I had one church send me a Questionnaire that took me a full two days to type and reply to. My responses were not in great detail either. 2/5ths of the financial support this church gave our ministry was spent in 2 days wages to fill out this questionnaire for them. Time spent away form my real work. They got what they wanted, but it wasted 2/5th of their money, and two days of time. I am all for accountability and reporting. But please be reasonable. Did they tke more than 2 minutes to reflection over what I wrote? Hummm!
One obstacles Winter mention is what he calls;
“The Rise of the Questioning Layman. The very appearance of an unprecedented but surely welcome flood of specialized literature on missions relates to another problem area which urgently requires attention if there is to be a correspondingly unprecedented new thrust in missions. It is the rise of the questioning layman. Some of these people actually get and read the books I just mentioned before the missionaries do. They may not entirely understand them but they begin asking questions which are not easily or quickly answered……… Many church mission committees are now sending out questionnaires to missionaries and mission boards that take days to fill out. If every church did this, the entire mission movement around the world would stop dead in its tracks. ………Local church people are at this moment tramping around the world as tourists, poking their noses in everywhere not often fully understanding what they see…… This looming obstacle to harmony and teamwork between churches and missions is not going to blow away like a fad. ………ultimately welcome the new depth of knowledge in many lay circles.”
(Crucial Dimensions on World Evangelisation, Arthur F. Glasser, Paul G. Hiebert C
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