Changes come in three wavelengths

“Change comes in three wavelengths. There are changes to the game, changes in the rules of the game, and changes in how the rules are changed.” ~Kevin Kelly

The same principle can be seen in the mission task.

First, agencies sent people.

• Think William Carey, Hudson Taylor, etc.

Then, agencies that were created to send people to one spot began creating new fields, and new teams for those fields, and introducing change in the process.

• Think Norman Grubb, who after CT Studd’s death led Heart of Africa Mission (with 35 workers in the Congo) to become WEC International, a worldwide mission in 40 fields with thousands of workers (including internationalized–not just Europeans)

Then, people within agencies begin “changing the rules of the game” - helping non-Westerners start non-Western structures, training people outside of their organizations, etc.

• Think of the rise of majority world mission agencies, often using non-donation-supported methods for sending workers (e.g. businesses, tentmaking, migrant workers, university students, etc).

• In a further change to the “rules of the game,” rapidly-multiplying disciple-making movements are sending what are effectively “home workers” (e.g. evangelists, home missionaries) to near-culture, which is an entirely different animal from far-culture mission agencies.

Each of these changes introduced discontinuities with the change before.

How many of current missiological debates are due to these discontinuities?

If mission is successful, we will reach a point where there is no need for cross-cultural mission any more.

How close are we to that point now?

(Without making the same mistake as was made prior to Lausanne ‘74).