The challenge of building new mission structures

We all know the task cannot be done by Western missionaries alone. In point of fact, the remaining task cannot be done by the existing missionary force.

In doing the district survey, I have found place after place with hundreds of thousands if not millions of people that is marked as being between 0.1% and 5% Christian – places that could be reached with some systematic effort, but that aren’t being reached because that effort is lacking. There are too many places, not enough workers.

So, a key part of reaching closure is that additional evangelists and disciple-makers must be raised up.

How?

One part will be accomplished through the natural process of disciples making disciples and churches planting churches. That’s how a given district can go from being 0.1% Christian, to 2% Christian, to 5% Christian, to 10% Christian, and so on.

But many places do not have churches at all. These are places that have to be “pioneered.”

Some of the pioneering process can be the result of “spill-over” from neighboring areas – those wonderful anecdotal stories of peoples who have come to faith and then begun reaching out to nearby peoples.

Some of the pioneering process will be the result of intentional cross-cultural missionaries raised up from distant cities, districts and provinces and sent out – for example, urban Chinese missionaries sent to rural China, or Indians from the South going into the North, and so on.

Now, here’s the difficulty that we will have to face: the laborers have to eat. The worker is worthy of his hire.

Churches multiplying can pay for themselves somewhat through their own internal processes. If I start with church (a) and then multiply into churches (b), (c), (d), etc., that process is paid for by the new members of the church.

And, churches that “pioneer” into new areas can often pay for themselves as well.

But what about the process of pioneering into new places that are difficult and often restrictive – places that take a lot of time?

Some evidence suggests it can take years for a new church plant to get started. How are the workers supported during that time? In the long term, the church supports itself. But we don’t pay for food in the long-term.

The challenge of building systems and structures to support the evangelistic worker – whether it’s a he or she, whether it’s a local or a foreigner, whether it’s a tentmaker or a non-tentmaking evangelist – this will be the huge challenge that we face.

Some agencies are creating systems for “associating” national workers in. Some agencies are internationalizing. Some agencies say “stay at home, send money” to support locals. Some people say any outside money creates dependency and kills movements.

There will be no one-size-fits-all solution. There will be many solutions that do not work at all – or solutions which we feel will be destructive in the long-run even if they are productive in the short run – but finding what works (as opposed to what doesn’t work) is one of the premiere issues for the mission strategist. If you’re facing this challenge, you’re not alone, and the best you can do is learn how others have done it, and try lots of experiments.