International (MNN) — Churches are being reminded to be careful. Many Churches in their effort to let their members know about what happening with their missionaries, end up put ministry in jeopardy in some cases.
Donna Messenger with the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism is concerned. “One of our missionaries just wrote me and said that their church had put their prayer letter on their web site without the missionary’s knowledge and a person in their country that they had been witnessing to for several months, Googled his own name and found it and was not happy with what he saw,” says Messenger.
Many church web sites Mission Network News found did not post missionary prayer letters. However, there are a few that did. Messenger says, “I appreciate the fact that churches want to put a story up on line for the people to know and pray for their missionaries better, but we need to really be thinking about where the internet goes.”
Being careful isn’t only for the sake of missionaries, says Messenger. “We mostly are concerned about our national partners. That, even if missionaries have to evacuate and leave the field there are still very dear national partners who have to live with whatever the fallout is on whatever the issue is.”
