I suggest that many local congregations have not been of great assistance to world mission. Such advances have not taken place because of, or at the instigation of, the local congregation. The support for world mission has come from individual Christians from within the churches, rather than from the churches themselves.

That’s a direct quote from Changing Global Mission Culture in the UK Church which is published by Global Connections in a collection of papers called Churches and Agencies in Partnership. I can’t seem to find a free copy online  so I’m going to do some grovelling and see if I can get a copy to send out with my next newsletter because it really is worth reading.

Since joining Wycliffe Bible Translators I’ve discovered that I now spend a lot more time thinking about mission than I ever did when I was part of a church – but that shouldn’t have been the case! If mission is supposed to be a core activity of a Christian community and a key element in every Christian’s life, regardless of the context they are living in, why did I have to join a mission agency before I had the opportunity to think seriously about many of the issues involved.

Why is a mission agency asking more questions about connecting in the local context than the local church that’s already there?

This paper, Changing Global Mission Culture in the UK Church, should probably be essential reading for all church leaders. Even if they disagree with the conclusions they would, at least, have to think through some of the issues that it throws up.

Quick Summary

The paper lists the present situation in many churches as

World mission is a marginalised interest for most and a fervent commitment for a few. Many church members are glad that their church has a world mission programme, but don’t want to have much to do with it themselves. ‘Missionary’ events are poorly supported.

The world mission mandate is connected to the Great Commission. The unspoken logic is that ‘We do it as a church because Jesus told us to.’

World mission involvement is limited to what comes from ‘missionary’ people or societies and is disconnected from what comes via the TV screen, from world news or news documentaries.

World sport, world music, fair trade concerns, environmental calamities, political issues, international business travel and tourist travel are not promoted in church as issues that interest God or impact on our faith.

Younger church members take little interest in the church’s world mission culture.

On a weekly basis, world mission is represented by a world map with a few pins stuck in it and a small pile of ‘missionary’ magazines, untouched and rather out of date.

Even when young people have been on short-term programmes and their involvement has energised and interested other young people, it often has done little to change the culture of the church as a whole in relation to world mission.

From a mission agency point-of-view, the opinion is,

Agencies know that most of the resources of people, prayer and finance that they need come from committed individuals in churches rather than from the church as a whole.

That’s a statement that’s easy to agree with, because, even if we don’t like it we need to acknowledge that it’s true.

The paper, rather than just criticising the current stage of affairs, does gives a few suggestions as to how our thinking and practices should be adjusted

1. Relate to the world biblically (not just Great Commissionally)

To  break the unhelpful church culture, we need to take a step back and stop talking about world mission… Instead, we need to help people relate biblically to the world.

2. Break down the home/field barrier

The church needs to recapture its global characteristics. Mission starts at the end of the pew and extends to the ends of the earth.

3. Restructure the local church

Close down anything that marginalises world mission and gives it a specialist only label.

4. Maximise globalisation

In many churches, the only things that relate personal faith to the world have a ‘missionary’ label. That’s the culture that we must change.

Thoughts

I feel awkward with the notion that people in full time Christian work are somehow more special than anyone else. I also feel pretty uncomfortable with the notion that people working overseas require more special attention than those who go to school, or the office or look after the home. I fully appreciate that there are significant challenges for people working in an alien culture, but their work and the importance of their relationships shouldn’t be any more valuable than those who are doing their best to obey God where they are right now.

I believe that the church in the UK has to do some significant thinking when it comes to their values associated with mission, but then so do many mission agencies – the one I work with included. Maybe this paper would be a good starting point.

Photograph from Ruth Hubbard's blog http://ruthhubbard.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/gloria-a-dios/

Ruth Hubbard is Vice-President of Communications for Wycliffe Bible Translators in the US. Recently she was in Guatemala, where Cameron Townsend – the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators – first recognised the need for Bible translation.

In a recent blog post Ruth reflected on how things have changed.

• When Cameron Townsend started work he thought that there were about 1,000 languages in the world. It turns out that there are around 7,000.
• In Guatemala it’s possible to see the results of the early days of Bible translation. Not only are there Christians as a result of the Bibles that were produced in the minority languages, but, these Christians are involved in leadership within the church.

Uncle Cam (that’s what some call him) had a vision that was both expansive and limited. He saw a day when people from every language community would have access to God’s Word and therefore could decide for themselves whether to enter into a relationship with Him or reject that invitation. That vision is in the process of being fulfilled. Today there are just over 2,000 language communities with no access to Scripture who need it, and around 2,000 with a translation in progress.

You can read the whole piece on Ruth’s blog Hubbard’s Cupboard

It just got me wondering, what do we take for granted today that within 80 years will have changed completely?

It’ll take a few moments for the audio to download, but the whole presentation is below.

Now before you get excited and start e-mailing for predictions for this year’s Derby winner (Kentucky Derby, Melbourne Cup, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, or any other horse race) I should be quite honest and let you know that I can’t.

What I do know is that the following statements are completely true:

• Being successful last year doesn’t mean that repeating the same thing guarantees success.
• Being unsuccessful doesn’t mean that it was a bad idea that can’t work in the future.

Mark wrote an interesting blog post this week about getting comfortable. He pointed out that it’s easy to look for the safe ground and never try anything new. Only repeating stuff means that you’re likely to miss out on the new and the exciting. For some it’ll be that they miss out on great food, others it’ll be seeing new things, for some it’ll mean that they’ll miss Jesus.

One great line his post though was…

But – we’ve never done it that way before, these 7 words would have to be the most inspiring words you are likely to ever hear???

Exciting isn’t it. Doing something new.

So share, what have you tried to do that’s turned to success or failure?

The real purpose of Engage is to provide the opportunity for Christians in the UK to get to see what God is doing in the world. While there are chances to serve (do stuff), the primary focus is on building relationships (being) and learning from the environment you are in and the people you are with. If you want to understand why, you can read my post ‘What on earth are we doing with mission?‘ or go out and buy the Missions Dilemma DVD which outlines some of the issues related to trips built solely around doing.

There are still places available for this year’s trips, so if you’re interested or you know someone who is, you need to get in touch before the closing date on the 19th March.

If you’d like to read some first hand accounts of Engage teams, there’s a whole page devoted to stories from previous years.

Oscar Muriu, from Nairobi in Kenya, says,

“You are so good at innovating, and resolving problems.  But you see the problems and can’t live with them.  You feel compelled, your compassion moves you to FIX them. We need a brother to give us space, a shoulder to cry on…  You must understand that there is a greater hope than this life itself.  I have prayed, ‘O Lord, please don’t send another missionary to fix us.  We have been fixed so many times we are in a real mess now.’  Would you hear our pain before you try to fix us?”

Wow! That came as a bit of a shock. What are we trying to do with missions? Are they for the people we are going to or are they for ourselves, to make us feel good about fixing the world’s problems?

I’ve been watching this Missions Dilemma DVD for five weeks now and it has made a mark on the way that I think. I can’t believe that I sat for years in churches listening to the stories of people who had been overseas talking about people who have ‘so little’ or ‘are in such a mess’ and telling me that I had ‘so much to give’. I actually have a lot to learn.

This week’s episode was focussed on short-term mission (aka Mission Tourism).

I’ve never been on a short-term mission trip, but I have heard a lot from people who have come back from two or four weeks overseas, mostly revolving around the idea of us having so much and them having so little. That may be true, but…

In the introduction to this episode, Steve Saint (the host) gave an illustration using Paris Hilton (the person, not the hotel) with the idea of her coming to our community and trying to show our poverty (in relation to her wealth). I’m going to change that a bit, all you have to do is imagine you are in charge of a church community…

Dear friend

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Phil and I am a member of [insert church name or organisation here] in the UK. This summer I will be visiting you with 20 friends from my church to bless, encourage and teach people in your community.

We would be happy to lead Bible studies, children’s groups, men’s and women’s fellowships plus give leadership training to you and your leaders. Of course we can also provide some manual help, carry out repairs to your building or, depending on the state of it, put up a new one.

We are all willing and enthusiastic volunteers who really want to bless you during this period.

All we will need when we are with you are places to sleep, if you could arrange that we would really appreciate it. We are happy to buy food and cater for ourselves, but obviously, will need somewhere to prepare and cook the meals. Oh, and we will want to take one day off to visit the local town and buy souvenirs.

Yours in Christ…

Don’t start by thinking about what it’s like in some African village to have a visit like this. Think what it would do in your church. What’s this saying? You can’t take care of your own people? You don’t know enough to teach the people? You don’t have a different group for the children, they go with the adults, so should you start something for my visit? What about the building, if someone else builds it is it yours? Then how to look after a group of 20 people in a different culture? And when you welcome guests isn’t it polite to offer a meal, so that’s 21 people to cater for?

We go with great and honourable intentions for short-term missions, but sometimes we can be a negative impact on a community. That’s not really what we want is it? I don’t think it’s wrong to go and vist, but how about we go with the attitude of learning rather than teaching. Instead of assuming we can do it better, go and find out what life is like there and just be a friend. Being part of God’s family it’s good to go and visit the extended family from time-to-time and to be an encouragement. But, let’s be a little more sensitive about the way we do things.

Missions Dilemma is an excellent resource that I think churches and missions agencies should at least consider. It’s going to be tough if you’re an American because it is presented for an American audience and deals directly with some American assumptions about mission (in the UK we make similar assumptions), but it’s also written by an American so I figure he’s allowed to be a little tougher with his own country.

A trailer for the DVD is below. Annoyingly, I can’t find it for sale on Amazon, but here’s a link to the I-TEC store where they are stocking this.

• The missional framework of the biblical narrative
• The missional purpose of the texts
• The missional locatedness of the readers
• The missional cost to the messenger

Part way through he mentioned that the Isrealites had been placed in Babylon and would be for at least two generations. They were to settle there and live in a missional way even though it wasn’t where they wanted to be. This just got me thinking.

God exists through all time. He’s as present in the future as he is in the present and knows, not just what will happen to us, but also what will happen to future generations. So the experiences and life choices we are making now are not just for us, but for future generations also.

As I said, I’m just thinking.

To share in some of the stories, hear of the successes of the past and consider the challenges of the future is worth the time away from my desk.

We spent some time at the start in small groups discussing the story in John 13:1-17, where Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. We drifted a little from the structure of the questions we had been given, which was good, because it allowed a member of the group to share the following (and I’m paraphrasing).

A strong relationship with God allows us to be humble. In the passage we see Jesus, God in human form, putting on a towel and bending down to wash the feet of men, including the guy who was about to give him up to be crucified.

If Jesus was looking for human authority or power he would have his feet washed by others, not bend to do it himself. However, his status is secure with God. He is the Son of God, that cannot be taken from him. Because of this security Jesus could be humble and do what is right rather than what is expected.

For us it’s the same. If our security is in God, our identity safe with Him, then it frees up our options to choose what is right rather than what is popular.

Last night I was listening to a similar thing in a podcast from the Viallage Church. Lessons learned along the journey, it’s worth a listen if you have the time.

We shifted a very full car this morning, unloaded at the flat and than charged out to a family friend’s 60th birthday. I’ve seemingly known David for most of my adult life and he’s spent most Easter and Christmas holidays with my parents and me. Today, with about 100 other freiends, we celebrated his birthday. There was a meal, singing, poetry (a particular poem about some people being old at 40 while others are still young at 73, is something I want to remember and track down at some point) and some brilliant music; and then David shared what it meant to have friends and family as well as knowing a real relationship with God.

Strange, as we left I couldn’t help think that this was exactly the kind of birthday party Jesus would have loved. There were people from work, artists and poets, religious leaders (a couple of CofE vicars), friends and family all sat around meal tables talking and sharing life with each other. New friendships were made and old ones reaquainted, sad and happy stories were told and all the glory, honour and praise was given to God.

Where are the missionary practitioners who will lead the church into a direct, responsible, and missiologically sound participation in missions? [read the whole post here]

I’m going to be pondering this for a while, and the rest of Ernest Goodman’s post, but without the expectation of coming to any sort of conclusion.

HT: Michelle