Shoebox Missions

It’s the Christmas season and that means, for many Christians,  filling a shoebox.  Every year at this time Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham’s organization, promote their annual project of sending toys to underprivileged children all over the world.  Along with a well-done video presentation, flyers and shoeboxes, evangelicals are encouraged to fill up a shoebox for a boy and/or girl along with a check for $7.00 to cover the cost of shipping.  A worthy project to be sure, especially for people who want to help the needy at this season of the year.

Last year I was in a church on the east coast and they had shoeboxes piled high in the lobby.  The pastor invited me to speak at their church about missions.  He was concerned that his people had no real sense of missions or the work of the missionaries they support and wanted me to come in to help their global outreach effort. 

“Missions is confusing,” he said.  “Our members don’t understand unreached people groups, church planting or even what a missionary does on the field.  Our people get the ‘shoebox’ because it’s simple.  I wish there was a way to make missions as simple as the shoebox.”

Though I did my best, I don’t think my time at the church helped a great deal.  How does one explain the complexities of missionary work in a thirty-minute sermon?  But I got the pastors point; our culture is one of sound bites, fast food and shoeboxes.  Shoebox missions push all the right buttons for millineal's…quick, easy and helping the poor.  Conversely, traditional missions, for the most part, are counter-cultural; long term, distant and impersonal.  The career missionary is rarely seen, almost never heard, and serving Christ in ways that people just don’t get

I have heard more than one person say that in today’s church people want to be personally involved; they want to do more than write a check.  I was encouraged recently to hear a leading evangelical state unequivocally  “Writing a check is probably the most important thing I do as a Christian, because I am committing myself with my finances to the work of Christ.” 

I find no fault at all with the work of Samaritan’s Purse and their Christmas shoebox drive.  I wish real missions could be as easily understood so that people in the pews could wrap their head around the need of taking the Good News of Christ to those who have never heard His name.  The truth is, serving cross-culturally, though not complicated, cannot be reduced to two-minute video clip.  Being involved in global outreach requires study, a well-designed program, prayer and, yes, just writing a check.