Who Does Missionary Member Care?
Short & Simple Summary
The short answer is that God is the center of missionary member care. However, he also commands us to love (care for) each other as we love (care for) ourselves. So God cares for missionaries, missionaries care for themselves, and missionaries care for each other on the field. In addition, people who sent the missionaries and people who specialize in helping missionaries care for them as well. Here are the topics covered in the chapter.
God’s Care
Self Care
Colleague’s Mutual Care
Sender Care
Specialist’s Care
Network Care
If you want more detail and links to other sources, read on.
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The best summary of the types of people who provide missionary member care appeared in the April, 2001 issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly. Written by Kelly O’Donnell, “Going global: A member care model for best practice” places various categories of people providing member care in a series of concentric circles. This article is the first chapter of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) also edited by Kelly. This chapter is available at https://sites.google.com/site/membercaravan/test/doing-member-care-well, and it serves as the source of the outline of this chapter.
God’s Care
“Cast all your anxiety on him (God) because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). There is no question that God loves missionaries, but the question is will they listen to him and obey what he commands. Moses warned the people to do all that God commanded “so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess” (Deuteronomy 5:32-33). Of course, that was written about the Israelites taking the promised land. But some missionaries today fail to obey his commands and are not long in the land or task to which God has called them. They claim to follow the greatest commandment to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37; Deuteronomy 6:5), but they may not set aside time each day to commune with him and they may not keep the fourth commandment to not do any work on his Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11). They are too busy to set aside time, as commanded, to let God care for them. See the first part of the brochure at http://www.missionarycare.com/brochures/br_mentalhealth.htm
See Chapters 21 and 22 of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) edited by Kelly O’Donnell.
Self Care
The second greatest commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mathew 22:39; Leviticus 19:18) contains two parts—love yourself and love others. Many missionaries fail to regard their bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and they abuse those bodies. Failing to eat right, exercise regularly, and rest enough, these missionaries set themselves up for a premature departure from the work to which God has called them. There is nothing wrong with them taking care of themselves (loving themselves). In fact, it is commanded. See the third part of http://www.missionarycare.com/brochures/br_mentalhealth.htm
In addition, the “Stewardship of Self” series at http://www.missionarycare.com/brochures.htm has other brochures relative to caring for oneself.
See Chapters 23, 24, and 25 of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) edited by Kelly O’Donnell.
Colleague’s Mutual Care
The second part of the second greatest commandment is to love others. This involves a variety of missionaries in several possible relationships in which missionaries care for each other. This may involve
· Colleagues from the same agency
· Missionary colleagues from several agencies
· Expatriates who are not missionaries
· Nationals from the missionary’s host country
With whom missionaries enter a relationship will depend on the type of group they want and who they want in it. For instance, if it is an accountability group in which everyone is vulnerable and wants much confidentiality, missionaries would probably choose different people than if they want a social group in which people remain at a rather surface level. Some missionaries may rather be with people from their own agency, but others may prefer people from another agency or with believer expats who are not missionaries. This is a matter of personal preference.
Of course, missionaries also want to keep up relationships with people from their passport countries. These may be done through digital media such as telephone, email, Skype, instant messaging, Facebook, and other media yet to be invented. Several things need to be considered here.
· Such media are not confidential.
· Anything missionaries say or send will exist “forever.”
See Chapters 23, 24, and 25 of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) edited by Kelly O’Donnell.
Sender Care
When writing about both Jews and Gentiles calling on the name of the Lord to be saved, Paul asked several questions in Romans 10:14-15.
· How can they call on one they have not believed in?
· How can they believe in one they have not heard of?
· How can they hear without someone preaching to them?
· How can they preach unless they are sent?
Missionaries have individuals and organizations that have sent them to serve in other cultures. Neal Pirolo wrote Serving as Senders (1992, revised in 2012) to tell the “senders” how to carry out their role. These “senders” fall into three major categories: (1) individuals and/or their families, (2) local churches and/or denominations, and (3) parachurch mission agencies. Pirolo emphasized the following kinds of support.
· Moral support
· Logistics support
· Financial support
· Prayer support
· Communication support
· Reentry support
Niel Porolo also wrote The Reentry Team: Caring for Your Returning Missionaries (2000) to elaborate helping missionaries as they return. These books are suitable for individuals doing such things as caring for missionaries’ houses in USA, finding housing in USA, sending birthday or anniversary wishes, and so forth. They are also suitable for local churches or groups of people for handling the logistics of getting personal things to them or filling their pantry with food when they return. Finally, they are suitable for denominations or agencies for all things.
See Chapters 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) edited by Kelly O’Donnell.
Specialist’s Care
Sometimes sender care is just not adequate to solve the issues missionaries are facing. When that happens, some missionaries may want to involve experts in some particular area, so they consult specialists. Such specialists need to recognize that missionaries are often likely to be more interested in a servant than an expert, practical advice rather than non-directive counseling, and empathy rather than objectivity. See Chapter 31 of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) edited by Kelly O’Donnell.
O’Donnell specifies eight types of specialist care and includes two chapters relevant to each type.
· Pastoral/Spiritual Care: See Chapters 32 and 33
· Physical/Medical Care: See Chapters 34 and 35
· Training/Career Care: See Chapters 36 and 37
· Team Building/Interpersonal: See Chapters 38 and 39
· Family/MKs: See Chapters 40 and 41
· Financial/Logistical: See Chapters 42 and 43
· Crisis/Contingency: See Chapters 44 and 45
· Counseling/Psychological: See Chapters 46 and 47
Network Care
O’Donnell called for “care from international member care networks to help provide and develop strategic, supportive resources—‘facilitators’ of member care.” Information about this is available from the Global Member Care Network at
http://www.globalmembercare.org/ “connecting and developing member care worldwide”
Following are some of the things available at this time. This list will be elaborated in later chapters.
· Conferences
· Workshops/courses
· Facilities/hubs of member care
· Overseas counseling center
· Free or low cost retreats
· Resources for MK/TCK
See Chapters 48, 49 and 50 of Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World (2002) edited by Kelly O’Donnell.
Note to the reader: If you have suggestions about other things that would better answer this chapter’s question, please email those to me at ron@missionarycare.com. In that email please tell me three things: (1) what you believe needs to be included, (2) links to relevant websites if available, and (3) how it better answers the question “Who does missionary member care?” I plan to periodically update and expand the book with these suggestions.