Soldiers of Christ

Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

2 Timothy 2:3-8


Imagine a nation at war staffed by an all volunteer army. Soldiers volunteer but have to find their own support from one of many groups.  These groups operate mostly autonomously with no coordinated plan on how to fight. Soldiers bounce between these groups until one or more agree to fund the campaign using a minority percentage of the group's overall budget.  Groups fund soldiers because no one in the group wants to fight in the war themselves even though they know it is their duty and knowing they won't exist if the war is lost.

Many soldiers are immediately deployed into the field.  Some receive academic training on theory of campaigns 2000 years ago.  A few are lucky enough to be given training preparing them for what lies ahead. Almost no one goes through boot camps simulating battle conditions stretching them in controlled situations so they know their own limits and won't be broken when the real fighting breaks out.

Most soldiers are deployed with their families but without any fellow soldiers or support staff. They are mostly on their own.  The sending groups get monthly newsletters giving a rosy picture of the campaign.  Soldiers are reluctant to openly talk about real problems for fear of loosing their funding knowing how quickly groups lose interest and move onto something else.  So, they lock their old problems before deployment along with their new cultural and familial problems in a pressure cooker hoping it won't explode.

When soldiers choose to come back home, it is usually because they've reached the limit of their endurance, not because replacements have arrived, the battle is won, or the war is over.  They and their families both bring back the scars of war.  Unfortunately, soldiers are largely unemployable because they don't have any "valuable" skill sets.  Thus, the problems they had before & during deployment follow them home and are compounded by reverse culture shock and an empty bank account.

What people don't understand is that there is a war going on at home.  Because we only send soldiers abroad to fight foreign wars, we have no concept or model on how to fight the same war on our own turf.  Even if the war is being won abroad, we are clearly losing at home.


Does any of this sound familiar?  Is this the way we really want the Kingdom to grow?

When I see success like I see in Rwanda and Cuernavaca, I see nothing less than a miracle knowing how imperfect the system we've created is.  Only God can turn something so broken into something so beautiful.

Let's give our foreign and local missionaries the double honor due them.  While we're at it, let's have a real discussion about fixing this broken man made system.