cultural dichotomy

I’m a conversationalist at heart. I love listening to others talk. I love to ask questions and let other people answer. If you listen closely enough they’ll tell you more about themselves than they probably intended. I’d like to think that’s what happened recently during a conversation with an American church planter living in France. I was part of a group having coffee and asking questions of this American church planter in France as he talked about life, ministry, and his city. He was very knowledgeable about his city. He gave us a great history of Christianity there and how the current culture is post-modern and post-Christian. He talked about how his parents were missionaries, how his grandparents were missionaries, and how he married a French woman. He talked about his strategy for planting churches in his city and how he was in it for the long haul. But as I sat and listened to this American church planter in France I was left with two distinct opinions. One, he’s a “lifer”…and in this case that’s not a good thing. And two, he’s not a very good strategist.

This American church planter in France is a “lifer”. By that I mean that he is in his city doing his work for life. He’s been called there and he is sold out and committed to his work. This is not a bad thing at all. There are those that are called to a place and are very confident that God has called them to that place for the rest of their life. The problem with “lifer’s” is that they sometimes lose perspective. They become so much like their host culture that they take on their beliefs for what works and what doesn’t work. And in some cases, a lifer will take on the belief that short term workers do not add much value to the ministry in a given place. For this American church planter in France he has come to the conclusion, which may be correct, that real, lasting, reproducible change takes at least ten years to take root. That to expect church multiplication in under ten years is folly. This may well be the case in this French city. But this reality has affected how he values, or doesn’t value, short term missionaries. For this American church planter in France he doesn’t see the need for short term workers. In his words “they come, they leave, and no one will even know they were here. We need people that are sold out and committed to the work here in this city”. When this American church planter in France said this I was really taken off guard. I’m not a short term worker, at least according to the IMB, but many of my friends are and have been. To tell them that they came, left, and were forgotten is offensive. First of all, God knew that they were there. Secondly, I don’t find anywhere in scripture where God’s calling to a place is tied to a lifetime. God’s call is that we follow Him in making His name known. For some of us that means one place, one lifetime. For others of us, like Paul, that means that we move every few years to be a catalyst to new work. My hunch is that this American church planter in France has had some bad experience with short termers coming in, not adding value to the work, and leaving him “empty handed”. If that’s the case I feel sorry for this American church planter in France. But as they say, you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

Because this American church planter in France is a lifer with ill-conceived notions about short term workers he has, in effect, become a poor strategist. There is great value in short term workers. I don’t believe short term workers should be setting strategy. I do believe they can come into a city, where a solid strategy has been set, and can add value to the ministry that is in place. In a perfect scenario a long term worker should plant himself/herself in a city. They should build a strategy and team around them that can have a lasting, eternal impact. Short term workers should be brought in to implement aspects of the team’s overall strategy. Short term workers should not be expected to come in and start new work. With language learning and culture shock taking up much of the first year of a short term it’s asking too much to expect new work to take root. A short termer should be seen as an assistant to the long termer. If done correctly the short termer will not leave and be forgotten, but will be seen as a value added team member for the time they were there.

“Lifers” can be good for a city…and for a strategy. But we have to be careful that we don’t live up to the assumptions that are made about our host culture. While some assumptions turn out to be true, others turn out to limit our effectiveness. And for goodness sake, let’s not make the mistake of shunning short termers because they don’t feel called to a place for the rest of their lives. Let’s use them for the advancement of the Kingdom, for God’s glory, and their joy.