by Andy Johnson

Director of Worker Care

I have been bald since I was 24 years old. In my 22 years of flaunting what is a nicely-shaped head (including 12 years in edge-of-the-Sahara sun), I have burned my head only once. This frankly impressive performance is due largely to the fact that I almost never go outside without a hat. I’ve collected a lot of hats over the years and I’m always changing them. 

Why bring this up? Because this month’s Messenger involves me changing hats. I’m taking off for a moment my Director of Worker Care for MRN hat and putting on my member at the Heritage Church of Christ hat - hopefully without getting burned. This past Sunday was a significant marker in the life of our church, and I’d like to tell you how we got there. Parts of our journey might prove useful to you. 

Heritage has a history of supporting workers on the field. However, owing to a number of factors, we hadn’t partnered with any workers in a while. In 2019, the shepherds and the ministry team felt the Lord leading them to consider beginning again our involvement in cross-cultural service. They decided to start praying before they started planning or talking. We were on the cusp of forming a missions prayer group at the church when, well, 2020 happened. COVID wound up quite the speed bump on our nascent drive toward supporting a worker. 

Once we were able to meet in person again, we gathered a group of people interested in praying for the world. It was as diverse as our church gets: men and women, young and less-young, multi-racial and multi-generational. We were plain old normal members, shepherds, and even our lead minister. Meeting about once a month (sometimes more, sometimes less), we devoted ourselves to praying for the world and for our church. We used maps and globes and the internet to shape how we prayed.  

We eventually landed on a couple things: God is calling us back into supporting a long-term worker on the field, and God is calling us to support someone working among an unreached people group.  

Having heard that so clearly, we next set about learning and praying. We brought in some help because we don’t know much about the world’s major unreached people groups. I and my coworkers here at MRN took turns either coming in person or meeting on Zoom to talk with the Heritage church’s missions prayer group about Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and animists. Whenever we learned about someone new, we would then take our next meeting to pray for them. It was not a fast process. But it was an important one.  

Having done what learning we could (that’s not true – we could have continued learning and talking indefinitely, but it was time to move forward), we brought what we knew to the shepherds and asked them to join us in a specific season of prayer asking for specifics from God. Coming out of that, we had an answer: God is calling the Heritage church to support workers in the MedRim Initiative as a part of reaching Muslims with the good news about Jesus.  

Once again, we then leaned on our partners at MRN. We hosted a Care Workshop in which (among many other things!) we considered what we already have in place and what needs to get in place to support workers well. Having explained a bit about who we are as a church, my coworkers at MRN were able to propose families and individuals who might be a good fit for us. We spent time (again!) praying over the exciting possibilities represented by dreams of working with each of these families. In the end, we settled on two to interview formally, eventually settling on one.  

We invited a single woman who is already serving in the MedRim to give us the privilege of being her sending church. She took time to pray over this (are you seeing a pattern here?) and joyfully accepted. Using templates and guidance provided by MRN, we created a working agreement between us and the newest member of our family. It spelled out commitments and expectations for both our church and the worker on the field.  

Finally, it came time to introduce her to the church family. Throughout this journey, we had been given plenty of Sunday morning real estate to speak of where God was leading us; the journey toward sending was not a secret held by a few. Instead, all along the way, we were graciously given the room to bring the family up to speed. This past Sunday, we dedicated our entire service to glorifying God as we always do, but this time specifically by speaking of what He’s already done through our new worker as well as what we believe He’s getting ready to do in us and through us in the MedRim. We were very brave; we even attempted and (mostly) pulled off a live zoom interview during our worship assemblies! 

As I write this, I am fully cognizant of the fact that one never fully takes off a hat. The whole time I was mission committee member Andy, I was also MRN employee Andy. This did facilitate some of the partnering together so easily between Heritage and MRN. That said, I need you to know – this is the kind of thing we do at MRN. We help churches discover their purpose and calling in the world, specifically outside the confines of their own culture. We equally enjoy helping a church start this journey and helping good sending churches become great ones.  

We would love to journey with you in whatever ways are appropriate to your church. You can email me to start a conversation about providing better care for the workers you already have or you can click here to get in touch with Alan Howell, our Director of Church Relations. We recently rolled out a prayer and discernment process where members can sign up for prayer prompts over the span of a few weeks and join together in lifting up different parts of the world together and seeing how God might be calling that church to join in.  We’d love to tell you more about that as well. 

Peace. 

Andy