Connecting the Dots
Missions from everywhere to everywhere. As I get more familiar with my role as International Director and begin to explore what missions looks like in today’s world, this tag line which has been circulating for some years now, is becoming a reality. God has changed the face, composition and character of the global church, and this new church is getting excited about missions. As the promise of a truly global missions movement threatens to become a reality in our generation today, we are faced with huge challenges in the years ahead to handle the change and adaptation this demands of us.
With numbers slowly dwindling from our traditional sending bases, and our newer sending contexts struggling with finances, structures and systems that have largely been developed in the previous contexts of missions, Interserve faces the challenge to develop ‘new wine skins’. Simply tweaking the old system, sewing up the seams that are straining from the content of the new thing that God is doing is not going to be adequate to enable us successfully navigate through the years ahead.
So what are some of the practical challenges that lie ahead? God seems to be placing different mission resources in different parts of the world and is asking that we find ways and means of sharing them. This is challenging because it means that we need to discover a new method of Biblically-driven value-based collaboration. It is more than just a willingness to share what we have, it is a willingness to let go of the control of those things He has given to us as a trust. The reality of Missio Dei must permeate the whole of missions – the Mission is His and so are the resources.
Thus far we have largely viewed theology and missiology through the lens of individualism. This worked in practice because the traditional mission world came from those with a largely individualistic world view. The church and missions movement has the exciting possibility of growing in richness and maturity as those with a largely community-based world view begin to influence it. But we must recognise the hugely different paradigm that needs to be embraced in trying to do this. What are the implications of such a change in our missions paradigm?
This means our primary mission narrative is of how God is transforming a nation through the Interserve community rather than an individual going somewhere to do a piece of work and asking churches to come alongside and support them. Of course individuals make up that community, but an individual’s calling only finds its validity within the purposes that God is achieving through the community. It is this exciting work of God we need to present as we seek churches and individuals to walk with us. It shifts the paradigm from the individual to the community and ties us in directly to churches as they get excited about our purpose and vision rather than through individuals. It ensures a longer relationship with churches, especially in a world where individuals come on to the field for shorter durations of time.
This will challenge our present recruitment procedures, financial models and demand a fresh look at our policies. It will require us to move away from a focus on our individual ministries to being a part of the bigger picture of God’s work in a nation. We will need to be able to have the wisdom to see how God is connecting the dots of the seemingly unrelated work of our Partners in a nation to achieve His purposes through us. It will require communication resources that have a different focus than the ones we have produced in the past. It will require us to surrender to His purposes rather than hold on to ours.
And who is equal to such a task? We can do all things through Him who strengthens us.
