This is the closing paragraph from a superb reflection on the place of mission today by theologian and church leader, Steven Holmes. Please go and read the whole thing.
And so we live in this place where UK evangelicalism has lost its missionary vision, and cannot, yet, embrace a new one. Mission weekends are now an oddity amongst our churches; interest in global mission is perceived as a strange and specialist concern. This is a far-reaching, and (I believe) potentially disastrous shift in our evangelical identity; I am convinced that we are at our best, and we are truest to ourselves, when we boldly and unashamedly commit to and celebrate the work of bringing knowledge of the gospel, and signs of the kingdom, to all in the world who do not yet know to name Jesus as Lord.
Steve suggests that there are three key factors in the broad loss of missionary vision within the British Evangelical Church.
- A loss of confidence in the concept of conversion.
- The success of the missionary enterprise and the growth of the worldwide church.
- Post-colonial guilt.
Steve unpicks the latter two of these in some detail and promises us another post on the first one.
For what it’s worth, I think Steve is spot on with his analysis. However, I would add a fourth factor which is benign neglect. Because of the three factors Steve mentions and the insanely busy lives that clergy and most people lead today, the issue of mission has been allowed to slide from the forefront of church life to become an add-on. This has then reinforced the impact of the three primary factors creating a viscous circle which is gaining speed. I highlighted a particularly striking example of this tendency here.
For churches to address this issue, they need to make determined steps to break the circle. These don’t need to be particularly dramatic, but they can be effective.
Steve highlights the fact that one of the impacts of changes in the world and mission is that we no longer have the sort of mission biographies that stirred my generation into getting involved in this sort of work. That is true, but we do have books like Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity which do have the capacity to encourage a new generation of people to get involved in a new type of mission. However, we need people who are more influential than me and who reach a larger audience, pushing this stuff.
Of course, I realise that things are not all doom and gloom everywhere. Steve’s blog post emerges out of a great mission weekend at St Andrews Baptist Church which I was involved in leading. There are many churches who have a huge mission heart and who are getting to grips with the new realities of our world. But I fear that it is too little and it may be too late.
24 replies on “Evangelical Churches and Overseas Mission”
RT @kouya: Evangelical Churches and Overseas Mission: Thoughts inspired by @SteveRHolmes … http://t.co/JAqd6YUXJr
Eddie Arthur on mission and evangelical identity: http://t.co/h79VXCT1PG
“@kouya: Evangelical Churches and Overseas Mission: Thoughts inspired by @SteveRHolmes … http://t.co/kMBS0xX6ST” #pocket #toread
Some good thoughts there. My quick response to those 3 points is: 1. We need to know who our confidence is in and to have “trust without borders” rather than focusing on our own abilities. 2. We need a new vision and to pass on fresh good news stories that show what is happening now in less reached areas. Some people think the job is done, or there are now enough people to do it – we need to communicate otherwise. 3. We should not focus on being the representative of a nation or denomination or mission, but rather being part of the kingdom of God.
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RT @kouya: Evangelical Churches and Overseas Mission: Thoughts inspired by @SteveRHolmes … http://t.co/JAqd6YUXJr
I agree with your first and third points, but not number two. The problem is not the lack of stories or the lack of desire to communicate them, its that people don’t want to hear them. You can tell all the good stories you want, but if you don’t have an audience, those stories won’t make an impact. My earlier blog post about my experience leading seminars at Spring Harvest illustrates this.
Should the point “loss of confidence in the concept of confidence” be “loss of confidence in the concept of conversion”?
Oh yes! Thanks, for pointing this out, David (and shame on everyone else who didn’t). I’ve edited the post, so this doesn’t make sense now!
Thanks, Eddie – interesting. Point 1 in particular is key IMHO. But don’t you think it’s also a matter of EGO? Increasingly, it seems, Christian activities are done to promote one’s own image and reputation – worship-leading, preaching, blogging, even leading prayer ministries! Missionaries may be specially susceptible – since we don’t have a performance-related paycheck, we seek affirmation from academia, or the Church, or the local community for whom ‘we’ translated the Bible, or we blog about all the ‘hardships’ of our life! Even at the organisational level, we need to learn how to serve others’ agendas, not just pursue our own (http://blog.unitedbiblesocieties.org/featured/relationships-reveal-who-we-really-are/). But SUPPORTING mission just ain’t cool – it doesn’t give you any kudos, there’s no glory to bathe in, and at best you may be regarded as having poured your money away into the infinite ‘black hole’ of developing countries’ needs. So, as in so many other areas of Christian life, it won’t help to convince people that it’s VIRTUOUS to give to mission – it seems we have to make it appear ‘cool’ and ego-boosting!
But what (apart from specialized tasks like Bible translation) actually needs done that nationals can’t do for themselves nowadays? I’ve spent the last 4 years acquiring 2 theology degrees in order to teach biblical studies and really struggle with the thought that I shouldn’t have bothered – because there are Africans, Asians, etc. who are much better qualified for the job!
Thanks for sharing this Eddie. Very interesting indeed. I think confidence is a big issue. We are so marginalised and riddiculed within our own country that we are too frightened to be labelled as dangerous radicals overseas too.
RT @kouya: Evangelical Churches and Overseas Mission: Thoughts inspired by @SteveRHolmes … http://t.co/JAqd6YUXJr
I get your point Eddie that some don’t want to hear the stories, but I also think that a number of us need to spend time reassessing what our vision is – and also observing what God is doing rather than hiding behind the idea that as we are in “pioneer” situations, we won’t see him doing anything much! I am preaching to myself as I resented being asked for stories all the time – but now I am in a church that shares them every week, I see how they encourage me. Churches that are vibrant in this country do respond to hearing what God is doing – wherever it is. They have more trouble getting enthusiastic if nothing is happening – and then if they don’t hear about those situations, they assume we are not needed in such situations.
East Sands, St Andrews?
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On the question of whether we are needed: There may be a case for saying that there isn’t the same need to send pastors to plant churches or experts to do any job – but there is a huge need for partnership and support roles, encouraging a local person to grow into a job. If nationals can do the job, they should, (and they will often do it better than us), but they often don’t have a good support structure or financial means – and sometimes their focus is very local (like ours) so they may not have a concern for the bits of the country that don’t have a growing church. We also have a need to hear from them. Just because there are reports of a vibrant church in Africa doesn’t mean that all of Africa is like that – it isn’t!
RT @kouya: Evangelical Churches and Overseas Mission: Thoughts inspired by @SteveRHolmes … http://t.co/JAqd6YUXJr
You got it, Judy.
I think the question of ‘need’ is rather more complex than it is generally painted. It is not simply a case of ‘nationals should do the job if they can’. The church is a multinational, multicultural body and what we need to cultivate is interdependency. There should be theologians from the West teaching in other parts of the world and there should be international theologians teaching in the UK. I talked about this about a year ago in a blog post (it’s the second of the three points).
https://www.kouya.net/?p=5477
Our supporting churches are inspirational in their commitment to mission. But this is still worth reading – http://t.co/zoO5AAkSVi @kouya
Some good observations here. Another one to add to the list is that we are becoming a nation of pundits. Maybe this is what Mary is alluding too. Every Saturday the country is full of overweight men full of vitriol over why their team failed, again. So it is with mission (both here and overseas) – the David Livingstons etc., however imperfectly, just got on and did it. Often I think the way they did mission was better than the way we don’t. (And yes, I am aware of the irony of me posting this on the interweb thingy 🙂 )
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That’s very helpful, thanks.
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