When 40 percent of the people in the world earn less than two dollars a day and North Americans earn more than seventy dollars a day, can there ever be a point where majority world churches support themselves exclusively? These are the kinds of issues we need to explore with the majority world church.
The majority world church believes in interdependence and is trying to teach the Western church about it. We must figure out how to have healthy and mutually rewarding interdependent relationships. This plays directly into how we approach our short-term missions efforts. Those of us on short-term missions trips usually assume we have something to offer the churches and communities we visit, and sometimes we do. However, we must go beyond merely saying we need to learn from their churches as well. In truth, there is much for us to learn from the majority world church. These snapshots are simply an attempt to help us see a few of the inspiring characteristics of the majority world church. We’ll look more specifically at the implications of these snapshots for short-term missions, but initially let’s continue to open our eyes to see the big picture.
Snapshot 4: Beware the “Powers”
Another key thread in the majority world church is the core belief that we live in a dynamic, spiritual universe. While an awareness of demonic forces seldom goes beyond a thriller movie for many of us, principalities and powers are conscious realities to most of our fellow Christians around the world. Much like the first-century believers in Ephesus and Colossae, people in the majority world have an extraordinary fear of hostile, supernatural powers.
The African church is especially aware of the supernatural world. Africans, whether Christian or not, believe the universe is inhabited by the devil and a host of spiritual forces. Nearly all African religions believe strongly in the existence of all kinds of evil spirits and that these spirits influence human life in many ways. “Witchcraft beliefs remain pervasive and persistent, and no amount of denial can shift that reality, at least in Christian Africa.”[31]
The belief of the majority world church in supernatural and demonic powers doesn’t lead these Christians to hopeless fatalism. Instead, majority world Christians are much more aware of the importance of being vigilant against the active, dangerous spirit world lurking around them. One African pastor was asked if he thinks there’s a demon behind every bush, to which he replied, “There are lots more demons than there are bushes!”
The reality of the demonic world to people in the majority world church helps explain their particular interest in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians. First-century Ephesus and Colossae cultures were inundated with sorcery, magic, and divination. This reality is demonstrated by Paul’s frequent references to the “powers of darkness.” There are more references to principalities and powers in Ephesians and Colossians than in any other book of the Bible. Many Western commentators have explained away Paul’s multiple references to these dark forces as metaphors for the social and political structures that existed in first-century Ephesus and Colossae. Majority world church leaders, however, see these powers as literal, personal, and organized forces of evil with which they must contend on a day-to-day basis. They readily identify with Paul’s words.[32]
Most North American Christians espouse belief in the existence of demons and spiritual forces, but this belief rarely moves beyond theory for us. We’re intrigued by stories about demons when we hear about someone else’s experience or warn kids against using a Ouija board, but our day is rarely impacted by the fear of spiritual forces lurking about. This is a key difference between our lives and those of our brothers and sisters in the majority world. This sheds light on the next snapshot too.
Snapshot 5: God’s Provision Is Immediate and Direct
Believing in a dynamic universe with supernatural powers all around compels majority world Christians to pray with a greater sense of urgency and dependency. A member in a majority world church is much more likely to expect immediate and direct provision from God than a “typical” North American believer. You haven’t experienced prayer until you’ve prayed with a group of Christians in the majority world church whose very lives are dependent upon God. Of course, every minute of our lives is dependent upon God as well. However, we have been so influenced by the comforts of life in the West that the miracles of Jesus often seem like a first-century phenomenon rather than a reality for today.
In the majority world, huge and growing Christian populations are moving toward the kind of supernaturalism embodied by Jesus and his first-century followers. This is another reason why the Bible is more easily understood by non-Western believers. Christian communities in the majority world as diverse as Protestants, evangelicals, Orthodox, and Catholics proclaim a Christianity that includes Jesus’s power over the evil forces that inflict calamity and sickness upon the human race.[33]
Many of these snapshots are different angles on some of the same realities. Belief in the spirit world and day-to-day persecution are part of why the majority world church is much more aware of its daily dependence on God’s provision. For example, the belief in God’s immediate and direct provision is often the only coping mechanism available to majority church leaders such as Brother Yun. Yun, frequently referred to as the “heavenly man,” is one of China’s most persecuted house church leaders. Yun has suffered endless torture and imprisonment throughout his growing ministry in China while also reporting numerous episodes of God miraculously sustaining him.
One day after Yun was beaten and paraded through the streets for several hours, he was brought into an interrogation room where he was tightly bound, further beaten, and questioned. Despite Yun’s pain and anguish, he experienced an unusual measure of confidence in God’s protection over him. “Suddenly I remembered how the angels had opened the prison gates for Peter to escape. The rope that bound my arms behind my back suddenly snapped by itself! I didn’t tear the ropes off, but kept them loosely in place. I decided to try to escape.” As the officers attended to a phone call in the next room, Yun got up, walked through the middle of the courtyard, and leapt over an eight-foot wall. Yun says, “The God of Peter wonderfully helped me leap over the wall and escape.”[34]
Yun, like most of the majority world church leaders I meet, prefers not to focus on the sensational miracles and experiences of suffering that have inundated his life. Instead, he prefers to emphasize the character and beauty of Christ, who sustains him. May God stir us from our complacency through the examples of our brothers and sisters who believe in God’s direct and immediate provision.
Snapshot 6: Missionaries from Everywhere to Everywhere
One of the most exciting missions phenomena today is the Back to Jerusalem movement, a missions initiative among the Christian Chinese church. Specifically, the Back to Jerusalem movement is an initiative to proclaim the gospel and establish fellowships of believers in all the countries, cities, towns, and ethnic groups between China and Jerusalem. Along this route are the three other largest faith systems—Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.[35]
Back to Jerusalem is one of many missionary movements occurring in the majority world church. One morning I had breakfast with a Filipino missionary I’ll call Anna. Anna has been serving in China for five years. I asked, “Anna, how long did it take you to raise the funds to leave the Philippines and begin your work in China?”
She replied, “Oh, it was just a few weeks. I found out how much the airfare was, I told my church, and we began praying. And a few weeks later I was on the plane.”
A bit puzzled, I continued, “But what about the rest of your support? How about the other funds for your living expenses once you got there?”
Her face lit up as she said, “Oh, Brother Dave, I just live by faith. God meets my every need.”
Or travel to Nigeria. Several thousand Nigerians are serving as missionaries with one hundred agencies in more than fifty countries. Nigeria has long been viewed as a mission field, but now it’s becoming a major missionary-sending country. For every missionary who now enters Ni
geria, five Nigerians go out as missionaries to other fields of service.
Together the United States and the United Kingdom still send out the largest missions force in the world, but close behind are India, South Korea, and Brazil.[36] We’re in a whole new era of missions. We are still an important player and need to continue to obediently send missionaries from the Western church. But we must realize we’re joining missionaries from around the world to go to the world.
Snapshot 7: Help Wanted—Leaders!
Much more can be said about what’s occurring in the majority world church, but let’s look at one last snapshot for now. With the unprecedented growth of Christianity, seven thousand new church leaders are needed daily to care for the growing church. The burgeoning growth of the Christian church is creating a leadership chasm.
Eighty-five percent of churches in the world are led by men and women who have no formal training in theology or ministry.
If every Christian training institute in the world operated at 120 percent capacity, less than 10 percent of the unequipped leaders would be trained.
Eight out of ten nationals who come to the West to receive training never return home.
Leaders from every non-Western region say their number one need is leadership training.[37]
We have to be cautious about how we respond to this reality. While leaders say their number one need is leadership training, many of them don’t want to use Western models to meet that need. Many residential training institutes sit empty around the world because they have been ineffective at providing the leadership training and ministry skills needed by pastors in the majority world church. In addition, majority world church leaders are intolerant of theological training that engages the head and not the heart.
We must also hold the need for leadership training in tension with the knowledge and skills many of these pastors have acquired through life experience. Brother Yun says that house pastors in China have been trained by “the foot chains that bind us and the leather whips that bruise us.”[38] Through the seminary of prison, these leaders have learned many valuable lessons about God that no book or course could ever teach. This “on the job training” coupled with formal training and resources will assist these leaders as they continue to shepherd their congregations.
Ministry training for pastors is an area where interdependent models need to be developed to help meet the need. A realistic perspective on the realities of the global church has to include the huge need for equipped ministry leaders.
Concluding Thoughts
The shifting of Christianity’s center to the south and the east in our world is reason to celebrate. Sometimes when North American Christians hear these snapshots, they ask, “Where have we gone wrong? Why are we suddenly becoming a minority?” Much in the Western church needs alignment. Yet despite our flawed missions efforts over the last century, God has used these very efforts to expand the church around the world. The primary reason that 70 percent of Christians live outside North America and Western Europe today is because of the unprecedented growth of Christianity from West to East.
Be inspired! God is doing amazing things through the church everywhere. Our brothers and sisters all over the world provide a glimpse into how God is working. They inspire us to remain faithful. The majority world church would want you to know it’s far from perfect and has many flaws of its own. That’s the beauty of God’s amazing ability to take our imperfect efforts and use them to reflect God’s glory.
I hope you’re starting to grow in your perspective of what it looks like to encounter the twenty-first-century world. The world with all its needs and disparities described in chapter 1 is a world in which God is continually calling people to salvation. The reality of Revelation 7:9—where people from every nation, tribe, and people group will gather to worship Jesus—has never seemed more plausible. The church exists in some form in every geopolitical nation of the world. Let us reflect on what it means to be joined together with disciples of Jesus all over the world. Open your eyes to your sister in Egypt and your brother in Chile. We need them in view as we do short-term missions.
Part 2
Conflicting Images
The North American Perspective versus the Majority World Church Perspective on Short-Term Missions
The exciting movement of God among people all over the world is exactly why short-term missions deserves our careful attention. Never before have more North American Christians had the chance to see firsthand what God is doing around the globe.
Throughout the last twenty years, short-term missions trips have become a standing part of most churches’ annual calendars. Twenty-nine percent of all US adolescents participate in some kind of cross-cultural service project before graduating from high school.[39] Physicians, teachers, builders, mechanics, business leaders, families, senior citizens, and youth groups are all part of the short-term missions movement. Many travel as part of teams, and some go alone.
Short-term missions has outpaced long-term missions[40] in both personnel and budget. The North American church invests more money in short-term missions than in those who move overseas to live as missionaries. For a long time, the research done by missions scholars didn’t reflect that shift and instead still focused primarily on long-term missions. However, the last five years have seen a surge in the number of studies that examine the effectiveness of short-term missions. Most of the research referenced in the chapters that follow comes from a variety of studies I’ve conducted on short-term missions.[41] I’ve also referenced some of the seminal studies conducted by other researchers.
With four to five million North Americans participating in short-term missions annually, it’s unfair to generalize that my research represents every short-term missions experience. I’m not assuming that everything that follows applies to you or your team. At the same time, a number of us who have researched the short-term missions movement have been comparing our findings, and there’s a consistency to what has emerged. So beware of too quickly writing off the critiques as not applying to you. Listen to the conflicting perspectives and pause to consider whether there’s an element of truth in them for you or your team.
Part 2 is called “Conflicting Images.” The reason will be obvious soon enough, but suffice it to say, many perceptions held by North Americans about short-term missions efforts are radically different from the perceptions of the majority world Christians who host these teams. There’s some hard-hitting data in this section, but my intention is not to say that everyone who has done short-term missions has done it wrong. Instead, this section is meant to widen our perspective and improve the way we serve.
I’ve included something as part of the North American or majority world viewpoint only if it was voiced by enough people to make it a common theme. And alongside the words of caution voiced by majority world Christians were many positive things they said about short-term missions visitors. But since we aren’t lacking for enthusiasm or confidence regarding the value of short-term missions, I’ve spent more time looking at the words of caution.
Our challenge in the North American church lies in putting our passports down long enough to take a closer look at what’s going on in short-term missions. I’ll tip my hand. I think there is a place for short-term missions, but I think many of our short-term missions efforts need to be rethought and reworked. Much of what follows could be confessional from my last twenty years of traveling the world. It’s also a chronicle of how my own perspective has widened. I pray it will help you do the same. Open your eyes. Look at what you may have previously missed when looking at short-term missions.
3
Motivation
“Missions Should Be Fun!”
Through the eyes of North Americans . . . Through the eyes of majority world Christians . . .
This trip isn’t a “rough-roach-in-your-bed” kind of experience. We’ll be housed in nice, clean hotel rooms, eat lots of salsa, and have plenty of time to shop![42] Thousands of young men and women
in China will go as missionaries who are not afraid to die for Jesus. They are not only willing to die for the gospel but also expecting it.[43]
I love to visit new places. Typically, when I travel overseas, I spend most of my day teaching or meeting inside sterile classrooms and offices. So when I get a few minutes to spare, I love to blaze the streets and take it all in. Where do the locals eat? Where do they hang out? What makes this place tick? What do people celebrate? What’s the history of this city? I think this kind of desire to understand my surroundings has enhanced my ability to learn and serve in other places. At times, however, I’m challenged by a thought: Is my cross-cultural work driven most by my desire to follow Christ or by my sense of adventure and wanderlust?
What makes a short-term missions project different from a group who plans a tour through the same region? When is it mission, when is it vacation with a purpose, and when is it just vacation?
Sociologists have consistently found that the way we anticipate a situation strongly influences how we engage in it. More specifically, our expectations about a new role or a new environment will directly influence how we experience that new situation, both positively and negatively.
I’ve tried to incorporate this understanding into the counsel I give newly engaged couples. During premarital counseling, one of my priorities is to align the couple’s expectations about marriage with reality. I remember all too well one of the comments Linda and I received while greeting guests at our wedding. A middle-aged woman walked up and said, with an incredibly sarcastic tone, “Well, those were nice, lofty vows. Now let’s see if you can actually live up to them!” I waited for her to laugh, but she didn’t! At the time I was annoyed. But as I look back on it now, I’m not sure she was trying to rain on our parade. Instead, I think she somehow found the need to warn us that marriage isn’t purely romantic love songs lived out for forty years. I’m guessing she wanted us to adjust our expectations about marriage away from the romantic bliss of starry-eyed lovers to the realities of two unique individuals living together for the rest of our lives. Now, I don’t recommend that kind of wedding etiquette any more than I encourage experienced parents to walk up to expectant mothers and tell them the horror stories of labor and sleepless nights awaiting them. But expectations do shape how we actually encounter new experiences.[44]
Serving with Eyes Wide Open Page 4
