Tag: slow missions

Fast to Slow Missions: Part 3

On By missionmusingsIn Mission TheologyLeave a comment

This is a continuation (no surprises) of Part 2.

I have written before on the story of the Faithful Servant. Luke 12: 35-48

I have suggested that one could look at this parable being about time.

Option #1. The servant does not try to time the return of his master. Because he does not seek to figure that out, he just keeps doing his work continually. The master praises him NOT for doing things differently as his arrival time approaches but because he continues to do what he always did.

Option #2. The servant, after figuring out that the master is not returning as soon as was expected, starts to adjust what he does based on his own perception of when the master will return. He becomes lazy, selfish, and ultimately abusive. Yet, one should imagine that if this servant was able to figure out when the master would return, he would jump into work making up for misdeeds before his return so that he might give the appearance of faithfulness. Such a tactic, however, proves fruitless because the master inevitably returns when not expected, and the servant’s strategy falls apart.

I feel that the missiological strategy of doing short-term missionary tactics to get quick responses— whether it be focusing on

Projects over Programs

Focusing on verbal assents and evangelistic rallies over building discipleship and relationships

Focusing on Relief over Development

Ministering spiritualistically rather than holistically

is more in line with the second strategy. With the second option, “Slow strategies” of missions are downplayed because “the time is short…” Jesus is returning any day.

But is there any justification for thinking this way? Well, it is possible that Jesus is returning tomorrow… or 500 years from now. But should our behavior be different based on whether one has one day or decades to serve?

If you think the time of Jesus’s return should have an effect on our ministry work, I must challenge this. In fact, consider this question:

HOW MANY DAYS DO YOU HAVE PROMISED TO YOU HERE TO SERVE GOD?

Suppose that Jesus is NOT coming in the next century. How many days do you have then?

You might die before reading to the end of this post. You might die tomorrow, next week, next year. I am 58. I might not live to be 59. On the other hand, I know a missionary how is in her mid 90s who is still active in service. If I am like her, I might be ministering for an additional 3 decades or more. On the other hand, this might be my last day.

With no guarantee for the future, what should I be doing? Should I be doing frenzied quick fix strategies in missions? I really don’t think so.

First, I think I should be developing religious leaders. Regardless of the amount of time I have left, I am mortal. I will die. I should be preparing people for my passing to take over. Developing leaders is a slow and relational process.

Second, I should be committed to repeatable patterns that are not dependent on myself. I should desperately be avoiding the “superman strategy” of missions. That means establishing patterns in others that make myself ultimately unnecessary. This takes time.

Third, I should build “fires that endure” rather than ones that “flash and fade.” Thus I need to move away from quick responses and towards transformational commitments.

Am I saying fast missions is always wrong? No. There is a place for evangelistic rallies, rapid church multiplication, and (perhaps) regional saturation strategies. <I am rather cynical of the last one since I think they are more designed to impress people than to follow the call of Christ.> But Fast Missions should always be linked to Slow Missions. STM projects should be tied to long-term local church presence, or long-term mission programs. Evangelistic events should be tied to slow follow-up. Relief projects should fold into Development programs.

However, if Fast Missions needs to be linked to Slow Missions… perhaps it is better to cut out that first step, and put one’s effort most of the time into Slow Missions. Develop people, relationships, and communities. This process probably only rarely needs quick little projects.

I think the following statement sums up my meandering posts:

IF YOU TRULY THINK THAT JESUS MIGHT COME TOMORROW (OR YOU MIGHT DIE TOMORROW) THEN DO SLOW MISSIONS TODAY

Fast to Slow Missions: Part 2

On By missionmusingsIn missions theology, Social/Medical Ministry1 Comment

You can look at PART 1, if you haven’t read that yet.

I would like to give three formative stories on my thoughts on this one.

Story #1. This is the least story-ish. I was reading T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution. It is a so-called CPM strategy. CPM stands for “Church Planting Movement” and refers to efforts to create a culture where churches rapidly self-propagate in a homogeneous setting. T4T I am tempted say is about multiplying evangelistic bible studies, not churches, but I won’t dwell on that. But as I was reading the book, a question came up about doing social ministries or felt-need ministry while following the T4T strategy. The advice given was NO. The reason is because it slows the strategy down. I guess I am still American enough to struggle with that for a little while. I really think social ministry is important— in fact, God-ordained. But if it slows things down, doesn’t that really speak against its need, or even its “rightness”?

I then was struck by a thought that if I wasn’t brought up in the American culture, I would have thought of immediately— WHY IS FAST A GOOD THING? I used to be an Engineer and I still remember the Design Triad. When thinking of designing/creating something new, one had three characteristics to aim for (beyond such direct things as function, durability, and aesthetics). The three are: High Quality, Low Cost, and Fast Development. Of those three, you can choose any two. If you want to have a fast development, you need to sacrifice either quality or cost.

If we assume (and I think this assumption would ultimately prove true) this principle applies to Christian discipleship as well. If you want quick multiplication and quick discipleship, quality will suffer or cost (include money, time, energy) will. Mostly likely it will be quality.

Looking at the ministry work of Jesus, we could imagine he would respond almost the opposite to that book. When asked about why He did social ministry, perhaps He would have said, “I do social ministry— healing and feed— to slow things down. They don’t just hear about the Kingdom of God, they get a small taste of it. I am looking for true, mature, self-identified disciples— following my example. And that takes time.”

Story #2. Years ago I was in a mission organization, “Dakilang Pag-Ibig DIADEM Ministries”— DPDM. Our primary ministry was medical mission events. This is a Fast form of ministry. You take a team to a community in the morning. We did registration, blood pressure, evangelism, medical care (or dental or surgical or eye care) and then pharmacy. And then we would leave. We would work with local churches and give them the registration forms with giving them the call to do follow-up. Now some people have complained about this form of ministry, — and sometimes I am one of these. The medical care is generally of a very limited nature— and an evangelism presentation tied to medical care can sound an awful lot like a cynical manipulation. But let’s ignore this for a moment and look at some of the transitions we made.

Over around a 5 year period we did 70 medical missions, reaching around around 30,000 with over 10,000 “praying to receive Christ” (not getting into the question of authenticity of such prayers). Early on, we were quick to say yes to churches or churchplanters who would invite us. However, over time, we started to discover three things. First, we realized that medical mission events work better in certain communities, and not so well with others. Second, we realized that it was really really important that we visit a potential site for a medical mission beforehand, as well as talk to the local church, local school and so forth weeks before we go there for the mission. Third, and perhaps most importantly, we needed to have really good local churches to partner with.

Taking the third point— we would do a medical mission at a particular site and a few months later we would contact that host church and would ask them how things have gone since we met— has anything changed? Many would say that pretty much nothing has changed. Others on the other hand would give a very different report. Perhaps one would say, “We did follow-up on the names we were given. When we did so, we were able to establish three new Bible study groups. A few weeks ago we expanded the ministry to have a Saturday morning kids ministry. Hopefully, we will start gathering them into a separate Sunday morning group once a month in the not too distant future.”

We gradually learned that doing more is not necessarily doing more. In fact, we probably could have done more like 25 medical missions in those 5 years and got as much ministry done. Utlimately, we learned that we needed to slow down— focus more working on locations that make more sense in a manner more tailored to that location, and working with partners who are more committed to take a quick project and turn it into a long-term program. Fast projects need slow planning and slow partnerships.

Story #3. This story is not part of my story but of Evangelical missions back in the 1960s. I recall reading about the tension that existed in the Evangelical missions community. The WCC and IMC had moved further and further away from traditional (and rather conservative) missions, and the Evangelical community rebelled and established its own structures for missions. But the question came up what to do about social missions. Some like Donald McGavran, Billy Graham, and Peter Wagner looked on social ministry rather negatively. In some cases they were not actively opposed, but did not give priority (seeing social ministry as taking the lead on proclamation ministry) or weight (seeing social ministry as being part of the Great Commission). Billy Graham, for example, said that he believed that a lot of social problems solved themselves if enough people become saved. I think the data on that is truly lacking— especially if those who are saved had already been indoctrinated with the belief that social problems are not really their problem.

However, one other reason that social ministry was pushed down at that time by some Evangelicals is what I would call “Apocalypticism.” This perspective goes like this— “Jesus is returning ANY DAY, and so we must do methods and strategies that will lead to the most spiritual responses in the least amount of time. Social or Developmental ministries are slow and therefore don’t make sense in these ‘last days.'” Of course, there were three problems. The first is historical. Jesus did NOT return in the 1960s, or 1970s, or 1980s, or… . They made strategic decisions based on a guess that proved wrong. Second, I believe that the idea of trying to make strategic missiological decisions based on trying to time Christ’s return is inherently flawed. I have written on this before and so don’t want to repeat myself. Generally, Jesus said it is not for us to know the time of His returning and that we are to be faithful until the end. Bringing these two together leads to the conclusion that we are to do what is right and what is right is not dependent on how close it is to Christ’s return. If it is right today with Christ not returning for 500 years, it is right today if Christ was coming this afternoon. Third, I theorize at least that if in the 1960s investment was placed on developmental transformational ministries rather than on short-term quick-fix programs, I think there may have proven to be more long-term tangible results than what we have. This last point is hard to prove, but I would push back on this by pointing to my second story. Definitely in that setting, doing holistic ministry that properly tied projects to programs, social to spiritual, and sought to be slow and careful in selection of work proves more effective than doing a lot of fast projects without the long-term in consideration.

Slow Food and Slow Missions

On By missionmusingsIn Mission TheologyLeave a comment

Before reading this little post, I hope you will take the time to read the excellent article:

“Be Patient, Missions is Urgent” by Josh Manley

An quote from this article worth meditating on is:

“Among other things, Paul’s priorities teach us this: The urgency of the mission requires patience to ensure that the integrity of the mission is not undermined. Undermined by what? Any method that sacrifices faithfulness on the altar of fast, or pastoral care on the altar of impressive numbers.”

Sloppy and fast has not only often beenslow-food-logo-1 the methodology but even the rallying cry. Some might note the slogan of  SVM ““The Evangelization of the World in This Generation” to AD2000 (“the largest, most pervasive global evangelical network ever to exist” -Ralph Winter) seeking “cooperation in establishing a church within every unreached people group and making the gospel available to every person by the year 2000.” to DAWN’s “Saturation Church Planting.” I am NOT saying any of these organizations were or are bad. Rather, the language of them can lead some people to embrace a manic behavior of missions, rather than one of planning and discernment.

Big programs with lofty dreams are… commendable… to a point. But they get wrongly understood by many.

Bigger is not Better

Faster is not More Effective

Jesus certainly did not use a Fast strategy. In fact, one could make the argument that He rejected a “fast strategy” rejecting public demonstration of his Messiahship at the temple, and rejection of a quick rulership of all nations (from His temptations in the Wilderness). One could further argue, that the success of Slow ministry during the first three centuries of the church, compares quite favorably with the Fast ministry strategy of the 4th century post-Constantine church.

Strangely, the article got me thinking about the Slow Food Movement. It is a move to localize food, focus on quality food, and ensure healthy/clean food. As such, it rejects much of the industrial food infrastructure. The theory is that slow food is healthier, is tied to a higher quality of life, and establishes a more harmonious relationship with the world. The key terms are “good,” “clean,” and “fair.” You can read about the movement at www.slowfood.com

For fun, let’s take the definition for one of their terms: NEO-GASTRONOMY

– Neo or ‘new’ gastronomy is a concept of gastronomy as a multidisciplinary approach to food that recognizes the strong connections between plate, planet, people and culture. The term was coined to correspond with the evolution of the Slow Food movement, which began with an initial aim to defend good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slower pace of life (eco-gastronomy), and then logically broadened its sights to embrace issues such as the quality of life and the health of the planet that we live on (eco-gastronomy).

Is there a point of correspondence here between Missions and Slow Food? Could missions become so focused on volume and speed, that it is producing sloppy, unhealthy churches and “believers” who are ill-equipped spiritually or socially to impact the world in a positive way? Is there a more holistic view of God’s Kingdom than missions as a multi-level marketing scheme?

Instead of Neo-Gastronomy, what about Neo-Missions? Or perhaps it is better to say “Archaeo-Missions. ” (One could argue that neo-gastronomy is also archaeo-gastronomy). One might come up with a  definition that sounds a wee bit like the definition above:

Neo or ‘new’ missions is a concept of missions as a multidisciplinary approach to kingdom growth that recognizes the strong connections between faith, action, community and culture. The term was coined to correspond with the evolution of the Biblical Missions movement, which began with an initial aim to empower evangelism, discipleship and add savor (salt and light) in the world, and then logically broadened its sights to embrace issues such as human rights and other aspects of shalom on the planet that we live on.

Frankly, I think it is safe to say that the Fruit of the Spirit is most evidently a “slow food.”… good, clearn, and fair.