Member Health versus Member Care

The terminology about missionary well-being has shifted from member care to member health. It is sort of like my husband who encourages preventative medicine. The focus is on keeping a person healthy rather than treating him once he is ill. With missionaries, there are many aspects of health: spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, and ministry-related.

We spent quite a bit of time today discussing member health and offering suggestions for accountability. A number of us travel extensively often to the detriment of their families, so this was a needed area of discussion. We worked in small groups by first reading an article which appeared in Christianity Today (March 2005, Volume 49, Number 3) entitled “Imperfect Instrument” about Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse. Sad story. The slant of the story was that God could use broken instruments. True enough. I’m testimony to that. However, the focus should have been on how damaging this man was to those around him, despite founding two incredibly successful ministries. I pray that today’s emphasis was a wake-up call to anyone needing one.

Another surprisingly sad thing was to hear a man disclose the lack of member care that his sending church fails to provides. He is one of 100 missionaries supported by his home church of over 10,000. “They just don’t get it,” he laments. “No one cares to understand the type of ministry we’re in.”

Another individual talked about how he began to be perceived as “holy” when he became a missionary. He was put up on a pedestal. When they moved from a relatively safe country to a more dangerous area, they were placed even higher. Serving in Afghanistan is the upper echelon today.