After yesterday’s rather heavy post (thanks for all the feedback, folks), I thought I’d write something a bit more straightforward today. However, I really would like lots of feedback on this if you are up to it.
In an essay in Christian Missions and the Enlightenment Andrew Walls suggests that there are three factors needed for success in Christian Mission.
- Access to people who don’t know the gospel.
- Structures to mobilise people.
- People to be mobilised.
I don’t have the book to hand, so this is a summary, not a verbatim quote.
This prompts me to ask a few questions:
- How do you measure success in Christian mission?
- Are there any further criteria that Walls has not mentioned?
- Do any of the criteria need to be re-formed?
If you have any thoughts on this, I’d be pathetically grateful. If those who are more academically inclined would like to leave suggestions for further reading, I’d not complain!
11 replies on “Factors for Mission Success”
So Japan again comes into its own as a counterexample to almost all theories of mission. It has all of those factors: 120 million people who don’t know the Gospel; a large, well-established church with access to a wide variety of discipleship and theological materials, training opportunities, and a massive and long-standing missionary involvement; and around 1 million Christians. And yet no success. There are many reasons why that hasn’t lead to success, but the primary one is that mission isn’t algebra – you can’t plug in the right inputs on one side and magically get the right answer on the other.
But more to the point, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make one drink: having structures to mobilize people on the one hand and people to mobilize on the other is a good start but there has to be a connection between the two; people have to be engaged in the evangelism and discipleship process, both in the initial stages (Why should I do this? – an understanding of the need) and continually. (Can *I* do this? How can I do this? – emotional and practical support)
When I am preaching about the spiritual needs of, for example, Nigeria, I note the various categories of people who need the gospel; amongst those I mention the 4th / 5th generation cultural ‘Christians’ who know the gospel well but are by no means in a personal and living relationship to God. So the criterion of ‘access to people who don’t know the gospel’ might be nuanced somewhat.
Success will be judged by God, not us!
This sounds like a gratuitous book plug but, as Simon Cozens puts it, mission isn´t algebra. Sadly so many of our definitions of success or effectiveness in Christian mission are little more than an exercise in counting heads. That was the thrust of my chapter “Church Planting and the Missio Dei: How can we meansure effectiveness?” in the recently published de Poll and Appleton eds, Church Planting in Europe:http://wipfandstock.com/church-planting-in-europe.html
Are review copies available to mission bloggers?
I will check with Joanne Appleton but I am sure we can do a deal 😉
Yes you can request a review copy via the Wipf and Stock web site. Let me know if you have any problems getting a copy
Done!
Not always the biggest fan of Tertullian for many reasons but ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’ has always resonated with me. Perhaps a dose of persecution of an established church also leads to more ‘success’ in mission. i like your question about success tho too. Been reading a lot of Henri Nouwen in the wee small hours and the more I read him the less i think of success in any realm and the more i think of fruitfulness as a goal. People staying locked in the vine and producing fruit that attracts and challenges the non-Christians, perhaps such as the churchgoers familys did this week in Charleston.
Interesting that we might assume from this list ‘people to be mobilised’ are [just?] going-people. What if the mobilisation of people was primarily to prayer? cf Greg Pruett’s ‘Extreme Prayer’ and David Garrison’s comments on the impact of the 30-days prayer movement. Since it’s got to be a both-and of James 2:18 faith+deeds, what do we think we’re short of in mission ministry? Faith or activity?
Prayer and the Holy Spirit seem to be missing from the list