Why Is There A Lack Of Gospel Ministers Being Sent To Poor Communities From Our Bible Colleges & Seminaries?

[Rob Fall]

Lack the faith for this kind of ministry. They want concrete answers and guarantees for every doubt. They want a guaranteed salary and don’t want the embarrassment of raising financial support (expressed more than once by individuals and couples).

• This may stem from a background denominational missions as opposed to the faith missions most IFB and Bible Church folks are used to.

Have unrealistic expectations of the mission field. Will I have “me time”? Will we have a pension? Can we return home for medical care (my favourite)?

• me time is pretty vague. However, if a pastor does not take care of his own spiritual health then he has little to feed his sheep.
• pensions. A realistic question if they are working in another country. Will they be covered by the UK pension system. And again it may be a reflection of a denominational missions background.
• medical care, Another realistic question are they covered by the UK’s National Health Service. The British NHS is not looked kindly upon by many Americans.

I get a feeling the author (Mez McConnell) doesn’t understand that to many American lower class English, Scottish, and Welsh dialects are pretty much foreign languages. Brother McConnell serves in Edinburgh. I do believe he would have troubles understanding some one speaking with a full strength Cajun or a Southern Appalachian (I want to avoid “hillbilly”) dialect.

[Rob Fall]

I get a feeling the author (Mez McConnell) doesn’t understand that to many American lower class English, Scottish, and Welsh dialects are pretty much foreign languages. Brother McConnell serves in Edinburgh. I do believe he would have troubles understanding some one speaking with a full strength Cajun or a Southern Appalachian (I want to avoid “hillbilly”) dialect.

Having heard a narrative of Noah in “Glaswegian” (Glasgow Scotland dialect), I’d suggest that it’s not just the lower classes that would have trouble understanding dialects with which we’re unfamiliar. For that matter, I remember having trouble with “black english vernacular” when i was in Compton, and I bet a shiny new nickel that Joel could run some phrases by me that would perplex me—even though in my undergrad years at Michigan State, I interacted a LOT with young men & women from Detroit and Grand Rapids.

I think there are good risks and bad risks. But I also think that there is, among some, an inordinate affection for safety and security. I wonder how much of missions, historically, would have qualified as a good risk. When I read people like Judson, Carey, Paton, etc. it don’t read like taking a struggling church in Indiana (or Michigan, as I did) where the culture is the same and backup employment is relatively easy to come by as a bi-vocational pastor and where hospitals and doctors are nearby and easily accessible. I don’t know if you read much on missions but it is challenging to me to think of the sacrifice and to compare that to us (generally speaking). it doesn’t really look like what we call sacrifice today for the most part. I am not suggesting we volunteer for the hardest thing we can think of, but I wonder if we don’t need some perspective on this.

Ironically, I have read a good case that the risk that Jim Elliot/et al took was an unwise and unnecessary risk. There were good inroads that would not have resulted in their death.

So there is not always a good way to know. But there is, I think, a missionary heart that sees the need and the opportunity and follows it.

I was a missions major in college, and read a lot of the biographies and philosophies of early missionaries. I think we must evaluate them on a case-by-case basis. I don’t believe God ever calls someone to sacrifice their family for the sake of ministry (or for that matter, leave family for years at a time to go serve Jesus). We know some missionaries with NTM who serve in one of the most remote and naturally dangerous places on earth. They do it as a family, and they do it joyfully. I applaud them and rejoice that there are families of their caliber doing this work. On the other hand, we know another family who ministered with the same board and went the route of dumping their kids in a boarding school where abuse and other issues were occuring. To this day that family is not right, but the parents are still out there “serving Jesus.” I don’t see how that is justifiable. We are called to place everything on the alter for the sake of Christ. I don’t dispute that one bit. But that sacrifice must be placed within the context of the entirety of Divine Revelation. We don’t get the pick and choose. Too many Christians have had the mentality “my God will supply all my needs” but completely ignore “if a man doesn’t provide for his family he is worse than an unbeliever.”

I completely agree with the general tenor of many of these comments. I just dont want us to romanticize things that are unbiblical and unwise. The humanly unwise is only the right thing to do if God is leading in it…the biblically wrong is something God will never lead us to do.

I live near and have close ties to Bob Jones. We need to face that fact that we are spoiled here in the US and are spoiling our young people even more. I’m not suggesting that we make life intentionally difficult and ugly, but consider this…

Many people can’t eat what is put in front of them. We have to give them choices.

We are so addicted to our phones, computers, and tvs that life is “boring” and difficult without them. I once had a deacon’s wife told me that even though they were struggling in the business, they couldn’t live without cable, because her husband had to have his sports.

When we give people everything they want, why should they want to willing give up something to serve God in a difficult place. After all they can serve in their nice comfy church and not be bothered.