Debriefing Challenges (Part 2)

Challenges for Debriefing: Parents and Kids

Culture could be summarized in the simple statement, “Culture is how we do things around here.”  

How powerful and influential is culture?? When we examine how we do things we need to ask at least two questions: First, Is the way we do things biblical? Second, Does the way we do things benefit that which is biblical? Illus. Heb. 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” Therefore, we decide that our church will have weekly Sunday services. Biblical? We will have them at 4:00 am? Beneficial? There is a general mission culture. Every church has a missions culture. A sending agency has a missions culture. Every Christian has a missions culture. The challenges to missionary care including personal missionary debriefing in particular are often rooted in culture. First, the challenge of Recognizing the Need That is recognizing the need for proactive missionary care including personal missionary debriefing. The most common responses to the suggestion of the need for proactive missionary care including Personal Missionary Debriefing. From Missionaries- “I am a called by God, specially trained missionary that is being sent by a local, NT church. I can conquer the world in Jesus’ Name. The Bible says that ‘The Lord is my refuge and strength.’ I don’t need a therapist. I’m insulted that you would suggest otherwise.” From Sending Churches- “If the a need happens to arise with our missionary and we come to know about it and we are called upon to help we can will handle it ourselves.” From Missionary Servicing Agencies- “We are sending soldiers into battle. If they can’t handle it they shouldn’t be a soldier. The battle weeds out poor soldiers. If they don’t make it we will then know that they weren’t called by God in the first place.” From Supporting Church- “We have never really given it much thought but assume that someone is taking care of missionaries.” From “Old School” Missions Influencers- “The problem with many missionaries today is that they aren’t tough enough. If they face difficulties, that is what they signed up for. If they don’t like the heat they should stay out of the kitchen. William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, and David Livingston didn’t need missionary ‘missionary care.’ Furthermore, they never went on furlough, let alone a missionary debriefing.” ??What does the Bible say about the need for proactive missionary care?? II Cor. 1:8-8, 4:7a, 11:23-28 3 In practical terms, missionary care and personal missionary debriefing are about stemming the tide of missionary attrition. Second, the challenge of identifying Responsibility A missionary is responsible for their spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. I Sam. 30:3-6; I Kings 19:4-12; Prov. 18:14; I Pet. 2:11; I John 2 A missionaries sending church is responsible for the stewardship of the life of a missionary and the ministry for which they were sent. Acts 13:3; 14:26-28; Gal. 6:1 A missionaries servicing agency is responsible to come alongside a missionary on behalf of the church that sent them by using its education, experience, and influence to provide in depth, personalized, and specialized missionary care including Personal Missionary Debriefing. Third, the challenge of insufficient Resources The stages of missionary care: Stage 1- Friendship, Fellowship, AdviceStage 2- Non-emergency Lift- Life issues with unique implications for missionaries Stage 3- Crisis Intervention and AssistanceStage 4- Preventative- Personal Missionary Debriefing Stage 1 can be done by most Christians to one degree or another. Stages 2-4 require an increasing amount of expertise, experience, and training. Statistics and research show that stages 2-4 are best accomplished by personnel whose primary focus is missionary care, who have specialized training, experience and continuing education in areas such as trauma, missionary kids, crisis intervention, critical incident stress management debriefing, missionary debriefing, and similar subjects. Furthermore, missionary care is best accomplished if the person doing the missionary care is not the person in the service agencies leadership to whom the missionary directly reports. 4 All to say, the most effective missionary care requires dedicated personnel and funds designated to missionary care expenses. Both are very rare among independent Baptists and conservative Bible churches. Illus. Nancy and I are the only people that we know from among independent Baptists and conservative Bible churches whose primary ministry is missionary care. The board of GFF has designated money that is set aside of us to go on short notice anywhere in the world for like-minded missions service agencies and missionaries that are in crisis at no cost to the agency or the missionary. This is done by faith. Conclusion: ??What about our own missions culture?? Is it Biblical? Is it beneficial? © This document is the property of the Gospel Furthering Fellowship and is not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. revised 9/20/23