Churches and individual partners, you need to insist the missionaries you support are communicating with you. You are just as much a part of that ministry as the missionary in the field. Get passionate about your calling towards missions. Demand regular communication from your missionaries, but also take the initiative. Check in on them. Tell them you pray for them. Prove to them you’ve been reading their reports. Let them know their communication efforts are not in vain. Take your calling seriously.

 
On our last missionary furlough I spoke with dozens of pastors and church leaders about their churches’ support for missionaries. In difficult economic times most churches were reducing their budgets. Without exception, every single church cutting support to missionaries told me they were going to eliminate support for “the missionary we have been supporting for years, but we just don’t hear from anymore.”

Eliminating support for non-communicative missionaries is an wonderful idea, for two reasons: (1) churches must be good stewards of the resources they have been given, and throwing money at a missionary who is not a partner with their church is foolish, and (2) missionaries must learn the importance of communicating with the partners in their ministry.

Act Like a Team

Missionaries, you have been called to leave your home and family and culture to go to far-off lands and serve in the name of Christ. That is a beautiful calling, and you should embrace it. The individuals who stay home and pray for your efforts and write checks to support your work are equally called by God to play their role. God has called the missionary to go, and God has also called the supporters to remain home and make missions work possible. The calling is equal. Senders and goers are a team. Act like it.

I have met too many missionaries who view their supporters as a hurdle they must overcome before they can get onto the mission field and do what God has called them to do. When these missionaries are raising their financial support they say all the right things—“partner with me,” “join the team” and “accept God’s calling.” But, as soon as their support is raised they forget about the team with whom God has surrounded them.

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