The following account of HeartCry’s beginnings was written by Paul Washer, who founded HeartCry Missionary Society in 1988 while laboring as a missionary in Peru, South America.
How It All Started
As a young missionary in the country of Peru, I was an eyewitness to the great advancement of the gospel through many indigenous pastors and missionaries, despite their severe poverty and lack of formal theological education. This prompted me to pray and search the Scriptures to discover a proper response to such choice servants and their need. In III John 5-8, I found a compelling admonition:
“Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.”
As I read this passage, I asked myself about its global application. Should Christians in developed countries send only their own missionaries “on their way in a manner worthy of God?” Is it biblical for them to also care for indigenous missionaries in less developed regions of the world? Should our abundance be used to help them minister in the midst of their poverty?
Opposition and Answers
As I discussed these questions with other cross-cultural missionaries, I was both encouraged and cautioned. The frequent objection was that if indigenous missionaries were given economic support, they would become dependent and slothful, and no longer trust in God. Many examples were presented to me of foreign missionaries who had attempted to support indigenous missionaries with little or no success.
As I carefully weighed the objections and the examples of failure, I recognized the need for great caution. However, I also discovered flaws in many of the arguments that had been given against the support of indigenous missionaries. First, I had never heard a North American missionary tell a church to withhold funds because he was afraid that too much financial support might make him dependent, overindulged, or lazy. Second, there are some missionaries from North America and Western Europe who are extremely apathetic and ineffective. Should we stop sending cross-cultural missionaries to the foreign field simply because some are unworthy? Third, the countless stories of failed attempts always seemed to place the blame upon the indigenous missionary but failed to account for other reasons for failure that were often present. Some of these reasons included:
- A number of the indigenous missionaries who were supported did not meet the non-negotiable qualifications of a minister set forth in I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. They failed because they should not have been in the ministry in the first place. The foreign missionary who supported them was as much at fault as the unqualified national. It is for this reason that the Scriptures warn us not to lay our hands too hastily upon anyone (I Timothy 5:22).
- A number of indigenous missionaries who were supported did not demonstrate a genuine calling. They were not men who were diligent to present themselves approved to God as workmen who do “not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of Truth” (II Timothy 2:15). They were not working in the harvest prior to a promise of support but were hirelings who entered the harvest for pay.
- In many instances, indigenous missionaries were hired by the cross-cultural missionary to serve as little more than errand boys. Although genuinely called by God, they were reduced to household servants hired to wash the missionary’s car, clean the missionary compound, or take the missionary’s wife shopping at the market.
The foreign missionaries who attempted to support indigenous missionaries often neglected to involve the indigenous local church. The foreign missionary alone does not have the right to call out, approve, or send missionaries. This is the work of the local church and its leadership.
As I studied the failed attempts to support indigenous missionaries, I began to see that the blame lay primarily at the feet of the cross-cultural missionaries and missionary agencies that approved these attempts. These failures were not because supporting indigenous missionaries is unbiblical, ineffective, or detrimental. Rather, they were the result of violating clear biblical principles and the prejudice of the few foreign missionaries who treated the indigenous missionaries as their inferiors.
Indigenous Missions and the Local Church
As I continued to consider the support of indigenous missionaries, the one truth that kept coming to the forefront was the importance of the indigenous local church and its leadership. It is not wise to support indigenous missionaries in a country, people group, or geographical region unless God opens the door to work through indigenous pastors, local churches, or a fellowship of churches that have an established and enduring national or international reputation for their biblical doctrine and practice. In time, this truth became the foundational principle of HeartCry’s methodology.
HeartCry’s work in Zambia is an excellent example of this principle. Kabwata Baptist Church of Lusaka, Zambia, is a highly respected church whose reputation extends far beyond its own country. The elders and congregation are responsible for training missionary candidates, ordaining them, sending them out, and holding them accountable on the field. The demands they place upon their missionaries and the degree of accountability to which they hold them far exceeds most other missionary-sending agencies. They have the expertise to train missionaries, the endurance to work beside them on the field, and the wisdom and boldness to hold them accountable. What they lack are the financial resources that can be found in more developed countries. HeartCry Missionary Society works with churches like Kabwata Baptist Church to provide what is lacking so that the Great Commission might be fulfilled.
The importance of working alongside local indigenous churches and their leadership cannot be exaggerated. Many pastors and concerned Christians from more developed countries visit less developed regions of the world and witness first-hand the economic poverty of the churches and their ministers. As a result, they return to their home churches and enthusiastically raise money to support the indigenous missionaries whom they have known for only a few days. Sometimes their endeavor is successful and the Kingdom of God is advanced, but more often the whole enterprise ends in discouragement. A few months of correspondence begins to reveal the true character of the missionary. He is not as qualified, dedicated, or selfless as first supposed. Outside support has not corrupted this indigenous missionary, only revealed that he was not qualified from the start. The visiting pastor was misguided in recommending a man whom he had known for only a few days and whom he could not hold accountable on the field.
We often fail to realize that missions must be guided by the non-negotiable principles of God’s Word and not by enthusiasm, sentimentalism, or romanticism. Men and women should be supported only after careful and prolonged scrutiny. They must have a solid testimony and a strong reputation among the churches and pastors who know them best. We must never forget that a foreigner may be easily deceived. Throughout America’s history, we find unscrupulous people who have made fortunes by deceiving the immigrants who came here from other countries. It is a simple truth that anyone is more susceptible to deception when coming to a land where the language and culture are not their own. Well-meaning Christians are often the most susceptible to such deception. Therefore, the support of indigenous missionaries must involve indigenous churches and pastors with long-standing and worthy reputations. It is easy for an indigenous candidate to deceive a visiting Christian for a few days, but it is nearly impossible for him to deceive a biblical and Spirit-filled congregation or association of indigenous pastors who have scrutinized his life in the light of the Scriptures for an extended period of time.
HeartCry Begins
Having worked through the arguments against the support of indigenous missionaries, my conviction and desire to form a society for their benefit continued to grow. But how should such a society be financed?
My greatest hero in church history has always been George Müller, and I had determined early in my ministry to follow his example of not raising support or making needs known. It seemed good to me that I should continue in this conviction. If God were truly behind the cause, then He would be its Sustainer. Therefore, I set out by faith and began to support a few Peruvian laborers. I believed that if God provided for their needs then the work would continue to expand through the doors that He opened and the resources that He provided.
From such a small and feeble beginning, God has now enabled us to support missionaries, distribute Scripture and literature, buy land, construct chapels, and provide tools for evangelism (e.g., vehicles, boats, motorcycles, mules, etc.) in over sixty countries across five continents. All this has been done, not according to our faith, but beyond our faith and despite our frequent unbelief. If anything worthy has been accomplished in this ministry, it is the result of the absolute sovereignty of God and His good pleasure to use the lowliest and weakest to confound the wisdom of the wise and embarrass the strength of the strong (I Corinthians 1:26-29). Our only contribution to our salvation has been our sin, and our only contribution to this ministry has been our weakness. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,” has been our Helper (Ephesians 2:4).
More than three decades have passed since our beginning, but our desire for the gospel to be preached to all nations continues to grow. We believe that it is God’s will for us to trust Him, to call upon Him in prayer, and to expect great things from Him as never before. It is our hope and prayer that God might raise up an army of indigenous and cross-cultural missionaries to carry the light of the gospel into the darkest and most forgotten places on earth. We do not believe that our hope is presumptuous because God Himself has promised to do so. As the Scriptures declare:
“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You.” — Psalm 22:27
And again, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” — Habakkuk 2:14
And still again, “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.” — Zechariah 14:9
And finally, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” — Revelation 7:9-10