Benefits of Switching to Term Appointments

by Kenneth L. Bemis

Years ago it would have been considered almost unscriptural to think of anything less than a lifetime commitment to a particular board, country, and work. When introduced to that concept today, many would-be candidates take two giant steps backward.

Years ago it would have been considered almost unscriptural to think of anything less than a lifetime commitment to a particular board, country, and work. When introduced to that concept today, many would-be candidates take two giant steps backward.

Mainly because of their orientation and background, today’s young adults just don’t get excited about a "life sentence" to any job. Whereas the average candidate of 20 years ago came from "down on the farm," the modern recruit has a more urban mentality. Charles Mellis, in his provocative article, "Is Term Service a Viable Option?" (Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Fall, 1970, states:

An urban person lacks a sense of "belonging" to anything. He thinks in terms of a contract to protect his own rights and personality, because he has grown up in a society that tends to treat him as an object. Is this unspiritual in a Christian young adult? Certainly not in the same sense that it would be in me. For these forces in his life are basically subconscious. He’s not necessarily "demanding" a contract. He just thinks in these terms. The more specialized the task, the more important this becomes. And the better educated youth will be less interested in longer term commitments that may .not provide long-range fulfillment.

This situation is so widespread among youth that there is little point in bemoaning it rather than acting upon it in a positive manner.

Many missions have witnessed a sampling of what term appointments could mean to their recruitment programs. When successful Peace Corps recruiting in the early 60’s caused mission boards to consider "short-termers" (six months to two years), many were skeptical. Yet our mission has found this type of service not only useful in itself, but a doorway to longer range service.

Still, there may be more than a few who will not be attracted initially either by a short-term or a lifetime appointment. But a five-year term might well lead to an enthusiastic ten years-or even a lifetime-of service. Term appointments, far from getting in the way of lifetime service (where it is desirable), many actually prove to be the key to it for today’s young adults.

Let’s take a look at some more of the benefits of such an approach to missionary tenure:

1. Quality of missionaries. In reviewing our candidate records, I have discovered no intrinsic superiority of career missionaries over short-termers. Short-termers are no less qualified than lifers in education or dedication. Furthermore, it is my opinion that term appointments of career missionaries (not to be confused with short-termers) will appeal significantly to highly skilled individuals. These are people who, being accustomed to getting at a job, getting it done and moving on, might not respond to the same approach to recruitment employed so effectively two decades ago. In other words, with such a program, I think we will appeal to a great number of high-quality prospects, enabling us to become more selective in our choice of those who are actually appointed to missionary service.

The maintenance of excellence will be further supported by the automatic and objective review of a missionary’s performance at the end of a term, prior to reappointment. Such a review might point to a better use of his gifts in another area of the mission framework, or entirely outside the mission.

But is this bad? Is it even negative? It need not imply an earlier mistake. Situations and individuals change. The important thing is to help maximize his gifts from God, and this may require personnel management surgery rather than the easier prescription of pills and bed rest. Should we expect missionaries to serve beyond God’s appointed time, resulting in misery for themselves and their co-workers?

2. The national church. The net worth of any mission policy must be determined in light of its effect upon the national church. Far from demoralizing and weakening the churches of the Spanish-speaking world, I believe that term appointments of missionaries can be a boon to increased national leadership and responsibility. In another article in the Fall, 1970, issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Charles R. Taber writes concerning the effect upon the national church of the traditional lifetime view of missionary service:

This view of the missionary vocation inevitably retards the development of the indigenous church, since anything that tends to make the missionary a permanent rather than a temporary feature on the scene automatically undermines the autonomy of the church. By a sort of analog of Parkinson’s Law, the longer a missionary stays in one place beyond the optimum point, the more the reins fall into his hands and the less local leadership will emerge.

Once it is clearly understood that a missionary is not necessarily assigned to a country or project for life, national leaders will make good use of that missionary, but will not load him with responsibility that rightly belongs to the church, knowing that at the end of a specified period that responsibility may have to be relinquished. Looking upon the missionary as a permanent fixture could be a definite deterrent to the strengthening and growth of the receiving church. It may be that national churches tend to rely too heavily upon the missionary, taking him and his eternal tenure for granted.

3. The sending constituency. A practical consideration in the employment of term appointments has to do with the financial support of the missionary. Will churches and individual Christians respond to the support needs of personnel who are not committed to a lifetime of missionary service? Though the answer must ultimately come from the supporters themselves, my guess is that such personnel may fare better than the lifers. Though our mission’s traditional pledge system suggests only one term’s financial commitment, there has probably existed on the part of the donor the feeling that a pledge vas for life, and that’s a long time! Term appointments might minimize this psychological pressure and actually result in a greater number of supporters.

4. Additional benefits. Additional benefits would be seen throughout the missionary enterprise, if such a program of term appointments of missionaries were inaugurated by other major boards. The often unfair labels "casualty," "misfit," and" drop-out" would virtually disappear from the nomenclature of missions, projecting to everyone a more positive image of the great missionary calling. Those who find it within God’s will to leave a mission’s ranks after a term of service might be referred to as alumni rather than castaways.

Consider the agony of soul that must be endured by the returned missionary who went to the field expecting to be there for life. The agony often gives way to bitterness which is released toward the mission or any other close-at-hand scapegoat.

The records of any missionary organization will indicate that resignations are a fact of life. Though percentages vary, such statistics can be demoralizing if we think only in terms of a "casualty" rate. While it can’t be denied that some returnees leave the field in spiritual defeat, having succumbed to circumstances, the majority make significant contributions to the advancement of the gospel before their departure. To such we owe a debt of gratitude for the years of productive service rendered.

It is good to keep in mind that just as crossing an ocean or other international boundary does not make a missionary, neither does geography serve to unmake a missionary. Let’s piece the emphasis where it belong- life commitment to Jesus Christ rather than to a particular location, project, or mission board. By stressing commitment to Jesus Christ and obedience to his will, we are confident that the Lord of Harvest will continue to provide us with the personnel to accomplish our task in the Spanish-speaking world.

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