[55 Minute Read]

The year has almost gone and we are on the cusp of our (Western) Christmas celebrations. It is an appropriate time to reflect on some trending issues and consider their affect on global missions. In short, from my perspective the global pandemic continues to frustrate the plans of missionaries and missions around the world. 2021 has been a year of great suffering and set-back in terms of health and well-being, with a resource crisis on the horizon. The stress created by the pandemic has amplified competing social and theological convictions, resulting in increased polarisation. Geopolitical instability is also growing, with potential to be an additional threat to missions strategies. And yet, God’s purposes prevail. The question remains: are we fulfilling or frustrating those purposes? To help us frame our answer, let us consider Mary’s song.

Prophesy

Mary declared that, by blessing her with child, God had fulfilled promises to Israel that the Lord would scatter the proud and haughty and bring down those who assume rulership. Simultaneously, He would promote the humble. God has ‘flipped the script’. To further illustrate the practicalities of the Lord’s actions, she sang that He would satiate with fine things those who are in want, but those with much will be left wanting. Presumably, the wealthy would retain what they have, but it would be unsatisfying and paltry compared to what the Lord promises to provide for people who look to Him for their deliverance. Mary may have declared these things in the present continuous tense, but the great inversion obviously did not happen immediately. For the most part, it is still not apparent today. As is common in the prophetic tradition, it is an ongoing process—fulfilled, being fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled.

The proud will be humbled, and the humble will be elevated. Those who “imagine in their hearts” (KJV) that they are in control and have control over others will see that they control nothing of eternal consequence. Conversely, those who are tossed around and weighed down by the whims of the wealthy, privileged, and powerful will receive eternal satisfaction and an inheritance of “good things”… if they hold to their dependence on God.

Contrary to the assumptions of some, the promise of God’s blessing is not for the poor as such. Mary’s song reiterates the perspective of the entire biblical canon—they are promises reserved for those whose desperate dependence is on God. Those in material need are certainly more susceptible to leaning on God, but the promise is specific to the covenant—to Abraham’s children. As we eventually find out in the New Testament, these are children of faith rather than bloodline, and everyone without exception is invited in.

We Christ-followers, most of us Gentiles, are included as children of Abraham (Romans 9:30). That in itself is evidence of a great inversion. Many of the powerful amongst the Jews, proud of their heritage and smugly confident of their inheritance (as evidenced by the teachers of the Law in Jesus’ time), were left behind in God’s purposes as God-seeking Gentiles believed in the resurrected Christ and received the promised and ever-present Wonderful Counsellor, God’s Holy Spirit.

Within Mary’s song is a warning to us all though. Christian leaders can become as smug as the teachers of the Law were. The Magnificat is a warning to all who would presume to rule over others. Church history records many inversion events that had the powerful and influential within the Church running, while the marginalised ascended. The Protestant movement is one such occurrence. However, after 500 years of ascendancy, the movement (which includes Evangelicals) appears to be being brought down, at least in its Global North form. Its primacy is being replaced by new expressions of faith that are emerging among the marginalised in the Majority World. Christianity is now a Majority World religion, growing in prominence amongst the poor across the earth who are desperate for God’s deliverance, even as the Western Church is struggling to stem its decline—its influence diminishing despite its best evangelistic and diplomatic efforts. This is not an opinion. The empirical data tells this story. We have reached the inflection point of another inversion

Inflection

An “inflection point” is a geometric term that marks the place on a chart where a data curve starts to take a significant change in direction (e.g., from growth to decline or stagnation to growth etc.). This is not to be confused with the business term “tipping point”, which is more related to finally getting an uptake or return on investment. We have also become accustomed to speaking of “paradigm shifts”, but they tend to be slow moving changes of perspective or frames of thinking that solidify over decades. An inflection point is not directly influenced by anything we do or the way we think, it is an evidence-based point where data shows that a shift has happened. It does not indicate why or what influenced the shift. When it comes to social shifts, the forces influencing changes are many and complexly interrelated. It is best left for social historians to ponder.

We live in an age where data is currency and its collection and analyses in real-time are big business. The missions ‘industry’ is woefully unprepared for the data economy, let alone adequately collecting and analysing data for God’s glory. Missions research tends to be narrowly focused, such as academic theses or specific internal investigations into a missions issue (as the Mission Commission has done in the past with Member Care and Missions Mobilisation). We should also look to analyses outside of the missions community to reveal what is happening in the wider world. As I do so, in keeping with Jesus’ warning to “first get rid of the log in your own eye” (Matthew 7:5), I will limit the scope and implications of this paper to the inflection point of inversion happening within the global missions community.

Across numerous metrics, COVID-19 is marking a global missions (indeed, a global Church) inflection point in history. It is not so much that the change has happened unexpectedly, but that the pandemic has both amplified and awakened us to the fact that things have changed. The data reveal significant changes to our shared global reality and global missions with it.

Purpose

As I reflect afresh upon Mary’s song at the end of 2021, in the context of the fresh COVID-19 Omicron surge, I echo the confession of many missions leaders in acknowledging that we have been and are being humbled by this global pandemic. It is forcing us to reorient the “imagination in our hearts” and renew our desperate dependence upon God in our world’s persistent unpredictability. Furthermore, God has done this, for God’s purposes.

I am not suggesting that God has orchestrated the plague, but as with all things, God uses crises for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). The key here is to discern what God’s purposes actually are, beyond the missions platitudes. In what ways is God’s great inversion in process as we pass the inflection point? Who are the proud being scattered and brought down and who are the needy being raised up in the global missions community to fulfil God’s purposes?

Lately, I find myself reflecting more on God’s purpose than God’s mission. Although it is subtle, there is a difference between the two. That is not to suggest mission is not important, but if we prioritise God’s mission without appreciating God’s purposes, we will fail to correctly discern our role and responsibilities in the new world ahead of us.

The word “mission” carries with it an implication that we are sent to do something. This is ἀποστέλλω apostellō in the biblical Greek, which is rendered in Latin as missio. In contrast, “purpose” suggests meaning more than method; that is, the reason why something is happening or will happen. In the biblical Greek this is πρόθεσις prothesis, the intention or determination that precedes action (e.g. as in Ephesians 3:10). I wonder if we read the Bible through the lens of purpose (why/intention) more than the lens of mission (what/action), could we better discern the next era of global witness for God’s people around the world? For example, circumstance may be forcing an inflection point change in our understanding of mission, but God’s purposes still prevail. So, what does the data suggest is changing?

Pressures

Through this period of humbling, traditional missions organisations and border-crossing missionaries are losing some of their agency, their ability to achieve the goals to which they aspire. We all know the frustrations. Borders have been raised, travel has been restricted, everyone now requires an additional passport—a valid vaccine passport—to help protect themselves and those they intend to visit from COVID-19, and permission for expatriates to dwell longer-term is being restricted in more nations. Furthermore, increasing national, indigenous, and sub-culture identity formation is escalating intolerance of the imposition of ideas from the ‘outside’.

We hoped access limitations were just temporary frustrations. After all, we adapted to the travel restrictions that emerged in the wake of the September 11, 2001, event in New York. Evangelical missions strategies, which grew out of the 1970’s and accelerated in the 1990’s, were soon back on track and, in certain cases, accelerated (e.g., ministry to Muslims).

In 2020, we hoped the world would open up again once the vaccine rollout was underway in 2021—plans for gatherings were locked in, missionaries remained or returned to their fields, and donations spiked for traditional missions organisations as people with means responded generously to the needs created by the pandemic. Giving money was at least something they could do, and missionaries were close to those who needed assistance. As often happens, a sudden crisis could be leveraged to gain missions resources.

Then came the Delta variant, and now Omicron, and the next, and the next, until we eventually get to the point where vaccines and therapeutic treatments prove to the health authorities that they can downgrade the pandemic to an endemic illness—one that we learn to live with and one that no longer causes severe ill health, for those who can afford treatment that is. Pfizer’s experts estimate that we will not reach an endemic phase globally until 2024. In the meantime, our missions strategies either stall and die or adapt to new realities.

On the theological front, we are experiencing a major shift as the democratisation of knowledge, facilitated by digital technologies, influences the global Church. For better or worse, individuals and groups can now emancipate themselves from dominant, imposed, and oppressive systems of ideas and their supporting structures. Authorities are undermined and people of all religions and other backgrounds are “deconstructing” their beliefs. In worst case scenarios, heresy and conspiracy theories multiply, but it also enables biblically authentic global theologies to flourish, no longer suffocated by a Euro-American Evangelical orthodox consensus. A new sense of biblically authentic theological freedom is emerging on the ‘margins’. Our historic inflection point is revealing an inversion.

Generationally, this inflection point has revealed a major shift in global concerns. Environmental sustainability and climate change have joined humanitarian justice and poverty alleviation as locations of systemic sin, which demand intentional theological, Church, and missions engagement. Inclusion and equitability are associated with these concerns, which can no longer be ignored.

We are ending 2021 with missions facing the possibility of further prolonged travel restrictions, increasing insurance costs, missionaries with significant trauma care needs, an economic downturn that will reverse the donor optimism of 2020, increasing resistance to imposition, challenges to narrow thinking about missions, and a desperate job market potentially luring expatriate ministers back home with attractive remuneration packages and work-life balance options. Is this not a significant inflection point for missions?

Perspective

The Lord is frustrating the plans we have “imagined in our hearts” and the strategies that global missions boards have invented and invested in to fulfil those plans. Proverbs 19:21(NLT) feels like an “I told you so”, from the Lord: “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” The Lord’s purpose prevails, not the Lord’s mission. They are not mutually exclusive, but I fear our comprehension of God’s mission has become too defined in certain Evangelical circles and it will inhibit the innovation necessary for us to participate in God’s purposes more effectively (and biblically) in the new era ahead. Is it possible that we have dabbled in a little too much in eisegesis as the global missions community has been attempting to motivate God’s people to achieve a certain type of mission rather than equipping them as disciples to serve the Lord’s purposes?

For example, consider the way Evangelicals have understood “sentness” for the past 240+ years. The interpretation developed within its colonial expansionist context, such that we now too easily interpret apostellō to mean crossing a divide of significant difference—from “home” to “other”. This is implied by what we understand to be “cross-cultural” for instance. If our ability to cross borders or cultures continues to be hindered because of this pandemic and its long-term impact, are we no longer sent? In John 17:18, Jesus located the destination of his and our sentness as ‘into the cosmos’ or physical world. As He was sent from the Father’s place to the world, so ALL who follow Him are, by default, sent from our place with God and one another into the wider world—wherever the Spirit of God leads us to make our habitation. Sure, Paul and Jesus’ disciples travelled in fulfilment of their specific apostellō calling, but they are the exception in Scripture, not the rule. Those who received each of the epistles were multiple thousands of homebound disciples, dutiful citizens of the cities or regions in which they came to know and witness to Christ (e.g., Rome, Galatia, Corinth, Colossae, Philipi, Ephesus, Thessolonica, Laodicea, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and more).

The overwhelming evidence is that the vast majority of Christ’s followers throughout history and even today do not permanently leave their hometowns let alone their home nations. Does that indicate widespread disobedience to the Lord’s commission? Or could it be that Evangelical missions of the past 240+ years have imposed their Empire expansion assumptions onto the Father’s sending of the Son? Could we be locked into a particular interpretation that will hinder us from participating in God’s purposes during, and as we emerge from, this major turning point in human history? What if, as Jesus’ disciples, we were enacting our sentness whenever we interacted with wider society beyond the bounds of our covenantal communities in-Christ (churches)? How might that reorientation influence our participation in fulfilment of God’s purposes? What does God’s mission look like from that perspective and how might it allow for innovative methods to emerge as we navigate our way into the future of missions?

Innovation

‘Innovate’ has become one of those trendy terms over the past 20 months of the pandemic, like ‘pivot’, ‘unprecedented’ and ‘uncertainty’. Peter Drucker’s “innovate or die” adage is often quoted, but within missions and Christian ministries in general, rarely is it well understood. In his book, The Innovation Crisis, Ted Esler, leader of Missio Nexus, the missions alliance in the United States, laments that they have struggled “to find contemporary examples of innovative ministries.” (p16). He goes on to define innovation as, “the use of something new to create solutions. It can include invention, the creation of something new, or it can be a mixing of existing things to create something new.” (pp. 14-15).

While businesses that can afford to invest in complex research and development can adapt ahead of an inflection point, successful innovation is more often a happy accident. Another well-worn proverb is, “necessity is the mother of invention”. Innovation tends to emerge from a place of desperate need rather than intentional change. Motivation to make innovative shifts is not there until the way we have done “it” before no longer works. As we consider the implications of a coming inversion beyond this inflection point, missions leaders had better start looking for the new ways to do “it” (whatever their “it” is) if their organisation is going to continue to serve the purposes of God going forward.

Problems

Confronted by stories of people without Christ in newly colonised nations, sending organisations were created to send and support missionaries to bring those people the gospel and help them access its perceived benefits—usually “civilisation” as defined by the colonisers.
Confronted with a call to stop sending missionaries to nations with established churches, the Evangelical missions community discerned new “unreached” fields for which to raise missions resources.
Confronted with declining donor support (or a distaste for fundraising), missionaries started marketplace businesses in an attempt to generate funds to enable them to carry out their ‘mission’, or they found a professional job that puts them among the people they felt called to minister to.
Confronted with missionary trauma, missions organisations developed member care departments and other care services multiplied to meet demands.
Confronted with declining long-term missionary commitments, organisations restructured to manage short or medium-term missionary sending and remote/serial short-term missions service.
Confronted with rapidly growing indigenous movements to Christ in formerly unreached nations, cross-culturally trained expatriate missionaries positioned themselves as guides, coaches and, in more traditional settings, teachers and mentors.
These confrontations and their matching innovations are, of course, greatly simplified. There are complex social realities behind each of the illustrated responses, but the point is made—problems generate innovations (for better or worse).

At the Missio Nexus 2021 Missions Leaders Conference, “Innovate 2021”, Patrick Fung (OMF International Director and Mission Commission Executive Committee member) presented a biblical and historical reflection on innovation as it pertains to the purposes of God. He noted that, “Christian innovation ultimately is not so much about a new method, but rather gives a new insight, fresh meaning, a new way of seeing the world while embracing the unchanging gospel, God’s truth expressed by traditions.” (Patrick’s transcript notes, p1). COVID-19 should be opening our eyes to new ways of seeing a hurting, desperate, divided world and the gospel-led solutions required. Not from the perspective of the proud, “in the imagination of our hearts”, but from the perspective of the humble, whom the Lord calls and sends to serve His purposes, as God did with Mary. We are all containers of His grace.

Pioneers

If we dare to move on from our Evangelical missions paradigm of 240+ years, we will see that God’s purposes are being fulfilled in exciting new ways by people we would not expect to be considered “missionaries” in the traditional sense. For example, indigenous followers of Christ among formerly unreached people who have been instrumental in leading thousands of their countrymen and women come to know Christ from a different religious background. Justin Long, a missions researcher, calculates that 1% of the world’s population belongs to one of 1,350 relatively recent indigenous movements to Christ—that is, ~70 million new believers in fewer than two decades.

Migration is another locus of innovation that too few missions organisations are adapting to. In the late 2010s Majority World Christians migrating to the Global North were recognised as revitalising our faith in post-Christian nations. This has unfortunately been called ‘reverse missions’, but such terminology continues to privilege the Global North in the narrative and does this phenomenon a disservice. Those who are promoting their faith with a spiritual dynamism and confidence foreign to their new locations are effectively migrant missionaries, whether or not they serve in a recognised religious capacity.

It should be noted that this tends to be a one-way flow. People do not intentionally migrate toward discomfort unless there is sufficient motivation to do so. Traditionally-sent missionaries do not migrate permanently to the Majority World (unlike many missionaries of the colonial era). The new era of missions ahead of us will challenge our modern “expatriate” tradition of sending. But the question remains, if the only way to follow God’s leading to enter and minister in a foreign land is to migrate permanently, how readily will Westerners or the otherwise well-to-do answer such a call?

COVID-19 has greatly inhibited official migration for the time being but the refugee and asylum crisis has accelerated in 2021, affecting for instance the USA (1.7 million) and Europe (a 70% rise compared to 2020). It is estimated that 84 million people, including 35 million children, were forcibly displaced by mid 2021. With geopolitical tensions and power-posturing, civil wars and unrest, economic crises, and climate change impacts growing and likely to motivate more people to seek a better life for themselves and their children elsewhere, the opportunities and need for ministry among diaspora on the move is only going to increase.

Displaced people experience unfathomable tragedy and trauma, but among these marginalised ones are those fulfilling God’s purposes, even as they flee/relocate. Our traditional Evangelical missions lenses may have blinded us to them, but communities of displaced people already have missionaries among their number. What innovations can the global missions community create to equip these refugee servants of Christ and enable them to achieve the purposes to which God has called them even in such dire circumstances?

There is another type of destination that millions of people throughout the world are escaping to. This too is both a context for missions activity and a source of missionaries if we have eyes to see them. That place is the virtual world. JP Arceno, the Mission Commission’s Synergist (issues leader) for Tech, states that 61% of the world’s population is connected online in some form. That is 4.8 billion (let that number sink in) internet users. Outreach, evangelism, missions—whatever you wish to call it—is happening in online gathering points among a huge pool of human beings who are otherwise unreachable with the gospel, but this context is not yet recognised in mainstream missions consciousness beyond our static information sharing sites and apps.

Emerging virtual reality and holographic technologies are creating new opportunities for interactive access to millions (or billions even) with the gospel. Unless the tech we’re already using manages to keep pace, within 5 years we will look back and laugh at how we maintained some semblance of community in two-dimensional space via Zoom and live video feeds.

It is all very well identifying new vistas for missions service and innovating ways to meet new social and environmental problems being brought into focus by the emerging generation of leaders, but one of the biggest issues that illustrates our inflection point in history is that of reconciling difference and understanding unity in contexts of systemic imbalance. What does it mean to belong, and how does it relate to the future of missions?

Inclusion

Prior to our point of inflection, harmony meant something like “do not rock the boat”. A US American in a predominantly Australian and New Zealander missions group, may have experienced their complaints and suggestions falling on deaf ears (or, more likely, mercilessly ridiculed). A woman with leadership gifts would be restricted to sharing those among the locals and not presume to lead others within her missions group. If an organisation determined their international language was English, any non-English speaker seeking to join would need to learn it before they learned the language of the people they wished to minister to. These situations and the like, where majority rules or rules rule, are no longer acceptable.

Privilege

The pushback is related to the democratization of knowledge and the undermining of objective authority as the paradigm shift toward relativism is cemented. Today, whenever a system inhibits the flourishing of a person or group, according to that person or group’s standards, that system is open to be questioned. It is pointless lamenting this turn or trying to fight against it. It has happened. Adapt. Just as the Church has adapted at inflection points throughout Christian history.

Homogeneity (living with people of like mind) is not an option in cosmopolitan societies. Even people who live in communities with others like them are exposed to difference online or via other media. Withdrawal or retreat into ‘sameness’ leads to stagnation (or worse) not growth. As an example of how dangerous the lack of diversity can be, consider online echo chambers that are a well-known source of toxically antisocial behaviour.

Our new era is dominated by an attitude of ‘each to their own’, an attitude that is increasingly global due to our interconnectivity. This is led by the central core value of the individualistic ‘free world’: personal choice. Except, that does not work when people from diverse backgrounds, with diverse opinions are thrown together into a community—whether a neighbourhood or a missions group. As the COVID-19 vaccine campaigns have highlighted, there are necessary limits to the privilege of personal freedom when the wellbeing of an entire society or group is at stake. Sometimes it is necessary to relinquish one’s own preferences for the benefit of others or the whole. While many societies struggle to learn this, the New Testament writers believed that it should be habitual for followers of Christ.

A missions colleague once told me, “If you’re feeling comfortable in the group, that’s a problem.” It is a problem because you are likely to be enjoying privilege in the situation. It reveals that you are part of the dominant perspective and have the most to benefit from your easy participation. There is a disciple-growing case to be made for every participant in a group of believers to experience discomfort as part of their participation. Our exposure to difference matures us as believers.

Todd Johnson and Gina Zurlo confirm that, in 2021, 47 percent of the global missions force is from the Majority World. This is a dramatic rise from just 12 percent in 1970. This should not be surprising, since Christianity itself has been a Majority World religion from the turn of the century. If the Global North continues its trajectory of missionary decline, we will very soon see an inversion—missionaries from the Majority World in the majority. We could debate who Johnson and Zurlo count as a missionary, but to what end? Are we merely seeking to defend a position of dominance in the global missions community? Is there resistance to Majority World missionary inclusion? Or more to the point, could there be some fear of what might happen if Majority World leaders increasingly took control of the missions narrative… and resources?

Reinhold Titus, an international missions leader serving with OM, completed his Redcliffe College MA this year with a thesis entitled, Fostering Globally Inclusive Organisations: Exploring Inclusivity in Western Founded Global Mission Organisations through the experiences of senior African leaders serving in them. His analysis of qualitative interviews with 11 African missions leaders is a revelation… and an indictment.

As is usually the case, a thesis reveals merely the tip of the iceberg uncovered by the researcher. If a phrase makes the cut, it is significant and representative of all that cannot be said. Fortunately, I had the privilege of discussing the research with Reinhold and I also know the lived experience of many of his research participants. This phrase early in Chapter 5 summarises much, “One of the key barriers identified through this research was Western cultural superiority, tied to factors including the Enlightenment, colonialism, and others. The data reflected Western organisational members’ superiority mindset and Western dominance in leadership and decision-making, which led to silencing of (Majority World) voices.” In addition, “the concept of Western culture, practices, and standards being assumed as superior and normative (commonly now known as ‘whiteness’) frequently came up in the interviews.”

Early in the pandemic, issues of racial inequality arose afresh from a flashpoint series of events in the United States of America sparked off by the unjust deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in police custody (March 12 and May 25, 2020 respectively). The ensuing protests sparked a chain reaction that spread “Black Lives Matter” protests around the world.

Prescription

F. Lionel Young III is another researcher who published findings this year. They included revelations of systemic and historic racial inequalities in missions organisations. His conclusions were published in book-form as, World Christianity and the Unfinished Task. An excerpt from the book was released this month as an article in Christianity Today. In the article, Lionel notes that “It is important for Western Christians who are engaged in world missions to understand that white supremacy in all its forms has been rejected by the non-Western world.” Furthermore, and this is worth quoting at length,

Christians in Africa, Asia, and Latin America want (and deserve) to work with the church in the Western world as coequals in the gospel for the cause of global missions. Church leaders in the non-Western world are keenly aware of the history of subjugation that they and their forefathers have endured. They do not want to be ignored, bypassed, looked down on, or patronized by the Western church—arriving in their country to carry out their work independently as though no African, Asian, or Latin American church actually exists. They want the Western church to serve with them in common witness. They also want Western church leaders to acknowledge them, respect them, and listen to them. They want Western Christians to first understand their needs and then come and serve alongside them.

At our inflection point in global history, Mary’s song must challenge missions organisations and missions leaders to seriously wonder if we are the proud that God is bringing down in our contexts. If we are the ones to be scattered as the great inversion affects Christian missions. There is one way to ensure that we are not. It is the prescription Dr Luke writes just two chapters after his record of Mary’s song. A prescription delivered in the voice of John the baptiser… repent! Let Luke 3:7-18 serve as a warning for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. As the crowds asked, “What should we do?” when they heard John’s rebuke, note carefully how John explained to them what repentance looks like. Repentance is a form of innovation. A problem is highlighted that demands a solution. The solutions John proposed are practical, just, and directed in favour of the marginalised who are oppressed by those being challenged by the prophet. Missions leaders, we need to “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).

Conclusion

I have never known Mary’s song to be as popular as it is right now. It seems to be the favoured passage in most end-of-year updates that I have received from believers, as well as featured in numerous social media posts. Perhaps it is a passage especially pertinent to Christmas time at an inflection point, when there is heightened attention on injustice. Whenever I see a concentrated cluster of interest like this, I cannot but conclude that the Spirit is saying something to the Church. Each commentator has a slightly different perspective of who is being pulled down and lifted up, but few identify themselves as the proud. Yet, the healthiest way to read the passage is with the fear of the Lord and a penitent heart. How is my privilege negatively affecting those to whom I am sent? Who are the poor and marginalised, relative to my social and economic standing and privilege (for there will always be people more disadvantaged than ourselves)? How can I sacrificially serve the purposes of God as the Lord continues His great inversion?

We ALL carry a sense of entitlement; it is part of sin’s influence in us. We must rid ourselves of it as we move beyond the inflection point into the future of missions. An inversion is happening. It is amplifying the need for greater inclusion. Only greater inclusion will help the global missions community and its subsets be successful in innovating for God’s glory and the world’s well-being in the days ahead. Our ministry in the world is one of reconciliation, after all (2 Corinthians 5:18). This is the purpose of God—to reconcile all things under Christ’s shalom. The inclusion research discussed above implies that there still exists a strong sense of entitlement by (‘white’) missionaries from Europe and its global diaspora. But the victims of exclusion carry just as much entitlement. It may be entitlement unfulfilled, but it is entitlement nonetheless. One of the first marks of a disciple is that the Holy Spirit tempers our sense of entitlement. This is grace. As we receive all that God offers us in Christ, we realise that we are not entitled to anything but God’s wrath (Romans 2:5-11), and yet… Christ.

We know we have been elevated in God’s great inversion when, with eyes opened to our state, we receive grace and the Holy Spirit’s empowering to love one another sacrificially, deeply valuing each other, and serving with the attitude of Christ (Philippians 2:1-11). The love of Christ in us, with us, and through us, will ensure we transition this inflection point onto the right side of our generation’s great inversion experience. With Mary we too will sing, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!” (Luke 1:46-47 NLT).

Pray

• Father God, forgive us for presuming our privilege is something we can wield to fulfil Your purposes. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. So that we will recognise when our privilege is negatively affecting others. And give us a heart to serve. So that we will sacrificially lay aside our privilege for the benefit of others. Empower us, as you empowered Your Son. So that we will endure suffering as necessary for the well-being of this world both now and forever. Amen.
• For safe spaces to hold courageous conversations that allow diverse voices to contribute towards biblically-informed innovative ways to navigate the great inversion beyond our current inflection point.
• For patience to endure the frustrations we are all facing, and strength of resolve to engage in practical solution-finding wherever God has placed us.
• For the next generation of called-out ones who are even now being equipped with the skills and gifts to help lead us into the new era ahead, in new contexts, with new tools, and new methods, as we all seek to participate with God in the ancient purpose that the risen Lord Jesus Christ is bringing to consummation. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Amen.

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[50 Minute Read]

It is already well into August 2020, so time for something of a “Leaders Forecast” update for the year. Quite frankly, it feels like we have alreadty travelled for an eternity this year, but gone nowhere. Between the lock-downs and online forums, civil unrest and worsening poverty, increased vulnerability and decreased access, political divisions and accelerating infections, missionaries and ministers of the gospel can be forgiven for feeling emotionally and spiritually, if not also physically, exhausted.
I am Jay Matenga and this is my leader’s forecast for 2020 — 1987 years after Jesus’ resurrection.

So, rejoice with me brothers and sisters engaged in God’s mission, because God is doing something in our day that the prophets longed to see. It is shrouded in the mystery of suffering, yet it will be revealed. The Church will emerge from this trial on every side refined for a new era of history. Right now, in the crucible, we need to prepare for whatever that new era will require of us. The old ways in which we had so much confidence are being dissolved, something new is emerging—new, yet rooted in an ancient story.

Online Missions Conversations

Over the past five months I have been privileged to participate in numerous Zoom discussions and contribute to a few webinars. The Mission Commission hosted our own Virtual Roundtable on May 22nd with about 28 missions leaders in attendance. It took some time to process the input shared in that forum, but a report is now available to read or download here: https://weamc.global/2020roundtable/.

Where possible I have kept track of English-language medium missions discussions that have been put online. Sometimes I have attended in real-time (often in the middle of the night in New Zealand), for others I have viewed the event after the fact via the weblink provided. There are some very important discussions happening within organisations and among various networks. I only get to see the ones I’m invited to or that are made public. There are many more happening within missions associations, networks and organisations that Mission Commission leaders and I may not be aware of. Over time, I’m sure the outcomes of those conversations will emerge as future missions practice. Let us pray for one another unceasingly, that the Spirit of God would guide all our conversations and that the mind of Christ will be revealed whenever two or more gather online.

The Mission Commission has sought to add value to missions conversations by posting weekly blogs on the missions impact of COVID-19 with regard to different issues. Some of those I wrote to get the ball rolling but recently we have welcomed submissions from other contributors on subjects of their interest or expertise. We will continue to do that as we’re able. There are many more missions issues affected by COVID-19 to consider. This season is too precious to let the opportunity pass us by to explore implications for the new era of missions ahead.

COVID-19 Global Issues

Before reviewing some of the major themes emerging in missions conversations that I’m aware of, here are some significant COVID-19 (or related) impacts that are giving rise to these themes…

Interpersonal

The infection itself is driving a wedge into our interpersonal day-to-day relationships, forcing a low- or no-contact environment for most, in many parts of the world. This can heighten our suspicion of those we don’t know or trust.

The lack of face to face connections outside of the family are proving emotionally stressful and negatively affecting the mental health of many, especially young people.

General anxiety and lack of a sense of safety has increased for most.

Pressure on families has seen major increases in domestic abuse and intra-family violence around the world.

We have seen a rapid uptake of online gatherings, but the enthusiasm for them quickly dropped off for all but the most necessary and functional of meetings—e.g. the transmission of information or the sharing of ideas. It is COVID-19 necessary, cost-effective, good for the environment and convenient, but virtuality has its drawbacks.

On the positive side, more people are (potentially) able to participate in conferences and forums with easy access at low cost, especially with regard to global gatherings. But there still remains a “digital divide” and we must remember to ensure the views of those without access to necessary technology are included somehow—and their access to tech improved if possible.

Business supply chains have been interrupted to the point where global trade may be permanently affected in favour of regional hubs and local stockpile solutions.

Unemployment is rapidly rising in formal economies, threatening the livelihoods of many workers unable to quickly redeploy to other industries. This will impact low- and middle-income earners the most—reducing discretionary surplus they may have used for charitable donations.

Digital technologies are booming, particularly in the social interface space. Innovators are aware of the limitations of video conferencing and large online event hosting, and it is a ‘goldrush’ to find swift solutions and grab some of Zoom’s market share. Global digital interaction promises to become easier, more accessible and more ‘natural’ in the months and years ahead.

Civil Liberties

The virus has returned power to most governments after a period of declining confidence.
Restricted freedoms, economic disparity, and harsh law-enforcement has amplified civil unrest within nations. The emotional toll taken by virus response measures has eroded tolerance toward inequities and injustice, resulting in public protests and stronger attempts at governmental control.

Government surveillance technologies have advanced rapidly in an attempt to track contagion contacts. These will likely continue to be used by governments in ways that potentially affect civil and religious liberties.

In some parts of the world, the chaos caused by the virus has provided opportunities to increase persecution of groups perceived to be a threat to those in power, usually because of competing beliefs and moral convictions.

In the pursuit of certainty, and a growing distrust of traditional authorities, conspiracy theories that seem plausible are being created, embraced and promoted widely, even when faced with broadly validated research that provides evidence to the contrary but does not promise stability.

Emerging Missions Themes

It is impossible to capture the entire gamut of discussion happening with regard to the pandemic’s impact on missions. There are simply too many aspects of missions being affected (not to mention many different interpretations about what counts or does not count as ‘missions’ activity). Nevertheless, here are some insights grouped under themes that I am regularly encountering and have considered. The points below represent my reflections on what I have been hearing.

Aside from access difficulties, indigenous missions engagement is urgently needed because the margin of tolerance toward the imposition of one world’s ideas onto another world’s reality has reached zero. Many will claim this is the relativisation of truth, but it is actually the minimisation of power. Truth does not simply translate wholesale across cultural divides. It can, however, be seeded and allowed to grow uniquely within another context. Missiologists and historians of the global church note that it is typically the indigenous church that grows rapidly, not the missionary controlled church. This should give us confidence that the church will grow globally outside of the borders of traditional Christendom (the Industrialised Global North) in spite of the disruption to foreign missionary services. 

For a long time, minorities in missions were content to “go along to get along” and endured being pushed to the edges of organisations. We are now seeing previously marginalised people push back against the dominant organisational culture’s priorities and privileges and challenge the majority view’s unconscious assumptions (usually assumed to be ‘superior’). Inferiority complexes are dropping away in favour of a growing confidence that other cultures’ ways of knowing are valid and valuable. This tends to be particularly evident in the tension between Industrial (Global North/Individualist) and Indigenous (Majority World/Collectivist) perspectives.

Previously, where foreign experts and their methods were accepted because they were accompanied by education and money, border closures and desperation for local innovative solutions has dislodged this dependency.

These issues are accelerating a shift in the balance of power toward the host and off of the would-be visitor/guest. Alongside increasing national pride and necessary self-sufficiency, people indigenous (or local) to a context are regaining their authority to decide what is or is not acceptable to their context.

In sum, this shift toward “centring” the indigenous/local perspective makes the imposition of knowledge from the outside less acceptable. The indigenous/local believers become the guardians of the gospel for their context. It places fresh emphasis on the need for the foreigner to take the subordinate posture of a guest who is invited to participate in the (co)creation of knowledge, or truth, in the host culture.

Transformative Collaboration

As I listen to Majority World and intergenerational missions perspectives, I hear that we need to move away from partnership (which emphasizes “parts” in contractual arrangement) and lip-service connections, toward a relational collaboration that looks more like fellowship/koinonia in the deeply interconnected covenantal sense. Match the need to better support indigenous missions initiatives on their terms with intentional covenantal collaboration, and you have a potent recipe for effective witness to a world that is pulling in the opposite direction: becoming increasingly separated and self-serving.

Similarly, integrating the participation, perspectives, and priorities of younger generations in missions thought, practice and decision-making processes, will help us discern the direction of missions for a post-pandemic world. As explored in our blogpost on youth, COVID-19 is having a huge impact on the younger generations and therefore the future of the Church and missions.

The desirable mutual transformation developed through the relationship becomes its most valuable outcome. Any other reason for forming a relationship—a project, objective, product, or purpose—should be subordinated to the relationship itself.

I am convinced that John 17:18-25 (the Great Commitment) is better suited as a central missions text for the new era ahead of us than Matthew 28:18-20 (the Great Commission). The Johannine reference focuses better on the outcome that will result in the world believing and knowing that the Father loving sent the Son: our loving unity. It also articulates how the Father sent the Son: in loving unity. The Matthew passage shows us the scope (all the earth) and what to do when moving beyond Israel (make disciples), but it is too easily interpreted in an individualistic and formulaic way. Whereas Jesus’ prayer in John fills out the covenantal/collaborative intention of what becoming a disciple means: a full participant in the integrally unified, ethnically-diverse and prophetic shalom-Kingdom of God. The meaning of which is developed throughout the epistles where the writers speak of what it means to live together in-Christ as followers of Christ.

The emerging focus on transformative collaboration, a testament to the world of the power of God to reconcile differences, can be illustrated in many New Testament passages and themes. I quite like Romans 12:1-2ff at the moment. John Piper has said, “missions exists because worship doesn’t”. When we read Romans 12 with a “Great Commitment” mindset, we see that our self-sacrificing unity in fellowship with each other in-Christ is our acceptable act of worship. Because it is our interpersonal and intercultural, self-denying interaction with one another, our preferring each other, that transforms our minds away from conforming to the divisive patterns of this world. With reference back to the unity emphasised in John 17:18-25 (see also Psalm 133), this is God’s good, pleasing and perfect will and our greatest gospel witness to the world. As Romans 12 progresses, Paul goes on to explain the types of interpersonal behaviour expected of God-worshippers in-Christ. Everyone has a place and a part to play. As we play ours, we need to lovingly allow others to play theirs and value each other’s participation. In this, God is worshipped and will be glorified throughout the earth.

If the global missions community was to invest in and practice transformative collaboration with indigenous missionaries and missions initiatives we should expect dynamic results. We should expect our sending churches to embrace differences and collaborate similarly. The world will look on with amazement and God will be glorified by our loving example of transformative collaboration made possible because of our Great Commitment to unity in-Christ.

Whole-of-Life Orientation

There is therefore now no separation between the demonstration and explanation of the gospel. The crisis created by COVID-19 will not permit us to merely speak of the goodness of God and Christ the Lord, we need to show that Christ is our Lord by demonstrating the goodness of God. Enough talk about prioritisation or polarisation. It is all one—an indivisible and interrelated whole: spiritual, material, and psychological. Most of the world understands this. It is the Industrialised Global North than fragments it. The world in the state it is in today needs to see such a compelling demonstration of the Kingdom that they will beg us for an explanation.

For too long the global missions community has been caught up in debates over definitions and prioritizations. We might as well be asking, “Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” As our Latino elders have been saying for decades, our approach should be one of “Misión Integral”. Micah Global and Chris J. H. Wright (among many others) have adopted this in English as “Integral Mission” in attempt to reintegrate parts of a whole so that they’re not treated as separate components as “holistic mission” tends to treat them. In a time of COVID-19 crisis, prioritization debates become pitifully academic and disconnected from reality. 

Creation care is an aspect of our lived reality that is now unable to be ignored as integral to our missions responsibility. COVID-19 has been a tipping point for creation care and missions. It is rare now when a conversation around missions praxis does not include a positive discussion about engaging creation care issues. God’s people live in God’s environment with a Genesis 1:28 mandate to steward it well. The climate change narrative has merely spotlighted this afresh, demanding an Evangelical response. The Mission Commission is now working closely with the WEA’s Creation Care Task Force and Sustainability Centre to draw their expertise into the MC and keep the MC community aware of developments in Evangelical thinking about creation care to inform Evangelical missions practice.

Another issue that I place in this category is the plight and potential of people on the move—displaced people, refugees and diaspora. These broad categories of people have found themselves outside of their historic habitats at a time when the world shut has them in and xenophobia has increased around them. Reframing missions in a “whole-of-life” way must appreciate how life in limbo or permanent resettlement in a foreign culture makes people particularly vulnerable. Conversely, it cannot be denied that Christian migrants are revitalising the faith in formerly Christian nations. Herein lies ongoing potential for people on the move to be both recipients of the gospel and missionaries of the gospel.

In a similar way, we are aware that the expatriate servants of Jesus who have remained in foreign lands, or lockdown in their sending nations, have faced their own crises during the international travel hiatus. This has created new Member Care challenges for sending organisations and churches, on top of wrestling with what COVID-19 might mean for their viability as organisations. Harry Hoffman and the Global Member Care Network are to be commended for the way they are wrestling with these issues together.

Technological Advancements

One of the biggest accelerations caused by COVID-19 is the uptake of digital forms of communication and interaction (see our early blog about digital impacts). The technology industry estimates that we are now at least a decade ahead of the new-tech adoption curve and innovators are racing to cash in on the opportunities. The most noticeable impact on missions has been the availability of reliable, low-bandwidth, communications technology in the form of Zoom. Many missions were already using it as a secondary form of connection across borders (the first and far more preferred being in-person meetings). With the advent of COVID-19 and the impossibility of easy travel, Zoom has become the preferred conduit of missions communications.

The shift to digital communications has not only helped keep international communications alive, it has also become the lifeline for formal and non-formal missions education (see our blog about training) and the sharing of missions ideas in online-conferences and discussion forums. We are watching with interest how large national and global conferences have adapted to the online space with positive results. The ability for more people to access the event and the lowering of costs for them to do so (when travel and hospitality costs are removed from the mix) is compelling, as is the lessening impact on the environment.

I continue to wonder about the push-back against continuing online once travel is possible again. Some leaders maintain that face-to-face will be crucial even if travel carries greater cost and more complexity. But how many of our beliefs about the importance of in-person interaction are fuelled by other motivations? I have seen indicators of “travel-withdrawal” from missions leaders who have lived life constantly on the move. There is now no doubt in my mind that travel and conference attendance can be unhealthily addictive, even idolatrous. We are seeing similar effects with entertainment and sports stars who are diminished by the lack of audience enthusiasm to feed off. Missions leaders and conference speakers are prone to the same malady—needing to be celebrated for their expertise and insights. It is an identity-challenging time for some leaders, more so if conferences continue to be shifted online for the foreseeable future.

A major issue not mentioned yet but is related to all of the above is the demise of Short-Term Trips. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the business model of Global North missions organisations that rely on short-termers and the whole industry that specialised in short term “voluntourism”. Indicators from the airline industry suggest the global transport systems will not return to pre-COVID levels for years, neither in availability nor affordability. The long delay in getting (wealthy) people moving around the globe again has crippled the Short-Term Trip model, with the exception perhaps of geographically close trips. I have heard talk of technology bridging the gap with “virtual short-term trips” being proposed, but I doubt that these will be of interest to the ‘target market’ who are looking for self-actualising experiences that look good on their CVs and may prompt some consideration of more formal engagement with missions. While there will be some cost from the loss of short-termers, missions as a whole will not be critically harmed.

The Motivation Problem

In light of all of the COVID-19 challenges and changes, I see one significant factor that has missions organisations locked in stasis: motivation for missions. The global missions community (as it is usually defined by post-1800s missionary sending models) is so heavily invested in a type of missiology formed over the past 220+ years of industrial colonial expansion that it struggles to conceive of how it can be any different.

Every era in the history of the Church has been marked by a particular missions emphasis or motivation. These were influenced by the challenges and opportunities the Church faced at the time and the needs of societies they were exposed to. Socio-economic factors both enabled and constrained ministry beyond the influence of the local church (i.e. missions). Monastic movements, wandering teachers, educational and health care institutes, social welfare programmes, Church diplomacy, trading and commerce, religious wars and conquests, were all formed out of the priorities of the Church and perceived needs beyond its parishes. The European colonial era widened awareness of the world dramatically, and also a sense of responsibility to address problems viewed from the perspective of Christendom. The modern missions movement was no different and it is not the evolutionary pinnacle of missions engagement with the world. A new age requires new missions.

Conclusion, Or Not

My cards are on the table as it were. From what I am hearing and perceiving of the “new normal” ahead of us, I am all the more convinced that the future of missions is indigenous. We will continue to need missions organisations that are able to develop and provide support for indigenous or near-culture missionaries to minister a whole-of-life gospel to people beyond the influence/reach of a local church. I contend that we should especially promote and prioritise support for missionaries from cultures closest to people with least access to the gospel, if for no other reason than because Christ is not yet known and worshipped in those places.

What then remains in missions for the people of God from traditional sending nations?

• Harvest Prayer—continuous, passionate, informed prayer for global missions via all means in all places.
• Missions Education—not necessarily teaching specific (Global North) missions methods, but Biblically-rooted missions principles with practical applications for the development of missionaries, the making of disciples, the planting of churches and the nurturing of deep in-Christ unity.
• Resource Sharing—indigenous missionaries need to be financially freed and equipped to minister effectively according to their contexts.
• Diaspora Ministry—working alongside migrant believers to reach your nation and ministering to non-believers from unreached peoples finding refuge in your nation.
• Distance Co-Discipling—creating long-term covenant relationships with indigenous missionaries/missionary families to journey together, share life together, and support one another as you grow in the Lord while living in different places.
• Fellowship Visits—when travel resumes, relationships can be greatly enhanced and missionaries encouraged by in-person visits by supportive expatriate friends (not as superiors or experts).
• Local Missions—in every nation there are groups in society that lack gospel awareness if not access. Minister there. I contend that missions activity is ministry beyond the influence of a local church (with evangelism a subset of missions). Missions should not be constrained to a cross-cultural endeavour only; this would invalidate indigenous missionaries. Attempts to restrict missions to cross-cultural engagement could be seen as a woeful attempt by cross-cultural sending agencies to protect their business model.

Am I suggesting a moratorium on long-term expatriate missionary service? Absolutely not. People are still ‘going’ and will continue to do so. Every nation has gospel-blessings to share with all nations. I am, however, detecting a trend that would see the sending of missionaries internationally become more difficult and less welcome, with decreasing motivational, moral and financial support in traditional sending nations—and therefore less able to sustain traditional sending organisations.

Yet God’s mission continues, so our involvement in missions needs to adapt. God will continue to call people to serve in missions, but as we detected in our research for the book “Mission In Motion: Speaking Frankly of Mobilisation”, a calling to missions is usually nascent and shaped by the context in which one is called. A new context has been thrust on us. Missions may become more indigenous out of necessity but that should not absolve any of us from responsibility. The global gospel demands global collaboration so that the whole world will know and believe that the Father lovingly sent the Son. So, let us pursue the Great Commitment and #stayonmission.

Pray

• For wisdom for all Christian leaders who are seeking to navigate their way through the crisis caused by the global pandemic. For a spirit of discernment to effectively understand the times and know how God’s people under their care should respond to the challenges they are facing.
• For courage for missions leaders especially; that they will listen carefully to the people they are responsible for and accountable to, and make the changes that are necessary for their missions organisations and personnel to thrive in the new normal ahead of us.
• For indigenous or local-culture innovators called of God to take the gospel to those beyond the influence of a local church who have little access to, or understanding of, the gospel. That God will supply all their needs according to Christ Jesus’ riches, and the obedient generosity God’s people.
• For revelation from God for all of us to know how to prepare, collaborate and resource missions activities so that the gospel will continue to spread unhindered in its fullest expression, and that the Kingdom of God would be made even more apparent to the world around us—especially among people with least access to the knowledge of God in Christ.

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[30 Minute Read]

The COVID-19 event has raised to boiling point pre-existing strains on many societies, the United States of America being one of the most visible at the moment. There, a perfect storm of uncertainty, stress, and strong-arm reactions lifted the lid on barely-contained race-related disparities and we have all seen the consequences unfold online. For those of us who are globally focused, the scenes are all too familiar.

They have, and continue to be, played out in many parts of the world where minorities experience grave injustice and abuse of power. The additional strain brought on nations by COVID-19, amplifying injustice, has stirred up diversity implications for missions.

I am an indigenous child in a colonised world.

Conception

By genetic lottery (or I should say, Divine providence) I was born with a lot less melanin than my half-sister. My features are non-descript regarding my ethnic origins. I am no longer surprised to be greeted in Russian when I am in Thailand or told that I look like someone they know from Sweden or Poland. I am an ethnic hybrid.

A global missions mentor once commented that I seemed to him like something of a chameleon in international circles. Apparently, he watched as I interacted with others, adjusting my interaction as I adapted to who they were and how they preferred to communicate. My empathetic English-born wife feels embarrassed when she sees me “mimicking” like this. I can’t help it. I am an indigenous child in a colonised world; adaptation is a survival mechanism. It has become a gift. The gift of hybridity. By the transforming power of the Holy Spirit of the living God, I have become a connector.

Created In Crisis

I grew up protected by my white mother, as best as she could, from my angry and abusive stepfather (a child of English migrants to New Zealand). She kept my mixed ethnicity hidden behind my pale skin. As I grew inside this camouflage, I became a secret observer to the perspective of a racist. For as far back as I can remember I have borne the wounds of the derogative way he would speak about the “bloody useless Mowries” (Māoris — my biological father’s heritage), “thieving bungas” or “lazy coconuts” (Pacific Islanders), “ching-chongs” (Asians), or “those black bastards” (all of the above); people he considered a drain on civil society. I lived by the mantra, ‘stay hidden, or he’ll turn on you next’. It was bad enough being on the receiving end of rage for the slightest infraction around the house, adding overt racial contempt to that would have made life unbearable.

Adapt or die. It sounds extreme, and it is, but the narrative a child constructs is hard to shake. One can never really dissociate from it. It needs to be healthily metabolised (thanks to Henry Cloud for that metaphor). In my experience, transforming trauma into healthy maturity requires supernatural intervention.

I was compelled to see the complete inadequacy of my own capacity to measure up. I couldn’t do it and I knew it. I needed to throw myself at the foot of the cross of Christ seeking mercy. I was 16, singing along with Foreigner, “I wanna know what love is, and I want you to show me…”, only to realise one day that it had become a prayer. The family that shared the love of Christ with me, God’s answer to that prayer, pointed me to the cross and the hope that was on the other side of it—the redemption of my childhood trauma and a metanarrative that would help me make sense of it all and find my life’s purpose.

Yet I remained camouflaged even in the churches and missions I belonged to. Me and God, in the midst of God’s people, hidden behind a veil of pale, adapting. Growing up in a white lower-working-class environment didn’t award me many economic or educational advantages, but I readily acknowledge now that it did provide privilege. Until my early 40’s, I was known by my stepfather’s very English surname. In many ways this and my skin tone defined me, but it also constricted me. It was an identity placed on me when I started school. I was never formally adopted and when we went to apply for a marriage certificate, I discovered it wasn’t even official—my birth certificate’s surname was a hyphen. Undetermined.

But my individualised identity had been forming in-Christ, among God’s people. I grew spiritually and theologically. I took opportunities to know God and contribute my best to make God known. God’s work in the wider world was most clearly articulated for my wife and me through the Perspectives course and since the early ‘90s we have committed ourselves entirely to supporting God’s mission.

Our unique genetic heritage is part of our God-given giftedness.

Crafted For Connection

It was through participating in God’s mission that I became conscious of my camouflage. Brothers and sisters from the ‘Majority World’ Church recognised my cloak of adaptability and ever so lovingly drew my attention to it. They called me, the real me, forth. They identified the usefulness of my hybridity. They recognised that my indigenous, collectivist, perspectives and values resonated with theirs. They had me stand alongside them, in my pale skin, to speak with them in our attempts to expose a colonialism-infused Global North dominance in missions. To quote a dear Ghanaian mentor, “You may be white on the outside, but you have an African heart!” A greater compliment I could not have received.

Their encouragement prompted me to search out why I saw the world in many ways similar to my collectivist cousins. At 42, I finally commenced a wonderful relationship with my biological father. I received my lineage 27 generations back to our ancestor’s arrival from eastern Pacific islands. I located myself in the land of my forefathers (which is where I happened to grow up as part of a white family). I learned that I had been baptised by those who led me to Christ in my tribe’s river. My father blessed me with my indigenous birthright (we are of a priestly line) to aid my work for Christ. The way I saw the world finally started to make sense. My identity in-Christ became all the richer and more meaningful as a Māori and Anglo/Germanic hybrid.

For every one of us, our unique genetic heritage is part of our God-given giftedness. Redeemed in-Christ, God draws grace from our respective ethnic heritage, cultural influences and life experiences to manifest and witness to Christ’s Kingdom in the world—a Kingdom made up of gloriously distinguishable nations, tribes, languages and people… all of us formed in that part of Christ’s good creation in which we grew: our place.

Wherever the Church encounters injustice, we are responsible for prophetically calling it out and living counter to it, demonstrating righteousness as a witness to the shalom promise of the Kingdom of God.

Converse With Caution

Having positioned myself thus, when the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd (among others) were held up in the USA as banners in the call for justice and the deconstruction of racist systems that contributed to their deaths, I wondered afresh how we ought to compassionately respond to incidents of injustice as a global community of God’s people? Global media has transmitted to all of us the violence in the USA, along with the long-standing trauma of, and injustice against, the African American people. But the complex social situation of the Black Lives Matter movement can too easily be separated into a simplistic binary: for, or against. To avoid undue entanglement in this historic moment, I think it best we grieve with them and let them speak of their pain and suffering as they will.

It is for the people of the United States of America to own this story and write its next chapter. It is for those of us outside of it to learn and look to our own. As Miroslav Volf has observed,

…in my attempt to be in solidarity with them, I can actually betray them because I am not in solidarity with them as they understand solidarity and themselves in the need of solidarity. For this reason, my posture should not be one of offering perspectives on how they should engage in the struggle against injustice, deception, and violence to which they are exposed.

For those of us who live outside a location of injustice, we do well to let those who share our faith speak from within that context. Meanwhile, we support them, grieve with them and try to understand the anguish through the limited lens of our own experiences. In the case of the USA at the moment, the National Association of Evangelicals here and Christianity Today here, provide local Evangelical perspectives that the World Evangelical Alliance affirms. The NAE invited my compatriot and friend Dr Brian Winslade, local church pastor in New Zealand and member of the WEA’s International Council, to provide an outsider’s perspective, which can be found here. I think he responded well, in sensitive theological fashion, as an invitee to the discussion.

As we try to empathise with the struggles of others, holocaust survivor, neurologist and psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl cautions us against a temptation to belittle the suffering of one against the suffering of others we might know about,

“…a (hu)man’s suffering is similar to the behaviour of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus, suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the ‘size’ of human suffering is absolutely relative.”

As Frankl also counsels, we need to allow time between stimulus and response. We must allow sufferers in every context space to express their pain on their own terms. Like Elihu, the younger of Job’s companions, who God did not condemn (Job 32:2ff), we silently listen and lament with them until we have greater comprehension of the ways we might be able to help. But it is not a passive listening and lament. Rather, as we enter their pain, it adds meaning to our own stories and motivation to our eventual response.

From my backstory you might appreciate why, as I see injustice exposed around the world, I can too quickly rush to the point where Elihu eventually exploded,

No, I will say my piece.
I will speak my mind.
For I am full of pent-up words,
and the spirit within me urges me on.
I am like a cask of wine without a vent,
like a new wineskin ready to burst! (Job 32:17-19)

Yet I know deep inside of me that words often have little affect on systemic change. Rectifying actions are required. In my indigenous reality, there is not an effective way to make something right with words. An apology is not something that is spoken. Wrongs are righted through actions. We call this “utu”. It is a philosophy of practical reciprocation, a rebalancing or realignment and, thereby, the restoring of right relationships (utu can refer to the rebalancing of generosity as well as harm).

Wherever the Church encounters injustice, we are responsible for prophetically calling it out and living counter to it, demonstrating righteousness as a witness to the shalom promise of the Kingdom of God. No less so missions, who are more likely to encounter injustice in places where the people of God have little influence in society.

Being confronted with injustice, as we are at the moment, should cause us also to look at our own house to see if we are being blind to injustice there. After all, the Apostle Peter warned, “judgement begins with the family of God…” (1 Peter 4:17). As the Mission Commission’s leaders heeded the suffering of others and considered the meaning for our own lives, a specific action-question emerged: how ought we to help right the wrongs of systemic injustice within the global missions community?

How ought we to help right the wrongs of systemic injustice within the global missions community?

Committing To Community

If you are not aware of systemic injustice within the global missions community you have not sat long enough in the lament of our brothers and sisters from the Majority World and heard their stories of dismissal. You have not felt the frustration of your perspectives on God and missions being misunderstood or ignored. You have not had to recalibrate your values or frame your insights according to the terminology and implicit rules of the industrialised world. You have not been talked about instead of with. You have not experienced what it is like to be relegated to the soundproofed room of ‘otherness’, while a predetermined agenda is pursued as business as usual.

Conversely, while the Global North narrative may not tell the whole story, we should also be careful not diminish the contribution of the West to the spread of global Christianity nor fail to realise that this is a tough moment for traditional sending nation missions. My pale privilege has allowed me to sit with white missions leaders and experience their perplexity and genuinely deep sadness when confronted with accusations of dominance and control by those from the Global South. Even in their own traditional sending nations, their commitment to spread the gospel and do good in the world is being undermined by a post-colonial critique. If you are from the dominant culture it is painfully difficult to perceive the negative influence it can have on minorities in your midst. Try as you might to accommodate, it can seem like nothing short of resigning will satiate demands for understanding and equality. Even then, inequities will still be perceived and experienced, because they are built into the very assumptions that shape our missions and ministries.

My understanding of the history of the Mission Commission is that our leaders have always attempted to create space for a wide representation of voices to be heard on missions issues. This has required a great deal of intentionality, but we are also aware that it inevitably fell short of some people’s expectations. In trying to hold conversations in tension, groups still polarised and spun off into separate networks. That is not a bad thing in itself, so long as those networks do not silo themselves.

In a multi-cultural reality (even a Christian one) it is unrealistic to think a perfect system for equal participation and profit is possible this side of eternity. We must accept that we need to co-exist in the creative-tension of difference and give time for innovative change to emerge from our uncomfortable conversations, again and again. As a transformation process, this needs to be seen as desirable. Membership does not distribute dividends, it bears fruit. Deep dialogue should positively affect and benefit all participants, leading us to maturity (see James 1:2-4). The Mission Commission is committed to providing a safe space for courageous constructive conversations, encouraging all participants to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the source and result of our common faith (Hebrews 12:2).

As a result of our reflections on this historic moment, where systemic disparities have been exposed afresh, the leaders of the Mission Commission agreed on a Position Statement on Diversity and Inclusion to guide our community’s inter-relational conduct. It not only speaks to our ethnic and cultural differences, but also to gender, demographic, linguistic and economic variances. It recognises our propensity to lean toward those like us and calls us all to a higher standard of mutual inclusion in-Christ. It serves as a mandate for our loving acceptance of one another, promoting respect for each other’s viewpoints on God’s mission, and marks our continued commitment to publish reflections about missions issues from multiple perspectives—all toward strengthening participation in God’s mission.

According to this position statement, wherever, whenever or however the Mission Commission gathers, no one need hide behind cultural camouflage for fear of not belonging. No one need remain quiet for fear of being misunderstood or dishonoured in some way. We will also continue to work on lowering barriers that hinder participation (e.g. language and location) and we are thankful for the technological advancements we can leverage to do so. Pray for us in this.

May we go into our hurting worlds with empathy and vulnerability, our true selves unveiled…

Conclusion

Having set the bar with this position statement, we expect those within the global missions community, who participate in the Mission Commission, to self-regulate according to what we believe is nothing less than a Kingdom ethic of love. As Volf has recommended, may we be a people who take the time to truly listen and deeply understand each other, lest our “presumed understanding… become a form of closing (ourselves) off to them, even a form of exclusion”.

For all the racial slurs and aggressive dominance of my late stepfather, in his own pain he failed to appreciate the one thing that could have opened a pathway to healing for him: understanding the pain of another. Christ-followers, may we go into our hurting worlds with empathy and vulnerability, our true selves unveiled (2 Corinthians 3:18), drawing from the rivers of living water within us, to outwardly produce good eating fruit (character) and leaves (actions) that can heal all ethnicities through a demonstration of the practical love of Christ (Ezekiel 47:12, Revelation 21:1-2).

Pray

• For the victims of systemic abuses around the world. That God would hear their cry and intervene on their behalf.
• That people of influence will be raised up by God to act on behalf of the disenfranchised, able to make changes to systems that fail to serve well.
• Against the Evil One who would take the opportunity of protest to drive ideological wedges between families and communities, stealing, killing and destroying relationships.
• For Jesus the Christ to be lifted up as a banner of hope, as he was at George Floyd’s funeral; not merely as a moral example but as a Lord with real-world power to change the human heart by the Spirit of God.
• For patience as we as outsiders identify with the suffering, trying to understand their pain. That we would not be quick to judge or to act rashly, but that we would prayerfully and wisely uphold their calls for acknowledgement, for fairness, for change of attitudes and cultural systems.
• For the planks in our own eyes and the hardness of our own hearts—Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us, sinners.

[10 Minute Read]

The paragraph above was how the first draft of my “Leaders Blog” began at the beginning of March. Truth be told, it did not get much further as reports of the exponential spread of SARS-CoV- 2 started pouring in. I was in Germany during the latter half of February for meetings with missions and ministry leaders related to the Mission Commission, and my first gathering as part of the WEA’s Global Leadership Team (which included a fascinating visit to the UN in Bonn). The virus had started to gain a foothold in Germany as I returned to my home in Aotearoa New Zealand via Cologne, Munich and Singapore.

Pivot & Prayer

Within the span of 10-days, while I was supposed to be on vacation, all of my international appointments and flights for 2020 were cancelled in quick succession—including an MC Leaders’ Roundtable planned for April 6-9 in the UK and our Global Consultation originally planned for October 18-22 in Chiang Mai Thailand. I learned an old word applied to a new context: “pivot”. With disorienting speed all my plans needed to change—a common experience for every leader in the world.

My new role required me to immediately participate in the WEA’s COVID-19 Taskforce, a crisis-management team set up to assist national evangelical alliances to navigate health and justice issues being created by the virus. Some of the fruit of that Taskforce can be found online here: https://covid19.worldea.org. I was particularly occupied by creating the WEA’s Global Day of Prayer & Fasting resources available here: https://covid19.worldea.org/global-day-of-prayer-fasting/.

Fatigues

Perhaps like many of you, the lead-up to Easter and the past couple weeks has resulted in something like “Zoom-fatigue” as I sought to remain connected to essential groups during our imposed lock-downs and closed borders. Where I live, quite literally at the ends of the earth (which is actually the beginning, time-zone wise), this has meant Zooming in during the wee hours of the morning (often 11pm-3am).

Another type of fatigue that leaders can be prone to in times of crisis is information overload. One of the responsibilities of missions leaders is to follow trends and track where the global crisis is leading us to so we can reassure those we’re responsible for and captain our organisations well through the stormy seas.

Overload is made worse by all the ministry crisis updates and appeals for help hitting our inboxes. These sit alongside opinions flooding social media and the web as commentators and would-be prophets attempt to influence the outcomes of the crisis for the world, church and missions. Leaders seem eager to harness change, shape what the “new normal” will look like, and determine when it will emerge.

I think it is far too early to tell where we will end up, but there are some signposts that can point us in the right direction. As something of an overarching allegory for the times we are in, I recently wrote about three waves that Māori and Pacific mariners are familiar with. You can find that on my personal blog here. We are still reeling from the large wave (the shock wave) and are being carried along by the long wave (the tsunami-like wave), until we find ourselves coming into land on the shoreward wave (the beaching wave) at a new location. I am working with my MC Leader’s Cohort, the Global Leadership Council and a number of other MC consultants to discern the implications of COVID-19 for the global missions community in the months ahead. We are creating a blog series and will continue to post as information comes in.

MC Developments

The MC’s Global Consultation may have been cancelled for 2020, but we are now planning to hold it in 2021—same dates (October 18-22), same place (Empress Hotel, Chiang Mai Thailand). Back at the beginning of 2019 we determined the title of the Consultation would be “Our Missions Future”. That title is now even more pertinent in light of our present!

I also have a vision to convene a group of elder-counsellors whose role it will be to mentor us as a Leader’s Cohort. This “Counsel of Elders” will represent many years of experience in missions leadership and involvement with the MC. This group will develop over time and as their capacity allows them to engage.

A Safe Harbour

Finally, the Leader’s Cohort and the Global Leadership Council met in the first quarter of 2020 to discuss a paper I prepared that “re-imagines” the global missions community in maritime (shipping) terms. It suggests that, as a major network hub, the MC could be considered a harbour port where vessels of all kinds (missions alliances, networks, organisations and reflective-practitioner leaders) can dock, trade in Biblically based missions thinking, and receive resources to help them on their way. The metaphor lends itself to some innovative and creative thinking, and we will be drawing on it a lot as we speak of the MC as a safe-harbour port on the ocean of God’s mission.

Pray

• For the Spirit of God to guide the redesign of the Mission Commission as a “missions port” on the ocean of God’s mission, and the recruitment/deployment of new leaders to nurture the wellbeing of the global missions community on behalf of the MC.
• For the whole global missions community right now as people and their organisations assess the storm we are in and seek God’s will to help them navigate their way ahead. May the Lord of Creation, the one who calms the wind and waves, be a strong fortress for all of us in these uncertain times.

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