Three Obstacles to Supporting the Global Church
Anyone who keeps up with me knows I love the nonprofit I get to work for called Scholar Leaders. It has been the highlight of my professional career. Working for them has opened global horizons as I have met amazing Christian leaders and thinkers serving in the Majority World. It has changed my outlook on the Great Commission as well — at least in how we might best go about it. From my limited experience as a Christian in America, there are a few obstacles I see as standing in our way of maximum participation in the growth of the Global Church and our pursuit of the Great Commission.
Obstacle #1
First, we tend to operate as though the church is America is at the center of God’s work in the world, as if the Great Commission will be fulfilled primarily through us. The truth is, the church is in decline in America while in the Majority World it is growing on average thirteen times faster than in the West. Instead of standing in the role of teacher, we might do well to take the posture of learner. I doubt the act of humbling ourselves to learn from our sisters and brothers around the world will be bad for our spiritual health.
Obstacle #2
Second, we often act and think as though our particular denomination has some exclusive claim of missions expertise. Whether we are Baptist or Methodist, we can assume our tribe is the one who really understands how to reach the world. It’s not that our church networks are somehow insignificant. Not at all. It is just that God is working across denominations throughout the world to fulfill his own purposes. We get to be in on at that. We shouldn’t ignore or insult those faithful Christians outside our particular denominations who are faithfully serving the Lord.
Obstacle #3
Finally, I believe we let an unbalanced view of evangelism keep us from investing in the work of the Global Church. Jesus’ final words, as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, are for his followers to go into all the world and make disciples. Even though there is a clear emphasis on discipleship in the Great Commission, we often act as though all that matters are mass evangelism and rapid multiplication. Yet, even in America we have historical precedence of what happens when there is rapid spiritual awakening and little intentional discipleship: the burned-over district. This term refers to places where Christian awakening or revival were followed by the growth of cults, movements that departed from orthodox Christian teachings.
Additionally, most of us have experienced big evangelistic events with loads of emotional decisions that resulted in far more used Kleenexes than lasting commitments to Christ. We all know that merely focusing on quick multipication isn’t the answer, even though such movements are filled with lots of excitement and a sense of momentum. The growth of the church in terms of converts requires intentional discipleship and well-trained leaders in order to be sustainable and to faithfully reflect Jesus’ commission to the church.
The Only Church in London
I remember first seeing a real problem in the way we talk about missions when, as a junior in college, I interned at a church in Champaign, IL. The church hosted a conference with several speakers who had served or were planning to serve in Christian ministry outisde America. One young man in his mid-twenties, not much older than I was at the time, shared how he was going to start a church in the city of London where there was only one other church there that faithfully taught the Bible. I knew this couldn’t be right. During a break I challenged his analysis to discover what he really meant was that there was only one other church in London that was affiliated with his particular American denomination. We didn’t end the conversation without me encouraging him to rethink how he talked about other churches in the city of London.
These obstacles not only lead us to poor methodology, they minimize the impact of our resources. Because we operate as though our American denomination is at the center of God’s work, and that the Great Comission is best purused by mass evangelism and rapid multiplication, we invest most of our resources in sending out individuals, families, and teams from America to other countries. Sadly, where the church is growing the fastest is in parts of the world with limited financial resources. This points a massive opportunity to invest our resources in God’s amazing work around the globe. Perhaps instead of only sending people from America, we might consider using some of our resources to directly support those who are already investing their lives serving the Lord in their home countries.
While I have deep respect for anyone in America willing to move their family to another country to serve the Lord, we do need to at least pause and recognize that most missionaries from America stay on the mission field less than ten years. Think of all the time and resources that go into their education, their language training, and their acclimation to the culture — not to mention all the time spent raising funds and reporting back to their sending churches. We should also give serious consideration to the effectiveness of short-term mission trips, which not only require a lot of funding, often have limited results, of which some leaders have demonstrated with research that such trips often result in more long-term harm than good.
A Minimum Suggestion as a First Step
What if we at least added to our mission efforts a significant investment in local leaders already serving Christ in their home countries? What if instead of only sending people from America, we invested directly in the lives of Christian leaders on the ground at the forefront of the explosive growth of God’s Kingdom around the world? These global leaders already know the language. They already know the culture. And they have a lifelong commitment to their home countries.
What if we at least made investing in them a part of our missions methods?
At Scholar Leaders, we have been making this sort of investment for over four decades, as we’ve sought to cultivate theological leaders from the Majority World for the Global Church. Our organization can be traced back to the first International Congress on World Evangelism organized by Billy Graham and held in Lausanne, Switzerland. At the event, the British pastor and theologian John Stott took the opportunity to introduce a young theologian from Ecuador named René Padilla, telling the audience of the great need for more individuals like René, leaders advancing God’s kingdom in their home countries.
Stott understood the power of investing in local leaders who then train hundreds of other leaders in their home contexts to pursue the Great Commission. He passed that vision on to two of his students from America who in turn came back home and established Scholar Leaders to support the Global Church. I’m not suggesting that this strategy should replace all our missions efforts as the church in America, but I do think we should consider making it a part of our missions toolbox (if not a priority).