Archive for February, 2013

5 Major Challenges for Mission Agencies. 3. Financial Stress

Posted: February 15, 2013 in Missions
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1.       The challenge of financial stress is somewhat influenced by globalization, as the global financial crisis has negatively affected charitable giving in the United States. The generational changes have probably had an even greater impact, however. The “Builder” generation, the great givers, are going on to glory. The “Me-First” generation is worrying about retirement, and rescuing Social Security. The “Busters” are too few to make up the difference, and the Millenials are still too early in their careers to have a lot of disposable income.

And frankly, there is less interest in supporting “institutions,” especially those that may be out-of-touch with the post-modern, globalized and multi-cultural world. Perhaps the Millenials will rescue us yet, and perhaps the Western church will undergo a revival of biblical values and a re-awakening of biblical stewardship. And perhaps those organizations that remain out-of-touch will not survive.

We do need to be more creative in funding, whether through grants and foundations, or whether through more tent-making missionaries. As well, strategies that focus more on individual connections, trust, and transparency will work better than expecting people to be loyal to an institution.

But – the financial stresses show no real sign of weakening. This factor in itself may produce the greatest change in the worldwide mission force, as North American missionaries (expensive) are forced to return home, while majority world missionaries (much less expensive to support) grow in numbers. Meanwhile, the merchants, construction workers, soldiers and nannies will still be the majority in God’s mission force.

5 Major Challenges for Mission Agencies: 2. Mission Force Changes

Posted: February 14, 2013 in Missions
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1.      The changing mission force is more global now, but in the United States it is also shrinking. This may partially be caused by spiritual factors in the American church, but it is probably much more related to the retirements of the largest American generation, the Baby-Boomers. Nearly every mission is dealing with a greater number of retirees than ever before, as the Baby-Boomers live longer (a good thing). For most missions, including my own, senior leadership has been invested in men who are nearing retirement age. Of course, these are men with experience and training, and with a modern mind-set that is more results-oriented than that of the post-modern Gen-Xers and Millenials.

We Gen-Xers, in addition to our small numbers, as well as the Millenials, bring a different focus to our call, but we also tend to bring more baggage, in the form of abusive, divorced or non-existent parents; increased addictions to images (a post-modern cliché most seen in the rise of pornography); different expectations from our workplace; and, for the millenials, the likelihood of changing jobs (career? call?) many times over the course of our life. I don’t believe many mission agencies have strategized well to address the issues that affect Millenials. However, I would love to hear differently. What is working well to attract – and keep – Millenials in mission?

5 Major Challenges for Mission Agencies: 1. Globalization

Posted: February 13, 2013 in Missions
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Sometimes it’s a dirty word (ask a French farmer), and sometimes it’s the economic lifeline for a third-world economy. Whether positive or negative, however, it is the new reality, the new world order. My Japanese laptop was made in China, possibly shipped on a Panamanian or Liberian freighter by a Danish company to the United States, where I bought it. In the church world, Hillsong, Rick Warren or Joyce Meyer have more influence here in Poland (and possibly in Indonesia, Brazil and Rwanda) than any Polish pastor or church (or the corresponding national leaders in other countries may have).

Urbanization is somewhat connected to globalization, and today’s cultural, political and economic centers – New York, London, Paris, Tokyo – are sometimes more important and influential to a small country than that country’s own capital city. Today’s modern mega-city is a globalized nation-state that at least partially integrates the entire world in a few square kilometers.

With the interdependency of economies comes the interaction of ideas and the interweaving of art and culture. Intermarriage between nationalities becomes the norm, not the exception, and even a remote church can begin to look (and sound) more international.

How do mission agencies deal with the internationality of Christianity, theology, and mission? How do we handle the internationality of the global mission force? Or, for  my organization, WorldVenture, how do we talk about mission “from everywhere, to everywhere” while still appointing only North Americans? Of course, our Poland field is an excellent example of the fact that we really are international, as we have had workers from New Zealand, England, and Poland as career missionaries. In addition, WorldVenture’s intentionality in creating nationally run mission agencies in Philippines and Brazil – and other countries – is worthy of emulation, because such a strategy truly does respect and value our non-American partners in ministry.

But, the world is growing smaller, and the Kansas schoolteacher may marry a Kenyan construction worker, and both may be called to evangelism through English in Tokyo. Recruitment and appointment are not the only issues for mission agencies to consider in a globalized world, either. They have to address finances, especially when workers are appointed from different economic backgrounds, and are supported by disparate economic realities; values, when cultures collide on a mission team; and missional practice, when what works in the United States is attempted by Brazilian missionaries in Shanghai.

In my opinion, flexibility and humility must be the guiding principles for us. A stiff policy manual may have worked in the past, but it will doom us in the future. Constant communication, especially of expectations and perceptions, is a must, as well. And perhaps the answer is in more small organizations that work closely together, rather than larger agglomerates that try to integrate everyone into an American pattern.

5 major challenges for mission agencies

Posted: February 12, 2013 in Missions
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Five major challenges for U.S. mission agencies over the next ten years.
I am very grateful to Dr. Philip Steyne, my professor at Columbia International University, for his class on “Contemporary Issues in Missions,” June 2011. He emailed dozens of missionaries around the world, from many agencies, to better understand several trends in missions. Not all of the trends he identified are barriers, but what I learned during his class is the foundation for the challenges I list below. In addition, my cohorts in Poland – from several different missions – have added their input.
The five major challenges that I would identify are as follows:
1. Globalization.
2. Mission force changes.
3. Financial stresses.
4. Persecution and the “war on terror.”
5. Exponential growth of various church forms.

Truth is, a number of other issues could be added, depending on the viewpoint of the person asked. Issues like orality – 70% of the world being in an oral-based culture, or urbanization are significant. A recent document from WorldVenture identified “identity and vision” as a key issue moving forward, and my colleagues from other organizations also mentioned similar issues with their agencies.

In posts to follow, I’ll try to expand on each of these points

These are the challenges that I think most mission agencies today are facing. They are significant, but if we look back, even over the past 100 years, we will find similar issues. The world was “won” in the first part of the 20th century, and evangelical missions struggled with an identity crisis, pre- World War I. Another crisis occurred in the 1970s, pre-Lausanne. But even through 2 World Wars, the rise and fall of communism, the rise of liberalism, secularism and materialism to sap the missionary’s zeal – God’s Mission keeps expanding.

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