Your church has sent a missionary to a new host culture or wants to up its commitment to a missionary you support, along with the host culture churches the missionary works with. That is excellent news, but cross-cultural relationships are tricky. Here are some tips for creating the cross-cultural bonds necessary for long-term relationships:
- Share your prayer needs: Cross-cultural communication can be tricky, but prayer is a universal truth mediated by the Holy Spirit. Tie your prayer requests to the things you ask of your sister church. Are you asking them to plant churches? Share your church planting needs in America. Are you asking them to evangelize their people? Share about your evangelism efforts. Are you asking them to train and empower new leaders? Share your efforts to do the same. If your church is not doing any of the things you are asking your sister church to do, perhaps it is time for some self-reflection. By sharing your prayer needs and asking your brothers and sisters to pray for them, you are telling them they are equal to you and desire them to help you, through prayer, to do what God has asked you to do in their community.
- Work with your missionary to match up church calendars: There are things that every church does, no matter where they are in the world. Beyond the holidays of Christmas and Easter that lend themselves to holiday greetings, there are ordinances in the church for the elevation of a new elder, installation of a new deacon, and baptisms. Modern technology lets us get video calls or pre-taped greetings almost anywhere. Asking a partner church pastor to read some scripture and give brief, translated remarks and advice to a new elder in your church is a huge blessing and a powerful statement of equality. Perhaps your church can send a wedding greeting to a church planter you have long worked with when he gets married.
- Demonstration: Demonstrating love is one of the most challenging things we can do in building a partnership of church-to-church support. Take the issue of monetary resources. Conversations about this are often about who controls the money. One side says the sending church can only "pay" for those things the church supports. The other side thinks we will fund whatever our partners "really care about", and we don't want to control. Both attitudes are flawed and leave trusting relationships immature at best or prevent them from ever growing. The better way is to have a meeting of minds where, through open dialogue, both the partners in the host culture and the sending church learn about each other's desires and commitments, and can even disagree as faithful brothers and sisters striving for their best together. This brings mutual buy-in, allowing for mature joint partnerships of trust and care between churches. This kind of relationship requires missionaries to live cross-culturally and make lots of visits. Nothing is easy about this relationship-building, but nothing is as powerful when it is built.
- Sacrifice: Asking for and receiving real, tangible sacrifice from both partners builds mutual respect, trust, and care between churches. A typical sense from people receiving missionaries is a certain cynicism: You (Americans) send money and people, we send back pictures and reports, you raise money from that, and we all win. They know the game and are alright with it, but they know it is a game. What can the American church do that is perceived as a sacrifice to the partners in the host culture? What can the American church ask of the partners in the host culture that is a sacrifice? If you think the Christians you are helping can't make sacrifices for you and the ministry of your church in America, then do you see them as equals? To make/create a partnership of true power and lasting impact, sacrifice is called for and might come in an unexpected form. What can I sacrifice, you ask? There are a lot of variables in place with that because part of what is in play is people's cross-cultural perception. Work with your missionary, prepare your people, take it with joy when the moment comes for sacrifice, and watch your relationship blossom. At the same time, don't be afraid to ask your partners what keeps them from more success. What barriers do they have to breach to share the Gospel more broadly? Don't be afraid. If led by the Spirit and benefiting from Godly discernment, the loving push you give your partners could be the very thing they need to see revival in their people.
Author
Brian W
Brian served 14 years in the Republic of Georgia, where he started a youth ministry, discipled new leaders, and planted over 15 new churches before serving in leadership of another missions organization. Brian is married to Maia and they have two children.
Brian served 14 years in the Republic of Georgia, where he started a youth ministry, discipled new leaders, and planted over 15 new churches before serving in leadership of another missions organization. Brian is married to Maia and they have two children.