Window on the World

From Randal Dick,
superintendent of missions

It's time to rethink
mission focus

Paul identified himself in his letter to the Romans as a servant of Christ. He did the same in his pastoral epistle to Titus, as did James and Peter and John in their epistles.

It is only from the perspective of a servant—better yet of a slave of Christ—that we can rightly understand our part in the mission work that Christ has given us.

Stewardship

The form of servanthood that we fulfill on behalf of Jesus Christ is best described as that of a steward. Stewardship involves discretionary authority to commit resources, along with a direct accountability to the Master for the use of those resources.

The steward is to use the resources committed to him or her to further the goals of the Master.

That is our starting point in mission. First Corinthians 6:20 says that we have been bought with a price.

I like to keep that in mind. If I have been bought, then I am owned, and any discretionary decisions I make should produce the results that the Owner seeks.

From the Owner’s perspective

The Owner is explicit about what he wants. In John 17 Jesus is talking to the Father. He rehearses the fact that he came to glorify the Father. Jesus says that the Father’s power was given to him so that “they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Jesus continues in prayer, reminding the Father that he had prepared those whom he had received to carry on his work. He specifically noted that he was not just thinking about the initial 12, but also all those who would be called.

When placed together with passages such as Matthew 28:18-20, we get a clear picture of what our Owner wants to see come from our labor on his behalf. Simply put, the desired result is people, once under the penalty of death, now redeemed and alive in Christ.

Do it yourself?

Over the last several centuries the approach to mission could be summed up in the old saying, “If you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.” There was no one else. So Western Christians, who had been the recipient of the gospel handed down from the apostles, had to set aside their normal lives and devote themselves to bringing the gospel of Christ to those who had no way of receiving Christ without them.

Papua New Guinea

The quintessential example of this to me is a professor of mine, who in the 1960s went into the jungles of Papua New Guinea to a newly discovered tribe of active cannibals. He, his young wife and baby daughter moved into a village with the goal of bringing Christ to these primitive peoples.

Problem was, there was no Bible in the local language. To make matters worse, he didn’t know their language and had no one to teach him. To complicate matters even more, the people did not have a written language. He had to learn their language by osmosis, create an alphabet, teach them to read their own language and then translate the Bible into that manufactured language.

God worked mightily, and to this day there are strong Christian communities among those tribes (for a fascinating account of this undertaking you can read the book Kandila, by Daniel Shaw). Daniel’s experience was extreme, but it makes the point. We rightfully carried the gospel to the whole world by going. There was no other way.

Things have changed

In the last 15 to 20 years (it is difficult to pinpoint), God has produced a bountiful harvest. Now, across the Second and Third Worlds, millions of converted, devout and committed Christians are wholeheartedly bringing Christ to the nations.

In some cases these Christians are in a time of first love—and their enthusiasm and zeal is infectious.

New mission focus

It is hard to find a major people group on earth without an indigenous harvest force ready and able to carry the gospel to their people.

Here’s the point: In most cases, these people can do this job more effectively than us, and at a fraction of the cost that it takes for a Western missionary.

What they lack are resources. Our role as good stewards of Christ’s gifts to us should be focused on meeting their need for resources—not on doing their local mission work ourselves.

If Western Christians want to see the most Second and Third World people come to a meaningful relationship with Christ, then we must become providers of resources instead of “doing it ourselves.”

The most effective evangelism is done by local believers, not by short visits from outsiders.

Role of short-term mission trips

Does that mean that we should avoid Second and Third World short-term missions?

Not at all! Such trips are an excellent way to celebrate and take part in what God is doing in a given place.

The experience can be life-altering. I heartily recommend visiting and if possible participating in a such a mission effort. But let’s not make the mistake of thinking that participation in a short-term mission trip is the most effective stewardship of mission resources. It can be a blessing to those who do it and an encouragement to the local believers who are actually doing the mission work. But it should not be thought of as the primary way for us to “do our part” in international mission work.

How to best help

Keep in mind that the Owner wants results. The short-term mission experience should be a supplement to—a celebration of—the real work of mission, which is carried out by local believers.

The photos below try to make the same point visually.

P.S. In a future issue of the WCG News we hope to announce a short-term mission exposure opportunity that we expect to be tremendously edifying both for Westerners and the local believers. Stay tuned.

The Work of Mission

Bangladeshis need the Lord— badly! Here are 42 Bangladeshi brothers and sisters—Gospel Workers. They know their people well—their culture, language, hopes and fears.

Local mission work

In May alone, these 42 Gospel Workers conducted 442 Bible studies (in the Bengali language) and 277 small group worship meetings. They also identified the poorest of the poor in their area and gave them a goat to help release them from economic oppression. They trained women in basic health care to show the compassion of Christ. They have virtually no resources.

Short-term mission trip

Here is a devoted American Christian. She wants to have a meaningful role in kingdom work. She plans to go on a short-term mission to Bangladesh. The experience will be good for her. Some poor people will get new roofs to help protect them from the elements. Her congregation is excited, too—at last they can spend their mission money in a way that they can see—she’ll bring back stories and pictures.

Comparison

It costs this one Westerner about $3,350 to make this two-week mission exposure trip.

Consider this: If the Westerner had raised the same amount of money to help provide resources for the mission work of the local believers, it would have bought enough goats to permanently raise nearly 100 widows from poverty to sufficiency, trained about 40 nurses or supported a number of new full-time Gospel Workers.

Conclusion: We can be more effective stewards as providers of resources to those who can now more effectively do what Westerners previously had to do. There is a place for spending money on short-term mission trips (I like to call them “exposure opportunities”), but when it comes to Second and Third World mission work, our part is in resourcing the mission work of the local believers.

Note: As we were working on this edition, we learned that the worst monsoon rains and flooding in six years have covered 60 percent of Bangladesh, destroying crops and jobs. The nation will need food aid for 20 million people over the next five months. Starvation seems unlikely, however, because of international aid.

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