# Would "local" expert Pergy agree?



## Wayne (Feb 19, 2011)

This from another location, and I wanted to hear some response to the statements made (not just Pergy, of course). I'm particularly interested in comments on numbered points 1 and 2:



> We will also be discussing how the local church can become more effectively engaged in foreign mission while experiencing how that engagement revitalizes its own internal life and local ministry. You will hear experiences of this gospel-dynamo at work.
> 
> There are two trends that make this opportunity of particular importance:
> 
> ...


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## Pergamum (Feb 19, 2011)

Yes, on both counts, this is very true. A fine summary.


*THE CURRENT CONTEXT*: Missions is no longer exclusively from the West to the Rest, but African Anglicans are sending missisonaries to England, etc. South Korea is actually almost nipping our tail as the Number 2 Sending Country behind the US, and within a few years might be sending out more misssionaries than America presently does.

An excellent book about this is Philip Jenkins, *The Next Christendom*, here: Amazon.com: The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (9780195183078): Philip Jenkins: Books

Because of this shift in the "center" of Christianity, the majority of professsing Christians are now from the "Global South" or the "2/3rds World."


*IMPLICATIONS FOR WESTERN MISSIONS:*

This has major implications for US missions:

*First:* It highlights the need for us to help out those that have their feet on the ground, no mattter what their nationality. There is, thus, a big increase in the funding of indigenous misssionaries (though some churches are neglecting to ALSO send out their own and ONLY supporting poor Indian pastors, a big mistake. We must both send out missionaries vigorously AND also support indigenous pastors vigorously).

*Second:* We are trying to, more and more, not only raise up indigenous workers but also help form indigenous sending-structures (i.e. foreign-based missions-sending agencies to recruit and train and send from within their own country instead of merely recieve missionaries from Western-based mission agencies). 

My own situation right now: When I saw this PB post, by the way, I had 2 letters open and one letter concerned 2 indigenous evangelists here to be funded by a Western agency that you know and respect, and the second letter I am composing (or trying to compose, my daughter is sick again, and I am distracted by the PB, again) is a plan to put together a national sending agency HERE in this country to recruit and train its own people. These two letters, from which the PB once again distracted me from, represent the new global realities of missions. 

I have begun to recruit "locals" for local work here in order to "find the workers from the Harvest" as it were. One slogan of my mission is "making disciples to make disciples" and "reaching the lost to reach the lost" and this is what we are trying to do here, in the manner if II Tim 2:2, training up others who can train up others in a multiplicational and self-replicatory way. If we are trying to pass the "missions baton" and the indigenous Christians actually take it and run with it, then we ought to prasie God and be happy to run beside them, or even follow them if they are truly running forward.

Again, missions is no longer from the West to the rest of the world, but now there are many, many sending centers being birthed across the globe. My mission is World Team (World Team) and I am hoping pretty soon that there will be vital branches and offices in many more countries and in this country in which I labor I am hoping that we begin to take a more active role such that my fellow members in this org are not only from the US, Canada and Australia, but also from Asia as well, sharing equal partnership and membership and moving forward together.

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*From everywhere, to everywhere. No single center of missions-sending:*
The new global missions context is "from everywhere, to everywhere" and others have stated that missions must be "the whole Church, taking the whole Gospel, to the whole world."

Another book link that is relevant is here: Amazon.com: The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone (Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective) (9780830833016): Samuel Escobar: Books

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*Third World Denominations are wanting to get involved and not merely receive, but send:*

Just last week I attended meetings and helped translate and talked strategy with the heads of another third world denomination that wants to work with the evangelical church structure that I work with here (several million members represented, though many are nominal). Here is a good article about the Evangelical Church in Indnsia partnering with the ECPNG (Evangelical Church of PNG, just across the border). Not content merely to receive misssionaries, and bonded by a shared history (they are both Melanesian and both were reached by the same evangelical orgs), they are trying to "swap" missionaries and partner together, each national church structure trying to gift the other third world national church structure with several missionaries from their own tribes: http://www.ufm.org.uk/downloads/When%20Twin%20Brothers%20from%20Papua%20and%20PNG%20Met.pdf.


Partnership and interdependence: The watchword now is "partnership" and "interdependence" whereby different Christian bodies are collaborating to research and focus on the last unreached and unengaged peoples in the world. And, whenever at all possible, regional or national indigenous church structures are brought into play. 

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*Teams of westerners and indigenous evangelists reaching the lost together:*

More and more, even in pioneering situations, there is growing collaboration with "local" Christians. We rarely "go it alone" totally anymore. In my own misssions scenario, I work with a team of 20 highland national evangelists as we, together, try to reach a lowland tribal group spread out over about 8-10 villages. These highlanders are also crossing a culture and are home-grown and barefoot misssionaries and I, as the western misssionary, am acting as an advisor to this highlander evangelistic team and a facilitator to this team effort. But, the team effort is largely driven by the nationals. Me and Teresa help the sick and teach the evangelists and also engage directly with the tribe as well, but it is not merely my work and I am not doing all the ministry but am trying to bring these less educated (some cannot read) evangelists from the national church (which is less than 50 years old.....barely a toddler) and trying to train them on the field in the midst of their evangelistic endeavors as we penetrate this lowland tribal group.

A good book on the changing role of the misssionary is Herbert Kane's _The Misssionary and the Indigenous Church_. It was written several decades ago but doesn't seem dated at all in my own scenario: Amazon.com: The Indigenous Church: Including the Indigenous Church and the Missionary (9780882438108): Melvin L. Hodges, L. John Bueno: Books

---------- Post added at 07:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 AM ----------

Here is part of an article I wrote concerning emerging trends in missions. I have added the portion of my article which reflects your quote above:




> *Current missiological trends:*
> 
> Trend 1. - The changing context of mission - the shifting center of Christianity:
> 
> ...


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## lynnie (Feb 19, 2011)

I am curious...if you ask the same question but reduce it down to Reformed doctrine misisonaries, how does that change things? Am I correct that the majority of non western missions are Pentecostal?


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## Edward (Feb 19, 2011)

lynnie said:


> Am I correct that the majority of non western missions are Pentecostal?



Many of the Koreans are going to be some flavor of Presbyterians. And a chunk of the Africans are Anglicans. On the other hand, the US is sending lots of Mormons and JWs. So I'm not sure that there is much qualitative difference between those going from the 'West' and those going from the rest of the world.


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## Pergamum (Feb 19, 2011)

Edward said:


> lynnie said:
> 
> 
> > Am I correct that the majority of non western missions are Pentecostal?
> ...


 
Yes, that is correct. 

One caveat: Most missiological trends still come out of the West. We are masters at packaging and exporting and so most "new ideas" in missiology are Western exports, such as the unhealthy trend towards hyper-contextualization (especially among the Muslims, see my blog post: Missions - a Sovereign Grace Perspective: Muslim Hyper-Contextualization: The New Missiological Fad ) and the healthier trend towards emphasizing chronological bible-storying among oral or pre-literate societies. 

Also, the manner of interaction between misssionary and focus-population often differs widely between Americans and Koreans. Some would characterize the style of the Korean misssionaries to be very rigid and over-bearing and not very culturally sensitive and there is a propensity to try to become the boss instead of a co-worker among the indigenous Christians. The Americans, on the other hand, have often been very generous without thought and have created dependencies as well through institutions that the indigenous church structures cannot maintain without continued outside support from Western donors, thus hindering their long-term autonomy since very few donors truly "give freely" but want to control local decisions based on those gifts.

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lynnie said:


> I am curious...if you ask the same question but reduce it down to Reformed doctrine misisonaries, how does that change things? Am I correct that the majority of non western missions are Pentecostal?


 
I will look for stats, but last I checked the pentecostals were the "fastest-growing" segment of Christianity but were still not the largest segment in existence of Christianity. Here in my country of service, the Health and Wealth Gospel is spreading like wildfire.


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