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Missionaries Must Nurture Relationship Within A Networking Community

Missionaries Must Nurture Relationship Within A Networking Community

By Kevin E. Jesmer   5-6-16

Nurturing Relationships Is A “Must” For Any Missionary – A Series of Essays by Kevin E. Jesmer (2015-2016)

Link to Missionary and Mission Development main page. 

NetworkDrawing (1)

In this series we are investigating the different components of a successful cross cultural missionary endeavor. In the development of a mission, there are not just missionaries. There are other missional entities, which partner in unison, to allow the mission to thrive. God desires for all of them to work together. The important thing is to recognize these different mechanics and nurture working relationships with them as we live as missionaries.

 

I propose that the most fruitful path is nurturing solid relationships with 17 missional entities, These relationships are…

 

  1. … a sending church
  2. … a mission agency
  3. … a receiving church
  4. … a missionary team
  5. … a “person of peace”
  6. … an interim community

7….. a networking community

  1. … a platform community
  2. … “Eyes out” people
  3. …. the Vision Casters.

11….  the support team

12…..  the family

  1. … the extended family
  2. … the secular community
  3. …the Word of God

16 ….Jesus Christ, the living God.

17 ….With One’s Self

 

This paper will define an area of relationship building, the missionary and the interim community. Some of the things learned from the current mission to the Canada will added. There will also be some advice on how to nurture the relationships in these areas. Our own family experience as a house church will be reflected upon.

 

This part will deal with number seven, nurturing relationships with an networking community. Let’s see….

 

Part 1: What Is A Networking Community?

 

Another component to “The Missionary Path” is networking communities. The name itself gives us a clue as to their role…networking.  These communities promote networking with the people in the region. When the missionaries serve faithfully in these communities they connect people, both Christians and the secular community. In this way, Christ can work within these networking communities to open doors for the missionaries to come into contact with remote communities where Christ is little known.

Spending time in a networking community may be essential for some missionaries. Some missionaries may not be able to serve in the remote community right away. Some may have heard the call to the region, but not to a remote community. And so, where do they go? What do they do? They can serve in a networking community.

Networking communities may not even be villages. They can be any locale where missionaries can live with and meet people. It could be a place like volunteering at a  school. It could be a place on a remote northern road where a missionary family could provide hospitality to travelers. It could be a housing ministry for high school students. It could be a place where missionaries can host and serve visitors. It could be a job in a platform community. It could be anywhere there is constant flow of people, as people pass through the daily lives of the missionaries.

 

The networking community is not the ultimate goal of the missionary we are working with, but it could be a point along the missionary path. God uses missionaries in such communities to establish trust. They build the mission’s reputation among the people. They increase the network of the mission, simply by the sheer number of people they interact with.

 

Networking communities are a means to promote the mission. It is simple, the more people you meet, the more people you can share the Gospel with. The more people you can share the love of Jesus with and the more people you can tell about the mission. You get the word out in the most effective means, through Christian love and service.  People will know that there are missionaries in the region who are ready, willing, able and available to serve the remotest of communities with the Gospel. If there is a lonely believer, in some remote community, crying out to God, then God can work through the networking communities to make the conversation begin. This is the beauty of a networking community.

 

Part 2: Some Practical Examples Of Networking Communities

 

I have in mind several possible networking communities. The first is a residential high school. The next is an abandoned school on desolate stretch of northern road. The third, is a housing ministry for high school students. Fourth is a hosting ministry.  Fifth, is promoting community development, and sixth, working as a lay missionary.

 

First, serving in a school.  What if there was a school where students from remote communities come to study? What if the missionaries are invited to come to a school to volunteer and engage in ministry?

 

Second, hospitality to travelers. There is an abandoned school on a desolate stretch of road. It is small high school campus in the middle of the forest, on a dirt road with no services available. It is maintained year round. The owner has vision for the site to become a type of business. Most of the year the road simply comes to dead end, but from January to March there is a winter road that extends to several remote communities, one of which could stand as an interim community.

 

Local people, explorers, fisherman, visitors of all types, and commercial truckers, all pass through this site. Some stop and use the bathroom and receive the hospitality. They rest and look around.  Some get to sleep there. How fruitful it could be to have a missionary family living there, offering hospitality and spiritual support to travelers. Imagine if they offered up their services to the owner, to help renovate buildings so the owner can see his vision fulfilled? The missionaries could organize youth group work crews. They would make no demands as to the use of the property. They would simply be there to help the owner and offer hospitality and support to travelers. They could build relationships with these individuals, regular travelers and the communities serviced by this road. They could establish trust and build a reputation. They could stay there for many years, long enough for God to open doors to other communities. It is also close enough to a southern platform community in order to maintain relationships with other missionaries. Through such a ministry, the network could grow.

 

   Third, the housing of high school students.  This is an example of a networking community not being an actual location, but a ministry. Every year, there are high school students coming from the remote communities in order to study in larger towns. They could spend four years there. Think of this, what if missionaries move to the platform community, become part to the receiving church and become a host family for high school students coming from the remote communities? In this way they can meet people, live life with them, and earn trust. They can reveal the heart of Jesus as they serve the young people right in their own homes. They could meet the kids’ parents and extended family members. The young people could go back to their communities with stories of how they were hosted. Some of the students may actually meet Jesus and go back to their communities as Christians…maybe even becoming a “person of peace” to some remote community.

 

Fourth, the hosting of visitors.  There is another hosting ministry opportunity. People in the remote communities frequently come to a southern platform community, to shop, to visit friends and relatives, for health reasons, for celebrations of life, like birthdays, and for sports tournaments. Missionaries who live there can have them over for a meal. They might sleep over at the missionaries’ home. The missionaries can attend life events.  All of this hosting serves the purpose of the mission, to establish native founded and native led churches in the remote communities. But this form of ministry is carried out in a networking community, sometimes hundreds of miles away from the remote community the missionaries are praying for.

 

Fifth, promoting community development.  When the missionaries immigrate they may asked how they will promote economic development in the remote community. The development of these programs is a type of network community. Finding ways for a community’s economy to grow, and even helping one person to fulfill their economic  dream, is a networking community in a sense. Such work establishes trust and builds reputation.

 

      Sixth, living as a lay missionary. Not all missionaries are supported financially. Some are lay missionaries or tentmaker missionaries. They work as they live out their mission. Their jobs can actually be a type of networking community that can bring them into contact with a large number of people on a daily basis.  Through faithfully serving in their jobs, they can build trust and a reputation and meet people.

 

Part 3: How To Nurture Relationships With A Networking Community.

 

The most important aspect of nurturing relationships in networking communities is:

 

Finding out where the networking community is. It may not be a location. It may be a ministry opportunity or a job.  Missionaries need to pray and consult with mentors in order to discover where they can serve.

 

Make sure that you are not treading where you should not go. There may be Christians serving a networking community already. Missionaries need to respect that. Learn about the ministries of others.  Maybe there can be some co-working in mission together. This takes a lot of prayer and wisdom.

 

Be strategic. Not every activity is a networking community. It is important not to loose the vision of the mission.  Keep close relationships with others in the mission. Get their opinions on how to approach a networking community.

 

Be faithful. Like Joseph of old, in Genesis, we should be faithful wherever we serve. Our faithful love and service will go far in establishing trust and a good reputation with the people. They will know that the missionaries are serious about living life together and partnering with them in mission.

 

Don’t make use of others. Make sure that all the people involved know that you (the missionary) sincerely care about the network community. Give your heart to the task at hand. Be genuine. Never use people or communities or ministries. Love and serve and be faithful. That is the mission mandate for any missionary.

 

Part 4: How I Was Part Of A Networking Community.

 

I spent fourteen years heading up a small house church in a Midwest University/farm town.  My whole family worked together in this mission. But I was also part of a networking community, my job as a nurse and as a Boy Scout leader for a couple of years. My wife was part of a networking community, the parents groups in the school. These roles brought us into contact with so many people in the community. We built a reputation and gained the trust of people.

 

Part 5: Concluding Remarks

 

In conclusion, networking communities may not, at first, seem essential to the mission. But they actually are. Networking communities may be a particular location, but they may also be a ministry in a platform community, like the hosting ministry for high school students. It may be through volunteering and ministering in a school. A networking community may also be a job or promoting community development in a remote community. Whatever the case may be, they are all essential in establishing trust, building reputations, and expanding networks. It is an essential place for some missionaries as they travel down the missionary path, in their search for God’s open door to reach a remote community where Christ is little known.

Appendix 1: An Example Of How To Minister In A Networking Community

Village R. Evaluating, Disciplining and Proclaiming.

By a Northern Mexico Missionary Team Leader in March 2016 Ekballo Magazine, the mission magazine for “To Every Tribe” mission agency. Pages 14 to 16.

What should a team of pioneering missionaries do when they discover that their targeted people group is more “reached” than initially thought? Like some pioneering missionaries, we have had this experience in Village R as we have sought to minister to the people over the last one an half years.

 

Going into the fall of 2014, our team had been informed that Village R had no protestant churches. We rented a house in the village and shared the gospel with those that God put in our path as we walked around town, and with those that came to our evangelistic Bible studies that we held in our house. We sought to magnify the glory and beauty of Christ to those dead in their sins. However, at the same time, we realized that there were several believers living in the town. In fact, we discovered that there were five Pentecostal church buildings with small groups of believers gathered at each of them.

 

It was at this time that our team needed to completely reevaluate our strategy and goals.  we shifted from a ministry of only evangelism to a combination of both discipleship and evangelism. Our central goal of planting a new evangelical church in the village was placed on the back burner, as we now desired to visit each of these churches and get to know the pastors, to see if they believed and preached the true gospel of Christ. If there were solid, gospel centered churches in the village already, so our reasoning went, then we should not seek to start a new church but rather encourage any new believers to fellowship at those healthy churches. And so our mission was now three fold: first evaluate the existing local churches; second, disciple individual believers that we had befriended and third, proclaim Christ to the lost.

 

Now, months later, we have realized that our first goal will take much linger that originally anticipated. Attending one Sunday service and one Wednesday night service each month, spread over five churches, is not exactly conducive to forming these relationships with pastors, most of whom also work full time jobs. We have see some very encouraging things and some not –so-encouraging things, but we pray that God would transform these churches into Christ exalting bodies of believers that treasure and proclaim his truth.

 

There is one family that God put into our lives a few months ago, that has been a great encouragement to us. Samuel and Guadeloupe are an older couple that are faithful members of one of the local churches in Village R. When we met them, they invited us over for a delicious breakfast at their house. The ladies shared their testimonies with each other in the kitchen as they prepared the meal while the men opened God’s word in the backyard. Samuel had only been a believer for three years but has truly devoured the Bible. Whenever we are talking about something, he flips to the related passage of scriptures and shares it with us. The family really had a heart for the people of their village. They speak of the disunity between the different churches and how it dishonors the name of Jesus. They have a keep eye on the various practices and traditions in the churches that are unbiblical, and lament them. We pray that the Lord may be pleased to use Samuel and Guadeloupe, and their believing family members, to help reform the churches of village R for the sake of Christ’s name.

 

Maria is one of our close friends who is always quick to find us whenever we are in Village R. She is deaf, and since one of our teammates knows sign language, Maria is always anxious to communicate with her since there is hardly anyone in the village who knows sign language. The only substantial religious influence that Maria has had is from the Jehovah’s Witnesses’, some of who know sign language. Our teammate has been faithfully opening the Scriptures with Maria over for a year now. And we are praying that the Lord will save her and use her mightily for the advance of His Kingdom in Village R.

 

The Sovereign Lord directs each heart in Village R. He has created every soul in accordance with his will, and we praise Him that he has caused rebels to become joyous, obedient, servants. We long for Him to use his sons and daughter in Village R to speak of his excellencies to those around them. We long for his church to mature and cling tightly to Christ. We long for the deaf to hear the words of the King. We long to be used in whatever way he pleases that he might receive all the glory. Please join us in praying for Village R.

 

 

 

 




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