The R. I. N. Strategy of Missions III

This is part 3 of the series, The R.I.N. Strategy of Missions. This post will deal with the issues surrounding "Non-dependency. It is highly probable that this post will generate discussion topics for the next several posts.

Of all the challenges which missionaries and volunteers face while fulfilling their call and task, it is the issue of avoiding the creation of unhealthy dependencies that has done more to slow the spread of the gospel than any other single challenge. Whether or not we want to admit it, we have all found ourselves at one time or another providing “help that hurts”.

This one issue may be the most difficult to fully explain to those who do not live in a cross-cultural setting. The issue of dependency creating activities is highly volatile and packed with a significant amount of emotion. It is important to note that there is a difference in “interdependence”, where help offered and received meets temporal needs while advancing spiritual growth. However, when help hinders the spread of the Gospel by local believers, we must stop and evaluate the long-term impact of that help.

For example, several years ago Baptist pastors in one of our countries were surveyed. One of the questions asked was, “What will it take for your church to reproduce itself by starting a new church in another location?” Without exception, every pastor responded that they first needed a U.S. volunteer team to come down and build a building.

When a local congregation's level of dependency upon outside resources reaches a level where that local body of Christ cannot be obedient to the commands found in Scripture, then something has gone terribly wrong. Prior to every project we must ask, “Is this creating an unhealthy dependency that will ultimately hinder the spread of the Gospel to those who have yet to hear?”

This topic is much larger than one post can cover or should even attempt to address. Nonetheless, the fact remains that a lot of effort, energy, and resources are being invested in strategies and plans that although might bring what appears to be quick results, the long term impact has kept untold thousands from hearing the Gospel messge. Maybe the best way to illustrate this point is to unpack a common and popular strategy of building church buildings as a primary church planting strategy.

Let's for the sake of argument say that we want to employ a church planting strategy that begins with building a church building or providing a building for every group of local believers who desire to have a "templo" to worship in. If this is happening in Mexico then here are the hard cold facts that much be addressed.

Mexico has a lost population of around 85,000,00 people
If we wanted to elevate the evangelical level of the country from 6% to 12%, this would be one church for every 500 people in the population, then . . .

1. We would need 169,200 new church buildings constructed today! This number grows as the population increases.
2. If these new church buildings could be constructed at $25,000 per church, which by the way does not include land, then the cost of construction of all the church buildings needed would be somewhere in the ballpark of $4,230,000,00. That's more than 4 Trillion dollars.
3. Assuming we could build as many as 100 of these church buildings every year, then it would take 2.5 million dollars per year for a total of 1,692 years.

All of this begs the question, how many people die without ever hearing the good news message of Jesus Christ while they wait for their "church" to be constructed? Even if you could double the number of constructions a year and cut the cost per unit in half, we are still looking at over 800 years. Again, this is assuming no increase in population. To make matters worse, we are only speaking of Mexico. What about China, India, the Middle East, Africa, and the list goes on.

Please do not hear me say that church buildings and construction are somehow evil and bad in and of themselves. If a local congregation chooses to construct a place of worship, then that is fine. It should be done based upon their decision and their ability to follow through with that decision. But as we look at the missionary task as expressed in Matthew 28:19-20, then we as missionaries must look for strategies that accelerate not hinder the spread of the Gospel.

There are many, many more examples that could be expounded upon, but I would like to close with what I bellieve to be the root issue of the dependency. Too many strategies, projects, and trips are designed and carried out with a greater emphasis on what the team or missionary will receive than the impact on lostness or Kingdom growth. Now I know that I am openning myself up for a tremendous amount of criticism at this point, but I would only ask that you understand that my comments are not intended to be critical but to bring to the surface a discussion we must have if we are serious about reaching all peoples with the Gospel.

At a recent volunteer training workshop as dear sister asked, "What do you tell the men in your church when they say, we can't evangelize, but we can swing a hammer? Do you just tell them God can't use them?" My response was as follows. "Ma'm, please hear what I'm about to say is from a heart of love. When I read the New Testament, I don't see where we are given the option of chosing between swinging a hammer and sharing the Gospel with others. What we need to do is train these men how to share their faith while they are swinging their hammers."

The sad truth in many cases is, if you can't take a picture of it or count it, most people do not believe that they were involved in anything significant. We have to come to the point of asking different questions. We need to move from "what can we do?" to "what needs to be done?" We need to stop asking what do we get out of it and begin asking what will be the impact of our efforts. If we do not find workable solutions for the challenges of unhealthy dependency, we have doomed thousands, maybe millions to hell.

In reality, reproducibility, indigeneity, and non-dependency are all woven together into one fabric. If we seriously evaluate our activities through this filter we will better position ourselves to be involved in those activities that will indeed change the face of eternity. It is my hope that these last 3 posts will begin to raise the awareness of these issues and generate more discussion that will ultimately impact what we do.

For a more indept and better treatment of these topics I would highly recommend Steve Saint's book, "The Great Omission". To order online go to:

Amazon.com

I-TEC Indigenous People's Technology and Education Center