Resourcing

We often seem to think that a lack of resources is the biggest obstacle to the fulfilment of our vision. I disagree. The biggest obstacle is spiritual lethargy. We need to cry out for the Lord to warm up our churches, and us, so that we are willing to free up time, energy, and money for the work of the gospel. 

On a practical level, how do we find funding for worthwhile projects? I mentioned earlier the great work done by social entrepreneurs. In the developing world such businesses are often funded through microfinance set-ups. A fund is created that makes small loans to individuals and groups for small-scale businesses. The community is much more invested in such a scheme than is typically the case in Western bank-based, individualistic lending.

Are there businesspeople in our churches who can establish such a scheme in order to help church members in some of our poorer communities set up small-scale businesses that bring employment and other benefits to those communities? Is this something that Stewardship would get behind? I suggest that we all look out for competent people in our church leadership who will run with this vision. Such a person would be a networker who can connect visions and skills with resources.

In addition, it seems to me that there are two areas of our churches’ giving in which a bit of critical thinking may be fruitful:

a)    Short-Term Mission

Churches in Wales have encouraged members to get involved in Short-Term Mission (STM) for decades. STMs can be a blessing in three ways:

·      people in difficult situations can be helped directly by the assistance of energetic short-termers;

·      the short-termers get the reward of doing something useful;

·      their churches can benefit from the renewed enthusiasm brought back home and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

But STMs can also have negative consequences:

·      they can be a humungous drain on resources. Darren Carlson writing from the US perspective reports that in 2005 the cost of STMs was a whopping $2.4 billion, more money than the GDP of more than 20 countries; it is a lot less in the UK but still substantial;

·      significant concerns have been raised (in the secular world as well as in missions) about visiting short-term volunteers. Sometimes dubbed ‘voluntourism’, this has been roundly criticised as a selfish effort to get an experience of life in another country without sufficient concern for the long-term effects it has on the host community. Imagine the emotional effect on an orphan of having a new adult come and play with you every week.

One friend from India recently expressed his dismay that people are going from Wales to serve the poor in places like his home country, when, in his opinion there are poorer people here in Wales! Should we think twice about sending young people overseas when there are great needs here in Wales? If someone wants to serve overseas but not at home, it may indicate that their inspiration comes more from Instagram than from the Spirit. STM in the UK (with EMW camps, UBM beach missions for example) automatically avoids many of the issues associated with STM overseas.

While we must not drop a global vision, we must continue to encourage people to consider service at home as well as in far-flung places.

b)     Partnership

Paul commends the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel (Phil 1:6). That included the giving of gifts (Phil 4:10-19) and the sharing of personnel (Phil 2:19-30). Clearly partnership between churches and other ministries is a gospel priority that leads to a synergistic outcome.

Many of our churches in Wales are involved in partnerships with churches and organisations in other places. Often that will involve financial giving to persecuted Christians, disaster relief, orphanages, etc. We are sending a lot of money overseas but what do we do to ensure that is not misused?

I have seen financial gifts bring great blessing to many: girls saved from traffickers needing a safe house to stay in and training in a skill to become independent; literature bought with foreign funds and donated to a book shop to be sold and provide an income for the bookshop owner and his family; small gifts to help someone start a business when he could not access credit from a bank. Money can be a tremendous blessing when it is used carefully.

On the other hand, there is a massive problem of fraud and UK churches can sometimes be very credulous. According to David Barrett and Todd Johnson $50,000,000,000 of ecclesiastical fraud is estimated to take place annually (latest stats I have are from 2006). That is equivalent to the entire GDP of the world’s 44 poorer nations combined! Such a statistic should make us very cautious about giving money to projects and people that we have little relationship with. I have personal experience of many horror stories of financial abuse from my time in Asia.

Just recently I challenged the organization Mission India about false statements they make on their publicity. Organizations like this lack integrity but are supported by many of our churches and church members, sucking the Lord’s money into dubious projects. We need to regularly review our giving to try to ensure that best practice is being applied and we are not allowing corrupt people and poorly conceived projects to drain our resources. Let us take a long hard look to see if we can free up money for gospel work in Wales.

Furthermore, we could be more open to develop partnerships with those from outside Wales who want to minister here. The right kind of people are needed. Can we draw up a profile of the need and send out a Macedonian call across the world? This is challenging without a doubt. We may need to be more open to change, which is never easy. But the right kind of partnership has great potential – e.g. Grace Baptist Partnership in London and SE.

Here are three principles for partnership:

      i.         Partnership can include both tangible and intangible exchange: the sharing of money and personnel must be matched by prayer, and love, and expressions of concern (Phil 1:3-11; 2:19-30; 4:10-19).

     ii.         Partnership thrives on mutual respect and love. Neo-colonial paternalism is not welcome even if it comes from countries previously considered as developing countries – the Macedonian call was to ‘come over and help us’ not ‘come over and take over our institutions’. We must be careful not to be wowed by big churches and big budgets. Using a business model to shape a partnership is worldly. Partnership must be relational, not transactional. 

    iii.         Partnership grows as trust grows. Trust is something that is formed over time. But it can be broken in a moment. The key here is attitude: cross-cultural partnership thrives on relationship. If we have the right attitude, mistakes in cross-cultural communication will be overcome. So, it demands constant self-examination to ensure we are not undermining gospel relationships in any way. And when we sin, we need to be quick to confess. Our willingness to pursue the healing of past rifts is a measure of our readiness to build gospel partnerships in the future. If they have any wisdom, brothers and sisters from other countries, or even England, will examine the health of existing partnerships before committing themselves to new ones.

The local church is of course the Lord’s vehicle for gospel expansion. But local churches must think twice before they try to forge partnerships with churches in far-flung places without help from culture brokers – people with knowledge and experience of both places. I lost count of the number of naïve British churches who desired to forge relationships with churches and leaders in Nepal. It always seemed to me to be a function of a little-kingdom-building mentality that wanted to show partnerships off as pins on maps in exotic places. They are playing Risk with the kingdom of God.

A way to avoid slipping up here is to recognise that the Lord in his providence has already given us expert bicultural bridges in the form of mission agencies. So, if you want to build a connection with a church in Japan, you involve people who have on-the-ground experience, who understand the situation and can interpret it to you.

I think we have not tapped into these existing networks to anything like their potential. There are Americans, Nigerians, Chinese, and Indians who want to do cross-cultural ministry in Europe. Organisations such as UFM, OM, and SIM are well-placed to facilitate our partnerships with brothers and sisters in other countries. Let’s seek wisdom from the Lord to use the relationships that already exist to develop new opportunities.

In conclusion, may I reiterate what I said at the beginning: our greatest need is not strategies and talk fests on reaching Wales but a genuine work of God by his Spirit. So, we must never substitute planning for prayer. The Lord has said he will build his church. He calls us to work with him. We must always be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and be ready to drop our plans when he gives us an unplanned opportunity. May the Lord give us sensitivity and wisdom as we seek to lead our churches in the great work of the kingdom.