Carried By The Wind

“Sometimes I go about pitying myself
And all the while I am being carried on great winds Across the sky.”

~ Chippewa Indian saying

tell the stories that prove that the life of faith can be lived in every place

"Meanwhile there is Jeremiah, and the people like him who keep showing up in our homes and communities and churches, who go beyond the boundaries of what is safe and comfortable, learn new languages, discover alien cultures, brave hostility and misunderstanding, and who have the scars and tell the stories that prove that the life of faith can be lived in every place and among all peoples— must be lived in every place, among all peoples."
-- Eugene Peterson, "Run with the Horses"

Least Developed Countries Have Most Vibrant Church?

"Third, the fool’s- eye view reminds us that our talk of the modern Church needs balancing, for the modern Church is not all the Church. Indeed, it is the smaller as well as the spiritually poorer part. Beyond it stirs the youthful energy and expanding vision of the Church in the global South, and all around the less- developed world. Less modernized, the Church around the world is less worldly. Less sophisticated, it is less secular. Lagging behind in modernization, it is already beginning to lead in its ministry, mission, dedication, sacrifice and joy. As such, it can be a transfusion of life to the withered churches in Europe and the shallow, worldly- wise faith in America."

-- Os Guinness "The Last Christian on Earth"

Where Does The Money Go?

"Exiles ought to carefully consider how much of their income they can give away in an attempt to be true to the biblical calls to generosity and love. But we also need to research where our money is going and in what ways it’s contributing to the alleviation of suffering and to the extension of God’s kingdom. Contributing a tithe to a local church that has plenty of money and is going to spend it on new carpet or a new youth hall might not be the most effective use of a gift. As Tom Sine says, “Let’s quit kidding ourselves; we even tithe to ourselves. Everything we put into our churches we take back. We are not, as Bonhoeffer said, ‘The church for others’; we are the church for ourselves.”
-- Michael Frost "Exiles"

When Christians Create Their Own Persecution

(Stephen W Hill)
"I pray for the day that I stop hearing stories like this one! A friend in the majority world invites a brother from the west to come and teach at a conference. This person claims to have ministered in 60 nations. During the ministry this man curses the dominant religion in the culture. He leaves on a plane the next day meanwhile the brother who invited him into this home and circle of influence flees at midnight with his wife and small children from their home and goes into hiding in order to avoid being murdered.

This man will boast to his circle of ministry partners about his boldness and faith but when gently told about the danger and poverty that he has just plunged his majority world friend into he says, "Sorry." but offers no help, no financial assistance, nothing."

Economical Church Planting Is Possible! Abandoning Western Church Planting Ideas!

"Mission methods must be cheaply reproducible for maximum effectiveness. Americans have developed expensive methods that cannot be duplicated elsewhere. In fact, we have come to rely so heavily on borrowed money that many churches are seeing declining contributions to missions because of needing to repay loans for expensive buildings. Such luxuries did not characterize the early church, which had no buildings for the first couple of centuries. For Christianity to spread rapidly throughout the world, missions need to return to sustainable methods that do not require huge sums of money for success."

(Robert Reese. "Best Mission practices for the 21 century" Christian Standard, November 29,2009. pg844-45)

Supporting Nationals & The "Unspoken" Issues

"Many mission societies still hire national workers to evangelize the unreached. These men know their culture, are expert in the local language, can survive on a minimal salary, and are extremely mobile. But the credibility gap that exists between their lives and message is often severe. The non-Christian tends to regard such “agents” merely as paid employees of the foreigner. They have no more status than a medicine salesman. Preaching is looked upon as a profession, not a passion for which no sacrifice is too great. It is all too easy for the Muslim to sneer at and ridicule such paid evangelists."

(Muslim Evangelism, Phil Parshall Gabriel Publishing, 2003, pp199)

I will simply add that this is a reality in Africa where we pioneered new churches and a new grassroots leadership training program. There is this authoritarian "power pastor" mentality deeply rooted on the continent of Africa that I despise as very non-biblical. Character and integrity is questionable in many leadership training candidates.

I have often been criticized deeply by other missionaries for sharing this. They begin to questioned the "True conversion" of the men we worked with, or the methods we use. But they simply had their head in the sky. We began training 68 various men over the years, and came down to a handful to lead the 15 churches we planted. Even many of them still have issues. I will spare you. This is not the exception, this is the norm in all the churches in the country of all stripes. We simply knew the truth for our training program not at an institute, but decentralized into the bush near the people and villages. We hung in hammocks and ate with these men and we were among their people often. We knew the truth and sought to work with them with the truth of the situation. One missionary who was critical of this "situation" was simply unaware of the life of the few men he worked with. How do I know you ask? Members of his churches would come and speak to me about the conduct of their leaders because they were discouraged by it. I never bothered to share this with this fellow missionary. He simply refused to see.

Having explained the reality, this is not to suggest that there are not many godly men doing a great job. I know many. However as Leonard Sweet commented about the west;

"It is less that Western Christianity needs a course correction than a character correction." (So Beautiful, David C cook, 2009 pp38)

The same is true on the mission field where I served also in Pioneer work, not 2nd or 3rd generation works.
Every trained leader in our churches are self-supported farmers, carpenters etc.

What is Church Planting? (WEC)

Gandhi &The Power of the Scriptures

"You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more
than a piece of good literature."

(Mohandas Gandhi)

Multiplication is the BEST "Church Growth" says McGavran?

“One of the leading exponents for church planting in this century was the late Donald McGavran. In a Dawn Report, Jim Montgomery related the following incident:

During the last months of Mary McGavran’s illness, my wife Lyn would frequently spend time with her. Donald McGavran would be there, too, disregarding his own painful cancer while taking care of his beloved Mary. ‘You can be sure Jim and I will continue our commitment to church growth after you’re gone,’ Lyn said to Donald one day. ‘Don’t call it church growth anymore,’ was his quick response. ‘Call it church multiplication!’ Two weeks before his death, he said, ‘The only way we will get the job of the great commission done is to plant a church in every community in the world.’

There is more interest today in missions, world evangelization and church planting than ever before in history. In AD 100 there were 360 believers for every one believer. In 1500 the ratio was 69 to one. In 1900 it was 27 to one. And in 1990 it was seven to one. Ralph Winter is the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission. Concerning this shrinking ratio, he says, “In the last 20 centuries the meek have quietly been inheriting the earth!”

(Saturation House Church Planting, Robert Fitts, Sr. Chapter 55 in, “Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader, Rad Zdero, William Carey, 2007 pg 465.)

Dare to do the Gap!

Jesus Christ’s passion for the world is so vast that he willingly died to bridge the gap between God and humanity. He is looking for a people like himself, a people who will dare to ‘stand in the gap’...... The Lord Jesus, in his Great Commission to the church, told his followers to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. Sadly, a Christian believer or Christian church that is not passionately and practically seeking to fulfill the Great Commission is, in effect, neutered because it has lost both the desire and the DNA to reproduce and multiply. We are out of sync with God’s vision if our vision is limited only to the welfare of our family, our church, or our city. These are only platforms for launching out into the world to make disciples of all nations. The Great Commission should be the signature tune of every believer and church. "
(Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader. Rad Zdero, William Carey Library, p19)

Self -Supporting National Church Planting Only Needs Members to Give Eggs?

I was privileged to participate in a seminar some time ago in Lomé, Togo. One of those
in attendance from a neighboring country told the following story. He said that the church of which he is a part decided to launch a campaign to evangelize a number of villages in an area that they identified as needing a Gospel witness. They knew the cost would be high, so they drew up a budget. The amount they felt would be required in CFA francs was the equivalent of
US$100,000.

The one telling the story said he felt that was an unrealistic amount for a church of their size, so he told the other leaders that he did not believe such a goal could be reached. However, one of the other leaders suggested that they invite the members to give what they can. They said, “If someone can bring an egg, they should bring it. If they can bring a chicken, they should bring it. If they can bring a cow, they should bring it.” After all, in 2 Corinthians 8:12 the Apostle Paul says the gift should be according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

The effort to raise funds was launched and to the surprise of many, the entire goal of US$100,000 was reached with some to spare. In fact, they had enough over and above the goal to purchase a van for the project! The evangelistic outreach was launched, and when it was completed, thirty- three new congregations were started!

Those who try to justify Western funding for cross-cultural church planting in places such as this most likely do not understand the power of local creativity and local resources. Westerners just don’t think of beginning with an egg. How many times do we as outsiders rationalize that since we have the funds, we are obligated to give regardless of the impact on those we are trying to help. God blessed the efforts of those in this West African country, and they were rewarded with the blessing of a goal accomplished. Consider the harm that is done when local participation is overlooked or even spurned in favor of the outsiders need just to give. And that need to give—on the part of outsiders—is what results in donor-driven missiology, hardly the best kind.

(Glen Schwartz: Can a church Planting Effort Start With and Egg? Mission Frontiers. Nov-December 2007, p27)

Is Christianity Relapsing Globally? Does Our Missions Movement Have Depth?

This article is a needed challenge. I have dealt with syncretism and poor ethics in leaders. I have also dealt with missionaries who indicated "Their" work or church does not have the same problem as mine. I listened politely. However, I also know what leaders knew about actions of "their" national leaders, and I realized these guys where just fooling themselves.
Read this and Let us examine the fruit of our work, and work for more depth.

"Is Christianity Relapsing Globally?
Far worse, is the nightmare of a thought that our vast global, hard-won expansion of Christianity is falling to pieces before our eyes. We always used to think, “Even if things are not going too well in the USA, at least those millions of newly won believers overseas are flourishing in the faith.”

Okay, that is mainly true. They are flourishing. However, there are some disquieting facts that are hard to ignore. Kenya, with over 400 denominations and almost as many Evangelicals as in all of Europe, has exploded before our eyes—into nasty and unprecedented intertribal warfare—despite being 80% Christian, just like the USA.

Nearby, the Central African Republic is considered by some to be one of the more dangerous and corrupt countries of the world. We might say, “Those people need Christianity.”Well, 70% of the country is “Christian” in 59 denominations, with a higher percentage of Evangelicals than any other country in Africa.

In Nagaland, almost 100% of the Nagas are Christian—it is the most Christian state of India. It also is considered the most corrupt. At least there is less head-hunting.

Does this mean we are planting a superficial kind of Christianity all around the world? Are people seeking or accepting our offered Gospel for reasons other than what we have expected?"

(Ralph D. Winter. Editorial Comment, Mission Frontiers, March-April 2008, p 4)

The Need for Self-Supporting National Work

"The first thing I remember about encountering self-reliance thinking happened nearly fifty L years ago when I was a college student. I read a story about missionary work in Vietnam following the Indo-China war. It was about the return of missionaries to Vietnam following the devastation caused by the war. When they saw the ruined pastors’ houses, the missionaries felt compassion and wanted to help rebuild. The local people, however, had other ideas. They asked the missionaries not to help, saying that it was their privilege to rebuild their own pastors’ houses. That was a very small seed sown in my thinking a long time ago.

The second experience that brought this issue to my attention happened when I served as a missionary in Zambia in the 1960s. Several Zambian believers and I were sitting under a grass shelter discussing their desire to start a church in the village. They wanted to know if there would be outside funding available to provide a building. I noticed that they constructed the shelter in which we were sitting using only local material. I also noticed that next to us there was a grocery store made with burnt brick and a metal roof. I asked if the missionaries built the grocery store for them. They were happy to say, “Of course not, we did it ourselves.” A few more seeds were sown in my thinking. That was in 1967—about twenty years before I began to deal in-depth with self-reliance issues..............

............................The fifth thing that influenced my thinking on issues of indigeneity and self-support came from listening to and interacting with hundreds of church leaders and missionaries while traveling in Africa from 1984 to the present. Many times, church leaders or missionaries would say, “Let me tell you my story.” Recently I was in Canada speaking on self-reliance issues. One man in the audience spoke up saying that he had been a missionary in Botswana for twelve years. As he was preparing for his return to Canada, the local churches in Botswana took a collection equal to US$1000 to help him and his family relocate back home. He made a point of saying that some of the churches doing the giving were poor churches. Like others, this missionary learned how humbling it can be to receive from those who give out of their relative poverty."

(My Encounter With Self-Reliance. Glenn Schwartz. Mission Frontiers, May-June 2008, pp 27)

African Warns Short-Term Missions "Wounds" at times! But Needed Skills Come as Well.

The trendy short-term mission giant has been striding across Africa and leaving some indelible footprints, some of them positive, others negative. On the positive side, people are coming to faith, revival is breaking out in communities hospitals and schools are being developed, women are becoming economically empowered and there is significant church growth. Short-term missionaries have not only visited, they have given financially, professionally and spiritually. They have founded orphanages and ministered to financially handicapped women, equipping them with skills to improve the quality of their handcrafts for better marketability.

The giant has, however, left some indelible wounds and impressions as well. ibis is a concern raised by some national leaders. Here I will argue from interwoven data that in an age of growing partnerships between the Western and the African Church, careful and adequate pre-mission training needs to be done in preparing westerners to engage the cultural context of Africa in short-term missions. In this way, the short-term mission giant can be enhanced for greater fruitfulness and effectiveness....

During and after the short-term mission trip, the local pastor and other leaders face challenging missiological issues. These include clarifying the Missionary's’ language and etiquette, competence, stewardship of resources and contextualized worship. In one incident, a short-term missionary tried to speak the local language but ended up using a word which insult ed the local people. The pastor had to go back to the people to clarify what the missionary had meant. The same missionary also declined to eat food offered to him. This led the local people to say, “He was not prepared well enough to live with us.” The hosts found it very difficult to minister to him.

In another case, a missionary with very little training was sent to serve as a pastor. His preaching was so poor that the local pastor asked him not to teach from the pulpit and to take time to acquire some biblical knowledge.

(The Trendy Giant Wounds: Some Lessons from the Church in Africa, David Ngaruiya. EMQ, January 2008, p.58-59)

Is Short-Term Missions - Just Christian Tourism?

This is a good article on Short-Term (STM) missions. Missionaries know it's not all as helpful and rosy as it appears. Most of the projects done by STM's could be done for a minuscule fraction of the cost by locals, supportig their families with months of income, if STM people would give to support them in the work, instead of paying for tickets for themselves to go. How many of these STM people raise $5000 for missions before they went? How many of them put in as much effort to raise that kind of money for supporting missions, that they are not going to personally, after they come back?

Problem I have encountered is that when dealing with the pitfalls of STM, most involved feel they are avoiding them. Bottom line is data is showing that STM is not increasing missions giving among those involved and may be siphoning off support for long term workers. The party line all long has been, "STM promotes greater mission..... support, awareness....." It seems its not true! Is STM missions a step above Christian tourism? You decide. Thanks for this article Daniel, who every you are. Andy!

Say what you will about the benefits of short-term missions; however, there is a strong case to be made that it is shifting in the wrong direction. The lines between short-term missions and global tourism have blurred and that at a time when “slum tourism” is on the rise.
“‘Slum tourism’ stirs controversy in Kenya,” a newspaper announced.The report describes the bitter irony of the rising number of tourists to the Kibera slum with little benefit to its inhabitants. According to the report. at least one travel agency has added Kibera to its list of tours....

What do you call it when people with the time and money travel to a foreign country for a week or two? Missions experts have discovered that research on tourism can inform STM (Aden ey 2006, 461). Indeed, missions researchers are encouraged to dialogue with their tourism counterparts.

I have no quarrel with tourism or with learning from it, but is the promise of short-term missions a Christianized version of tourism—experiences to awaken the unscarred and overfed to their privilege? Are we tourists or are we God’s missionary people (see Van Engen 1991)?....

The people of God may make the most of it or not. The movement may cultivate authentic fellowship in the gospel or result in little more than tourism. STM is at a tipping point and the forces of tourism appear to be winning. A growing body of research suggests STM is not delivering on its promise.

• A short-term experience is as likely to increase ethnocentrism as it is to decrease it (Priest, et al 2006, 444; Linhart 2006, 455-458).

• Whether STM experiences abroad improve interethnic relationships at home is unclear (Priest, et aI 2006, 445)

• People with extensive STM experience are no less materialistic than those with none (Priest, et al 2006, 440).

• STM have little appreciable impact on giving. It does not appear to have increased financial support for career service and may be siphoning money away from long-term miss ions (Priest, et al 2006, 440; Vet Beck 2006, 485).

We know what is wrong with short-term missions. They are short. It is the brevity that reinforces stereotypes,’perpetuates misperceptions about the poor and feeds the quick-fix mentality. It is the brevity that leaves local Christians feeling shortchanged. The very notion that missions can he short plays into tourism. Although mission researchers are quick to emphasize that better preparation and coaching will reduce negative effects, it is not simply a problem of preparation (Priest 2006, 444; linhart 2006, 458). The problem reaches to the very core of the movement’s identity and purpose. How is STM part of God’s agenda for the Church?

(Short-Term Missions for Long-Term Partnership, Daniel Rickett. EMQ, Jan 2008, p. 42-44)

Weight Watchers, South Beach & Atkins Diet - Meet World Misisons!

How hard have we tried to save others? The nearly two billion dollars American evangelicals give per year to mission agencies is one fourth of what they spend on weight-loss programs. A person must overeat by at least two dollars worth of food per month to maintain one excess pound of flesh. Yet two dollars per month is more than what 90% of all Christians in America give to missions. If the average mission supporter is only five pounds overweight, it means he spends (to his own hurt) at least five times as much as he gives for missions. If he were to choose simple food (as well as not overeat) he could give ten times as much as he does to mission and not modify his standard of living in any other way!

(“Reconsecration to a Wartime, Not a Peacetime, Lifestyle.” Ralph D. Winter. Perspectives On the World Christian Movement, William Carey Library, 1999, pg706)

Poor In India Sacrifice A Greater Percentage of Income for Missions?

Consider the fact that the U.S. evangelical slogan “Pray, give or go”allows people merely to pray, if that is their choice! By contrast the Friends Missionary Prayer Band of South India numbers 8,000 people in their prayer bands and supports 80 full-time missionaries in North India. If my denomination (with its unbelievably greater wealth per person) were to do that well, we would not be sending 500 missionaries, but 26,000. In spite of their true poverty, those poor people in South India are sending 50 times as many cross-cultural missionaries as we are! This fact reminds me of the title of a book, The Poor Pay More. They may very well pay more for the things they buy, but they are apparently willing to pay more for the things they believe. No wonder the lukewarm non-sacrificing believer is a stench in the nostrils of God.

(“Reconsecration to a Wartime, Not a Peacetime, Lifestyle.” Ralph D. Winter. Perspectives On the World Christian Movement, William Carey Library, 1999, pg706)

Examples of Business as MIssions

“…….. in missions, I have for over 50 years never been paid by the people whom I directly served—a distinctly different dynamic.

Nevertheless, as a missionary in Guatemala I initiated 17 small business endeavors that others ran. I enabled seminary students to earn their way while in school. More importantly, that experience then gave them a portable trade after graduation, allowing them to serve beyond the confines of their own acreage. Most earlier pastors were tied down to the soil, so these 17 “businesses” were all portable (as with the Apostle Paul). ‘These businesses were also the first ever in which mountain Indians became the registered owners."

(When Business can be Missions: Where Both Business and Mission Fall Short By Ralph D Winter. Mission Frontiers , Nov-Dec 2007, Pg 6)

Self Supporting Missions? Business as Mission!

The missionary nurse fairly exploded in my face: “You can’t mix business and mission.”

She was referring to a worker she had trained who was now going out on his own across the mountains and giving people shots and other medicines as he used to do in her clinic. What was he doing wrong? He was self-supporting! She said, “He not only charges for the injections he gives but for his burro and his tip across the mountain”

I got into this tense conversation by suggesting that if her clinic could only become self-supporting it could be replicated. I figured the clinic was meeting only one percent of the need of a vast mountainous area where we both worked. If she could develop a self-supporting de sign it could be expanded to reach 100% of the need.

But, you say, poor mountain people can’t afford doctors! Not so! My thought was that her trained nationals could carry two-way radios. Most illnesses were simple enough to treat and did not need a doctor, but whenever something unrecognizable came up these agents of mercy could report key symptoms by radio to a doctor down in the city. People can’t pay a doctor for every problem, or even for a half hour consultation. They need to know when it is essential to make the arduous trip to the city. In most cases they can pay for two minutes of a doctor’s time—to find out if that trip is necessary. …….It is “a business” when the people being served can pay its costs. It is also “mission” if it is a God-glorifying blessing as well.

In my situation the medical committee of the mission would not hear of it.

(Editorial Comment by Ralph D Winter Mission Frontiers , Nov-Dec 2007, Pg 4)