The Church in Mission

Mission Co-workers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) just received some good news of a decision of General Assembly to increase the number of long-term mission personnel thus reversing a 50 year trend of decreasing personnel. Better yet is the explanation given by the current Director of World Mission, the General Assembly level mission sending structure located at denominational headquarters in Louisville. It demonstrates both sound missiology and diplomatic recognition of previous missionaries hard work to “work themselves out of a job”. I find this especially significant as it gives a good response to a statement often made by well meaning mission thinkers that decreasing numbers is good, while increasing numbers is not. Hunter’s nuanced repose is worth noting. Here is the letter:

2 June 2008

Dear colleagues in mission,

I want to share with you an historic decision by our Church’s General Assembly Council (GAC). Last month, the Council voted unanimously to reverse a 50 year downward trend in the number of PCUSA mission coworkers by approving a budget for the approval of the 2008 General Assembly that will increase the number of long-term, fully compensated mission personnel. Due to attrition, by this year’s General Assembly in June, we will have just under 200 mission coworkers (this does not include our nearly 70 long-term mission volunteers). The GAC voted to increase the number of our mission coworkers to 210 in 2009, and to 215 in 2010. We are thanking God for this remarkable decision.

But you know how U.S. audiences are tempted to focus on the 7 second sound-byte. Let me go a bit deeper about this important decision and the on-going conversation from which it emerges.

First, let me say what the decision does not mean: Continue Reading »

here it is!

http://www.pcusa.org/missionchallenge07/#

http://www.pcusa.org/missioncelebration/ 

The World Mission people in Louisville have developed great resources for interpreting mission, in preparation for the nationwide (144 presbyteries) campaign. These include:

• a video narrated by Hunter Farrell available online at: http://www.pcusa.org/missionchallenge07/index.htm
• Mission Challenge ’07 materials are you can see now at http://staging.pcusa.org/mc07
• a new “simplified giving” Web site went live a week ago: www.pcusa.org/mission so you can trully designate your funds to specific missionaries and projects

Take full advantage of these resources and let’s promote God’s great mission, also in this way!

An excellent article I found today:

Posted on Aug 2, 2007 15:45pm CST.
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All Things Catholic - John L. Allen, Jr.

If there were any lingering question about whether there’s a spiritual boom in China today, it now has a two word answer: Yu Dan.

A 42-year-old female talk show host and pop culture icon, Yu Dan is the author of Notes on Reading the Analects — a sort of Confucian Chicken Soup for the Soul — which has sold somewhere between 3 and 4 million copies, making it one of the biggest best-sellers in China since Mao’s “Little Red Book.” Dan’s success illustrates that China has become, according to writer Zha Jianying, the “largest soul market” in the world. With a population of 1.3 billion, China is trying to fill an ideological void left by the collapse of Communism as anything more than a system of political control, and the dislocations of astonishing but uneven levels of economic growth.

There are so many wounded, helpless souls that are desperate to find something to believe in and to hold onto after these drastic changes — Jianying told Reuters in May. Continue Reading »

Over the last 30 years as a missionary I have learned that the most exciting ministries we established or seen established are those which were self-reliant from the beginning. Self-reliance in terms of material resources translates into instant local “ownership” in terms of the personal and spiritual dynamic that governs the ministry and that is one of the most important keys for the emergence of long-lasting ministries with deep impact.

Westerners often assume, however, that overseas projects just cannot get along without us and consequently, faithfulness in world mission becomes a matter of writing checks. Glenn Schwartz of World Mission Associates, in his recent book, gives good insight and offers sound advice to churches who seek to encourage self-reliance and curb dependency in their desire to further God’s rule throughout the world. Check it out:

• When Charity Destroys Dignity. Overcoming Unhealthy Dependency in the Christian Movement. by Glenn J. Schwartz (World Mission Associates) available through www.wmausa.org

One more of those maps to put continents into perspective, this time, Africa. Read more about it HERE.

Another map that communicates well, even if dated. See more information HERE.

Thought you might like this map. You can read more about it HERE.

We just had a great visit from a group from Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, my home town. It was an excellent example of a short term mission trip geared towards listening to our Brazilian partner church and both giving and receiving of mission visions. Read about it at the tab above labeled “myers park.”

There is so much interest in short term mission trips, at least on the receiving end. I’m not so sure this is generating as much interest on the sending end. I am including one more for those who are interested. It comes from missionary and theological educator, Archibald Woodruff, working in Brazil some 20 years partnership with the Independent Presbyterian Church in Brazil. Here is what he has to say:

These are my reflections on Missiology, 34/4 (2006), a special issue devoted to Short-Term Missions (STM’s). The journal is published in Wilmore, Kentucky, and the guest editor of this issue is Robert J. Priest. I was sent a copy by the PCUSA in Louisville, and reflections were invited. I will share these reflections also with my Brazilian church and with Joe Small, both for reasons that will emerge in this paper.

The strong concerns about the all-too-vigorous STM movement did not exactly come out of the blue. Fairly recently I received, from María Arroyo, an eloquent paper (or grito) on the subject by Dennis Smith (By the way, Dennis has had significant professional contact with Leonildo Silveira Campos, a sociologist of religion who belongs to my Brazilian church). Brazil is blessed by distance and high air fares and has thus been spared the tidal wave of STM’s with which Central America and the Caribbean have had to deal. Nevertheless, we do have experience here with mission visits. Personally, I find these articles painful to read in places, because I was part tourist and part STM myself before, at the age of 45, I became a long-term missionary. This part of my history has made me a bit more patient with mission visitors, perhaps, than some of the other long-term missionaries are. Continue Reading »