Ending Our Partisanship Over Term-Length

We have all heard the horror stories of short-term missionaries doing those terrible things that destroy the real work of God being done by long-term missionaries.  Many of the tales are likely true.  And true stories also could be told about long-term missionaries sabotaging the work of God by their own cultural or ministerial ineptness.  However, length of time isn’t the main or most important issue.

On the other hand, we could talk about the much larger number of missionaries, short-term, mid-term, long-term, fixed-term, flex-term, or whatever-term who are doing an awesome job in faithfully fulfilling the Great Commission!

Perhaps we would serve God better by concentrating more on this truth of a much larger proportion and impact, and encouraging one another.  These are the missionaries I like to hear from, hang out with, and serve alongside together.  

Stop Telling the Horror Stories

Since when does length of time make for a real and good missionary, anyway?  And isn’t it really the stories of pride, jealousy, and vision myopia that are the real horror stories to be told and confessed, even? 

The term-length issue is not really an issue, rather it is a term of distraction at best.  Sadly, it is used at times as a red herring to distract from really important matters that need to be addressed.   Perhaps we should just stop talking about short-term, mid-term, and long-term mission endeavors altogether.  Length of time has very little to do with success in missions in and of itself. 

The predominant model in the New Testament is temporary and high-impact preaching teams, anyway.  The issue is what we do.  Let’s discuss this instead, and of course the why and the how, and be intelligent about it.  But, missions is about doing.  Let’s move on and move forward, and stop the rancorous trash-talking.

Start Crafting the Celebration Stories

Christian workers serving in a country for different lengths of time are going to have different concerns personally and in going about doing their ministry.  Each will be accomplishing different short-term goals and long-term goals, but all under the ultimate goal.  

Shorter-term and longer-term missionaries serve different purposes and carry their own potential for damage, depending on the context, the immediate goals, and the people involved.  But the associated risk, pain and challenges are worthy of the mission of the glory of Jesus Christ!

Each plays a role and has value in its context.  We need everyone and every approach, and both professionals and amateurs, and those in between.  We do not desire either an elite over-professionalization, nor an ignorant radical-reductionism.  We need all levels of ministry experience, biblical knowledge, training and cultural adeptness.

It Will Take All of Us

There are so many benefits in using all available legitimate approaches to get the Gospel out!  There are benefits on the field and benefits in our churches, and these become multiplied the more we focus our efforts as churches to become strategic leaders in the mission of God.  There is a lot to accomplish on the spectrum from frontier evangelism and church planting all the way to true healthy leadership development.  

Being partisan over missionary term-length is not a superior way of doing missions, but an inferior way.  It is neither commendable nor smart.  We should be multi-faceted when it comes to using people and teams for varying lengths of time and purposes.  We need all types of missionaries at our disposal to accomplish the work we have been given to do.  This approach will result in much happier stories to tell, and more glory for Jesus, the Lord of the Church!