This is not technically a continuation of the study-at-you posts, because the exam has been taken and submitted, but it is a continuation of the concepts we were processing together through those. If you missed those, please head back to this one and this one; it’ll make this post make way more sense.
In my mid-twenties, when I was preparing to head to London as a missionary to refugees, I had to do what at the time was called support raising. (Now it’s called things like “ministry partner development” (MPD) or something which, as it turns out, is more accurate. But my brain still calls it support raising.) The support we were trying to raise was financial (so we could afford to live in our destination country) and spiritual (praying for the ministry). It was not hard to be good at this task when I was an earnest 20-something about to “evangelize”1 refugees.
Earnestness hits differently, though, when you’re in your forties and fifties, living in your country of origin, and trying (as I sometimes call it) to “evangelize the inoculated.”2 Which means that when I try to employ the technique which Ministry Partner Development Coaches encourage, I feel like a bit of a fraud. What you are doing, MPD specialists say, is developing partners in ministry. The people who give to you and pray for you are actually doing the ministry with you.
This has, until extremely recently, felt like a bit of a con—kind of like when I worked at a living history museum and we told all the visitors coming in in shorts in the middle of August that we, in our multiple layers with long sleeves, were cooler than they were because the layers protected us from the heat.
The thing is, both things which felt like cons at the time have turned out to be true.3 At least, if Dr Dickson is right about Giving and Praying as the final two “folds” of public Christianity.
As a reminder, last time we said that (to cite Dickson), every follower of Jesus should be a promoter of the gospel, but not all of us should be proclaimers (in other words, evangelists) of the gospel. So we talked about how other ways of making our faith public include table fellowship, giving an answer (responding to faith inquiries out of relationship), public worship, and good deeds. Modern Evangelicalism has tried to shove these additional four things into the container of evangelism, to the detriment and loss of effectiveness of all of these ways of promoting the gospel.
As it happens, the two aspects of public faith promotion that usually don’t get crammed into the evangelism box in anybody’s mind (MPD experts notwithstanding) are Giving and Prayer. And yet, according to Dickson, according to the New Testament, it is giving to the financial support of a gospel-proclaimer (evangelist) and praying for that person and their work and the people they are evangelizing that are actually the most equivalent activity to evangelism without strictly being evangelism.4
Dickson’s dissertation (and class lecture outline) showed that the epistle to the Philippians gives the clearest impression of this truth. Evidently it was the apostle Paul himself who described the financial support of gospel proclamation as “partnership in the gospel” (Philippians 1:3-5). At the end of the letter, he clarifies that what he means by partnership is, in fact, financial assistance (Philippians 4:14-18). To quote from my notes (because to be honest I’m not sure if I wrote what Dickson said in his lecture verbatim here, or if it’s my own summary/paraphrase):
The end of the letter enlightens what Paul’s referring to at the beginning. Paul calls financial aid “partnership in the gospel.” They may not be preaching, but they might as well be, because they are partnering with the preacher. This elevates the Philippians’ sense of what they are doing when they send him money.
Turns out there’s a Greek word (because of course there is) that describes this kind of provisioning: propempō. It means, “Send this person out with provisions.” All the provisions. Money, food, shelter, whatever they are going to need for life while they are proclaiming the gospel. The good news about Jesus5 is evidently worth proclaiming…and the proclamation is worth partnering with. This word shows up in both commands and requests in places like Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Titus. And lest we think provisioning evangelists was just the apostle Paul’s idea, it also shows up in 3 John 5-6.
Provisioning evangelists carried on—and carried honor—well into the life of the early Church after the apostles. Bishop John Chrysostom (347-407 CE), compared the honor due to provisioners of the gospel-proclaimers with the honor due the trainer of a successful athlete. (I’m not sure why sports metaphors work so well in this discussion, but apparently…they do.)
Equally honorable, and even more vital, to the proclamation of the gospel is prayer. In an era of “thoughts and prayers” providing a meaningless (or possibly even harmful) verbal band-aid, this is another partnership whose value it’s hard for me to get my head around. For one thing, as you may know, I am in the throes of “developing” both of these kinds of “partnership” for myself via The Pilgrimage right now. When I look at the current financial support base, I am on the one hand encouraged at the truly faithful partners who have signed back on to propempō me monthly. On the other hand, I can’t stop thinking about how The Pilgrimage is now my full-time job and Paul is retiring at the end of the month and at least “on paper,” our current financial outlook is not great.
It’s kind of tempting just to focus on the provisioning partnership, and downplay the prayer one. And from a psychological perspective, I do kind of feel like there’s a greater chance of people honoring their commitment to pray when they are also giving even a little bit financially every month. (“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” and all that.) Which is why The Pilgrimage Outfitters (regular monthly donors) get hand-made Christmas cards in the mail (they’re gonna be late this year just saying) and a newsletter with more detailed prayer points.
But friends. Not only is prayer for “the nations” to know the one true God exampled to us and enjoined on us from Genesis to Revelation, but there are crazy things that happen to gospel-proclaimers that money, food, and shelter cannot fix, and when they do happen, there is absolutely nothing like a phalanx of people praying. Ask me how I know.
Actually, don’t, because some of it’s confidential. But I can tell you that pastoring Central Baptist Church was like a frying pan actually in use, and stepping out of it has been absolutely just as much like jumping into the fire. I met with my spiritual director on Monday and gave her the latest, and she stared at me and said, “You are getting pummeled.” She also told me that I had been coming to mind for prayer a lot more lately. Some of my friends—some of you—tell me that, too. Thank you.
I still don’t love doing partner development because in our present climate it feels awkward, and I’m already awkward enough. But Dr Dickson did convince me that when a person provisions a “gospeller,” or when a person intentionally prays for that gospeller, their work, their family, the people they are serving with Jesus’ good news, that person is essentially6 doing the work, too. And it’s good work, friends. In spite of all the bad actors slapping the name of Jesus onto their words and deeds, Jesus is still good news. And He still invites His people to promote Him. And some of us to proclaim Him. And some of us to partner with those proclaimers so that the real good news gets out there after all.
If you join the Pilgrimage Outfitters, you will automatically be subscribed to The Pilgrimage’s specific newsletters. If you can’t manage the financial partnership but you are committed to praying for me and The Pilgrimage board and the ministry we’re (re)launching, please send me a note. I’d love for you to be part of this work in this way as well.
The Giant Blob of Evangelism
This is another “study at you” post, continuing some thoughts I introduced from the DMin course Public Christianity in a Post-Christian World by Dr. John Dickson.
Trust me. We’ll unpack that one day soon. It’s not as demeaning or judgmental as it might sound. But it does reflect a little bit of what ministering in 21st century America feels like, and perhaps a bit of what has happened in the American church. I also perceive that to some people from whom I might be trying to “raise support” for The Pilgrimage, it’s what it might look like I’m doing.
The (very hot) day after I resigned from my job at the living history museum, I decided to go back in plain clothes to say goodbye to my friends there who I had missed the day before. I quickly discovered that I really had been much cooler in my 1838 costume the (equally hot) previous day than I was that day in my tank top and shorts. I still don’t wear long sleeves and petticoats in the heat of summer, though.
Dickson did his whole dissertation on this, by the way, so he should know.
I have promised a post about what we mean by gospel, and I intend to honor that promise. It would be great if I can get it done before I take a Christmas break but…about the timing I am making no promises.
I’m using “essentially” in an extremely literal way here. The essence of giving and praying is equivalent to the proclamation of the good news.
To me, the most compelling thing about 'missions' is that 'missionary thing'. I read long ago, they are among the most likely to succeed. A mission to believe; they (you) are willing to rearrange, maybe realign to a set of values, that most wish they were up to. Faith woven all through. SO many stories, FROM missionaries the providence of God in every sort of way.
Once, I had the opportunity to visit an orphanage in Romania. They were celebrating a 10 year anniversary. During that celebratory week, a major donor stepped out; and they, in the midst of adding an upgraded kitchen/bakery building. It was shaking.
But they had a word of encouragement. Even though things were being scattered, God is surely in the gathering business! The team prayed and cried, and you know that bakery ended up built; just another servant God whispered to.
Just your posts, scattered out there. It's faith you're sowing.
Jenn, I'm sorry for the pummeling. Can't wait to hear, though, the next round.