Important facts for missionaries

                    The Relationship Between the Missionaries and the National Church 

Introduction:  The term "national" is used in these studies to mean a Christian native to the foreign country where the mission work is being done.  The "national church" is the church being developed in the foreign country, made up primarily of "nationals."

The successes and failures of missionary efforts of various religious groups over the last 100 years have led to the recognition of a wise mission policy known as the "indigenous principle."  "Indigenous" people are nationals, people native to a particular country, not foreigners.  The indigenous church is the national church.  The "indigenous principle" states that the goal of missions is to produce a self-supporting, self-governing, self-teaching, self-propagating church as soon as possible; and it calls for methods which create as little dependence of the national church on missionaries as possible.  Over-dependence on missionaries stifles the growth of national leadership and can cause collapse if the missionaries have to suddenly leave.

With the rise of nationalism and a resentment of foreign control in more and more countries, nationals themselves are often anxious for the church not to depend on missionaries.  Some liberal churches in the "third world" have even called for a "moratorium" on missions.  In foreign church work in general, there is a healthy tendency for missionaries to be brothers and partners with national church leaders, or "advisors" to them, rather than being authority figures.

The indigenous principle must be in the minds of the missionaries concerning their own work, and in their teaching to the people.  Missionaries must mature the church to do its own work of service to Christ - Ephesians 4:11-15.

1.         General suggestions concerning the relationship of missionaries to the national church.

A.         Above all, the missionary must be genuine and sincere in his love and faith.  The nationals must know he is one who can always be depended on to do what he believes is right.  As long as they believe in his love and essential goodness, they will be willing to hear the missionary even when he explains the need for the nationals themselves to take on added burdens as the church matures.

B.         The missionary must beware of the natural temptation to be a "great father" or kingpin to the national Christians, and to let the missionary premises become "headquarters" for the national church - Luke 22:24-26; John 4:20-24: 1 Corinthians 3:16.

C.         Sometimes disagreements develop over the amount of burden the national church should assume.  The missionary must follow scriptural principles in dealing with his conflicts with national Christians.

1)         "Go to your brother and tell him his fault" - Matthew 18:15-17.

2)         Go to your brother if he has anything against you - Matthew 5:23,24.

3)         Remove any offensive behavior of your own - Matthew 18:6-9.

4)         Correct others gently and keep a calm, self-controlled spirit in difficult discussions - Galatians 6:1,2; 2 Timothy 2:24-26.

5)         Confess and apologize when you are wrong - James 5:16.  Forgive when others are wrong - Matthew 18:21-35.

6)         "Lay down your rights" for the sake of saving others, as Christ and Paul did - Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Corinthians 9:15,19-23; 2 Corinthians 12:15; Matthew 16:24,25; Romans 15:1-3.  But this does not mean sacrificing principles necessary for the church to learn independence.

D.         When the missionary must refuse a request of national brothers because of the indigenous principle,

1)         He should do so gently and in love, but clearly.

2)         He should not weary the brothers with long, drawn-out explanations to defend his action.

2.         The missionary should let the nationals grow, and should not hinder their growth by doing for them anything they are able to do for themselves.

A.         If we let the national church become overly dependent, there is danger of collapse if missionary support has to be suddenly withdrawn.

B.         If the missionary does too much, it delays the maturing of the national church.

C.         The process of moving the national church from dependency to independence is wearying emotionally and spiritually.  The temptation is to take the easy path and let dependency continue.

D.         It is natural for national Christians to want to leave the main burden of finance and leadership on the missionaries.  It is also natural for them to want to succeed to the role in which they cast the missionaries.  These opposite motivations cause inner conflict and frustration in national church leaders.

3.         The missionary must lead the national church to independence in 4 areas:

A.         Teaching

1)         Young national Christians are too prone to trust the teaching of the missionary in everything.  He must teach them to judge his and all teaching by scripture - Acts 17:11.

2)         A large part of the mission program should be devoted to training nationals, especially leaders, in God's word - 2 Timothy 2:2; Acts 19:8-10.

B.         Discipline

1)         National brothers tend to call the missionary to judge every difficult question or church dispute.

2)         The missionary must instead urge the nationals to take their disputes to respected national brothers.

3)         When new persons or groups come wanting to relate to the missionaries, the missionaries should be sure they also relate properly to existing national brothers and churches.

C.         Evangelism

1)         The missionary should push forward capable national teachers, not try to do all the teaching himself.

2)         He should teach nationals the joy of soul-winning, how to develop understanding in a convert before baptism, how to teach and strengthen new converts, and how to establish strong, well-ordered churches.

3)         If national preachers ask funds for preaching trips, he should encourage them to look to their local congregations as far as possible, giving the church a chance to grow in evangelism.

D.         Finance

1)         This is usually the area of greatest potential conflict between the missionary and the national church leaders, and the hardest responsibility for nationals to accept.

2)         Much trouble can be avoided by starting with the right policies at the beginning of the work.  It is traumatic to tear away excessive support to which the national church has become accustomed.

3)         The national church should build its own buildings.

a.         It is artificial to build with foreign money buildings the nationals cannot afford or maintain.

b.         Whatever standard of housing nationals are able to provide for themselves, they can also provide for the Lord's work.

c.         What looks very poor in our eyes may look fine to people used to living on 5% of our income.

4)         As far as possible, the national church should help its own poor.

a.         Large amounts of material aid coming into a poor country from abroad attract the wrong kind of people to the church.

b.         We certainly must be compassionate and do benevolent work as missionaries (1 John 3:17,18).  There are exceptional situations where large amounts of foreign benevolent aid are necessary temporarily, but all benevolent work needs to be done as quietly and with as low a profile as possible so as not to appeal to wrong motives any more than necessary - John 6:26,27.

c.         Much jealousy and division among nationals can be created by unwise, though well-meaning distribution of personal aid to people.  People in a rich country can hardly imagine how much feeling can be generated among very poor people by what we should consider a small amount of material aid.  Benevolent projects such as medical units or schools that help whole groups rather than individuals create less jealousy, and still show the love of Christ.  Of course some private aid to people is necessary.

d.         The scriptures provide good order for benevolent work:  First a person should be expected to help himself -  2 Thessalonians 3:10; second his relatives should be expected to help him - 1 Timothy 5:4,8; then the local church should help its poor as far as possible before looking to other churches or missions - Acts 2:44,45; 4:32,36,37; 11:27-30; Romans 15:26.

e.         If material benefits stand out in a mission program, we will attract materially-minded people.  If Christ and the word of God stand out, we will attract lovers of God.

f.          The way we attract people determines how well the fruit of our work will survive - 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

by G.B. Shelburne, III (except for any graphics and scripture quotations).  May be reproduced for non-profit, non-publishing instructional purposes provided document content is not altered and this copyright notice is included in full.  Format may be altered.  South Houston Bible Institute, 14325 Crescent Landing, Houston, TX 77062-2178, U.S.A., tel. 281-990-8899, email <shbi@shbi.org>, web site <www.shbi.org>.  Scriptures, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION 8 1978 and 1984 by the New York International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.