Of money, ministers, and missions

In the December 1925 issue of The Other Sheep, many of the articles within concerned a budget deficit for which the Church of the Nazarene need to raise $100,000 by the end of the year in order to not end the year in debt. In order to facilitate this need, the church leadership had come up with two options. They decided to ask the general church to hold a special offering on December 20 in which they hoped to raise $2 per church member, and so end the financial crisis. If this plan did not succeed, they were going to cut back on missions spending, close several missions, and recall about 25% of the missionaries to their home. Obviously, they did not want to take such a drastic action as this latter option, but they believed it necessary not to be left in debt, as that could also complicate the church’s mission to the world.

This is all well and fine. It is clear from these articles that no one wanted to stop sending missionaries, just that they believed they might have to cut back temporarily due to the circumstances. However, I find extremely troubling some of the reactions to this proposed cut back. As one article put it, “Closing mission stations will mean that hundreds who have been saved and redeemed from a life of sin and degradation will be left in the various parts of our mission fields without any shepherd or leader.” The article goes on to say that because the proposal was to close missions with high numbers of converts, all those people with be left without guidance and would scatter.

So then, my question is, why can none of these converts serve as a spiritual leader? If there are so many people who have turned to Christ in the places, why had none of them received training to continue God’s work amongst his or her people once the missionaries had gone on? It is important that we not only preach salvation to those who do not know God, but also to teach those who have just begun to know Him about His will and word, in order that they may do the same. Though there are multiple reasons for this, one is certainly that such a disaster might occur and leave these people without guidance. That is why Jesus did not command us to “go and make converts of all nations,” but rather disciples.

P.S. In case you are wondering: the January issue of the next year revealed that the offering came through and the crisis was averted.