In my last newsletter I spoke about the changing face of International Missions. The western church (Europe and North America) used to dominate the work of international missions. Today the western church represents less than 50% of the work force of international missions. This shift has an impact on how we participate with the national leaders in other countries. In this issue I want to touch on one of the ways we, as NAB, are responding to this global shift.
I don’t think it will surprise you to learn that the church in the developing world is rich in missionary spirit. It is so encouraging to meet pastors and missionaries from other countries and to hear their stories of sacrifice and their testimony of God’s provision. We have invited six men and women from other nations to be with us at the 2015 Triennial conference in July so that you can hear some of these stories for yourself.
These national leaders are often under resourced. They are called and committed to the work. They are making personal sacrifices we would be uncomfortable asking of ourselves. But, they lack finances.
The developing world is rich in under resourced missionaries. The western world is rich in under utilized finances. Surely there is a way for us to work together.
In our NAB work in Central Europe, we are establishing a new model of partnership with national missionaries. By definition, these missionaries are not from North America, but from their home nation. So they need no language training, no cultural orientation, and no missionary infrastructure. What they do need is support.
I was shocked to learn that in many central European countries a normal after tax income would be equivalent to about $12,000 USD per year. These are subsistence economies. You have enough to heat the house in the winter and grow your crops in the summer, but there is very little to spare.
In my recent visits to Romania and Hungary, it was not unusual to meet pastors who serve half a dozen rural churches and also farm on the side to make ends meet. I never heard a complaint. In fact, I was humbled by the expressions of generosity these men and women shared with us. These are the workers who have been able to maintain an income in ministry.
There are other national workers who are trained and gifted, but they do not have financial support. If it takes six churches to pay one partial pastor’s salary, it becomes a huge challenge to also pay for missionaries to work among the Roma. So we have been asking ourselves how we might partner with these national missionaries without creating dependencies.
Our NAB missionaries have begun to identify men and women who have proven themselves faithful and effective in missionary work. We are exploring a model where NAB commits to provide $5,000 per year, which is less than 50% of their net income. We ask the national missionary to raise the other portion of the salary from national churches in order to avoid issues of dependence on North American money. Even this is a tremendous challenge for the national church, but local ownership in mission is a very high value in NAB international missions.
This use of North American finances brings an incredible return on investment. We are training national workers and creating a ministry structure that we hope will be sustainable by the local church. We believe this is a reasonable response to the global movement in which the developing world has a wealth of missionaries, and the western world has a wealth of finances. Our model may not be quite right. We will likely have to learn and adapt, but we are entering this era of national missionary partnership with great hope.
Right now we have approved six national missionaries in three countries.
- In Hungary we have Jozsef Csuhai, Laszlo Daroczi and his wife Eszter who all work along side Ron and Jeannie Seck with CHE (Community Health Evangelism). Jozsef will be with us at Triennial.
- In Serbia we have Marijana Cizmanski, also a Master Trainer with CHE.
- In Romania we have identified Tamas and Tunde Modi who work alongside Paul and Tanya Gericke as the director and administrator of Camp Falcon Rock.
Each of these is a strategic leader in the development and expansion of our ministry goals in Central Europe. You can read more about them on our missionary page of the NAB international missions website.
I want to be very clear that NAB must continue to send international missionaries from our churches. We are not exchanging NAB missionaries for national missionaries. We are pursuing a PARTNERSHIP model in which both NAB and national workers serve together. It is the partnership that allows this to work. NAB continues to play an important role by sending international missionaries, but by partnering with the national church we multiply our effectiveness and we do so much sooner.