By Rev. Robert Lopez, National Director, Philippine Missions Association
Missions mobilization in the Philippines started about 50 years ago when Western evangelical denominations and mission agencies began recruiting Filipinos to augment their field personnel. This was done sporadically, often only during the missions emphasis month of churches, which is traditionally held in October. At that time, the Philippines was still regarded as a mission field and therefore a recipient of missionaries. Pastors and church workers were focused on growing their church membership and occasionally, plant new churches. On some rare occasions, a pastor or church worker would care to witness to a Muslim in their community, but this was done without any ural sensitivity and much less in a sustained fashion.
The turning point came when Manila got to host the Lausanne II convention. Among the things presented during that gathering was the concept of unreached people groups (UPGs). Several young, dynamic leaders embraced this concept and committed themselves to reach the UPGs in the Philippines, almost all of which are Muslim. This movement started gaining ground and by the mid-90s, mission conferences were getting to be done more frequently. Gradually, more pastors were taking notice of the need for involvement in cross-cultural ministry.
But the Philippine Church was faced with a dilemma. We saw missionaries as people who raised funds for personal and ministry needs from the local churches they belonged to. And for the average local church, this was a commodity that they themselves had very little of. On the average, the income of a local church is not even sufficient to cover for the needs of their pastor and his family, let alone provide support for other ministry workers. So even though pastors were persuaded that missions is a task given by the Lord to the Church as a whole, in their minds, most of them could not go beyond the question of finances. Because of this mindset, it was difficult for long-term field missionaries to raise sufficient support.
Another barrier faced by Filipino missionaries was the acquisition of long-term visas. Because of the Third World status of the Philippines, our countrymen were always regarded with some amount of apprehension by foreign embassies when applying for any type of visa. For a Filipino to travel, especially to the West, he had to prove to the immigration consuls that he or she had the financial capacity to do so. Aside from the usual official invitations, Filipinos are required to bring documentary evidence of their financial liquidity. The difficulty in obtaining visas has been a damper on the missions movement in the Philippines.
Then a couple of years before the turn of the millennium, the concept of tentmaking was grasped by several mission leaders. This brought hope and excitement to the mission mobilizers for through the platform of tentmaking, the twin challenges of personal support and visas were satisfactorily addressed. Would-be missionaries did not have to worry whether or not they would be able to get to the mission field provided they had a skill needed in the international job market.
The excitement grew when we realized that for the past 3 decades, the Lord had been opening doors for Filipinos to work abroad, especially in countries considered as hostile to evangelism and missions. A tenth of our population now live and work outside of the Philippines. Nearly 2 million of our countrymen are serving in almost every conceivable field available for foreign labor in the Middle East – from medical personnel to hotel and restaurant crew, from accountants to pipe fitters, from engineers to drivers, from architects to store clerks, from systems analysts to mechanics – and more. All across the globe, in 197 countries, Filipinos have been accepted into the workplace. And wherever the Filipinos went, evangelical and Catholic churches were started.
This realization brought new dimensions in our thinking of how we are to mobilize churches for missions. Because now, instead of just thinking about raising missionaries from our homeland, we have now embarked on transforming Filipino churches abroad into frontline mission bases by mobilizing the entire local church population for world missions, especially among the UPGs.
In 2005, forty mission leaders held a consultation on how to best move forward in mobilizing the global Filipino church. The result of the 3 days of meetings is what we now call today as the Philippine Missions Mobilization Movement or simply PM3. Our lofty goal is to raise 200,000 tentmakers within a 10-year period.
How We Mobilize Churches
So how are we trying to accomplish this dream? The following aspects are the key elements of our strategy.
CASTING A GLOBAL VISION: Through research we have discovered that God has made Filipinos a good fit for missions in this era of globalization. Not only has He dispersed us to areas where the Church is very weak or non-existent, He has also given us general characteristics that are essential for the work of a cross-cultural worker. Filipinos are generally friendly, cheerful and easy-going. We are adaptable and persevering. We not only understand English, which is becoming the nt language in today’s world, we have a better than average ability in learning a new language. Most Filipinos speak 3 languages and there are some who speak as many as 5 languages in the course of their lifetime. We are also a caring people and love to interact with others. International job recruiters have recognized these characteristics in us and that is why a lot of Filipinos are hired for jobs that are service-oriented such as nannies, sales persons, and nurses.
What has been most inspiring for us is the realization that the Lord has been preparing our people for such a time as this over the past 500 years. Though we were a Muslim-dominated archipelago at the time Ferdinand Magellan “discovered” us in 1521, the Lord’s choice of having our first colonizers the Spaniards led to the “Christianization” of what was later to be known as the Philippine Islands. The Philippines is the only country colonized by Spain in Asia. All other countries that were colonized by other European powers remained non-Christian.
After the Spaniards, the Lord brought in the Americans to give us three things: Education, the English language and the Evangelical faith. The first two has made us marketable in the international workplace. The last one is what we need to bring to the international workplace.
As we share these truths to our fellow Filipino believers, the reaction is virtually the same. Everyone rejoices for having been granted such a privilege. And then everyone recognizes the responsibility for being privileged – the awesome responsibility to represent the Lord Jesus Christ before millions of people who do not know him.
SEMINARS AND TRAINING RESOURCES: As the believers embrace the challenge of reaching the UPGs in their places of work, they find themselves inadequately equipped.
One of the key areas that the PM3 has sought to make a difference is in the area of Missions Training. We looked at the courses that we have been using and realized that a number of them are not fit for training Filipinos but Westerners. We then developed new materials consisting of books and seminars contextualized for Filipino tentmakers.
To mention a few, one of our newest materials developed discusses the issues faced by Filipinos preparing to work and minister abroad. It is the Worker to Witness workbook, which draws the readers attention to financial, psychological, ural aspects of preparation. It also discusses issues related to the separation of the worker from his or her family during the course of his or her employment contract. It also covers the responsibility of the local church and the role it plays in preparing the worker and family for this new stage in their walk of obedience.
Another fascinating book and seminar is the Higher Purpose for Your Overseas Job. As the title suggests, the book focuses on helping the Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) learn to become an Outstanding and Faithful Witness by providing basic and practical pointers on witnessing and discipleship in a cross-cultural context. It also helps the OFW re-orient his thinking about his secular work and his ministry.
These and many other seminars are being promoted and taught within the Philippines and outside the country. One avenue we developed to get this done is the website Far From Home (http://www.farfromhome.info). The website shows the various training modules and resources being offered as well as the training schedules. The calendar also includes mobilization events. Though we have been struggling with keeping these websites updated, we have nevertheless found them to help trigger more inquiries for training.
NETWORKS: Filipinos naturally mingle with each other. For us, three is NOT yet a crowd. This propensity to gather and fellowship has spawned some very strategic networks namely, geographical networks and specialized networks not to mention the built-in networks of denominations. In our efforts to cover all bases in our mobilization and try to be efficient in the process, we see networks as a natural place for us to start.
We have come to understand the benefits of collaboration and resource sharing. Filipinos have among the most extensive geographical networks of evangelical believers in the world. You will find ministerial fellowships and pastoral associations in every province and city in the Philippines. Some are more structured and organized than others but each one meets regularly, whether that is weekly or monthly.
From our experience, we have found it much more effective to first connect with the leaders of the ministerial fellowship and share with them our passion for the Great Commission rather than trying to organize a missions conference and invite people to attend. We would offer seminars and missions resources that we believe they will find interesting. We would talk about the migration of Filipinos, with a daily average of 2,700 people, and find out if they have church members who are abroad or are planning on leaving. Oftentimes, after a few meetings, we get to schedule a seminar that will lead to their initiating the formation of a missions department within their ministerial fellowship.
It was also anticipated that there will be a growing amount of requests for specialized training such as Muslim evangelism. We began identifying what areas would need to be capable of servicing requests and developed networks around these areas. Quite obviously, we had to develop a Missionary Training Network. We also started a National Youth Missions Movement to help prepare the next generation of mission leaders and tentmakers. The Kairos Prayer Movers was formed to help intercessory networks to integrate prayer for missions. From our studies of missionary attrition, we felt it was important to put together a Member Care Network to help equip churches and individuals to provide proper and adequate care for their missionaries, tentmakers and their families. We also looked at creating religious-bloc specific networks to cover the finer points of contextualized ministry. The M2M (Ministry to Muslims) has been started 12 years ago. A B2B (Bridges to Buddhists) and H4H (Harvesters for Hindus) are in the process of formation.
PARTNERSHIP CONSULTATIONS: On some critical issues and challenges, we have found it essential for us to have partnership consultations. We realized that sharing of information can only go so far. In partnerships, the potential for real impact at the grassroots level was much greater. Most UPGs in the Philippines have not only been adopted by various churches and agencies, but partnerships also have been formed around them to identify what needs to take place to see breakthroughs happen. We are beginning to see these efforts paying off. More and more underground house churches are being planted among the UPGs in our country. Even religious leaders are becoming followers of Jesus Christ.
The specialized networks discussed above are also the result of partnership consultations. We gathered individuals and groups that have a common burden, interest or ability to explore the possibilities and potential of partnering with one another. We have tapped organizations such as Interdev Partnership Associates to help us learn how to conduct these meetings and facilitate the formation of partnerships around specific fields or projects. As we go along, we know that we will be forming more partnerships and building larger networks. The bottom line is that we don’t lose sight of our goal – that Christ is exalted and His Name made famous to all men.
Mobilizing churches is still to me the number one priority. Much as I have shared what we have been doing, still only a minority of churches is fully engaged in world missions. I personally believe that once a critical mass of missions-passionate churches is reached, whether it be Filipino or not, the spiritual landscape of the world will begin to change dramatically. Unleashing prayer and releasing equipped workers by the hundreds of thousands will surely impact the kingdom of darkness and deliver the multitudes held in its captivity. Missions mobilization is best achieved in collaboration across denominations and beyond borders.