Evendays

The high cost of doing missions can discourage workers and sponsoring churches, for workers must spend much time finding new support or convincing current supporters to continue.

Weariness can set in on the part of the supporting church, on the part of the worker, and on the mission church.

The sponsoring church may ask itself questions like: What are we getting out of this? How is it forming our members at home? Doesn’t it make more since to use the resources here than abroad? Does the mission work create excitement and enthusiasm in the local body? Are we putting our money where it can get the biggest bang for its buck?

The worker can doubt his effectiveness or try to compete (or feel incapable of competing) with churches that have greater resources. She may feel that she is wasting her time in a hard field.

The mission church itself may feel like a foreigner in her native land, and may wonder if it’s worth the cost of persevering when so many friends and family members do not understand their “fanaticism” (that is that God has invaded every compartment of their lives).

There are many other challenges: the focus of sponsoring churches on short-term missions rather than long-term, loneliness on "the field", discouragement (how to deal with lack of growth or the loss of members), keeping church identity without becoming sectarian, etc. Some are unique to mission churches. Others are common to all church families and workers.