Monday, November 11, 2024
Monday, November 11, 2024
HomeAll The NewsSHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT: "S" is for Servant-Hearted

SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT: “S” is for Servant-Hearted

By Charles Costa

      As we continue to examine our middle name — MISSIONARY — using an acrostic, we move to S is for Servant-hearted. In the two previous articles (see the June 26, 2024 and July 10, 2024 issues), I suggested that “M” is for Motivated and “I” is for Impactful.

      I guess you can call it the domino effect factor. The church serves the missionary, the missionary serves the people and the people serve others in their community. In other words, mission work starts with the church, not the missionary. The church being the starting place for mission work is music to many ears, but too often it’s just music with no substance. The servant-hearted church is the role model for the missionary. Let me put it in the form of a question: Do you want missionaries to serve in their fields as your church serves the missionaries? We, as missionaries, learn from you, as churches, how to be servant-hearted. Here are some things that should be part of every servant-hearted church:

         • Servant-hearted means being welcoming. I learn from you. I mimic what I see. Proactive churches welcome missionaries and undergird them when they are off the field because of what they go through on the field. Missionaries need to feel their “go-to” safe place is the local churches — their sending church or other BMA churches. When they are on the field, they need to feel undergirded by the prayers of God’s people. When was the last time you had a day of prayer and fasting on behalf of missionaries working in adverse circumstances? I hope it was recent. In my 30 years on the mission field, one BMA pastor called me several times to check on my well-being when he hears about war or tension in the Middle East. Thankfully, I have had other missionary colleagues also call to check if we were still alive. Maybe you can email a missionary today on behalf of your church to tell them you are thinking of them and praying for them. That shouldn’t be difficult in today’s world of technology and social media platforms.

         • Servant-hearted means being supportive. Missionaries get browbeaten by the world, circumstances, family challenges as they live in a foreign land and enemy attacks. The last thing a missionary needs is to feel he is a beggar. A pastor friend jokingly asks me whenever we meet, “Is this another begging trip?” I have never been to a church where I was not treated kindly and hospitably. I have been to BMA churches, where the whole church came and stood around me with hands on my shoulders and back to pray for support and protection. What a feeling! As amazing as that is, is that what I need? What happens after I leave that church? Am I forgotten? So many times, it feels like it.

      Besides prayerful support, there is also financial support. “Duh,” you might say! Well, you would be surprised how difficult that is to come by. It is a fact that we have no joint strategy for missionary support, and that makes things haphazard. It forces missionaries to try to convince churches to give — often “fishing out of the same pond” with other missionaries because a church is wealthier than other churches. (I will address this in more detail in the next week’s article.) Take a look at your church’s mission giving. Does it say you are a servant-hearted church?

         • Servant-hearted means being interested and involved. The church’s involvement in a missionary’s work often ends with financial support. Interest and involvement go further. Sending your pastor to visit a mission field significantly boosts the morale of a missionary and his family. Bringing a group from a local church to help in a camp or activity will engender interest, memories and forever relationships with the missionary and the local people.

      This interest and involvement will create accountability by the missionary to the local churches. I often tell churches, “Don’t believe reports and newsletters — go and see.” Not that missionaries are lying, but newsletters and reports cannot give a complete picture of the field and the need. Accountability is necessary in a world where missionaries can get lost in the crowd. If they have done well, no one knows. If they have done nothing, no one finds out.

      Being servant-hearted has almost become a cliché. Look at it from a reverse angle: what if you were a missionary and I was a local pastor or a local congregation? Wouldn’t you want me to be servant-hearted toward you? That is why we need to put the shoe on the other foot. (Chuckcosta58@gmail.com)

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