FAQ : Indigenous Missions« Back to Categories
1. Why don’t the churches in these countries support their own missionaries?
This is a good question. The ultimate goal is always that the churches in a given country send and support their own missionaries, but many countries have been devastated by famine, war, and years of political corruption. The Christians in these countries often suffer unbelievable poverty and sacrifice to preach the Gospel and plant churches. The support from the outside simply helps them with this task. At this moment, in countless countries around the world, there are a multitude of men and women who work 16-hour days to feed their families with less than $100 a month. When they are not working, they are preaching the Gospel and planting churches. The outside support simply enables them to invest those 16 hours in the Lord’s work instead of in a factory!
2. How can a native missionary be as qualified as the American missionaries with a university or seminary education?
That depends on what you consider the qualifications to be. Do you measure a man of God by a diploma from a university, or by biblical knowledge, godliness, the Spirit’s power, and zeal? In my ten years as a missionary in Peru, I met indigenous missionaries of whom the world is not worthy. These are men who would stand for hours and preach while being mocked and beaten and having goat urine poured on their heads. They would preach until their persecutors grew tired, sat down, and listened! I know men who look like toothless, sandal-footed beggars, and yet they have started ten or fifteen churches. One of the greatest examples of the truly qualified missionary is Angel Colmenares of Peru. He is an indigenous missionary who has been used of God in a movement that has left hundreds of churches in its wake. Several years ago I asked a friend to accompany Angel and me to a Bible conference among the mountain people of the Northern Andes. He accepted even though he was scheduled to travel to Brazil to attend a conference advertised as “the greatest gathering of missionary minds and strategists in the history of South America.” Before the Bible conference, my friend and I accompanied Angel as he walked through a garbage dump looking for a discarded car battery that he hoped he could use to power his microphone for open air preaching. As we walked through the garbage, my friend looked at me and said, “I was scheduled to go to the greatest gathering of missionary minds and strategists in the history of South America, but here I am walking around in this garbage with you and this little beggar of a man who has started more churches than all those mission experts put together!”
3. Are cross-cultural missionaries still needed on the mission field?
Of course, they are! The indigenous missionary strategy does not eliminate the need for cross-cultural missionaries. This is not an either/or, but a both/and situation. We are not arguing for a moratorium on North American and Western European missionaries, but fully recognize the need for thousands more on the field! We are simply seeking to prove that the indigenous missionary strategy is an equally viable, and in some cases, more effective missionary method.
4. Will you spoil the native missionary by supporting him with American money?
The first thing we need to understand is that there is no such thing as American money. It is all God’s money. If we are prosperous in America, it is so that we might wisely use what God has given us for the advancement of His Kingdom. Secondly, the support given to the indigenous missionaries is adjusted according to the average income of the population. If the average income in a country is $150 a month, then that is the support given. The support that is received provides no luxuries, but gives enough economic freedom so that the missionary might work full-time in the ministry. Thirdly, we do not hire men so that they might work in the mission field, but we support men who have already given themselves to the work and would continue whether they received outside help or not. Fourthly, we find this objection about spoiling native missionaries with a $100 a month salary amusing in light of the fact that some missionary board and denomination executives in the United States make over $100,000 in annual salary.