Getting with God's Program Expatriates in International Ministry-A Critical Appraisal from a Missionary Kid/Mission Director by David Befus       [ order now ]

Sample Chapter
Making Ministry Projects Successful

One of the surprising issues in Christian management is how short a memory there is. Projects are started and then they seem to disappear. Someone comes along, who never knew about the project in the first place, and starts the same project again. In large organizations and small, there seems to be an institutional amnesia. Especially surprising is how large Christian agencies see their projects fail; and then do the same thing all over again. This may be because they have the money to spend, but it is very sad.

Some of the failures in international Christian ministry disappear. Many others go on, but with no Christian witness. In many countries there are strong organizations called YMCA or YWCA, but no one can remember what the "C" stands for. There are also scores of schools and hospitals with a denominational name tied to them, and no one can remember what that name meant. So there are two basic issues related to a successful project: (1) the financial sustainability of the program over time, and (2) the ability to maintain the vision of the project over time.

There are many examples of well-meaning projects that are disbanded once the funding runs out. A Christian leadership magazine was started with an initial subsidy and was welcomed by the readers, but not to the extent of their desire to actually pay for it, so when the subsidy was over, the magazine was over too. A daycare center was started by a missionary with her ministry funds, and grew into a very worthy ministry, until she (and her money) left the country, and the project was totally dissolved.

There may be even more cases of the loss of vision for international ministry projects, or where the means to ministry become an end in themselves:

• A Christian university that was started by the national church association with much fanfare, for the education of Christian professionals. But from the very start it could not find Christian teachers, and tuition was set so high that few Christian students could attend. Even though the "Christian university" project was successful financially, it now has neither Christian teachers nor students, only the word "Christian" in its name.
  
  
• A job creation program was organized, and the international organization that started it left hundreds of thousands of dollars in the revolving loan fund, with hopes that this project would be a means to helping create employment for the poor and promote Christian witness. Only a few years later, the fund was being targeted not at the poor but at the middle class, and was managed without any regard for Christian witness. The focus had shifted from the poor to the well-being of those who managed the fund, since more wealthy clients meant they could charge higher interest rates, and be more financially secure.

People who plan to work in ministry overseas need to think about these issues. Yes, it is true that "the major impact of ministry is on the local people, and even though the project failed, a lot of lives have been impacted." This is a statement I hear over and over from retirees who spent their lives in international ministry, but in their retirement see the projects they invested their lives in disappear or become unrelated to Christian outreach. Because this statement is made with such sadness, I do not believe that they themselves entirely believe it. Would it not be better to invest your life in a project that succeeds and continues on, after you are no longer in the picture?

There are ten steps that help set whatever project you are involved in on a path to sustainable success:

The first step is to define an exit plan before you start a project. If the project is started with expatriate support, a projection should be made of when that support will end, and a transition anticipated. If the project is started with subsidies from overseas, these need to be gradually phased out, local resources identified, or some type of endowment financing secured. It is not possible to entirely anticipate the future, but even the exercise of trying to do so is helpful.

The second step is to define the core purpose of the project, and then promote this vision from the very start. The question to ask is: what are the key outcomes and results we are expecting? This question helps by requiring the project to be well defined in terms of its primary goal. There are often many ways to obtain the same output, and what you want to avoid at all costs is that the means becomes an end in itself. For example, if the purpose is to help the poor as a Christian ministry, using the means of a revolving loan program, this must be kept in focus, as the revolving loan program in itself can become the purpose, and both the poor and Christian ministry forgotten. Many a ministry has encountered 'mission creep' and wavered from its original goals, sometimes because they were never well defined, and sometimes because they were not kept in focus by continued articulation.

The third step is to involve other partners and link the project with others who can help it to keep its focus. The international ministry agency that is backing the expatriate professional is usually a good partner, and generally looks at a project in the same way as a parent might view a child's progress from birth, adolescence, young adulthood and maturity. This is not a paternalistic pattern, but rather shared ownership of the goals of the project. Team relations with other ministries in the same discipline, or with local organizations and churches also add involved stakeholders that help keep the vision.

The fourth step is to invest in local leadership, and for many projects this means a board of directors who have no connection with financial remuneration, but have a deep enough interest in the project to give of their time and resources to help. It is very important that this leadership not be centered in just one person, and that the group take a genuine interest in the project. A formal board must first of all keep the vision of the program, and also supervise the finances, promote the project, provide special advice, represent the organization in a legal sense, and supervise the management.

The fifth step is to require sound management. Some may see this is an imposition from the West, but that is simply not true. Whatever the customs in the two-thirds world, when things are run badly, there are problems. No one celebrates if the government cannot keep the electricity going, and no one is rewarded for incompetence. Only in Christian circles is it sometimes considered wrong to criticize incompetence for fear of offending someone. But to do things in a Christian way does not mean doing them poorly, as we have this challenge: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord." (Colossians 3:23)

The sixth step is to emphasize continual training that includes a presentation of the goals and objectives for which the project was created. There always will be board turnover, and if the new board members do not have the vision, it will gradually perish. There always will be management and staff turnover, and if they do not have the vision, it will become lost in the program. Having written materials that describe the project start-up and being able to recite the project's history is extremely helpful.

The seventh step is to carefully evaluate the legal status of the organization, and make sure it is appropriate for the long term. A common error is to not obtain legal status separate from other organizations, and when these have problems (especially denominations or national church structures) the project is affected. A classic error for expatriates is to keep project ownership in their own name, and then suffer the consequences when they wish to extricate themselves. Any ministry project that owns property needs to consult legal authorities to create the most advantageous structure for perpetuity.

The eighth step is to allow adequate time for the project to be successful. Often the subsidies for programs are cut too soon. The case mentioned previously with the Christian college might have been successful if Christian professors had been located and prepared for the project, and if adequate scholarship funds for Christian students had been obtained. It was not a bad project, it was just implemented much too quickly, and the need to meet the monthly payroll took over as the #1 objective. Another common mistake is to "turn the project over" before it is even working. I have seen a radio station, a Christian bookstore, schools and seminaries turned over to national leadership by international ministry organizations principally because they have failed, not because the international agency has become interested in partnership. These abandoned projects not only tarnish international ministry, but also put the national church in the sad position of having to struggle and then turn out the light. It takes much more time to get things to work in the two-thirds world, and expatriates should perhaps estimate "adequate time" based on their expectations, and then multiply by two or three. This is another reason why career workers are so much needed, because a long term commitment is required for successful projects.

The ninth step is to promote local participation and ownership. These two are related, as it is hard to motivate participation without ownership. At the same time, ownership has to be decentralized so that one person or family does not control the project. In many countries, and based on a legal framework of an association, a general assembly of stakeholders in the program meets once a year to hear reports on the project, and elect a board. There are other successful cases where those who work in the program are, themselves, the stakeholders.

The tenth step is to make sure that the project has a viable operational design. If local people cannot pay for curative medicine available when missionary doctors work at no cost, it is unlikely that paid local doctors are a viable alternative, and perhaps the medical objectives need to be met through less expensive, more transferable preventive approaches. If local people cannot pay for private schooling available when missionary teachers work at no cost, it is unlikely that paid local teachers are a viable alternative, and perhaps the school will have to either shift its ministry focus to more wealthy families, or change its educational delivery (two shifts per day, larger classes, etc.) to be viable in the long run. These are the types of questions that need to be considered from the very beginning of starting a project.

And with each of these ten steps we must not forget the Gospel. The means of reaching people may be programs for health, education, income generation or some other activity, but the end is to share the Good News. Case after case demonstrates that the shift in focus from the end to the means can take place very rapidly. If we help the people to be healthier, smarter, wealthier, happier….but do not give them the opportunity to know Jesus, do we not run the risk of just helping them go to hell in style? We must remember that the true focus of ministry is changed lives.

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