Shadow Pastoring tagged: , ,

Shadow Pastoring

Posted by in Church & Missions

With all the focus on the Great Commission Resurgence many are asking if the IMB is the best way for Southern Baptists to carry out the Mission God has for us.  This IMB missionary would like to be able to answer a hearty ‘YES’ to that question.  There is a lot of talk about the concept of ‘hiring out’ the job that God has given to the local churches to do and I would like to set the record straight and say that what the IMB is about is facilitating the local church to do the job.  But there is a lot of misunderstanding between the missionaries on the field and the churches back home.  I would like to write a couple of stories on this blog to help in our mutual understanding and see if we can not find ways to better work together.   The first of these posts will deal with the concept of shadow pastoring.

I remember my family’s commissioning service in 1995.  An old deacon in a local church there in West Virginia came up to me and said, “Well son, I guess you are looking forward to going over seas and pastoring a church there.”  I replied that wouldn’t it be better if I trained several local men to pastor several different churches? He said, “Well now!  I never thought of it like that!”  I learned in that moment that people in the West are not opposed to our missiological methods, they have just never considered them.  This is both my fault and yours.  The IMB has not educated the churches concerning missiology near enough and the churches have not demanded to know what it is we are doing out here with all the money and personnel they have given.  But living out the answer I gave to that deacon has been very different from what I imagined.  Here is a story to illustrate.

In 1999 I was living and working in Gondor here in Middle Earth.  We had large disaster response projects going on in Mordor to the south as well.  During that time a man came from Mordor and visited the International Church that my family attended on Sunday afternoons.  He was a believer- one of the very few Mordor believers there were- and he was fleeing persecution and looking for help here in Minas Tirith.  I began meeting with him and eventually got him a job with another Aid Agency in town that also worked in Mordor.  We worked together on several projects and I enjoyed spending time with him and discipling him.  He had a New Testament in his language but had never seen the Old Testament.  I loved being the first one to tell him the story of David and Goliath!  As an aside Pastors, you don’t know what you are missing out here.  You work your brains out trying to prepare three sermons a week that will tell the old story in a way interesting enough to keep your people awake.  Here in Middle Earth there are people who have never heard the Word at all and just the simple telling of the simpliest story is the most amazing thing they have ever heard.  But I digress…  Anyway, one day this young man comes to me and says, “Strider, I think God is asking me to start a church here in Minas Tirith for the people of Mordor.  I just need two things, someone to lead it and someplace to meet.”  I said, ‘Brother, I think God has already asked someone to lead it!”  He said, ‘NO!  Not me, I was hoping you would lead it.”  I told him I would not but if he would lead it I would help him.  He struggled with that for two weeks and then gave in.  He went around and invited some people that he knew were firm believers.  They began to meet on Saturday mornings and I began to meet with him three times a week.  Working with guys from Mordor was very politically sensitive and my friend did not want me to come and attract attention as a foreigner so  I never went to the group meetings.  Many people in the group never knew I was invovled.

As I met with this young man I had some basic principles that were very important to me.  First, the answer to every discipleship question is, “What does the Bible say?’  This is an easy slogan to say but a very hard principle to live by.   Three days a week, two to three hours a meeting we discussed what was happening.  He would describe an issue that he was facing and I would say, ‘What does the Bible say?’  Then I might say, “That sounds like Philipians 2.”  “That sounds like 1 Peter 3, let’s go there and look.”  I wondered how reproducible this was, how long would it take before he could do this?  About two months into this process I met with him on a Monday.  I asked him how the study on 2 Corintians 5 went.  He said they didn’t do 2 Corinthians, they talked about Psalm 27.  “But we have never talked about Psalm 27!”  He said, “Yeah, I know but as they were talking at the beginning of the meeting I thought, ‘hey, this sounds like they need Psalm 27′ so that is what we talked about.”  In case anyone was wondering the Holy Spirit works!  After three months my friend began training each of the men in the group to lead out.  After six months he was in the backround and they were leading the group- which was appropriate since they were older married men and he was a young single guy.  My friend worked hard.  He met with the group on Saturday morning, he met with other believers who were not known well or trusted in the afternoon, and he met with non-believers on Sunday mornings.  Several were saved, several more were discipled well and then after two years the political situation changed.  Mordor opened up and all the refugees went back.  The Church disbanded but three families went separately to Mordor.  One family lived in northern Mordor and started a house group there.  Two other families went the capitol and started two different house groups there.  These all continue today but whether they have further multiplied or not I have no idea.  My friend went to the West and married a girl there.  He still wants to move back to Mordor but I don’t know if he will or not.

So, there you have it.  This is how I do work here.  But I think you can see the problems as well.  On my ‘Annual Statistical Report’ what do I put?  I could say that I planted a church.  That would be true- sort of- but then again not.  My friend planted a church.  That church has birthed three and possibly more churches that I don’t even know about.  I have not reported any of them so if you look at my report you might think I am not doing anything.  Others of my colleagues are reporting these kinds of churches which lead some to believe that we are doing amazing things.  Others think that the numbers are exaggerated since our missionaries are not directly planting these churches.  I contend that we are not doing anything but that God is doing a great work and it is awesome that he allows us to witness it.

As far as the Great Commission Resurgence goes there is a lot more to be said.  We here on the field are doing what God has called us to do-mostly (I hear about someone somewhere drawing a check and doing time but I have never met that someone somewhere).  Many churches back home are feeling left out.  There is much more to say about this.  This situation needs correcting.  The local church must be more involved- it is obedience for them and we need the support of real partners, not just check-writers.  In future post I hope to address this.