One of the ways Webster defines niche is “a specialized market”

I think there are 100′s of what I call mission niches. These are specialized ministries that are a vital part of missions.

We tend to think of people involved in missions as being on the front lines or in support roles. I know that seems black and white but it is what I hear a lot. Are you involved in strategy or support? Both are equally  important.  If you serve in a support role you are not “less important” than someone who is in a hard to get to place working with hard to connect with people.

When is the last time you read about a support role in missions?  Not as many stories are written about support roles in missions. Not as glamorous? A worker in a support role once shared with that me they were told to be sure and talk about “the real work” when giving the mission talk at church. They wanted to hear “front line” stories. Another person was having a conversations with a mission intern  at their home church regarding this intern’s potential future service overseas. As the missionary talked about what their role was, this intern piped up and said. ” I do not believe I am being called into ‘baby missions’ “.

These are some unfortunate extremes to the problem. But if you ever have served in a support role you probably can relate to this at some level. If this is not the case with you, then you have a great group of people who have a good understanding of the kingdom. Count yourself blessed!

I have run into some pretty cool people who have a unique niche in the mission world. I want you to meet some of them this year. Stay tuned for our first one who is involved in a mission niche where they maintain and repair airplanes for missionaries.  I hope you will be able to see the hearts of the people involved and understand that God calls all of us to play different parts.

What about you? If you’ve ever served as a vocational missionary, how were the people in support roles a blessing to the work God was doing in your area?

Recently I was having a conversation with a Skybridge Community member (www.skybridgecommunity.net) who served effectively with a mission organization in Europe. This person transitioned from being a full time Christian ministry worker to a marketplace worker. Here is what they said that really stuck with me.

“I  am part of Skybridge because I  am completely sold on encouraging and empowering this kind of “non-missionary missionary.” Marketplace professionals who are fulfilling their call to missions through their careers and choose to live in Europe, on purpose.”

I believe there are thousands of marketplace workers like this. People whom God has strategically placed in this world.

In her book, Tentmakers, author Ruth Siemens writes this about life on the mission field:

”The secular job is not an inconvenience, but the God-given context in which tentmakers live out the gospel in a winsome, wholesome, nonjudgmental way, demonstrating personal integrity, doing quality work and developing caring relationships.” (Siemens, Tentmakers, D-247)

Turks moving to Germany
Algerians to France
Moroccans to Spain
Chinese students to the USA
Iranians to Sweden

The list could go on and on and on.

This year one of my blog themes will be to discover people like this and tell their story. I hope my readers will do a few things with these post.

- Share these stories with their pastors. Pastors need to hear stories like this so they can empower and release their congregation to the marketplace here and abroad. They need to see how these marketplace workers are a strategic part of proclaiming the gospel to the nations.

- Most importantly I hope these will be an encouragement and challenge to you as the reader that as a follower of Christ you can be salt and light as this worker is, and you can do it in a any where in the world.  As we process a call to missions, we often think that we have to quit our day jobs. What if we first thought about how we can keep our jobs and get a transfer?

What do you do when you find yourself in a new place?

What does it look like when you know you will only be in that location for one year?

What are the first things you do?

What do you not do?

What does it look like to connect in some sort of local ministry for one year?

What does church involvement  look like for that year?

All of these questions and more are going through my mind. Would love to hear how you have approached this or would approach this.

I want to learn.

So I thought why not do a quick list on why short-term teams can be good?

Here you go!

1. If the church has a long term strategy for that place or people group then a short term trip can contribute to the overall strategy of engaging that people group. This takes pre- trip planning, being prepared for the work, good communication throughout and lots of prayer. For a related post take a look at this
2. It can be an encouragement to the missionary or national team in which they are partnering with.
3. With social networking today it is often possible to stay in contact with the people you meet or minister to during the week.
4. It provides missional training and discipleship opportunities for people in the church who go on the trip.
5. It can expand one’s worldview, which can help the church be more effective ministering across cultures in their own city.

Interested in leading your church on your first mission trip but need some help in preparation and training. Check out this site at Equipped to Go.

Another group that knows a lot about short-term teams is Delta Ministries.

Both of these are worth checking out.

It gave us nourishment and it also gave me a thought about living cross-culturally. We were amidst a pretty tough stretch of life overseas. In some ways tougher than ever before and we have lived overseas for quite a few years now.

Webster says  this about the PRESSURE COOKER

I am glad they added number two with this definition and this was precisely my point. I went to another trusted source at www.wikipedia.com and found that ” Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. Because the boiling of water increases as the pressure increases, the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid in the pot to rise to a higher temperature before boiling”.

What does this have to do with life overseas? I believe that  living in another culture can sometimes be similar to a pressure cooker. You throw in a lot of circumstantial ingredients into the pot of  living in a cross cultural setting and the result can be a lot of pressure and stress for a single or with a family.

This is why overseas workers of all types: expat business people, military personnel and vocational missionaries need the prayer, support and accountability from their churches back home.

It is also why it is so important to have genuine community where they live.

Regardless of where you live having support does prevent tough times coming upon you. However, it is important to have a good support base both locally and back in your home country or city that will help see you through these times.

I If had one  “do over” in my church planting ministry career it would be for the new churches that I have been a part of to become globally oriented from day one. I feel I was far too concerned about putting on a good church service and not making reproducing disciples that had a heart for the world.  When we started The Upstream Collective almost three years ago one of our goals was  to influence the mission conversation amongst these younger churches. We want to help these  new churches to think and act as a missionary.  God has given us some great opportunities to equip these churches with some basic missionary skills that will actually be helpful as they plant churches here or abroad. We want these churches to think and act as a missionary. We want to see these churches become sending churches like we find in Acts 13 that send people all over the world.

I feel at times  churches can become content with simply outsourcing missions.  As a pastor friend of mine says: mission organizations often want them to pray, pay and get out of the way.”  I think that day is over. I believe there has been an awakening in the church today where mission can no longer be outsourced but be an integral part of the church. It is great  to be  just a little part of that conversation.

Yesterday we launched our first ebook at www.themissionbook.com I hope you will read it. The chapters are short but very applicable to mission. Even more importantly we hope you will consider writing a chapter. It is a book that is not yet finished. It is missing your voice and your story.

It could be to their church, pastor, small group, friend or family member.

I wanted them to write some thoughts on what they would like to communicate to those who prayed for them.

One Skybridge member wrote this. You can read it here.

I am a big fan of the church of Antioch. Paul and Barnabas were sent from that church. You can read about it in Acts 13. In Acts 14 Luke tells us that when they completed their journey the church was assembled so that they could they could report all they have done. It is so important that we proactively communicate to those who send us.

What would your letter say?
Would it be a letter of thanks?
Would you challenge them to be more active in  your ministry overseas?
Would you tell them how much you need their support, prayers and partnership?
Would you tell them about some of the things God is doing in your ministry overseas?

Take some time this month to write that letter. Find creative ways to communicate to your sending church the stories from your life overseas.

This morning as I sitting through a german sermon without translation I was trying to figure out a certain word that the preacher was using. Okay, to be honest I was trying to figure out many words that I could not quite get.  I get distracted quite easily and when I finally got close to the meaning of the word then my mind took a turn and I started thinking about being thankful. I did wait til the end of the message to type this out though.

I believe that we cannot use the words “thanks” or “thank you” too much in the context of a team.  I never want to be guilty of under appreciating the work of people who work with me. I know in my early years one of my mentors taught me the power of saying “thank you”. It is not for manipulative purposes. It is about being grateful for what others do and how they give of themselves for the work of the gospel. As you read the letters of Paul in the New Testament he spends a good amount of time saying thanks. Read Philippians 1 for example.

No matter how great or small the task is we need to say thanks to our team members. I do not know if this is always the case. When is the last time you have expressed your gratefulness to your team? What are some tangible ways (excluding bonuses, smile) that you can say thank you?

Peace,

Larry

We did a modified content analysis of this research and found some obvious common themes.

I share this short post today to highlight one common theme:

The character of the missionary.

I found this to be important amongst churches as they partner with someone on the field. If they are going to invest time and valuable resources in the work then they want to work with someone they can trust. Someone they can believe in.

“They want the worker to be faithful, have integrity and to be humble.”

“To be Christ- centered”.

“They want the worker to be honest- both about the realities of his/her life and ministry (the ups and downs, good and bad) and how the local church can better support the missionary and be more focused (again, the ups and downs, good and bad)”.

They believe that the worker should have a  teachable spirit. They like to see them “willing to learn from the local body while at the same time teaching and encouraging them to live on mission”.

Another one wrote this: “It is important that missionaries be real, honest and transparent with their partner churches. This may not be possible with every church but it must be a priority with a missionaries’ sending church”.

In regards to the relationship one wrote that “authenticity is important in regards to the assumptions/expectations we both bring in the partnership”.

In conclusion I would say if you are a worker on the field then you should take time and effort in letting your partners get to know you. Show them your heart. Show them your successes and talk about your failures.

In my last post I wrote about some of my favorites there and some really cool things going on there spiritually. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with Kyle Goen. You should check out his blog here.

Kyle and his family are from LifePoint Church in Smyrna, Tennessee. A church that has taken quite seriously the Great Commission and what we now commonly call being a Sending Church.

I asked Kyle to tell me a few things that he has learned in his first 30 days as it relates  to his sending church and communication.  Sending Churches can learn from this as they send their new workers out.

How can the Sending Church help during these first days?

What is important? What should the church know?

What should you as a worker communicate?

Take a look at this  2 minute video clip.