Who is the missionary?

I'm reading "Making Room" by Christine Pohl. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to remember again what Christian hospitality actually is. I'm so much more aware of creating space for people. I'm aware for how others create space for me. I'm more aware of how God creates space for us! God both receives us as the host and allows us to receive him as the guest.

This week I've been thinking about the exchange which occurs or doesn't occur between the host and guest. Also, I'm reminded that power is both life giving and life destroying. Power between giver and receiver is dangerous if abused or lived out in ignorance.

Christine writes, " Giving the appearance of generosity, they reinforce existing patters of status and wealth and avoid questions about distribution of power and resources. They make others, especially poor people, passive recipients in their own families, churches or communities. Recipients of such "hospitality" thus become guests in their own house." Later she writes, "There is a complex dance between recognizing our own need, ministering to those in need, and recognizing their ministry to us. The helper must also be able to receive -- especially from those who look as if they have little to offer. Gracious hosts are open to gifts of others and allow themselves to accept and enjoy their expression of generosity." p. 119

I've thought about what Christine Pohl talks about for a while now in terms of missions. First world countries often have done a poor job of living out the "dance" to which Christine mentions. We often "give the appearance of generosity" and we create "passive recipients". Do we ever "go" with awareness of our own need? Do we go with intention of being both guest and host? Receiver and Giver?


I wonder what our short term missions programs would look like if the receiving end (like Mexico or the Philippines) saw themselves as the primary ministers and not the receivers of benevolence? Often when we go to another country to "serve" we go to do something for "those" people. We hope to make a difference in the lives of "those people" by doing something tangible for them: building a home, teaching the Bible, giving clean water, painting, roofing, teaching English (had to add that one), etc. Most people know that even while we go there to "do" something for "those" people, they often "do" something for us. Yet, do they also prepare to minister to those they receive? Do they prepare also to be the missionary?

I know that on the "sending" end we do some preparation. We prepare financial resources, travel documents, schedules, ministry, building materials, Lang. Skills, etc. We might do a little team building. We hope to give a good impression. We often are prepared to go and be open to what God has for us.

Yet, what kind of preparation happens for the ministry on the receiving end? Do those who receive mission teams also see themselves as a mission team? They might not be traveling to a different place but they definitely have a mission of their own. It happens all the time. The receiving end ministers to the giving end. The receivers become the givers and the givers become the receivers. Yet I wonder if those who receive see themselves as ministers to the strangers they are welcoming? Do they value what they are doing by receiving the short term mission team? I really wonder when it comes to "missions", "who is the missionary, anyway?" Technically it is the one who has left their home country, city or suburb to work for and with another people group (either other by race or economics). Yet, if this whole "host-guest" thing is so interchangeable, and it should be if it is lived out after the character of God, then, aren't both the receiver and the giver somehow both missionaries each other.

I wonder how this exchange of gifts, this valuing of each other as simultaneously host and guest could empower our brothers and sisters in places to receive teams of strangers in their mist. It also must empower us to live more authentically after the God who lives and works in us.