It is, in the words of a Michael Buble’ song that my wife loves, a new day.
It is not an easy day, nor one without certain uncertainties and even fears. But it is a new day.
The path to this particular day has been a long and winding one, taking over 15 years, and it seems only fair to (briefly) recount the steps that led me here:
- In, oh, the very early 1990s – perhaps even the late 1980s? I forget the exact year – I worked for an organization called AIMS. It was there, one night, that I had my own personal encounter with the vision of unreached peoples that would come to dominate my life. It was pretty simple: I was bored, waiting on a tape backup of computer files (remember those?), and going through some filing cabinets with mission newsletters and brochures from AIMS’s members. Suddenly I was reading about an unreached people group and found myself crying. I had the sense that I was looking through the filing cabinet at masses of peoples. I had the sense that something had to be done.
- By 1995 I was in love and getting married. We didn’t know exactly where I would work, but knew we probably wouldn’t stay at AIMS – I enjoyed everyone there, but my support level there wasn’t enough for two. Something like a month before we were to be married, I was invited to work at the World Christian Encyclopedia with David Barrett, Todd Johnson and Michael Jaffarian. I accepted that invitation and we moved north. There I learned an enormous amount about the world in general, diving into reams of information about every country, religion, denomination, people group. I learned to do research and analysis, to generate tables, to make understandable charts and graphs. David kept fine-tuning my writing (annoying to me at the time) to make it sharper, sharper, sharper. They had an incredible passion for communicating the plight of the unreached.
- In 1999, the WCE project was drawing to a close and once more personal support issues clashed with our mission. Once more God provided. An old friend, Eric Watt, called and told me about a project he was starting up: the Network for Strategic Missions. He wanted to create a missions portal, a website that would help everyone wanting to be involved in missions. We launched http://www.strategicnetwork.org, which grew to have over 160,000 e-group subscribers and 16,000 articles in its knowledgebase. We did a number of other projects as well. During this period I learned a lot about networks and the way things happened on the field.
- In 2003, we felt “something was changing.” It was something we couldn’t quite put our finger on. Finally we understood God was calling us to go abroad for a time: to get some experience, to complete my M.A. (which I was working on through William Carey) and to help out with some projects. So in 2004 we relocated to Southeast Asia (just in time for the tsunami), and stayed there until December 2008. This was an amazing experience of meeting people, of culture shock, of readjusting a lot of our ideas, of daily struggle to accomplish things, of heights and depths, of new friendships. Along the way we were intrigued with a collection of ideas about decentralized networks, initially sparked by some things shown us by Kent Parks (now with Mission to Unreached Peoples). We began developing an idea we called “swarming” and gave the first few presentations on it.
- While we were in Southeast Asia, I grew to become very focused on the need to mobilize new workers – about 150,000 of them. This idea has come to be something of a driving force for me.
- In 2008, a number of the people in our network had moved on to other things, and we felt God telling us our time in Southeast Asia was finished. So, without knowing much of what was in the future, we packed our bags and headed back to the States. We spent the year of 2009 mostly in a semi-transitional, semi-retreat, not-exactly-sabbatical time of uncertainty. During the year I continued to work an enormous amount (probably not the best idea), we thought seriously about going to London to join the Operation World team and in the end decided God was telling us to stay in America and work on swarming: teaching the methodology and building a swarmish mission mobilization network. During the tail-end of 2009 and into 2010, this mobilization network–right now focused mostly on East Asia–has come more and more into sharp relief.
Now, however, we have come to a place where once again personal support issues clash with our ministry efforts. I have simply been unable to raise additional support, partially through my own limitations and partially due to the current economic climate. Worse, because of the current economy, we have lost a lot of our personal support. We are down to about 3 to 4 months reserve and perhaps 15% of our monthly personal support budget.
I have asked God what to do, but so far have not received any specific vision or leading beyond what I already know to do but have not been able–yet–to fund. In the absence of specific revelation, I look to what I generally know and what has been told to me in the Bible. In 1 Timothy 5:8, Paul strictly warns us that “If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” This is a challenge that we must take seriously as disciples and followers of Christ. The way I read this, If we think God has called us to something, yet we cannot provide for our household, then we have denied the faith.
What does this mean for this incredible mission life and passion? Is it over? No, I don’t think so. But we are at a new day.
We have loads of incredible things on the horizon:
- We are helping a network of China-focused ministries to develop a comprehensive mobilization process (which could have plug-and-play implications for networks in other parts of the world): one that ranges from initial recruitment through small groups through exposure trips, accredited college-level training, intensive field experiences, and commitment to long-term service.
- We have developed, and continue to develop, the swarming structure which we can teach to people wanting to form “micro-missions”: small decentralized teams that have high impact on the unreached for a low and sustainable cost.
- We have created a number of missions instructional resources – on history, the State of World Evangelization, etc. – that we can use to show people the challenges we face.
- The MissionManual still needs a lot more participants to become more swarmish !!
We are pursuing new ministry options which could potentially support us. Time will tell if this will happen. Unfortunately, we do not have much time. Fortunately, even now there are things afoot which may reveal a path open.
Another option we are pursuing is to find a “tentmaking job” which will support us. How much of an impact can a person working a secular job have in his off time? There are enormous tools available through blogs, writing, publishing, etc. that can help us keep pushing the ideas of swarming and mobilization forward. I’m going to continue pushing them forward here, at www.justinlong.org.
As for my 10-year labor of love, www.strategicnetwork.org, well, I’m not sure what will happen. I will continue to maintain it, in as much time as I have available, and as long as its parent RUN Ministries wants me to. I will be mirroring Momentum issues as well as information about swarm training there. But probably the majority of my more frequent, more personal posts about swarming will be here. And a good chunk of my time will go to “providing for my own:”
“Don’t you think it was so unlucky to meet so many lions?” asked Shasta.“There was only one lion,” the Voice replied.“How do you know?” Shasta stammered.“Because I was the lion.”And while Shasta gaped, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who drove you and Aravis together. I was the cat who comforted you in the tombs of Tashbaan. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”
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