkansas, they were asking for volunteers to be "bumped" for $400 "Delta Bucks". I was wishing I could volunteer, but had to make my meetings. I arrived about 5 or 6 hours later than planned, but we were able to flex and get all of our business taken care of. When I again had the option to volunteer on my flight to Washington, DC tonight, it seemed like a great idea. I get a good night's rest, and a fresh start tomorrow, instead of arriving home at 1 am. The family won't miss me too much because they would have been in bed when I arrived anyway. Win-win.

My next trip will be on Delta's "nickel". I probably won't use the whole credit on a single flight either... I'll take the $400 Delta! Thanks for the nice room too. :-) Think I'll go down to the Jacuzzi for a while now... :-)

What does partnership look like?

(This post is the text of an e-mail we sent to our distribution list earlier today...)

We have enjoyed the beauty of snow for the last couple of days, and Evan has worn a path down the hills in our yard with his sled. Smoky, our little black puppy has romped, and played and bitten all the snow he can get his teeth on. I have spent some time meditating on just what it means for our sins, as red as crimson to be as WHITE as snow! Wow. God is good!

I often think that a lot of people have a difficult time putting an image to the things that I say I do in my role as a “Church Partnerships Advocate”. My team has boiled it down to a phrase that might help: “Cultivating partnership to reach forgotten peoples” but for some that would be equally ethereal. I have decided to write some anecdotes as they happen, to help you get an insight into what it is that God is doing through my ministry here.

Last week, I had lunch with a missions pastor from a church in Northern Virginia. We had met some months ago at a conference in Maryland, and he had expressed some frustration with the “partnership” that we had with his church. He said, “We talk about partnership, but I don’t even feel like we have a relationship!” at one point. I agreed, and we both heaped the blame on ourselves. I decided I was going to do what I could to make the relationship a reality.

I called and left a voice message. I e-mailed several times. I called again. I looked up another e-mail address on his church’s website. It took some perseverance to get this relationship “jump-started”. Finally, he wrote back. I told him that I would like to drive up and have lunch with him when it was possible. He suggested a date, which turned out to be last Thursday.

We met and had a nice lunch as we got to know each other. At some point in our conversation, I said that before I left that day, I would really like to hear his image of what our partnership should look like. Our conversation quickly turned to the 2 missionary couples they have in Central Asia that have been sent from their church. Then it narrowed in focus to his concern for the wellbeing of one of the couples. He felt that the church hadn’t done a sufficient job of caring for them in recent days.

Interestingly, I had talked to our Member Care Director several months ago about that very couple. She was concerned that we needed to do more in caring for some special needs they had. I was able to share with this missions pastor, how we shared his concerns. We made a plan to meet to discuss the needs with me, the Member Care Director and him around the table together to formulate a plan to do a better job from all sides to care more fully for this family.

I felt tingles up and down my spine as I felt like I was seeing God’s care for this family unfolding before my eyes. He was using me. He was using this pastor and their church. He was going to use Pioneers as well. I found myself thinking, “Now THIS is what partnership should look like.” This church probably doesn’t have all that much expertise in caring for their people in Central Asia. But they are the body that God used to send this family to that place. They have a role to play. We each have a role to play.

I believe that, but for this kind of care – from all who have such a role in their lives – this family would have to cut their time in Central Asia short because of some of the issues they are facing. (Their issues are not marital, moral…etc…more to do with ministry transition and educational issues.) However, given a concerted effort to help them walk this stretch of road, I believe they will continue to serve faithfully for years to come.

Please pray for our meeting next month, that we will understand the best way to care for this family so they can have a fruitful ministry for years to come in Central Asia! …and pray for me that I will see more opportunities to develop relationships that will have this kind of impact…for the sake of unreached people!

Watch that e-mail, watch what you forward

I read an interesting article in Christianity Today and it hit a nerve for me. Our actions in the e-mail world probably don't match our actions in the real world. The things we say in an e-mail, we may never in person. It is just so easy to click "Send". Some people forward every little thing without thinking twice. I used to reply to forwarded e-mails with a tearjerker of a story by replying, "Yes, thanks, I'm doing well, how are you these days?" because they seldom bothered to talk about anything related to me or themselves.

However, this story is about something much more hurtful than having to click delete, or having to reply and say, "No Madeline Murray O'Hare isn't trying to get James Dobson off the air..." This couple had to face a court trial, a conviction and now a fine an jail time! All because somebody decided to take matters into their own hands and "help".

After you've read the story, perhaps you'll agree that the mission workers in the story had a bit of culpability in the "poor choice of words" department. Perhaps you'll agree that the person who forwarded the e-mail had a significant degree of culpability as well. Perhaps you will feel the government is over-reacting. If so, you might be missing the most important point -- "What do I do with e-mail?"

As the article points out, information that is shared with you is shared with YOU -- not with everyone in your Address Book. We have to be discreet in the way we handle information. I have known of several people who worked in locations that required they use a lot of discretion in how they talked about their work. They felt safe in talking to churches in their home country, and the church naively put their prayer letters on their website, with their name and picture as well.

Why is that so bad? Well, a hostile government official cannot do a keyword search from his desk on printed prayer letters, the e-mail in a churches inbox, or telephone conversations. He can do a keyword search from his desk and find the letter when the church has posted his letter on their website!

Many churches also list their missionaries' e-mail addresses in plain text on their website, so members can write to the missionaries. This is not the best idea, but not because of hostile governments. In this scenario, the "bad guy" is the spammer who scoops up the address with a little piece of software that scours the web looking for just such a thing. Soon, the workers' inboxes are full of invitations to buy medications they never thought they needed...

Christian workers are supposed to put their trust in God to look after them. This is right and true. However, it would help them a lot of their brothers and sisters would slow down, take a minute and ask their opinion before sharing sensitive information...even if they do it for all the right reasons with a good heart.

Christian workers should also ask God to "set a watch over my lips" so that they don't leave themselves open and vulnerable by words mis-spoken. This couple are paying a very dear price for a mere joke in an e-mail! It was only a lighthearted moment, but it has come back to haunt them now.

God will look after you. He will meet your needs. He will protect you from harm. He wouldn't mind if we joined in the effort with Him, though!

Young Adults and Word-of-Mouth

On another blog, I have been musing about word of mouth, young adults and how to promo events. This year, I made a decision to NOT do a print brochure for a young adult event that I have been chairing for a couple of years. It wasn't particularly popular with the Baby Boomers who help to facilitate the event, but I was (and still am) convinced that the cost-to-benefit ratio for a full color glossy brochure just didn't justify the brochure.

Then Michael sent me this post from an unrelated-yet-related blog, with this quote, which was quite insightful:

MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything."

If the conclusions drawn by these high-powered, high-paid "gurus" is correct, we have some homework to do, in order to understand how to get the "word" out about events for young adults. What do you think is the way to infect the word-of-mouth machine with info about new and upcoming events and the like?

GO! Reachout 2007!

For the third year running, I am involved in the day-to-day operations of GO! Reachout. GO! Reachout is a special mission event for young adults in Western Australia. I enjoy the event, but I must admit that some days, dealing with the logistics of day-to-day planning and the occasional "committee-style" meetings can be grueling. What I *LOVE* about GO! Reachout is the opportunity to spend time with Young Adults who just love Jesus and want to find the opportunity to serve him to the fullest! This year, we are also going to be the Premiere Opening event for the "Voices Tour". I am looking forward to the event, and to how it can be used to encourage young adults to consider their response to the Great Commission. Drop by the website and have a look! Let us know what you think... Thanks!

Do we need vocational missionaries or laymen??

Hi Y'all. I was reading this morning and came across this, which I enjoyed reading, but it tweaked a thought for me. Why do we always chase after some extravagant or extreme and miss the nuance in our understanding of ministry. I really enjoyed reading that article, but I was bothered that they felt it necessary to sort of put down the idea of trained, professional missionaries in order to raise the profile of short-term, layperson centered mission work.

I am not one to advocate the importance of "professionals" as more highly valued than "lay people". I don't make that distinction very strongly at all. However, it isn't necessary to go to the other extreme either! You don't have to devalue career missionaries in order to make the amazing potential of short-term lay ministry visible. Each has their place. Neither will function as it should without the other being a part of the picture.

The other thing that bothered me about this article was when Bob Roberts, Jr. seems to be taking a stab at "Business as mission" and summarily dismissing it as "an insult to the businessman". It would seem to me that either Mr. Roberts doesn't understand business-as-mission, or at best has been given a misunderstanding of what business-as-mission is.

In my experience, it is the business people who are EXCITED about business-as-mission, because it validates their role AS A BUSINESS PERSON in the whole mission endeavor. It doesn't leave them in the position of "financier" that they have been relegated to for so many years. It welcomes them to the front-lines of ministry. Why would that be an insult?

There are many things I don't understand. I try not to dismiss them based on my lack of understanding. I wish Bob Roberts, Jr. would have done as much in his treatment of business as mission. I wish that we could develop a vision for mission that would embrace the value of career missionaries without devaluing what laypeople can bring to the picture. Can we also raise the profile of short-term and lay-involvement without devaluing the career missionary?

I agree HEARTILY with Dr. Roberts that the Great Commission was given to the WHOLE church! We each have our role to play. Let's not make it a competition.

EDIT:
I need to add something here. :-) It is funny how you can write something and create (or be the victim of??) a tone that you never intended to inject into your own words. It seems that sometimes Dr. Bob Roberts, Jr. is misunderstood. I guess when you make a seemingly negative statement regarding a "time-honored" institution, emotion charges forward and the backlash can be unexpected. I found this post on Dr. Roberts' site that reads like a script for what was running through my mind when I wrote this post earlier! So....Dr. Bob....we agree, I think. :-)