Someone (actually it was a former missionary) told me a few years ago that it was easier living on the mission field than it was living in the U.S. and I have one word for them... “liar!” Sure, you don’t have the pressure of keeping-up with the Jones’ but that’s the only thing that’s easier. Man, this is totally different than I thought it was going to be. It’s tough.
Whenever we came here (to Brazil) on missions trips everything was all a-buzz... with so many activities and ministry opportunities lined-up in advance. It’s like every moment was filled with an event that thrust the Gospel into the darkness. It was awesome.
But living here on the mission field (as opposed to being on a mission trip) is totally different. There aren’t a myriad of activities lined-up in advance so that every moment is filled with the events that you experience on a mission trip. Actually the fast pace of a mission trip has been replaced with the torturously slow pace of just trying to live (in the jungle). Everything moves sooooooo slow. It’s painful if you’re use to the fast pace of living in the U.S. where you’re constantly on the go. But on the other hand it allows us to have a deeper relationship with people and “do life” with them and it actually allows us to disciple them. That didn’t happen very much for me in the States. I was always on the go from one thing to the next, always going and going and going “doing ministry.”
Before we moved to the mission field last year I was on the pastoral staff at a church for almost 10 years. And we pretty much measured everything by the numbers. If a lot of people showed-up, then we were successful. If the event this year had a bigger turnout than the event the previous year... we were successful. If we were growing on Sunday Mornings and adding more services and putting extra chairs out each week... then we were successful. Now I realize growth is a good thing and things that are healthy grow. But numbers aren’t the only indicator of a something that’s healthy (especially spiritually). We can’t measure success solely by the numbers. If that was the case then Jesus didn’t have a successful ministry. Sure, large crowds followed Him but only a small group of men and women really “followed” Him. They were the ones who stuck with Him when He would talk about what it would cost (which is everything) to be His disciple. And He was left with hardly anyone at the end of His earthly ministry, they all abandoned Him, remember? So ministering to a crowd can’t be what we measure success against.
I have a lot of friends who are pastors and I know that this is something that they fight against constantly as well. And it’s hard not to measure our success in ministry by the numbers because we’re programed to think that way. With all the “Top 100 Fastest Growing or Top 100 Largest Churches Lists” and with FB, Twitter and the internet wherever we go (even here in the jungle) it’s hard not to get sucked-in to measuring yourself against somebody else's ministry. Or, how many times have you ever met with someone (especially when they’re in the ministry) and when you start talking about your church or a crusade one of the first questions they ask is “how many people you got” or something to that effect? It’s kinda sad actually. I’ve even done that. But what we’re doing right now, if it was being measured strictly by the numbers, wouldn’t seem worth it. I mean, right now we’re not ministering to thousands of people each week in our services. But that’s got to be OK. I’ve got to be faithful with who God has sent to us.
Back in the States if I said I was ministering to 100 people or less each week I don’t think anyone would be inviting me to speak at their conference and you definitely wouldn’t see my name on any “Top 100 List” for sure.
I’m trying to change my thinking because I’m so use to “big” but that can’t be my goal in ministry. The real question I need to ask myself (and the goal I need to set) is, “how am I doing ministering and discipling the people that God’s given me right now?” We can’t just look at the number of people, we’ve got to look at how we’re doing with who we have right now. It’s hard but the increase belongs to God. We’re only held accountable for how we steward what or who He’s given us, right?
So back to the beginning of the blog... being on a mission trip is totally different than living on the mission field. And that’s OK. We’re seeing lives changed,we’re doing what God’s called us to do, we’re believing for the Harvest... however big it is. How bout you?
Passionately Following Jesus,
Jim
PS - The pics at the top are of our 3 youngest kids. The 3 of them started school today. It was huge because up until now they’ve been home schooled. We really feel like, for us to have the biggest impact in the schools, we need to have our kids there in the classroom too. These were the pictures of their 1st day. There were no tears from them or us... everyone was excited. They were excited because they were going to school and we were excited, well... because they weren’t going to be in the house for a few hours. lol! Sorry, just being honest. All the rest of the kids start next week so please pray for us.
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