I just finished a post on the opposite— “How Might Missiology Speak to Pastoral Counseling and Chaplaincy.” So now I would like to suggest the value the opposite way.

One challenge the the direction of Pastoral Theology informing Missions is that in a sense it has happened before. Back in the 1960s, a form of Missions developed that could be described as “Presence Missions.” It does not seek transformation… or at least transformation to faith and following of Christ. Rather, the role was far more passive. Affirming the good in society as from God, and embracing a role of as a quiet catalyst. While this may have been a welcome counterbalance from forms of Christian missions that was more aggressive and argumentative, I don’t think it was healthy or in line with the call of God. Nevertheless, I do believe that some aspects of Pastoral Theology can help Missions.

1. Broader Guidance for Reaching Outsiders. Missions has often been boiled down to following the Great Commission (or Great Commissions). It then is seen often in terms of Evangelization, Church-planting, and Discipleship. However, God’s mission to those outsider the church is not really encompassed by the Great Commission, but by the Great Commandment. Pastoral Theology (ideally at least) embraces this broader leaning. Therefore, Scripture that embraces this broader calling (Colossians 4:5-6, I Peter 3:15, Titus 2:10, I Timothy 3:6-7, among others). This broader understanding is valuable not only for the local church, but for the cross-cultural minister as well.
2. Impracticality. Missions has commonly fallen into the trap of practicality and efficiency. Pastoral Theology and Pastoral ministries are horribly inefficient… and that is a good thing since people and relationships are messy and inefficient. In missions, far too many books advise trimming away work that “slows down” the World Christian Movement, not understanding that such trimming may well undermine its Christian identity. Pastoral Theology is relational, tentative, and slow. It rejects practicality as a benchmark. That is a good thing that Missions really needs to learn to embrace.
3. Contextualization. Although in my previous post I stated that Pastoral Counseling and Chaplaincy needs to learn contextualization from Missiology, there is a sense that it needs to happen in the opposite direction as well. Pastoral counseling generally is drive by the felt needs of the client. From those felt needs, one can gently work toward needs that are more universal. Far too often Christian missions tells people what to be concerned about and then tells them how to lose that concern. That cycle doesn’t work that well if the concern and the solution does not “Scratch where it itches.” Good missions, in my view, honors the peoples’ felt needs. Even if the felt needs are not the most critical needs… it is hard to direct people to bigger needs if the felt needs are devalued or ignored.
4. Iterative Theology. Good pastoral theology is iterative… driven by theological reflection and informed by Scripture and systematic theology on one side, and ministerial experience on the other. This cycle of pastoral reflection is supposed to be intentional and regular. Missions in terms of project or program design does commonly operate in a cycle. But the iterative nature is more in terms of practical results, not in terms of theology. Missions theology often is driven by systematic theology that is rather disconnected from experience, or from practical experiences that are rather disconnected from systematic theology and reflection (or from tradition and disconnected from both experience and theology). That is a shame.
5. Active (full body) Listening. Missions can fall into the same trap as Homiletics. It is focused on proclaiming, but in terms of listening… a bit hard of hearing. Missionaries, much like Pastors, don’t generally embrace their calling because they love to listen. Consider the extended quote from the “Crisis Care Chaplain Training Manual” (Virginia Baptist Mission Board, 2007, pg. 38): “Many times, chaplains are so anxious to provide encouragement or to say “the right thing,” that they are busy thinking about a response and not really present to the words and feelings being expressed by the victim. Good listening means the chaplain will be present to the victim by integrating the words, the feelings, and the facts to give meaning and understanding to the experience.” This tendency for chaplains can be double true for missionaries. It is in this sense that the “Ministry of Presence” is healthy for missions.
6. Church Leader Development. Missionaries are often church planters. But church planting should also involve local leader development. Often, however, missionaries are not well equipped to train spiritual, pastoral, leadership, and more particularly, train church leaders to be competent and effective pastoral counselors. Often church leaders established by missionaries end up sliding into a default form of counseling. For some this may mean using what worked in the past— including the past before being Christian. While there are some aspects of the cultural that may be helpful… these aspects should not be “blessed as good” due to absence of good training. The other likely thing to happen is that pastors embrace a “prophetic” (preaching against) stance when it comes to counseling. Why is this? Missionaries are often pretty good at preaching, and they are pretty good at training local pastors to preach. As the saying goes, “When all you have is a hammer… everything in the world looks like a nail.” When your best ministerial tool is preaching, it is likely you will use it everywhere— Bible studies, Sunday School, Counseling, Interreligious Dialogue, etc.

I think here is a good place to stop.