Shift One: Moving
from being primarily doers to being primarily equippers of national workers. It is no longer about what we, as
missionaries, can do ourselves but what we can help others do in their context.
Increasingly, we must stand behind and alongside national workers as equippers, coaches, and encouragers rather than in front of them.
This is reflective of what Jesus intended for the
church. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-12 that “Christ himself gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his
people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
Often, we hire pastors to do the work of ministry for us when, in reality, their
job is primarily to equip all of God’s people to be involved in ministry in
line with their gifting and wiring.
The application of this in missions is that missionaries
are often trainers and equippers of others to help them do what they can do
better than us in their context. Thus, in many cases, missionaries are no
longer primarily church planters and evangelists but are equippers and
trainers of nationals in theology, church planting, holistic ministries, and
those ministries that contribute to the growth of the church.
This leads naturally to Shift
Two: Moving from being in charge to equal partnerships with nationals where
neither party is subsumed under the other and where each retains their autonomy.
The day of colonial and paternalistic missions is over. It is a remnant of the
black-and-white world. Equal partnerships are the coinage of the color world
where each party, missions, and nationals brings different skills and abilities
to the table for mutual cooperation.
It is in partnership with national movements that are
orthodox in their theology and missional in their activity, bringing the most significant leverage and synergy. This is a natural outcome of the first shift: We
are present to help the church grow, and that is done in equal partnerships
where each party brings something of value to the ministry table.
Shift three is a natural outcome of the first two. Moving from owning and controlling to a philosophy
of “we own nothing, control nothing, and count nothing as ours.”
This is a servant mentality that says we are here to serve you in helping you
plant churches, develop holistic ministries, and evangelize your people. We will
serve you, not control you. Those agencies that serve with an open hand are
magnets for indigenous believers to partner with.
Living out a non-controlling ministry philosophy is a
prerequisite for partnerships today. It also models the ministry
model of Christ and the Apostle Paul and the spirit of humility that Paul
speaks of in Philippians 2:5-11. This is sometimes a challenge for Western
missions, who are used to being “in control” rather than at a table of equal
partners.
Shift four. Embracing the reality that
missions are moving from Western Missionaries to Global missionaries.
The future is all people reaching all people. Increasingly, missionaries will be
coming from the majority world, and our willingness to invite them to the table
on our teams and within our structures or to partner with them becomes a test
of a servant philosophy.
This also means that we must work to encourage and equip our national partners to become sending entities rather than simply receiving entities. When national movements become engaged in the Great Commission, amazing things happen, and they participate in the joy of seeing new areas reached for Christ.
Shift Five: Moving from dependencies to self-sufficiency wherever possible. Helping
indigenous partners grow out of their dependencies on the West by realizing
what they bring to the table and by assisting them to fund their efforts from their
context wherever possible lifts them up, gives them dignity, and allows us to
partner as equals rather than dependents. Dependent partners cannot be equal
partners.
This often means helping national partners find ways to finance their ministries more independently and partnering together in places where that is not fully possible.
Shift Six,
Moving from addition to multiplication. This is consistent with shift one, from
doers to equippers. It is not about what we can do but what we can help
others do. While we must often start with addition, basic evangelism, and
discipleship, our mindset should always be to move as quickly as possible toward
multiplication strategies that allow us to leverage our efforts for the Gospel.
Shift seven, Moving from
competition to cooperation, gets more personal for many of us. We are used to
doing our thing. We have taught our national partners to do their thing. In the
process, we have created ministry silos and denominational entities that work
alone in relative weakness rather than figuring out how to work together to propagate the Gospel. We are better together than alone.
This is a time in history when we have a unique opportunity to work together rather than separately for the sake of the Gospel. The world's needs are too high to tackle alone, and we need one another. It is possible if we look at what we have in common instead of concentrating on those things we don't.
This leads me to Shift eight. Moving from an emphasis
on my brand to His brand. Jesus did not die for my brand of the church, the
EFCA. He died for His bride, the church. That is why we no longer plant EFC
churches but seek to plant healthy, indigenous, self-supporting, reproducing, and interdependent churches. The brand is not as important as the spread of the
Gospel. At the end of the day, Jesus is not concerned about brand names. He is, however, concerned about His Bride and the spread of the Gospel.
Shift nine.
Moving from agency-based missions to church/agency synergy. The vision for
missions belongs first to the local church, not to mission agencies. Missions
that thrive in the future will be those that serve the mission vision of the
local church, domestically and internationally. We are servant organizations.
In the globalized world, we no longer have a monopoly on the great commission, and local churches will increasingly go their own way if we do not serve them
well.
Let me illustrate these shifts with a real-life
example. Six years ago, I met a young couple in Manila from a closed country in South East Asia. They had
just finished their degrees and were heading back to work in the complex
context of a brutal regime in a profoundly Buddhist context. I knew this individual
had leadership stuff in him, and we developed a relationship over the next several years.
Sometime later, a cyclone hit this fragile country. I received an email saying that he had
spent all his money providing rice and water to those affected who were without food and homes. He asked if there was any
way we could help.
Over the next several years, we helped my friend
develop a ministry team that has rebuilt bamboo homes and lives, done
evangelism and church planting where there are few believers,
trained pastors, and developed leaders. He is one of the few leaders in this country that works across denominational lines. We helped him
develop three businesses, providing funds for his team to fund his efforts. Regularly, we coach, mentor, and train him and his team. They have formed a
ministry to train leaders and plant churches nationwide regardless of
their brand.
This country is a classic example of the result
of propagating our brands over the years. I have been up to the northern
mountain village where missionaries in years past liked to live. I won’t forget
that town. We landed on an airstrip with animals wandering on it. The only
hotel we could stay in as foreigners charged us twenty dollars a night for lousy
food, no mosquito netting, and about one hour of electricity daily. I was
particularly enamored by the airport security when we left. The airport had no electricity, but we still had to walk through the non-functioning security
machine.
Here is the wild thing. You will find every
denomination known to mankind in this town and many denominations not yet
known to mankind as the original denominations split and formed new groups. It
is a hoot to drive through this town in this Buddhist country. All the streets
have biblical names, and you pass building after building of different
denominations. Here in a country that desperately needs the Gospel, you find an
amazing number of small, weak denominations that don’t work together. We trained
them well, and they followed our example.
But think about this: In equipping my friend, we have lived out shift one,
moving from being primarily doers to primarily equippers. In partnering with
him, we live out shift two, from being in charge to equal partnerships. In
helping him develop his ministry, we live out shift three, that we own nothing, control nothing, or count nothing as ours. In helping him build his own
team, we live out shift four of raising up indigenous missionaries.
We live out shift five by helping him become self-sufficient rather than
dependent. In empowering his team, we live out shift six
of multiplication. In mentoring him to work with multiple Bible-based
denominations, we live out shift seven of cooperation rather than competition
and shift eight that it is not about our brand but the Gospel.
In connecting my friend to churches in the States and Asia interested in reaching this nation, we live out shift nine of agency/church
synergy. In every way, it is a
win for him, us, the Gospel, and his nation. Start multiplying that one
example globally, and you see the amazing potential for the Gospel.
