MISSIONARY RISK: Counting the Cost

Jan 1

STATEMENT

The Great Commission involves taking up our cross and following Jesus in laying down our lives so that others might be saved. Preaching the gospel to the hardest to reach often requires sacrifice. While being willing to incur risk, we need to exercise biblical wisdom. Biblical wisdom includes counting the cost, Christian freedom, and confidence in the sovereignty of God. As we live in an age that idolizes comfort and safety, we should remember the biblical honor due to those who suffer for the Name and be willing to follow their Christlike example.

Sending churches, agencies, field churches, and missionaries should have a robust theology of risk developed before the moment of crisis. In crisis management, priority should be given to the integrity of the field ministry.

Article Written by Caleb Greggsen

September 11, 2001, is a day that changed American history.

It also changed my life.

I was a teenager, and my parents were serving as missionaries in Pakistan, the same country where Osama bin Laden was sequestered during those attacks on American soil. My parents’ sending organization evacuated our family the next day. I was awakened early in the morning by staff at my boarding school, told to pack up, and after ten minutes of saying goodbye to my classmates and friends, I was driven two hours to an airport to fly (with one other teenager) to meet my parents in the terminal of another airport and out of the country.

Though their sending organization was under tremendous pressure to “bring our people home,” they wisely thought twice about sending missionaries on airplanes into JFK and Dulles airports to keep them safe. Instead, we spent a month living in a hotel in Thailand, unsure of what was next.

It was a difficult time. But it wasn’t my first evacuation. That was number five (I think). Before Pakistan, my family had lived in a country the UN designated a “failed state,” and whether because of a medical emergency, targeted threats against my family, or general issues of unrest and revolution, we’d had several previous evacuations.

What was difficult about 9/11 was that our lives were thrown upside-down—not because of clear and present threats to us where we lived, but because of events that had happened in New York City and Washington, DC. They were, of course, significant events. As Americans living in a Muslim country, they had an obvious bearing on our situation. But they had also literally happened on the opposite side of the world. They were physically removed from us but quite close to people who loved us and had responsibility for us. In those months after 9/11, I witnessed first-hand the reality that those who send missionaries and the missionaries themselves tend to have very different instincts about what is right in a moment of danger.

Put security in its place.

People who all loved the Lord and all agreed it was good to make sacrifices for the sake of the Name had widely diverging instincts. The missionaries wanted to stay. Their families and senders wanted them to be safe. Those differences impact the lives of missionaries and those they minister to—often even more than actual security threats.

Those differences shouldn’t surprise us. The Apostle Paul experienced the same thing in his own ministry. Throughout the book of Acts, there is a recurring pattern: Most famously, Christians repeatedly warned Paul against returning to Jerusalem, even though he was determined to go there (Acts 21:12-14). You can feel it in your own heart, too, can't you? You are far more comfortable with taking risks yourself than you are letting others risk their lives.

We naturally want to protect the people we care about. There’s nothing the slightest bit wrong with that desire. But it is a problem when we let concern for physical safety dictate our decisions. To allow the physical safety of missionaries to be our controlling concern is to functionally deny the hope of the resurrection. Worse, it confirms our fleshly thinking that the Great Commission is not worth the danger and discomfort that comes with proclaiming the gospel to those dead in their sin. When physical safety trumps all else, we act as though we have no greater hope than the world has; we act as though we, like the world, have no greater concern than the temporal security of our loved ones.

Never mind that we know this life is a vapor and that after it, all humanity will face eternal death or enjoy eternal life. Never mind that weighty and severe reality. Dear Christian—don’t you long for God’s name to be glorified? Don’t you believe it is good and right that the glory of God should cover the earth as the water covers the sea (Hab. 2:14)? Don’t you think that the possibility of reclaiming ruined sinners from the clutches of hell might be worth some passing suffering in the life of fellow Christians whose eternal destiny is unshakably secure? Is not Jesus more precious than life itself? Perhaps you need to believe that is true not just for your own life but also for the lives of Christians you love, missionaries included.

In the ancient church, martyrs were so lionized that teachers often had to instruct Christians to not seek out martyrdom. Origen famously wanted to be martyred alongside his father, but his life was saved when his mother hid his clothes so he couldn’t leave the house. [1] While there may be young, zealous college students today who need to be cautioned against needless risk, this is not the default of the Western church. Instead, we need to be willing to count the cost and answer the question: is the glory of Christ more important than my life? And its more difficult cousin: Do I believe that Christ is more precious even than the life of my loved one? Do we no longer believe it’s an honor to be counted worthy to suffer for His name (Acts 5:41)?

Prudent Risk

At the same time, Christ doesn’t call us to zeal without wisdom. It is the fool who sees danger and simply goes on (Proverbs 22:3, 27:12).

We must exercise wisdom. It is good and even glorious to die for the sake of the Name. But we should take calculated risks, not throw wisdom to the wind. It is possible for a Christian to suffer and believe they’re being persecuted, but they’re actually suffering because they’re obnoxious (cf 1 Pet. 4:15). It is possible to suffer because you were foolish and simply strolled into danger for no particular reason. We want to genuinely consider what is prudent and wise and good stewardship. But so often, weighing those things can become a cover for worldly thinking. As Christians, we must never forget while it’s good to preserve life and safety, there are some things more important than living. What’s often forgotten in the moment of crisis is how a missionary’s testimony and ministry are disrupted and often distorted when they are pulled out of a dangerous situation at a moment’s notice.

During a period when police were ‘visiting’ churches in China, many missionaries wanted to abstain from gathering for a while. A friend of mine wisely asked those missionaries, what kind of example does that set for local believers, who have no option of just going back to America if things get too hot? When missionaries leave the country for several months every time political unrest heats up, they may be teaching their disciples it’s impossible to be a faithful Christian in this land (despite what they say with their words).

It may be the fool who simply goes on in the face of danger, but the sluggard does nothing because of the possibility of danger (Proverbs 26:13). We are not called to be either of those.

Cultivate Wisdom

All this is to say, responding to situations that bring significant risk requires excellent wisdom. There’s a lot that goes into biblical wisdom, but three crucial components for evaluating these situations are to count the cost, to build confidence in God’s sovereignty, and to leave room for Christian freedom.

1. Count the Cost

We should never be surprised at the possibility of suffering or persecution as Christians. In fact, the Bible teaches us that’s the norm: “the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pet. 5:9). If it is expected, then we should prepare for it!

When crowds of people were following Jesus, he warned them that following him requires sacrifice as well as blessing: “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost…?” (Luke 14:28). This is the difference between the sort of naïve “if it’s risky, it must be godly” and true wisdom. True wisdom can look at the cost of a decision in the face, without cushioning or downplaying risk, and consider the cost.

This might look like a family moving to a politically tumultuous country and having a rough plan in place for what kinds of situations they will leave the country and when they plan to stay. It may look like a young man who wants to go to an isolated tribe choosing to forego marriage so that he can more freely enter isolated areas without leaving a family behind (cf. 1 Cor. 7:32-34). It may look like an organization clarifying that in this area, they cannot ensure medical evacuation, so if you live there, you know you won’t have speedy access to a hospital in the midst of malaria or dengue fever outbreaks.

The information age in which we live also introduces some complications here. It used to be that a mission agency or church wouldn’t hear about a dangerous situation in the field until many months after the danger had passed (and that only if the missionary reported it). They had to defer to the missionary’s personal judgment or government embassies. In contrast, I’ve regularly found out about events in the country I live in from friends in America watching American news. The instant transmission of information brings with it a level of responsibility, particularly for mission agencies who have legal obligations in addition to the obligations of love. The fact is, this information is conveyed by media companies who tend to present breaking news as dramatically as possible, which increases the pressure an organization may feel to do something. This is a weight that, frankly, the Baptist Missionary Society who sent Wiliam Carey never faced, but it is a part of the cost of faithful missions in our era.

Counting the cost doesn’t mean avoiding anything that will probably be hard. It means carefully considering the cost ahead of time, as far as you are able, so you are prepared for those situations.

2. Build Confidence in God’s Sovereignty

The reality is things will happen that we don’t anticipate. It’s the nature of us not being God. But we have the advantage of knowing the character of the one who does know all things and establishes all things. This means that even when the unexpected strikes, we can trust in the Lord’s good purposes.

Nothing is accidental. It’s the Lord who establishes our steps (Proverbs 16:9). He controls the outcome of every throw of the dice (cf Proverbs 16:33). And we also know, “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). So we don’t need to be anxious about our decisions. We should weigh carefully what we know and trust the outcome to the one who knows all things.

In 2020, just before the Covid pandemic, my family and I were in a plane crash. Four and a half years later, my wife is still living with physical complications from her injuries. Getting on that plane was a risk we didn’t know to plan for (beyond general statistics about how rare plane crashes are), and yet that decision has impacted our lives for years, with no clear end in sight.

As the one who bought those plane tickets, I have a choice to make. I can beat myself up for making a decision that had unforeseen consequences. I can roll around in anxiety and fearfulness about the next plane ride. Or I can trust that this, too, is from the Lord. I can exercise confidence in his goodness, even in circumstances that appear bad.

We cannot escape risk anywhere. Bombs can explode in Boston as well as in Beirut, riots in Minneapolis as well as Moscow, and floods in the Louisiana Bayou as well as Bangladesh. To escape the quagmire of ‘what-ifs,’ we must entrust our deeds to the Lord and have confidence that what he ordains is right.

God is sovereign, not just over physical risks like a plane crash or natural disaster. He’s also sovereign over persecution and attack. Again, Paul’s example is so helpful to us. When was it the right time for Paul to risk his life and face stoning or arrest? When was it right for him to listen to other Christians and avoid the angry mob? We can answer that question as easily as explaining why God saw fit to let James die, but Peter escape death when both were arrested (Acts 12:1-17).

3. Acknowledge Christian Freedom

When the apostle Paul faced risk, he didn’t respond the same way every time. There are times when he went along (and perhaps agreed) with the steps Christians took to keep him safe, like when they lowered him out of Damascus in a basket (Acts 9:23-25). There are times when they prevented him from taking a risk he desired to take, like when he wanted to address the mob in Ephesus (Acts 19:28-30). And there were times when other Christians saw the danger, warned him away from it, and yet he willingly chose to enter into risk, like when he set his face toward Jerusalem where he would be arrested (Acts 21:10-14). These are important examples to consider as a whole because this is an area of wisdom that requires prudence. The same decision is not the right one every time. In fact, it’s possible for two missionaries living in the same city facing the same danger to make different decisions—and both make God-honoring decisions useful for the advance of the gospel.

You are not more godly (necessarily) for being willing to take more risks. Neither are you more prudent (necessarily) because you avoid more risk. We need to extend charity to one another, respect that we may make different judgments, and respect one another enough to listen to the reasons for those different judgments.

Develop Godly Principles and Policies

Wisdom cannot be microwaved. At the same time, most situations of significant risk don’t come with much advanced notice. Crises tend to be unexpected (even if we can anticipate them happening in some places more often than others). This is why missionaries, sending churches, agencies, and field churches all have a duty to develop a robust theology of risk before the crisis comes.

This is crucial. In my experience, many evangelicals think they have a robust theology of risk, but when the crisis comes, they look no different from the world. Worldly wisdom prioritizes getting a wrongly imprisoned Christian out of jail and out of that country. Godly wisdom can rejoice in the new prison ministry and also rejoice when that brother chooses to return to the same country that so abused him. Worldly wisdom thinks America is a safe home base. Godly wisdom recognizes that heaven is our home. Worldly wisdom only has one response to suffering—to seek escape. Godly wisdom doesn’t seek out suffering, but it can entrust even suffering to the Lord and his good purposes.

Sending churches, agencies, field churches, and missionaries need to develop their security principles in light of wisdom from above. And wisdom is cultivated through inviting godly counsel, not by ignoring the perspective of others (Proverbs 11:4, 18:1).

In this, we should recognize our tendencies. Sending churches and agencies will almost always tend to be more conservative, like the Christians urging Paul to safety. Missionaries and field churches will tend to be willing to risk more, largely because they experience the costs of a disrupted family and ministry. Again, those tendencies aren’t wrong or right. But we must remember our personal instincts are not always what is wisest.

While sending churches, field churches, and missionaries should labor to develop sound principles surrounding security and risk, the obligation of implementing policies falls mainly on mission agencies. They are the ones most often putting into effect standing policies that will either help or hinder everyone involved to exercise godly wisdom. In seeking to be a handmaid to the church in carrying out her Commission, this is one of the heavy responsibilities they have taken on themselves. They not only bear authority as an employer over missionaries, but they often bear the brunt of engaging with frightened families holding them responsible for risk. They’re also the ones often held to account by governments. They are also likely to have accumulated more heartache, as people in these organizations tend to know more missionaries who have suffered in different ways. They also, as employers, have the authority to redeploy employees and must, therefore, decide when to use that authority and when to defer to missionaries on the field. Churches and fellow missionaries can really do no more than exhort and encourage a missionary to take a risk or avoid it. Sending agencies would do well to develop thoughtful policies and clear lines of communication before the crisis comes. They should also be willing to listen to trusted missionaries and field churches most impacted by their policies to separate fact from fiction in news reports.

Sending agencies, please permit me a moment of directness. If you are unwilling to bear the risk of having an employee die on the field, you need to get into another line of work. If you are so worried about someone losing their visa that you discourage them from taking wise risks to proclaim the gospel, you are not ready to help the church advance the Great Commission. Or at least recognize you are not prepared to send people to parts of the world that are often least reached with the gospel.

At the same time, mission agencies have an opportunity to bring a wealth of experience to questions of security and risk since they are well-positioned to learn from the wide-ranging experiences of missionaries in various contexts. Please steward what God has given you for his glory and the spread of the gospel.

Conclusion

Let us live like we truly believe that the glory of Christ proclaimed among the nations is precious beyond compare. Let us be not only willing but also prepared to suffer for the sake of the Name. Let us prayerfully count the cost of advancing the gospel, show charity to each other as we make different decisions in the face of risk, and entrust the results to our Lord and Savior, in whom the outcome is secure. He will be glorified in all the earth.

Can you believe we get to be a part of it?

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