Tag: resilience Page 1 of 2
The Long Road to Breakthrough
If you’ve served among unreached people groups for any length of time, you know the ache of waiting. You know the weight of sowing seeds year after year, often with little visible fruit. You know the tension between hope and disappointment, between faith and frustration. Furthermore, you know what it is to pray for a breakthrough—a moment when the gospel finally takes root and begins to spread, when a church is born, when the kingdom of God becomes visible in a new place.
But how long does it take for a breakthrough to come? And what do we do in the waiting? Most importantly, who is the true author of every breakthrough?
This post is for those of you who are laboring in hard soil, tempted to lose heart, and wondering if your efforts will ever bear fruit. What have we learned about breakthroughs? And… Read the whole post
Photo by Parabol | The Agile Meeting Toolbox on Unsplash
We all want to see progress in our work. As disciples of Jesus, we long to see people’s lives change as they encounter Christ and his Word. We want to see churches planted, and then see those churches grow in size and in their impact on their community. But maybe we should be looking first of all for progress within ourselves.
I have been a cross-cultural worker for more than 35 years. I believe that I have changed and grown in those three and a half decades. But do others see it as well? A few years ago a colleague told me that I led differently than I had in the past. I believe he said I had become a gentler leader. That was very encouraging for I realized that he had observed progress in me in areas that I really wanted to grow. It was also a reminder that I had not always been the type of leader that I wanted to be. Yes, growth was visible – but growth had also been necessary!
Paul’s charge to Timothy
In Paul’s first letter to his younger protégé, Timothy, he challenges him in a somewhat startling way:
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.1 Timothy 4:15–16 – NIV (2011)
Paul wants Timothy to show progress in certain “matters”. What are these matters that Paul is referring to? The context makes it clear that Paul is talking about Timothy’s own ministry within the church. “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim 4:13-14). When Paul is talking about progress, he is not primarily referring to growth within the church, i.e. number of people saved, baptized or attending services. No, he is talking about growth in Timothy himself. “Your progress” is second person singular. The progress Paul desires is progress in the way that Timothy practices his ministry.
Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash
We have been discussing the need for resilience among cross-cultural workers. In the last post, we talked about how God develops resilience through suffering. But what is the mission organization’s responsibility in supporting their workers in these times of crisis and stress? How does the organization determine its level of involvement in caring for its missionaries?
These questions are not easily answered. Cross-cultural workers vary widely in their desire for and expectations of organizational involvement. Some only want their organization to provide receipts to their donors and make sure the missionary receives the support on a regular basis. Others want a full range of services, including health insurance, training, pastoral care, leadership, and supervision, conferences and retreats, risk assessments and security training, and IT support.
SEND International is one mission that has sought to better determine what level of organizational involvement it should provide for its members’ well-being. Here is the story of what one region in SEND has done to find answers to these questions.
A survey of field missionaries
In 2019 SEND International established a workgroup to study the feasibility of designing and implementing a regional “hub” structure for the Eurasia region. SEND had already worked in this part of the world for a couple of decades, but we wanted to strengthen the services we provided to our missionaries serving there. One of the mandates of the workgroup was to protect what works well in Eurasia (strengths) while improving what is not working well (gaps). To learn more about the strengths and gaps of our organization in this region, the workgroup created a questionnaire and a list of possible interviewees.
Photo by Hannah Gibbs on Unsplash
For several months now, I have been thinking about this topic of resilience in cross-cultural workers. I admit that I have been somewhat troubled by what the Scriptures tell me about God’s method of using suffering to develop resilience. As I have said in previous posts on this topic, the Scriptures do not use the word “resilience”. But the word “perseverance”1 in the Greek, “hupomone” is found repeatedly in Holy Writ. It seems to capture the idea of resilience.
So what do I find troubling in Scripture? In my thinking, the logical way to strengthen a missionary’s resilience is to:
- provide them with good training to prepare them for hard times
- ensure that they have excellent member care when they go through hard times.
From a human perspective, I struggle to see how suffering in any way contributes to the development of resilience. Isn’t our goal here to minimize the suffering?
Resilience comes from suffering
But what do the Scriptures say about how God produces perseverance in the believer? Look at what Paul says in Romans chapter 5.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Romans 5:3–4
Photo by Thanti Nguyen on Unsplash
This year, as I have thought about planning my growth and development, I have decided that I want to read more biographies. In his great book, Resilient Life, Gordon MacDonald says “deliberating exposing oneself to people who are better and smarter” than we are is part of the process of disciplining our minds and learning resilience. Definitely, we can find amazing and inspiring examples of perseverance and resilience in biographies such as Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and The Imam’s Daughter by Hannah Shah. But the greatest example of perseverance and resilience is found in the Gospels. If we are looking for heroes to emulate in the character quality of resilience, we start with Jesus.
Inspiring them to persevere
In a previous post, I talked about the discouragement and fatigue of the recipients of the letter to the Hebrews. These believers were growing weary under the strain of the ongoing opposition and rejection that they faced as followers of Jesus. This was tempting them to lose heart and to give up. So the author of Hebrews encourages them to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Perseverance is another word for resilience. How does he inspire them to persevere? By pointing to Jesus.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
Hebrews 12:2-3 from “the Message” paraphrase
The writer to the Hebrews asks his readers to consider Jesus as a paragon of resilience from three different perspectives. We need to look back at Jesus’ example of resilience. Then we need to look up to him for his help and grace. Thirdly, we need to look forward with him to his coming reward.