Chapter 17: Mission Trends

and Paradigm Shifts

Chapter Outline

• Introduction• Short-Term Emphasis• Churches and Agencies in Tension• Financing Missions• Majority World Missions• Partnerships• Spiritual Warfare• Technology and an Ocean of Information• Conclusion

Short-Term Emphasis

• For many years it has been assumed (and even promoted) that people who go on short-term missions are more likely to come back as career missionaries.

• The fact, however, that there has been a tremendous upsurge in short-term workers without any corresponding increase in the ranks of long-term missionaries indicates the possibility that this assumption is wrong (see Moreau 2000c).

Short-Term Emphasis

• The Ups and Downs of Short-Term Missions

• The Message of Short-Term Missions

The Ups and Downs of Short-Term Missions

• Cons:• Career missionaries can be sidetracked by

having to watch over a loud, brash group of young people who are insensitive to the culture and unaware of the images they project.

• It can literally take years to undo damage done by more extreme groups who don’t take into account the realities of culture and the expectations they bring.

The Ups and Downs of Short-Term Missions (cont.)• Pros:

• Short-term projects not only can be a healthy vehicle for people to consider long-term service, but also, in the best of cases, they can assist long-term missionaries or nationals in completing significant projects for God’s kingdom that would not otherwise ever be done.

“Ten Commandments” for Short-Term Missions (Cull n.d.)

1. Thou shalt always remember that the primary function of a short-term team is to learn, and not to help.

2. Thou shalt always defer to the long-term missionaries, even when thou dost not agree with them.

3. Thou shalt surely leave all thy agendas at home before thou arrivest on the mission field.

“Ten Commandments” (cont.)

4. Thou shalt be prepared to spend large amounts of time doing nothing, for thus verily is the way of the mission field.

5. Thou shalt be careful to obey, in all details, the security rules and advice of the project which thou visitest.

6. Thou shalt be both attentive and accurate in the communication with the mission base before thy visit.

“Ten Commandments” (cont.)

7. Thou shalt be careful to pay for all the expenses of thy visit.

8. Thou shalt take great care in thy giving and thy spending, lest thou appearest to be filthy rich.

9. Thou shalt be careful to respect the doctrinal and theological views of the project which thou visitest.

10. Thou shalt surely keep thy word in regards to follow-up activities.

The Message of Short-Term Missions

• Above all else, the enormous popularity of short-term missions is a reflection of local churches’ desire to be involved more directly in global missions.

• The tidal wave of short-term missions is also a reflection of the cultural reality that relationships and choice, rather than authority and institutional loyalty, now rule the day.

The Message of Short-Term Missions (cont.)• We should remember that short-term

missions are largely the product of a particularly wealthy and mobile historical context. Change the attendant conditions, and the methods will change.

• Short-term missions, both within the agency rubric and the more direct church-to-church variety, are not going away any time soon.

Churches and Agencies in Tension

• Churches, especially the larger ones, are pulling back from unquestioning support of the agendas and methodologies of established mission agencies.

• Missionaries are being sent out directly by local churches, often bypassing the agencies altogether.

Churches and Agencies in Tension (cont.)

• It is possible, given right attitudes and clear thinking, to see healthy synergism rule the day, wherein churches and agencies work together not only in implementation, but also in setting agendas in conjunction with believers in a region to accomplish things that none of them could achieve alone.

Financing Missions

• Almost $3 billion dollars was given to American agencies for overseas missions in 1999,• an increase of more than 21% from 1996

to 1999, even after adjusting for inflation (Moreau 2000c, 34), and

• this increase was a broad-based one (Ibid., 45).

Financing Missions (cont.)

• Perspective: In the same year • Americans spent $6.1 billion on

computer video games, and• Burger King sales exceeded $10 billion.

Financing Missions

• What are the long-term prospects?• Will giving generosity dwindle with the

economy?• We are seeing the retirement (and death) of a

generation that was more financially committed and the transfer of wealth to a generation known for its greed rather than its generosity.

Financing Missions (cont.)

• The core problem appears to be a scandal of the evangelical heart in North America:• God’s people increasingly seem to love the world and

seek its approval more than they love and seek the approval of the Savior.

• Additionally, the relative cost of financing missionaries from the West versus missionaries from the rest of the world has caught the attention of many agencies and church missions committees in the United States.

Majority World Missions

• U.S. agencies are becoming more international.

• Majority world mission agencies and missionaries are exploding, but not always following traditional Western models of support.

• This explosion is not under the control of anyone but God, and it is a cause for great rejoicing.

Partnerships

• Creating and carrying out partnerships in which each member is valued and has something to offer to the partnership is difficult under the best of circumstances.

• Never before in modern history has there been such a high level of interagency cooperation, both within and across cultures. This has been facilitated in part by the shift in emphasis, especially in the West, from denominational/ theological loyalties to ministry/philosophy loyalties.

Mistakes Partners Make (Rickett 2001)

• Mistake 1: Assuming you think alike• Mistake 2: Promising more than you can deliver• Mistake 3: Taking to the road without a map • Mistake 4: Underestimating cultural differences• Mistake 5: Taking shortcuts• Mistake 6: Forgetting to develop self-reliance• Mistake 7: Running a race with no end

Spiritual Warfare

• Definition• Personal Spiritual Warfare• Personal Ministry in Spiritual Warfare• Strategic Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare: Definition

• Spiritual warfare is the struggle Christians have to live faithful Christian lives in the face of onslaughts of spiritual powers of darkness.

Personal Spiritual Warfare

• Missionary training in evangelical circles in the West largely ignored issues of spiritual warfare until the early 1980s.

• The focus with many who teach spiritual warfare is on the need for the missionary or evangelist to be equipped to face Satan’s attacks.

Personal Spiritual Warfare (cont.)

• However we answer the question of Satan’s ability to affect believers, the New Testament warnings to humble ourselves before God and be on our guard so that we can resist Satan (1 Pet. 5:8–9) and stand our ground in the face of his attacks (Eph. 6:10–18) make it clear that Christians are not immune to his attacks.

Personal Ministry in Spiritual Warfare

• In addition to being prepared to face spiritual warfare in their own lives, they need preparation in ways to minister to the “harassed and helpless” (Matt. 9:35–38) whom they encounter.

• Several approaches to spiritual warfare have been developed:• Outright confrontation of the demons (Dickason 1987) • Engaging truth in the life of the victim (Anderson

1990a; Moreau 1977a; Smith 2000)• Bringing God’s power to bear through visualization

techniques (Kraft 1992; 1994)

Personal Ministry in Spiritual Warfare (cont.)

• All approaches have strengths and weaknesses. • The confrontational approach can move into

abuse, especially when people try to get a demon to speak when no demon is present.

• The engaging of truth can deal with cognitive issues but leave emotions unhealed.

• Visualization methods open the door to imaginative speculations and spiritual counterfeits.

Strategic Spiritual Warfare

• Some have more recently advocated that a key element in missionary ministry is the confrontation and binding of spirits who are responsible for territories rather than individuals, called by Peter Wagner “strategic-level spiritual warfare.”

• Associated with this is the practice of “spiritual mapping,” in which Christians seek to discover, through a combination of research and prayer, the spirits controlling a geographic domain (such as a city or region) so that they may more effectively combat these territorial spirits in prayer.

Strategic Spiritual Warfare (cont.)

• Scriptural evidence does seem to indicate territory-oriented responsibilities assigned to demons.

• Even so, this does not automatically mean that Christians are called to engage such spirits in prayer warfare over territories.

• Exaggerated claims of spiritual breakthrough, unsubstantiated testimonies of territorial deliverance, and shaky use of the biblical texts weigh heavily against missionary engagement of territorial spirits.

Technology and an Ocean of Information

• We have access to vast quantities of information—but it is difficult to know how to sift it and use it wisely• E-mail• CD resources• Internet-based resources, such as:

• MisLinks• Network for Strategic Missions• The Missiology Homepage• Globalmission.org