I do have a question about missions methods. I don't know if I want to ask this because if I leave it unasked it leaves it silent. Once I ask, then I've brought it out in the open. I'm not the final voice or authority - and have made my share of mistakes, so my feelings on this are my own and not necessarily "gospel."
Now to my concern. I've seen personally, and heard many testimonies about - that of missionaries "pastoring" rather than training men to pastor.
Some will establish a church, organize it with themselves as the pastor, then continue as its pastor with no plan to train a "native" to become its pastor. I personally hold that a missionary should, as the apostle Paul left example, train men and leave them as pastors in every church. I know missionaries who have established churches and, at one, they made their home base. There, the missionary established a training institute and the pastor of the church of that institute was a native, trained under the missionary pastoring the church while the missionary governed the training school.
Many, many missionaries rather, establish a church and pastor it themselves, never turning it over to a native, but establish their native preacher students in other churches while remaining "pastor" of the home base church. I wondered how they handled that church's finances while they, the missionary, continued to receive support from the U.S. I've found many who have that home base church pay the auto, auto fuel, housing, etc. of the missionary "pastor" while still receiving support. U.S. pastors do not live this way, nor is there a Bible basis for it. I personally hold that the missionary should not pastor except for the time until the Lord has a native prepared to pastor, then he should turn the church over to that native - or give up his (the missionary's) support and live off one church as it's shepherd, as pastors are shown in the scriptures to do when the church can support him.
I've viewed many, many missions works in a dozen countries and the fruit thereof, and coupling that with many years of Bible study, this opinion has developed.
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