In This Issue: Top Ten Myths about Missions, Part II
- Myth #5 – It’s All about Meeting Needs
- Myth #6 – It’s Just One More Thing
- Myth #7 – It’s All Missions
- Myth #8 – All Mission Effort Has the Same Strategic Value
- Myth #9 – God Only Uses Americans and Other Westerners
- Myth #10 – God Has Given Up on Americans / Westerners
- Conclusion
Dear Readers,
Last month I floated out four myths that I think characterize the thinking of many Christians regarding missions: 1. Only Extraordinary People Need Apply; 2. Missions Means Going Overseas, Planting Churches; 3. Non-Christians (Especially Muslims) Are Hairy, Scary Meanies; 4. It’s All About Money.
Let’s tackle the remaining six this month.
Cheers,
Shane Bennett
Myth #5 – It’s All about Meeting Needs
Because few things stir compassion and stir action like stories and photos of hurting children, much mission mobilization has been accomplished by inviting people to meet needs. The logical result? An assumption that this is what missions is mostly about.
Now God makes it quite clear that he is fond of widows and orphans. Jesus speaks eloquently about cross-cultural compassion in one of his best stories. And working to meet the needs of others is a good and godly response to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
But mission efforts motivated by needs have this shortfall: More needs are always just around the corner. In order to keep compassion going, we may also feel like we have to describe more and more extreme needs. Rather than mobilizing, this can create a paralyzing sense of powerlessness in the very people we want to enlist in our cause.
I appreciate the framework Steve Hawthorne and John Piper (among others) have laid out for us: God is unfolding a wonderful plan to draw some from all peoples to himself. He is undertaking a great effort to restore all things and extend his blessing to all nations. Our mission? It’s about joining God in his great purposes for our planet. Meeting our needs and the needs of others is a part of it, but the main thing is bringing honor to God: He is central.
See also: Piper’s Let the Nations be Glad and Hawthorne’s The Story of His Glory in the Perspectives Reader.
Myth #6 – It’s Just One More Thing
Perhaps arising from the previous myth, this idea places missions on the same level as the rest of the ongoing duties of a church. What do you think? I live for the least-reached peoples, so let me admit, I could be a little biased in calling this a myth. I’m with twentieth-century theologian Emil Brunner on this one, “The church exists for mission as a fire exists for burning.”
I don’t know what Dr. Brunner meant when he said “mission.” Perhaps he would vehemently disagree with my take on the next myth. What I do like is a challenge to think about what Church is all about. What is the Church and what is its purpose? This is a huge discussion. But I think it’s about more than simply making sure we obey Hebrews 10:25; it’s about being and extending the Kingdom of God. Missions is somehow key to the very purpose of the Church.
Myth #7 – It’s All Missions
One of my early attempts to share my passion for unreached nations took place a small country church some years ago. I gave them my best. Even so, I’m sure the predominant thought was, “Isn’t that youngster a dear,” not “Let’s go to the ends of the earth!” The pastor also felt it necessary to mitigate my remarks and blunt my passion for the unreached by assuring his flock, “We’re all missionaries to our neighborhoods and workplaces!” I was thoroughly deflated.
If you’re a white 75-year-old named Mrs. Johnson and your neighborhood consists predominately of Arabic-speaking Yemenis with a smattering of “Goth” teenagers thrown in, and you’re building relationships with them because you love them and love Jesus, then, yeah, you’re a missionary to your neighborhood. Otherwise, maybe you’re not.
Not all outward efforts for the gospel is missions. Not all that is good and “of Jesus,” is “missions.” That doesn’t mean it’s not good, just that it’s not missions.
See also: Alan Hirsch on looking at our communities with the thoughtful, loving, eyes of a cross-cultural missionary.
Myth #8 – All Mission Effort Has the Same Strategic Value
Say we limit “missions” to work done for Jesus in a different culture. Should we then further distinguish value among different mission work? This is a dicey business and not for the faint of heart. Therefore, let me defer to my friend Rick, in Michigan, as he shares some of his frustration with this myth and myth number six.
“I think the unstoppable myth in our congregation (so far, anyway) is that there is really no difference between shoveling my neighbor’s sidewalk, doing relief work in the slums of Manila, and planting churches among unreached people. So of course in the absence of direct supernatural revelation from God, most people reach for the snow shovel. There is no consensus at all for the priority of frontier missions, and not much idea that the gospel has a purpose beyond making us nicer people who help other people to be nicer too.”
The value you place on a certain activity rises or falls based on the goal you’re shooting for. One of things I appreciate about Perspectives is its emphasis on starting something among all people groups. (See core ideas 10 and 11.)
If that is our goal, we prioritize the least reached and the unengaged.
Myth #9 – God Only Uses Americans and Other Westerners
Perhaps this is less myth than practical assumption. God has gifted Americans generally with a sense that we can overcome problems and accomplish worthwhile goals. It might go without saying that this gift has been unwrapped and used to whack our siblings on the head more times than I care to count. I’ll say it anyway, just so you non-Americans hear that we Americans (at least some of us) acknowledge and regret this.
Being gifted thus by God, we can sometimes think we’re the only ones concerned about God’s global kingdom. When we venture to other countries (maybe yours!), we might think that God arrives when we do. We’re pretty sure he wasn’t here before we showed up!
One of the most hopeful trends of my young life is the growth of the church and the embrace of God’s purposes for all nations from the global east and south. God is increasingly raising up mission efforts from Africa, South America, and across Asia. Praise God for you, our brothers and sisters, who are joining or re-joining this great global cause.
See also: The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (and other works) by Philip Jenkins.
Myth #10 – God Has Given Up on Americans / Westerners
Conversely, some believers consider the growth of the non-western church and the decline of the church in many Western lands as an indication that God no longer uses people like Americans. Or maybe he primarily wants to use our financial resources to fund the work of others. Two things: God certainly wants Westerners to use their financial resources to further his work. Even with the scary economic situation (The Dow closed down over 400 points while I was writing this!), Americans are still among the richest people on the planet. As we have been given much, we are expected to give much.
Secondly, God is free to use whoever he wants, however he wants. His decisions in this regard are often surprising and puzzling for us. Our role is to think carefully about what God is doing and how we might best join in. Sometimes that means writing a check for a budding mission agency in Eritrea. Other times that means writing a check for a passport application, a plane ticket, immunizations, and an Arabic phrasebook!
Conclusion
Perhaps other myths come to your mind. If you’d like to share them, please send me an email. If you really want to enter this conversation, forward this to someone at your church whom you like and respect, but who has no passion for missions. Ask them how accurate this is. Brad at Pioneers did just that and was rewarded with a thoughtful and helpful reply. Maybe you could do me and a couple of your friends a favor simply by asking what they think.
See also: Top Ten Myths about Missions, Part I
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.