Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

Missionaries Are Inefficient

That's right, you read correctly. As an evangelical Christian, I feel that the way Americans do missions is a waste of money and people resources.

Of course, it helps to specify what I mean by "missionaries". I'm writing mainly of foreign missionary families who pack up their middle class homes in the U.S. and travel to the third world to try to make a difference. Then they go and ask their U.S. friends and church to send (a lot of) money to support them. Myself included, Americans are too arrogant in their international dealings - we need to trust our brothers and sisters around the world and support them with resources that they don't have.

To digress a little bit, there are some good things about American missionary enterprise. Americans learn to sympathize more with their neighbors around the world. Also, the missionaries themselves get to travel, if that's what they enjoy doing.

Other than that, I believe that there are at least two other, under-utilized, methods for spreading the gospel effectively. The first is actually something anyone can do: discover ministry opportunities nearby; learn about your own communities and the needs around you. My local church actually took a trip to D.C. to help build up a church in an affluent area of town where people had simply missed the need for Christianity [Z]. While my church is in the "Bible belt", I believe that there are projects around here that we could spend more time, money, and prayers on instead.

The other under-utilized method of spreading the gospel is to donate money to "native missionaries". There is a free book available that focused my attention on this effective ministry. Why donate hundreds of dollars to your former neighbor who now lives in Africa when you could donate five dollars to a local missionary in the 10/40 window?

Related: While currently in need of a reformatting and review, see my Spiritual Links section for similar websites.

By rockofvictory | Sat 2004Aug07 11:03 CST | Links | Last edited Mon 2005Mar07 23:07 CST
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