MK forum

New Tribes Mission leadership worldwide:

The handwriting is on the wall. Its over. I ask of you to do the only noble thing left...that is to set in motion a plan of action that will dismantle this atomic bomb called New Tribes Mission. This mission can no longer stand and shouldn't. There are plenty of other organizations out there doing the work of the Kingdom and I'm quite certain that even if every tribe was vacated today of all missionaries, somehow I know that God is bigger than any unfunished work you leave behind. Others would rise to the challenge. Point is, you didn't and now you shouldn't!!!

By all means close the ministry down, but don't leave the hurt and wounded unprovided for.
I believe this course of action is the right and noble thing to do. Trying to survive and change is not possible when the abuses, of every kind, are part of the very fabric and philosophy of NTM as so clearly pointed out in the GRACE report. The lepoard can't change its spots and neither can NTM change its nature, as hard as all of you think you are trying. The abuses just run too consistent too pervasive and too deep. Your not seeing or thinking clearly because your vision is clouded. Self preservation will result in self destruction.

For the record, I'm an umpteenth generation NTM MK and NTBI grad, raised my whole life on foreign soil, and who did not suffer any physical or sexual abuses, but I have reached the conclusion that enough is enough and my brothers and sisters have lived in an earthly hell of the leadeships creating for far too long. (It goes without saying, we all suffered spiritual abuse.) Investigate, deal with the abuses and abusers correctly, put money in escrow for all those hurting so proper healing can take place, and in the meantime start shuttering the doors, worldwide!!! If you don't, my money says God will.

I say all this, not out of frustration or anger nor any ill will toward any one individual, but rather it comes from a sincere and honest heart. This is not an inflamatory letter. Its just simply stating the obvious... game over, just please recognize this before you all have to find out the hard way and before you bring any more harm to Gods name and his people!

Please head this advice, if you won't then at least its one more log on the fire to bring down the gates. In Jesus name!

Sincerely,
Ironman

Thank you very much, Ironman!
That took guts.

I've had a think and a consult with my very wise other half.

Is part of New Tribes Missions problem some of the people they attract?

Just imagine you are Joe average, sitting in suburbia, going to church on Sunday and to your mundane job five days per week. You long to be a bigger fish, to really be someone, but your pond is big and you're just one of the many fish swimming in it.
One day a missionary rep visits and suddenly before you lies an opportunity. You can be a big fish in a smaller pond and look very good doing it. So off you go to missionary training, your home church elevates you to super star status and it can all be justified by serving God.
Then you get to go to the mission field. There you are the big man amongst a lot of non-educated natives. You live in a nice house, they live in grass huts. You have a captive audience, you're powerful and everything you say is believed. After a while you begin to think that God is speaking to these people through you. Then it gets a bit grey, you tend to act like you are god. The only people you have to compete with in the fish bowl are the other fish that want to get to the top.
You might not even have to be in the back of beyond, you might land a job at the boarding school. Now the kids look up to you, they have few other role models in their small fish pond and they have to do what you say, because you are the big fish. The more religous mumbo jumbo you can spout the more respect you can attain, even your peers respect you more, the more mumbo jumbo you talk. The power goes to your head and one day you cross the line, but the line was blurry anyway. You may not sexually abuse anyone, but what about the psychological damage done. You have control of young minds and your only qualification is that you were in the fish bowl at the time you were needed. And if you play your cards right, you might even make it into leadership, after all you know the right mumbo jumbo to say and you are ambitious.

Sound to weird to be true. No not really. I've met quite a few of these in my teenage years.

Bingo!

Then you have the really young ones who come right from HS.
They are in awe of anyone who appears to be anyone.
And they just get factored in.
And the MKs whose parents were advised not to consider college as too worldly. Only NTBI.
But EVEN some of these grow up and begin to ask questions or want to make suggestions as they learn more. They are tread upon.
Only those who swallow the party line can advance.

NTM, if you insist on existing, at least be honest with yourself regarding your structure and effectiveness. I wonder, if a 3rd party was privy to view "a day in the life" of each NTM member, what conclusion that 3rd party would draw regarding the occupation of each member. I suspect "missionary" would be somewhere towards the bottom of the list.

And, should it really take 4 years of training to be able to live in a different location and not do anything you were trained to do? My company has hundreds of different skill sets and occupations represented. What would I recommend a polymer scientist study to become a polymer scientist at my company - hmm...maybe tax law? Yeah, let's have everybody study tax law for four years before joining my company.

I know the gospel is exceptionally complicated, but (1) the majority of NTM members are not involved with sharing the gospel with anybody; and (2) the ones who do don't need 4 years of training, and least not the type of training I was privy to. What worthlessness.

Maybe I am crazy, but does an NTM accountant need to understand accounting, or how to translate Scripture? Does a missionary who will quit during their first term overseas really need to learn how to "lead" a new tribal church? I have a novel idea - heavy heavy upfront screening (background checks, references, interviews, lie detector tests, etc.), a brief orientation, then straight overseas to learn the foreign language, be involved with a local church, and making friends with local people. So far, this is not rocket science...it is largely what we all did when we were babies. Then, for those who haven't already quit or been fired, figure out which ones may need some additional training and which ones don't. For example, an NTM member with a PHd in finance may not need any additional training at all (besides some on the job training) to become a finance manager on a field. For those that want to learn a tribal language from scratch, maybe send them back for a few months of study in how to learn a language (you know, maybe on one of those "furlough" vacations or something). Then, send them into the tribe to learn the language. For those who don't quit before learning the tribal language, maybe given them some further specialized training depending on whether they will be translating the Bible or whatever...maybe just some online training. My point is, let's not be stupid about the way we do things and let's not waste so much damned time doing all this stupid "training" that very few use and that is, quite frankly, terrible. And those who do use it, use it so many years after they learn it that they forget it.

Just some ideas if you decide not to close your doors, NTM. Any "urgency" in sharing the gospel with a tribal person is generally well lost in the average 10 years it takes to get to that point. And, we don't want to program all robots with the same propoganda lest we lose some fresh and entrepreneurial ideas and gain too narrow a focus that we can't see the thing that we are focusing on.

Hmm ... some very good food for thought, Thai MK. You make some fresh and relevant points.

But I think you'll lose NTM's attention though, with you final sentence:

"And, we don't want to program all robots with the same propaganda lest we lose some fresh and entrepreneurial ideas and gain too narrow a focus that we can't see the thing that we are focusing on."

Isn't this the main objective of NTM's intensive 4-year training in the first place?

it's a cult, do your research on what authoritarian leadership is when used in a cult setting. wake up.

au·thor·i·tar·i·an   [uh-thawr-i-tair-ee-uhn, uh-thor-]
adjective
1.
favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom: authoritarian principles; authoritarian attitudes.
2.
of or pertaining to a governmental or political system, principle, or practice in which individual freedom is held as completely subordinate to the power or authority of the state, centered either in one person or a small group that is not constitutionally accountable to the people.
3.
exercising complete or almost complete control over the will of another or of others: an authoritarian parent.
Noun
4.
a person who favors or acts according to authoritarian principles.