Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RTW Dunham College of Business at Houston Christian University. I'm your host, Darren Schear, and this is a show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. On today's episode, we're joined by Tim Hood. Tim is president and CEO of Shepherd Staff, a missions facilitating organization dedicated to equipping local churches to send their own members as missionaries. The church is the sender in this model. Tim joined the Shepherd Staff team in February 2021. For the past 20 years, he's been involved in missions mobilization, coaching, and training. He previously served in the Middle East and North Africa. And he and his family now reside just about 90 minutes from me across the uh the Blue Ridge Mountains in East Tennessee, out there in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tim, welcome to the Christianity and Business Podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. Great to be with you today and with your listeners.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So, Tim, what is uh how does the Shepherd staff engage marketplace Christians?
SPEAKER_01So we clearly see multiple patterns laid out in scripture for missionary involvement and sending. You referenced that just a minute ago in the introduction that the church is the sender. That's what we see at the church in Antioch, that they sent Paul and Barnabas out on this missionary journey. But throughout that journey, we see different things pop up along the way. And Paul working on his own, doing business on his own, supporting himself in addition to the partnership he had with other churches that came alongside of him in that journey was part of his story. And we get even he was a tent maker, so we get tent-making language from that. But what we've also seen, Darren, that there are a lot of places in the world where the gospel is just not going to go if it doesn't go through marketplace professionals, restricted access locations, distant uh peoples, uh places and environments where the traditional missionary presence is not welcome, not wanted, not expected, but business is and marketplace uh movement is happening. And so we're we're seeing those things transpire in a way that it just makes sense that God in his creativity would leverage the resources and experiences and backgrounds of believers to take the gospel to the nations through marketplace professionals. So that more and more that's what we're seeing. And we want to come alongside of these marketplace professionals, come alongside of their churches and give them the rails to run on in that direction.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you were telling me earlier that about 15% of the people that you've been sending are marketplace, and then probably half are uh what would be considered traditional church planters, and then maybe roughly 35% are doing other sorts of things, like they're doctors, teachers, maybe they have sort of a dual, a dual role. Um, like where I know you don't probably don't want to give us the exact you know, coordinates, especially with a lot of these folks who are in very closed countries, uh I know, but you know, roughly how many people are have been deployed uh specifically to the marketplace?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we have folks again serving all over the world from churches all over the country. And we right now, Shepherd Staff serves uh just north of 300 personnel scattered across those countries. And of those, um I would say maybe 50 of them are uh working in again medical professions, education, doing business, looking at at the obviously one of the first tasks of a missionary is to land uh on site and to begin to assess what are the needs, what are the opportunities. And so as they do that, a lot of times they're saying, hey, look, one of the one of the backgrounds or bits of background, one of the skills I have can meet a need in this community. And through that, they're able to then be equipped to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Back in college, I worked uh through a temp agency one summer. And I remember I thought it was interesting because I was actually an employee of the temp agency. Uh so it's kind of a similar uh similar model where these are basically 50 employees of shepherd staff, right? But they're working in all different industries across the world, right?
SPEAKER_01That's right. So our model as an organization is that we come alongside of the sent out one in this place. So shepherd staff personnel are considered W-2 employees of our organization, but we believe their sending churches are the boss. So we don't tell them where to go, what country to go to, what team to join, what occupation to engage in. Again, the assumption is that they're going to be sharing the gospel, making disciples, and a part of church planting type efforts. But how they do that is 100% between them and their sending church. And we want to support them in that. Now, Darren, that is a really easy case to make for people that are going to do traditional mission type work. But for those that are going to do business as mission type enterprise, sometimes the church is a little confused about, well, what does that mean? And are they, quote, real missionaries and are they real gospel bearers? And so part of our conversation is to help the church really value that same kind of commissioning. I know that's a space that uh you're pretty connected to, and even the idea of marketplace mission trips in your own local environment. I think it would be great if every Sunday at every church across the US there was a commissioning service for realtors and for people who work in fast food industry and for teachers and for uh anybody doing anything in the marketplace, that there would be that sense of senteness, because all of us are clearly called to live out the gospel wherever we are. And that's certainly true of missionaries going cross-culturally. That's certainly true of marketplace professionals that are moving across the world. But somehow that commissioning from the church, the church standing behind them, holding the rope, as it were, the the same kind of language uh that we would use, Hudson Taylor said, I'll go down in the pit if you'll hold the rope. And again, that is super easy language to use when we're thinking about traditional missions, but it's also important language and important understanding when we're thinking about business professionals taking the gospel overseas. It's it's been fascinating to me to watch educators from the Middle East and educators from the US, when they get together, even with language barriers and culture barriers and religious barriers, they can talk about lesson planning and about the learning styles of children in a way that just erodes all those barriers. When you watch um folks that are doing economic relief and development from a different culture, different context, talking to Americans who do economic relief and development without the same language from different contexts, from different religions, there still is this connectivity. There is something that bridges culture that is able to move beyond some of these barriers to create bridges by having the same interests, the same passions. And those things are always a bridge to relationship building, which becomes a bridge to the gospel. I mean, I have a degree in political science. When as I was going through college, I had so many moments when I thought this degree is good for Jeopardy, but probably not anything else. And I'm a big fan of Jeopardy, it's on my bucket list to do someday. But when I moved to the Middle East, every taxi I got in, every driver wanted to debate the finer points of American foreign policy. So it was great that I was prepared to do that. And every conversation then could lead to the peace that we know because of Christ. So it doesn't matter what's happening in the world, we can still rest in him. And that's what we're seeing so many marketplace professionals doing, leveraging those experiences for gospel impact. And we want to stand alongside of them and alongside of their churches as they do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So the marketplace people who are sent, they are they expected to be engaged in the church planting, or is is that understood as being their impact in the culture and the company that they in the industry that they work in?
SPEAKER_01So that you always want to start with the end in mind, right? And so even if their day-to-day activities don't look a lot like your traditional church planter, the idea, though, is that the relationships they would be building, the conversations they would be having would be that broad gospel seed sowing that one day, uh obviously other laborers are going to come in and join them in that. Other teams are going to be there to surround them in that, but that they would see that their occupation, their presence in that market space has a gospel end in mind. And so, yeah, maybe they don't ever plan to be the one who stands up front and preaches or who leads the Bible study or who is the person that is uh crafting a sort of engagement strategy, but they're inextricably linked to that gospel presence and that gospel proclamation uh from beginning to end. And so that if they start with that end in mind of yes, I am going to be a doctor, yes, I am going to be an educator, yes, I am going with my multinational uh company, yes, I am going uh as a marketplace professional or to start a business. But if that's not woven in from the beginning, I'm also going as a gospel maker, I'm going as a gospel bearer, a disciple maker, then it's easy for that drift to come in and they just become an American abroad. And so if they're thinking always, hey, I'm a part of a larger story here, that's absolutely critical. And their church is a big part of helping to remind them of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And by bigger story, you mean that they're ultimately going to participate in planting a new church in that area.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a kingdom story, isn't it? That God is using all of these people and all of these different experiences for the sake of his name.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so these would be areas that are that are current where they don't currently have any churches or yeah, so they are maybe have limited access to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01Maybe there are churches, but maybe they're culturally Christian churches, or they're maybe they're churches where only Westerners gather, but there's not a lot of evangelistic work or church planting work going on among nationals. Um, or maybe it's a place that is a traditional quote, harvest field where maybe missionaries have been for a long time, but there is now resistance to uh the entrance of missionaries into those countries. And so they can again accept a business professional more quickly than they would accept a missionary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay. So yeah, because it sounds like knowing what I know about pastors and seminary grads that I went to school with, it would be a pretty tough sell. Um what it's one thing will affirm you going to do your thing for God, uh, if that's what God's called you to do, but another thing to expect that we're going to put some some of our money behind it. Um, and so but so how do you uh let's let's use the term pitch, the pastor on on you've got uh a marketplace Christian that says, send me over to Egypt to go do business. Um, how do you how do you approach that that pitch? I mean, what do you what is the selling the main selling point that's gonna convince that pastor to put some money behind that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, as more pastors are thinking through these things, even in their own local context, uh in our country, uh it's it's clear that that there are just some places that again, marketplace professionals are going to get to faster. They're they're clergy in the past again had automatic entree into moments of crisis or moments of opportunity. Well, that ship has sailed, even in our own country and context. So I think there is a little bit more savvy, and especially with with a lot of international travel, people are seeing that in new places and a new context, there are new opportunities. Uh, but the work of the minister of the gospel is to equip the church to do ministry. And so the role of the local church, the sending church, and the life of every believer that's a part of that congregation is to equip them. Uh, we have a a really theological conviction that we train for obedience, not for information, that we're discipling for obedience. That is the expectation uh in the work that we do, uh, in the teaching that we do, that it's not just to give more theological knowledge, but that we would actually take action with that. So, as churches are getting more serious about even the missionary equipping side of how do we prepare our members to live as missionaries overseas, they are naturally having the conversation of how do we prepare them to live like missionaries here in the US? Again, very the language gets clunky at times of what is a true missionary and who is called and all of those things, but we still want to think and act and behave like missionaries no matter where we are. So, more and more churches are seeing the idea of a marketplace professional going overseas as a pretty appealing idea that it makes sense. Yeah. And so it's not as hard of a sell today as it may have been in the past, but sometimes there is that sense of understanding the the culture and context because uh the default posture is well, why don't we just, you know, just send them regularly? Well, they they're not gonna get a visa, or they're not gonna be allowed to stay, or they're not gonna be able to find an apartment. Some of those very practical realities of missionary life suddenly evaporate if someone is going into a country where that's none of that's possible. And so uh often with churches, we we want to paint that larger picture, even of vast lostness. When you think of 1.6 to 2 billion people in the world with little or no access to the gospel, a lot of our strategies for getting to them are obsolete. Uh, what we've worked done in the past just isn't working, and it's not working fast enough. And yet we have tens of thousands of American believers going overseas with their companies, with uh other nonprofits or uh NGOs to live and to serve and to work because they want to make a difference with their lives. How much better if the church actually would commission them and prepare them and then get behind them in that endeavor?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, well, Tim, what kind of stories are coming out of coming out from the field uh from the marketplace, the people that are there uh specifically on a on a marketplace assignment and representing the Lord out there?
SPEAKER_01So just recently I heard the story of uh some of our folks who are serving in Asia doing medical uh work and relief and development, and the opportunities that they're having as they are simply day to day today meeting the physical needs of the people in the country where they're living, they're constantly being given the chance to have gospel conversations. And so recently, uh one of the folks that they built a relationship with, they were able to share the gospel truth in a way that this person, a like-hearted, like-minded individual, that another medical professional was able to hear the gospel in a way that that could really respond. And they haven't yet come to faith, but there's so much more openness uh because of that. And so uh we do hear a lot of those kinds of stories uh that that provide the bridge then for others to feel that inspiration that hey, I I can do this too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That reminds me of a verse that you shared with me earlier uh from First Thessalonians. Could you share that with our listeners and kind of what that means for marketplace Christians? I can do I could just read it off if that's easier. Yeah, let's do that. It was uh first First Thessalonians uh chapter two, verses eight and nine. We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our very lives, because you had become very dear to us.
SPEAKER_01Right. And Paul writing to the church at Thessalonica demonstrates what absolutely seems to be the pattern and the behavior of marketplace professionals. That yes, as a bearer of the gospel, as a disciple maker, the gospel truth, the life that we have in Christ should constantly be flowing out of our lives and flowing from our lips for sure. But Paul goes on to say, we didn't just share the gospel with you, we shared our very lives. And when I think about the way that marketplace professionals are not just counting the cost, but paying it. They're laboring alongside of, they're they're shopping in the same grocery stores, their kids are going to the same schools, they're literally living side by side in the same compounds or apartment complexes. They are intentionally, and that so much, Darren, of what we're talking about today is intention. It is deliberately pursuing pathways of gospel life and expression. And marketplace professionals living overseas are doing that in such incredible ways because yes, they they are sharing news that is eternally significant, but they're also sharing their lives in ways that are significant for the next five minutes, that are significant for the next meal that they share with their neighbors, for uh the next conversation that they have, walking their kids to school alongside of their neighbors. And so, to me, that that picture that Paul paints to the church in Thessalonica is demonstrated so beautifully in the lives of marketplace professionals.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, well said. And Tim, how do you see discipleship happening through this model, um, specifically through marketplace Christians? Like, like if you could just paint a picture of a scenario where you look at something happening in the marketplace and you say, yes, that's discipleship, that's the Great Commission being carried out, because it's it's easier to I think think about it in terms of, well, if I if I schedule a time where everybody's going to gather on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock and I preach to them, I can say, yes, that's discipleship. But how do you understand that happening in a marketplace context?
SPEAKER_01Well, for a long time, we have heard the definition or the explanation of great commission thinking, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. We translate as go and make disciples and other um obviously well-skilled uh theological minds and biblical scholars have interpreted that to actually be translated as as you are going. And a lot of our very best discipleship happens in that as you are going space. That yes, it is important for believers together. Yes, it's important for us to study the word and to worship together. But that is not often when the heaviest lifting of disciple making takes place. It is in that moment of crisis, it is in that moment of need when a coworker just received bad news about um a parent who has a terminal illness. And instead of just saying, gosh, I'm so sorry that that's happening, to say, can I pray for you and to pray for them now? That that disciple making in the moment, again, is so much more um possible in a market space context, as opposed to calling the professional Christian, the pastor, the missionary, and saying, Hey, can you come and pray with his family for the believer right there in the midst of the difficulty, or for someone who's just saying, Hey, my wife and I are fighting. We don't know how to get through uh these days together, we don't know how to raise our kids peaceably, to just take them by the, hey, can I pray for you? There's there is almost no greater discipling bridge than to ask that question, can I pray for you? And to do it right then, to hear them or to for them to hear you speak so personally to Jesus and to invite you into that communion with him is eternal in nature. And so uh that is a huge bit. But also every missionary at some point has encountered someone at a missions conference, a Sunday school class, that upon hearing their wonderful stories of how God is moving around the world, they would say something like, I could never go and do what you did. But when they talk to someone that is from their same occupation, from their same field, from their same um educational background, that they're hearing the stories about how God is using them, suddenly that objection to involvement evaporates. Well, they could do just exactly what that person did. They do have the same skills, they do have the same time, the same opportunity. They're just not, they're just not using it in a way that is eternal. Sometimes we do have a tragic failure of imagination of how God might want to use us and use our experiences that often marketplace professionals can awaken in the hearts of each other.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's well said. Tim, what are you working on right now that you want to share with our listeners and maybe a way that they can potentially get involved?
SPEAKER_01So, one of the things that is absolutely critical for anybody that we partner with is for uh their church to be in the trenches with them. And so, one of the most important things that anybody that's feeling this leadership of the Lord to have this kind of overseas experience would be to talk to your church leaders, talk to your pastors, express this to them, cast vision for them. Sometimes church leaders have a failure of imagination too. Ask them to walk with you in this. Uh, and then as that happens, uh, and you need somebody else to say, hey, can you talk to my pastor or can you help us understand what this would look like? There are an army of people that would be so thrilled to say, hey, this is the way, walk in it. These are some things that you can consider in this part of the world or in uh this occupation or profession. And so we're constantly in that in-between of wanting to really network those that are trying to figure out what this means with those who already have. And so that's one of the most important parts of the process that we see is getting those who want to know and those who already do together. And that that's something that I'm really excited about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And the website is ssmfi.org. Anything else you want to say about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, please reach out to us. We we'd love to talk to you, love to help walk you through this process.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Ssmfi.org is the website. Uh, Tim, thank you for what you're doing and and bringing a mission strategy to the church and and really being a voice for um marketplace Christians to help mobilize us and and just get us engaged with the work that the church is doing around the world. And um, we're we all we all have a role, that's for sure. I appreciate what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Thanks a lot, Darren. It's a joy to be with you today.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode. And if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you'd leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and Business podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about HCU's Center for Christianity and Business, and sign up to receive free access to all issues of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening, and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.