I should note that my post was made in response to Shades of Gray and a Washington Post article, both of which offered critical perspectives on short-term mission trips to third-world countries. I was agreeing with their criticisms, but I perhaps should have better clarified my own position.

There is a place for short-term mission work, but I think that these opportunities should be a response to the actual needs of communities, not a business in and of themselves. I am concerned that there is a “marketing-to-the-missionaries” aspect to these programs: Yes, some services/labor may be given to a community, but if the primary emphasis is put on the experience of the mission team (rather than meeting the needs of a community), this is a problem. I don’t question that many people who participate in these programs find them humbling and a real opportunity for growth, but if they aren’t meeting the needs of those who they are supposed to serve, they are being cheated out of fulfilling their desire to truly be of service.

Secondly, these trips may not be a cost effective way of getting work accomplished, and, in some cases, they may be responsible for driving down wages of local workers. Obviously this is not always going to be the case: In a disaster, such as a flood or an earthquake, people are desperately needed to rebuild infrastructure and stabilize the area. Well-organized short-term mission teams and individual volunteers are absolutely crucial to these efforts. In addition, there are many churches, aid agencies, and social service programs that have well-organized short-term mission and volunteer programs that do serve critical, and well-defined, community needs.

Thirdly, many aid agencies working in underprivileged communities (both domestically and overseas) desperately need both cash and specialist labor. If a community has few medical professionals or engineers, it makes sense to sponsor a medical or engineering team to that area. If there is a shortage of housing in that community, it makes sense to send cash to an agency and let them hire local workers to do the building. Just because a community is poor does not mean that it completely lacks human resources: It may well be that sending cash is far better stewardship than sending a team of unskilled workers.

The lack of cultural sensitivity displayed in some of these programs is problematic. Granted, problems of cultural sensitivity and disruption are inevitable, but I think that efforts ought to be made to minimize them.

In our desire to “do good” we should remember that we don’t get to define what “doing good” is. Neither do churches, parachurch ministries, or even aid agencies. Instead, we need to take the time to listen to those whom we seek to serve so that they can tell us what they need.

We might be surprised.

Or we might not.

But the point is that we need to listen.

Like most children, I learned the rules of etiquette in stages. My parents began with the basics: Don’t make faces, don’t bite, say “please”, and never, ever refer to your private parts in public. After these niceties were mastered, the more specialized nuances were taught: Table manners, forms of address. But most importantly, I learned the Golden Rule of middle-class white suburbia: Never, ever, ever discuss money.

I learned that while money was a very good thing to have (and that one ought to spend much of one’s life in the pursuit of it), it was bad form to ask someone what his/her possessions cost, to inquire about another’s bank balance, or to reveal one’s salary. (In fact, our family’s business had a policy of immediate termination for anyone who discussed their compensation with a colleague.).

As I got older, I realized that the middle class issues with money were even more complex than my parent’s hard-and-fast rules. I learned that people were reluctant to lend money to others, not because they couldn’t afford to extend the loan (or even absorb the non-repayment of same) but because people were uncomfortable with asking for their money back. I also learned that even robust organizations/groups could and would fall apart over money issues (particularly if someone, but not everyone, was getting compensated for their time and effort). Mind you, nobody ever discussed the money issues in these groups, but tempers would rise and members would withdraw as a result of these unspoken resentments.

So here we are in the missional/emergent movements, both enclaves of middle-class ideology (even if we want to think that we are edgy and hip), and everyone is ticked off about money. Some people think that they should be paid for the ministry work that they do. Other people think that they shouldn’t have to pay anyone for the ministry work that they do. So some people get burnt out because they are working a “secular” job while engaging in ministry, while others have to rely on an understanding (but not-so-secretly annoyed) spouse to bring in the bulk of the family income. Meanwhile, the folks who resist financially supporting those that minister get to boast about how cutting edge it is not to have a paid ministry in their “movement”.

And because we are all following the example that our parents set for us, people are often reluctant to actually say anything about this conflict.

So I am going to disobey my parents and throw my upbringing back in their faces. I am going to talk about money. I invite discussion on these four observations about money matters in the missional/emergent movements:

1. Our discomfort with money matters has been shaped by the values of middle-class USA suburbia. These are not Christian values and they are a hindrance to our mission. We need to start having frank discussions about finances, particularly in the area of compensation for those in ministry (even, and especially, those in non-traditional ministries).
2. We are ambivalent about financially compensating those in ministry because we don’t really value ministry work as much as we do the work that produces tangible, “secular” goods and services. (I recently spoke to a hard-working but utterly impoverished missional leader about his dire circumstances. I expressed my frustration and noted that nobody would be debating whether he should be paid if he was a plumber, doctor, or accountant. He glumly replied that they wouldn’t be debating compensation even if he were working as a porn star.)
3. The ambivalence about paying missional leaders has less to do with a desire for “good stewardship” or “obeying scripture” than it does with resentment against those folks who “get to have all the fun” by being in ministry. (Which hearkens back to point #2: We tend to see ministry as being “fun”, instead of seeing it as genuine labor.)
4. The missional/emergent movement has enough money to support our leaders, our members, and our mission. We just haven’t yet figured out how to manage/distribute our finances so that needs get met, and we won’t, until we are willing to start bringing finances into the “conversation”.

What do you think?

Check out the rest of the synchroblog by visiting the links below:

The Check That Controls at Igneous Quill
Pushing The Camel: Why there might be more rich people in Heaven than in your local Church at Fernando’s desk
Trusting God – A New Perspective at Eternal Echoes
Silver and Gold Have We – Oops! Subversive Influence
Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz at Hello Said Jenelle
Walking With the Camels at Calacirian
Zaque at Johnny Beloved
Greed and Bitterness: Why Nobody’s Got it Right About Money and The Church at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
Kirk Bartha at Theocity
Money and the Church: A Fulltime Story at The Pursuit
But I Gave at Church at The Assembling of the Church
Moving Out of Jesus Neighborhood at Be the Revolution
Money and the Church: why the big fuss? at Mike’s Musings
Coffee Hour Morality at One Hand Clapping
Bling Bling in the Holy of Holies at In Reba’s World
Magazinial Outreach at Decompressing Faith
Money’s too tight to mention at Out of the Cocoon
Bullshit at The Agent B Files
The Bourgeois Elephant in the Missional/Emergent Living Room at Headspace
When the Church Gives at Payneful Memories
Who, or What, Do You Worship at at Charis Shalom
Tithe Scmithe at Discombobula
The Church and Money at Khanya
Greed at Hollow Again