“It is painful to see missionaries leave {the field} due to preventable causes. The rate of attrition and burnout for missionaries is alarming and needs to be addressed thoughtfully.”
While the missionary is seen as a fairly standard church ornament, most of us never see the chronic stress of the mission field.
In 2017, I spent several months researching both the unique stressors of the mission field and the effect this was having on missionaries. I read multiple books, researched online, moved through a variety of locations in the third world country I was serving in, and spoke at length with missionaries from various organisations.
Early in my research, my friend and I drew up a basic list:
The Missionary Chronic Stress Inventory
1. Major changes in living conditions and conveniences
2. Lack of private time and space
3. Intense, often dangerous, driving conditions
4. Major changes in opportunities to connect with loved ones
5. Loss of functional home and work electricity
6. Loss of reliability and trust in public services
7. Major changes in how one “puts food on the table”
8. Major changes in social engagements
9. Major changes in work environment/status
10. Living in the local and organizational fishbowls
11. Major changes in health and subsequent care
12. High stress and therefore attrition among your colleagues
13. The expectation to struggle without complaint
14. The expectation to regularly communicate your personal life to supporters
15. Changes in culture, language and community
16. Increased violence and threat of danger
None of these are experienced as “singular events” either. They are ongoing, overlapping needles from an ever-dripping tap.
“The vast majority of good, hardy workers will wear out if they are not developed and cared for, not just the ‘weak’ ones...”
The cumulative effects of stress on the body and mind are extremely damaging.
When stress levels exceed 200 on the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, doctors advise patients to make major life changes – exercise, sleep more, meditate, etc. The goal is to keep stress levels below 200; anything over that can result in some incredibly negative effects.
In fact, 50% of the people scoring a 200 were hospitalized within two years, with heart attacks, diabetes, cancer or other severe illnesses.
Research conducted using the same standards and scale to assess missionary stress levels, found that the average missionary’s stress level for the first year is typically around 800-900.
The sustained stress levels of a cross-cultural worker stays around 600.
In light of such statistics and evidence, when will churches and mission organizations place staff well-being nearer the top of the list?
“In the 30 years of sending employees abroad, I have always known the financial loss, but I have considered it part of the price of doing international business. Now, however… I am asking myself, ‘What was the cost in terms of broken families and destroyed lives of those for whom we have not sufficiently cared?’ ”
With no actual change, will an unbalanced situation spontaneously improve? Or will it just get worse?
This is not in the too hard basket.
It’s time to be courageous, to admit the seriousness of the situation, and to determine to resolve and reverse the effects of high/long term stress on missionaries.
Doing nothing is no longer an option.
Dun-dun-duuuuuuun.
Enter Member Care:
“The formal and informal efforts to develop, preserve, and restore kingdom workers for effective service.”
It stands to reason that a member care initiative and program is vital to the effectiveness and longevity of any mission organisation’s personnel and, subsequently, its operations.
Churches, missions and even missionaries need to fight hard for better awareness and improved care of those who live and serve in difficult places.
“Member care is an ethical necessity…
More than some optional commodity or benefits package, member care is an organizational responsibility. Members of a missionary community are valued and nurtured not just for their contributions, but primarily because it is the Biblical and right thing to do.”
I am still wading through Complex PTSD, after being in missions for over a decade. But my consequential views on the viability of missions aside, I can understand that most churches engage in missions, and most mission organisations manage multiple missionaries.
They’re just doing it ineffectually.
And it’s time for that to change.