1. Past experience with outside ministries and persons demonstrates vetting it is required.
2. The Mi’Kmaq differ from the inland Indigenous that most ministries are exposed to.
3. The people wish it and need it.
4. The people have become sensitive to change and misunderstanding.
5. The people are easily influenced for good or bad by outsiders for many reasons.
6. Language, style, delivery, personal beliefs and doctrine are a sensitive area impacting.
7. There are unspoken and hidden rules about the culture and the people affecting the complexities of the church plant.
8. The culture is historically catholicized and not so mainstreamed as the rest of Canada.
9. The ongoing work is momentous and can be negatively impacted by an outsider who is not vetted or oriented, which could render the experience for all counterproductive.
10. There is a Zero operating budget available to date for overhead costs or honoraria to cover ministries and teams.
Example areas for screening include:
Expectation
Ostentation and posturing of the 5-fold, enabling entertainment for ‘event only’ believers, insistence entry to get an “experience”, build ministry portfolio, ‘enlighten’ the local missionary-pastor.
Lack of follow-up
Manpower prior, during and post
Debriefings, not just orientations
Accommodations
Local Missionary-Pastor must benefit 100% from outside ministries to be truly helpful to the people.
Attachments and blind vulnerabilities
Personal beliefs are observed and picked up by locals, especially from those with charisma or gifts
Socio-Economic dynamics both ways can hurt long-term