Sharing to you a good article about missions by Kuya David, the current National Director for Philippine Missions Association. Below is the complete article and a short profile of who he is:
Towards Closure: Imperial or Incarnational Missions?
David S. Lim, Ph.D.
Is it possible to finish the Great Commission or reach all the unreached people groups (UPG) in the world by our generation, let’s say by AD2025?
The AD 2000 Movement envisioned this “closure” when they convened the Global Congress on World Evangelization (GCOWE) in 1995 in Seoul, Korea. At that time, I predicted that it was “Mission Impossible,” because almost all of the participants still used the traditional mission paradigm to extend Christendom through what I called “imperial (or denominational) missions,” instead of “incarnational (or integral or transformational) missions.” If we do not make this missional paradigm shift, I’m afraid I’ve to also repeat my pessimism that it’s “Mission Impossible” by 2025. As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Yet I believe “closure in 10-15 years” can be “Mission Possible” – if, by the mercy of God, the mainstream of missions shifts into “incarnational missions” immediately. All of us who share the passion to win the lost into the Kingdom of God share almost the same vision and mission. Generally, we would all say that we are working to fulfil the Great Commission, bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ to manifest the glory of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But we would differ on the basic strategic paradigm of mission dei (God’s mission), which includes 3 major aspects of bearing witness to Jesus as the way (Missiology), the truth (Christology) and the life (Ecclesiology):
Missiology: Imperial or Incarnational?
First of all, how do we do mission? The predominant “imperial” traditional missiology focuses on the recruitment of “career missionaries” who are sent out from middle class churches to plant their church’s (= denominational) model in less developed regions from a position of wealth and control/power.
In contrast, “incarnational” missiology emphasizes the mobilization of all believers to go among their non-believing networks to make disciples (= followers of Jesus) through love and good works, from a position of simplicity and servanthood. “Every heart with Christ is a missionary, and every heart without Christ is a mission field” – locally and cross-culturally.
Christology: Insulated or Incarnated?
Secondly, what truth/message do we communicate in our mission? The “gospel of salvation” proclaimed by imperial missionaries highlights the spiritual aspect of Christ’s death on the cross, and thus has focused mainly on the eternal destiny of people to go to heaven or hell, with hardly any regard for their earthly welfare and especially for their “growth” into self-denying, cross-carrying discipleship/maturity, except to become loyal church-goers, attending as many religious/liturgical services as possible.
In contrast, the “gospel of the Kingdom” shared by incarnational missionaries promotes the holistic dimensions of Christ’s work on the cross (including peace-building, justice-seeking and community/reconciliation), and thus also the earthly ministry of Christians (as prophets, priests and kings like Jesus) and practical disciple-making so they will grow in Christ-like compassion in doing as many community services as possible.
Ecclesiology: Imported or Indigenous?
And thirdly, what kind of churches do our missions produce? The ideal results of imperial missions are imported (or foreign) church forms (in liturgies, theologies, architectures, etc.) of the missionary’s sending church(es), which also magnify the role of expatriate missionaries who dispense funds raised from their supporting church(es).
In contrast, the ideal results of incarnational missions are indigenous simple churches (actually networks of house fellowships) which are from the start self-governing (with their own leaders), self-supporting (own budget and funding), self-propagating (own programs of action/ministry) and self-theologizing (own statement of faith), which aims at community conversion to Christ (not to a particular brand of Christianity) and community transformation through their obedience to Christ’s law (loving one another and their neighbours and enemies to the ends of the earth).
Please note that the visible result of incarnational mission is not in religion buildings (cathedrals or temples) for performing religious ceremonies (liturgies) led by religious leaders (pastors or priests), which often separate believers from their community and divide themselves into different denominations. Instead it is seen in transformed communities that experience peace, justice and righteousness emanating from their love for Jesus and for one another that emerges from their intimate fellowship, which discuss and apply God’s word facilitated by any believer who has been discipled by an earlier believer in a micro/simple/house church (in any building); existing church buildings may be turned into multi-purpose ministry centers, like the synagogues in New Testament times.
Main Models
The main models and proponents for incarnational mission are two: the global house church movements (HCM) and the Jesus (or kingdom or people or insider) movements (JM). Their impact are now starting to be noticed in church and mission circles today, especially those movements in China (since ‘80s), India (especially among Punjabis and Dalits), U.S.A., and some regions of the Muslim world.
Their “best practices” combines three “Cs” = Church Multiplication + Contextualization + Community Development/Transformation. For this to happen, they simply just need to master the skills of making disciples (Jesus-followers) who can lead people to Christ through friendship evangelism, and disciple new converts in small Bible discussion groups.
The simplest method today is called the Viral Simple Bible Study (VSBS). It asks only three questions of any chosen text:
(1) What does the text say in your own words?
(2) What does God require of us from the text?
(3) Who are the 3-5 people you can share what we learned with before we meet again next week?
The disciple-maker aims to empower them to do likewise (as in 2 Tim. 2:2) by leaving them as soon as possible, so s/he can make new disciples elsewhere.
Incarnational “church-planters” (or better, “movement catalysts”) do not mind being unrecognized in history, though they will be lovingly remembered by his/her disciples (if they don’t die or get killed prematurely), for his/her objective is to decrease so that only Jesus Christ will increase (cf. Jn. 3:30; Mk. 9:28). They are ordinary people who simply obey God’s call to be witnesses of Jesus. If properly trained, even if they may not have high academic credentials or social status, they can strategically win “a person of peace” (cf. Lk. 10:5-6) in each place, and disciple a core group around this person to disciple the rest.
New converts are encouraged to remain in their communities, follow local cultural and religious practices (unless they are clearly idolatrous, immoral or unjust), aim at family and communal conversions, and study the Scriptures themselves (1 Cor. 7:17-24; Acts 17:11). Almost all in the International Orality Network are already moving in this direction.
Other Approximate Models
Most Evangelical “para-church” movements and mission agencies in the past 50 years have struggled to thrive within the Christendom system, mainly because they depended on the giving and support of church people, especially their clergymen. So although their missiology leans toward the incarnational model, they often either compromised with or returned to the imperial/denominational model of ministry.
Among these are:
- Perhaps the closest are the new “church-planting movements (CPM)” or “church multiplication movements (CMM),” which plant as many house churches as possible, but have not made strict guidelines to keep the groups small and/or avoid uncontextualized forms of worship and lifestyle (cf. 1 Cor. 9:19-23).
- The second closest would be the communities that have been directly touched by Christian Development Organizations (CDOs), like World Vision, Compassion and Center for Community Transformation (CCT). By trial-and-error, they’ve discovered that to reach and transform communities effectively, they have to minimize denominational forms and use simple Bible study groups in their portfolio of community activities.
- Third closest may be the campus ministries, like Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), and especially Navigators, REACH, and Agape. They have trained students and graduates/professionals to lead disciple-making movements without the need for clergymen to lead them in chapel activities. Agape is now operating on the Jesus Movement (JM) mode, while Navigators and REACH are trying to move back to their original JM mode, too.
- Fourth may be the professional movements, like Tentmaker and/or Diaspora Ministries, Business as Mission (BAM), Marketplace or Workplace Ministries, Military and Police Outreaches, which have slowly relinquished their need for clergymen to lead churchy services in their life and ministry in the world. Instead of doing ministry in local churches, these “lay-people” focus on reaching out to their partners, colleagues and subordinates in their God-given vocation.
- Lastly, we can include also some denominations which have emphasized “lay pastors,” (like Vineyard, Grace Communion International), though most of them still lead denomination-type weekly worship services, which deflects much of their time from doing community services (cf. Matt. 5:13-16; 25:31-46; Lk. 10:27-37; 1 Jn.3:16-18).
Challenge
So, let’s join hands and do incarnational missions together! Let’s finish the Great Commission together in our generation! Yes, even in the next 10-15 years, God willing, by the power of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 1:8)! Our Lord has promised, “I will build My church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it,” and has given us the authority “to loose and to bind” (Mt. 16:18-19). The harvest is still plentiful, but the workers remain few (Mt. 9:37-38). Let’s prayerfully mobilize the whole church to share the whole Gospel with the whole world – servantly, holistically, contextually — incarnationally!
"Raising generations of Filipino Youth for cross-cultural missions"
