The Nelson Family Indonesia

I know what some of you are thinking. You’re coming here for money.

How do I know this? Because I sat in the pew for more years than I was in the pulpit. I remember having all sorts of people come to the various congregations I was a part of. And it was always obvious the hope was that the congregation and I personally would contribute towards whatever endeavor they were a part of. I didn’t think badly of them for it, I just expected it.

And to be honest, some were pretty blunt about it. Some preached sermons on the importance of giving and supporting mission work. Sometimes they were blunt about preaching that we should be supporting specifically their mission work. I didn’t care for those sermons so much.

And since serving in missions I’ve encountered people who were only too happy to voice that they knew I was talking with them in order to get them to give. It tainted the conversation whether I wanted it to or not. It clouded the sermon whether I preached about missions or not. The assumption for many, many folks is that if a missionary shows up at your church, they’re going to put the pressure on you to give to their work.

But we’re not going to do that.

I mean, we can’t do our work without the support of partner individuals and families and groups and congregations, to be certain. You know that and we know that. But that’s not why I want to come to your congregation. And if your pastor invites me to preach to you, know that you’re going to hear the Gospel, probably from the assigned texts for the day from the lectionary. I’m not going to pull out some polished missions sermon I’ve preached twenty times to twenty other congregations. You need the Gospel almost as badly as I do and I’ll make sure I give that to you.

We’ll likely have a table set up as you come in and go out, but we don’t want to talk with you about money – unless you want to. We’ll have prayer cards and other materials with information about giving, but really, that’s between you and the Holy Spirit. We’d much rather you stop by to ask some specific question that wasn’t answered earlier. We’re happy to do our best to try and answer it at least! That’s the kind of stuff we want to talk with you about, rather than money.

By the grace of God the Holy Spirit at work in people and families and groups and congregations like you, we have what we need to do the work the Church has called us to do in Southeast Asia. We aren’t coming back to the States because we’re running low on funds and need to stir the pot and beat the drum and otherwise raise up support for next month. Frankly, our partners are incredibly faithful and generous. We have what we need for today and even for a little ways into the future.

So when we come to your congregation we aren’t going to talk about money. Unless you want to, of course.

When we come to your congregation we want to share about what partnership enables around the world. We want to share stories about the people we’ve met, the relationships we’ve built, the ways we have ministered to others and how others have ministered to us. We want to share stories about where we live and how it’s different from the US because, let’s face it, people are fascinated by that stuff just as much as they about the Holy Spirit’s work of enlarging the Body of Christ. We’d also love to hear you talk about those things in your congregational context as well! We’d love to hear how God has blessed your ministry, the people you are reaching out to, and together to give thanks and praise to God.

We hope to bring back something small for you from where we live, a reminder of what your partnership makes possible, a touchstone for prayer (and yes, for support), but also a reminder that you are part of the Body of Christ which spans geography and history and languages and cultures. A body that is larger than your congregation, your circuit, your District, a country or even a continent. It helps contextualize that body for you and for us. It reminds us we all face struggles and challenges, they just may look and smell different. Likewise we all are blessed in innumerable ways large and small every day that are easy to overlook and forget but deserve to be celebrated and thanksgiving offered for all the same. It reminds us that we are part of a body, and so we are not all thumbs or noses or elbows or ears. We each are crafted uniquely and differently and only when we bring those particular gifts to bear does the body fully function.

So we don’t want to talk about money when we visit with you – unless you want us to. And then we’ll be happy to talk about money. We just think there are other more exciting things to talk about! And God has already shown us He can provide even for new, inexperienced servants like us, who had no idea what we were getting into. He’s showed us that even with initial presentations and talks based on speculation instead of experience, God’s people are incredibly generous and supportive. Thank you for that.

We look forward to seeing you!