of course, the pragmatist in me would answer that you don’t have to get pregnant to know that children are the anticipated natural result …

I would concur with “charlesmcfatter.” Some of the posts on this blog remind me of the medical intern who was doing his four month Obstetrical/Gynecology rotation. He was the happiest intern that the nurses ever saw. He never complained about the long hours or the many night’s sleep he missed on this rotation. Finally, one of the older nurses asked him about his demeanor. He told her that when he was in his surgical rotation he felt every symptom his patients had and just knew that he was a candidate for many different surgeries. And while on the internal medicine rotation he just knew that he had either cancer, heart disease or some other disease. Now that HE was in Obstetrics, he had nothing to worry about.

In many ways we probably identify with things you have written, but we none know you, so is it us you are identifying? Or is it our behavior that we see in this post?

Ilegeteme non carborundum — Keep it up.

michael,
I’m pretty sure that jealousy isn’t my motivation here, but I appreciate your warning. I agree about the importance of networking. The charicature I presented in my post was of someone who does only that. I also agree that in this day and age, the isolated missionary is a bad idea. For lots of reasons. But accountability and teamwork are themes for other posts.

FreedomFries,
Thank you for your warning. You may be right about these posts being a mistake. I was planning to do a couple more, but I think it may be wise to move on. I certainly don’t want to tear anyone down or discourage my fellow workers.

You make a good point about people reading themselves into the stereotypes I describe. The problem is that I’m not sure how else to show what I mean when I say, “Some missionaries shouldn’t be on the field.” And I think that is something that needs to be said. The reason I wrote it is that though we rarely discuss it, our organization wastes too much time, energy, and resources on dealing with “personnel issues.” I think that we could avoid many of these issues by recognizing that not everyone belongs on the field, and rethinking our policies for missionary service.

My first post was (pretty clearly, I thought) critical of the Board’s past hiring practices. The second, I assure you, was a charicature of a person who spends their time on the field looking busy, but not really doing anything. I think the “Professional” isn’t so much a description of a real worker as it is an outline of the pattern I think many of our folks are tempted to become because it looks glamorous, and has indeed become the new standard for what a missionary should look like. I certainly wasn’t saying that all the stuff we do with websites and networking and conferences and the like is bad. I would say that they are necessary things. But, and you said it well- these things don’t necessarily make you a good missionary. I would go further and say that if these sorts of things are all that you do, you probably shouldn’t be on the field.

In any of my posts, I run the risk of someone reading and taking my words personally. I could fill the header of each post with a disclaimer saying “Oh, and don’t worry, I’m not talking about you.” but that might defeat the purpose a bit, which it to ask questions and get people thinking. Maybe a little introspection would be good thing. These posts are the outworking of mine.

I’m still waiting to see the churches. In the meantime, I’m going to try to improve my website, try to learn from my colleagues (both non-company and company), fill out my reports to be accountable, AND get out every day into my city to engage people who need Jesus, contextualizing His good news, and trying to glorify God in everything I do.

since what one group in another region has in excess
(such as a particular evangelical resource that can be dubbed)
may be just perfect for a need in your area. We cannot ignore that the world is becoming closer together each day and the whole “isolated-missionary-just-leave-me-alone-so-I-can-make-a-cpm” career path is not in vogue anymore–it just doesn’t work as well as others in certain times and places. People have different gifts, some are good a cpm’s and cannot do networking or organisation; others aren’t good at cpm’s for various reasons(me being one of those people) and are good at other things that are still neccessary. I call them facilitators and missionary support.
It is true that there is a problem when there are too many of these “professionals” because the organistional form will get too top heavy.
so I agree and disagree.

Michael