Subsume Missions in Mission & Team PPT
12/15/2013
Subsume Missions in Mission
− Understand the crisis in world missions, and help launch a new missionary movement.
A long list of problems
There are many reasons why mission is so hard:
1. It seems as if we’re almost done.
The last few inches don’t inspire us as much.
2. Denominationalism is dying.
The dying of denominationalism thus seems to be knocking some of the wind out of our missionary sails.
3. Urbanization has stolen the jungle mystique.
4. The home church is struggling.
5. The home church is selfish.
6. The world is becoming more educated.
7. Christianity seems to have failed.
8. Postmodernism and pluralism make this a different world.
9. The spiritual-material polarization has been difficult to overcome.
Where the church has focused on deeds, too often the message has seemed to lose its urgency; where we have focused on words, too often the deeds have been forgone; and where we have sincerely tried to keep the balance, we have tended toward on or the other extreme over time.
10. The proliferation of parachurch groups and workers has caused donor fatigue.
11. A lack of dramatic results can cause cynicism.
12. There are too many unsatisfied missionary customers.
They realized that the world wasn’t really going to change, at least not as much as they had anticipated.
13. There has been a reaction against the “ugly American” stereotype.
14. The indigenous missionary movement has grown at the expense of the traditional missionary movement.
You can barely support one Western missionary in Nepal for $48,000 per year, but that same amount can support twelve Indian missionaries.
15. Mission agencies are unsure of their constituencies.
At first, mission agencies probably regard the spiritually lost as their primary constituency – that is, those whom they most want to communicate with and serve. Then they often gradually come to view their donors as their constituency. Eventually, their missionaries, both on the field and in retirement, may crowd our even the donors.
16. Missionaries continue to struggle with enculturation.
Before long, cultural differences (for example, many Korean Christians pray loud and in unison; British Christians usually don’t) will become the basis for sectarianism and division among Central Asian Christians (for example, praying loud is viewed as more spiritual – or more fanatical).
17. Diversification is a blessing and a curse.
18. After a while, when the word “missions” seems to mean almost anything, we have to wonder if it means anything in particular. The loss of focus can result in many other losses too – a loss of commitment, accountability, interest, funding, and purpose.
19. Many missions face structural chaos.
Choosing between organizational bureaucracy and chaos is a tough choice. Neither promotes missionary effectiveness.
20. The focus on short-term reportable results has caused long-term damage at home and abroad.
1) Urgency has been a hallmark of evangelistic fervor.
2) When we come back to the so-called miracle site a year later, what do we find? Too often we find nothing. Back home, donors eventually catch on and become jaded.
21. Nominal Christianity has turned up on nearly every mission field.
Our first missionary movement specialized in evangelism; maybe the next will have to specialize in re-evangelism.
22. Women and ethnic minorities are still largely excluded from mission leadership.
There are solutions, though:
− Emphasize project design.
− Raise new money in new ways.
− Think outside the box.
− Think bringing, not just sending.
− Think fewer, not more.
− Think term, not short or long.
− Think younger and younger, and older and older.
− We need to try to create exciting youth churches within stagnant adult churches. Since the majority of people in many parts of the world are under eighteen, perhaps that’s where we should invest the most energy.
− Bob Buford argues in Halftime that more and more middle-aged people will decide to switch their attentions from success to significance.
PPT
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