Faith and Religion, Missions and Ministry

After reading my post from yesterday, you may want some further understanding on a statement I made, and a rather harsh one at that:

“It is this lack of missiological understanding and application that is responsible for the existence of a Western church that is on the verge of death!”

[Sidenote: I hope that I don't need to convince you that the Western church is indeed "critical" and in need of intensive care.  If you would like to read more on this topic, check out Barna's book, Revolution.  It's an easy, eye-opening read on the state of the Western church.]

Why do I believe a lack of good missiology has led to the weakening of the church in the West?  It really comes down to confusion between faith and religion.  The Western church has too often focused on spreading a religion, not transferring a faith.

Faith and religion are not the same.  Faith is a firm belief in something, leading to action.  Religion is the system we use to express our faith.  In the words of best selling author, Seth Godin, “If religion comprises rules you follow, faith is demonstrated by the actions you take” (Tribes, p. 83).

Religion is the system we use to express our faith.

Missiologists focus on developing a person’s faith, not on teaching the person the performance of a religious system.  The church, especially the Western church, has expended too much of her energy on the religious activity.

In anthropological terms, missiologists talk about forms and meanings.  Forms are what we use to express our deeper longings.  We attach meaning to various forms.

In church, we often focus on teaching the performance of proper forms.  Stand now.  Be quiet now.  Bow your head now.  Kneel now.  Smile now.

The better approach?  Communicate meaning, at the heart level, and allow the hearer to practice their faith using relevant forms.

I hear from college students all the time that they are so discouraged by the people in the church they attend.  The student sees people practicing religion, but they don’t often see faith being lived out.  There’s a disconnect.

Why is it that students are not encountering genuine faith at church?  The answer is simple: Church members are, in large part, practicing religious ritual, not exercising a faith.

This is why I love working with college students.  They’re not at all satisfied with the way things are in the Western church, and they believe they can make the necessary changes.  They long to see Christian faith at work!

I believe the future is bright for the Church.  I have faith in God that He will continue to use His people to transform the world.

What do you believe?

Looks Like a Duck, Must Be a Duck? Missions and Ministry

Appearances can be deceiving, especially when it comes to ministry.

Last week when I was in Turkana (northern Kenya), I attended church in a rural village.  Traditionally, such a gathering of people, indeed every important gathering of people, would be convened under a tree.  Any Westerner attending one of these church services quickly realizes there are some major differences in worldview present!  However, during this most recent trip to Turkana, I found myself inside a building for Sunday morning services in the village.  Sure, it still had a different feel to it (mud walls, tin roof, different language, different music, etc.), but the feel was at least a bit more familiar to my Western mind.

Traditional Turkana Church, Under a Tree

I thought, with some sadness, “Will this non-Duck (non-Western church) keep looking more and more like a Duck (Western church)?  But it is NOT a Duck!”

As the Turkana church begins to “look” more and more Western, we need to be careful to continue to contextualize the gospel message.  In other words, just because the church in Turkana begins to look more and more like a church in the West, the people living within the Turkana context have a very different worldview.  The message of Jesus is meant to reach people at a deep level, their heart level, and this cannot happen if the hearer’s worldview is not taken into consideration as ministry “programs” are developed.

The danger in doing ministry within a situation that “looks” familiar to us is that we will often fail to do the research, up front, to understand how our hearers think, feel, and perceive the world. In a more familiar context, it is much easier for us to simply assume we already know the worldview of our audience.  We assume we already know their thoughts, feelings, and needs.

Good ministry will always do the hard work of contextual research before implementing various forms of ministry.

So the question becomes, “This looks like a Duck, but is it really a Duck?”

This is the major failing of the Western church today.  Her leaders too often fail to ask this vital question.

We (speaking for those of us in the ministry profession) are really good at doing the “copy” and “paste” thing when it comes to ministry.  We see something working well over-there, and over-there looks like me over-here, so it must be true that that-thing will be successful over-here as well as over-there.  In reality, it is highly likely what is working over-there is the result of a lot of good contextualization, and research.  Someone has done the necessary missiological work of trying to understand their ministry context, and it is paying off!

Campus Ministry?  Well, students look like “normal” people to me, so it must be OK to treat them like normal people.  Wrong!  Students are quite different than their older counterparts.  They have a different outlook on life.  They have different needs.  Their hopes and dreams are far different from the generation which precedes them.  They’re NOT a Duck.

Many ministers have not figured out, even after years and years of doing ministry, that they are actually missionaries.  And as missionaries, they also need to be missiologists…they need to understand that doing culture and language study is a part of every ministry gig…not just a part of the “foreign missions” gig.  It is this lack of missiological understanding and application that is responsible for the existence of a Western church that is on the verge of death!

So, what does the Western church need?  No, not a doctor, but a missiologist…and a good one!

I have MUCH more to say on this topic, so I’ll take more time to discuss this over the next couple of weeks.  I’d love to hear your thoughts, feelings.

Reflections on Turkana

The fog is finally starting to clear.  I can almost count on having three full days of “clouds” in my head as I recover from the jet-lag of a Turkana trip, but now that I’m thinking straight once again, I thought I would do some reflecting on the trip.

First, thank you!  I had so many people praying over this trip, and it was evident.  Prayer is such a vital part of mission work and I too often forget this fact.  We all are God’s ambassadors, and as such, dependent upon His guidance.  He was faithful to answer our prayers, and to speak words of direction along the way.

Overall, I believe the trip was a great success.  After three full days of meeting together, the Turkana church leaders parted company on the fourth day, eager to move forward in faith. Though much of the meeting was focused on working through various “hurts,” a good portion of the time gave attention to the future, and how the church might move forward.

We ended up discussing, at great length, four main “issues” that had developed over the past couple of years.  Each of these items served to drive wedges in relationships.  It took time, but eventually the group (about 25 in total) worked through these issues, resolving to put each of them in the past, and to move forward, united.  True reconciliation and forgiveness takes time, so I beg you (in true African form) to continue on in your prayers for the churches, and church leaders.  Pray that they will continue to do the necessary work of maintaining relationships, and to deal with issues as they arise.  The situation, I believe, remains “delicate.”  It would not take much for relationships to become strained once again.  So, I encourage you, keep praying.

Vision for the future

Day three was fun.  After having dealt with the hurts from the past, we set our sights to the future, and did some dreaming.  Gene Morden, the resident missionary in Turkana, had a great idea.  We had the Turkana share their “dreams” for the future of the church.  What sorts of visions has God given to them?  We had them share these visions, and then take time to prioritize them (see the photos…stones, representing votes, were placed on each idea in order to get a visual of the thoughts of the group).

As it turns out, the group agreed that as they look to the future, it is important to make the construction of church buildings a top priority.  This may seem a bit odd, but I can understand their concern.  The culture of Turkana is shifting, and becoming more Westernized (I’ll blog about this topic as well).  Buildings represent “validity” in the minds of the people.  Without a building, the church leaders feel that they are going to lose opportunities for growth because of how outsiders will view them.

Of course, money is an issue.  It takes quite a bit of it (in Turkana terms) to construct a building.  From where is the money to come?  The church leaders were unanimous on this one:  Where God leads, He will provide!

Stones representing votes

This discussion took several hours, and throughout the entire process I was praying that these men and women would trust God to provide for their future.  I didn’t have to say a thing…they reached this conclusion on their own (well, with some divine guidance).  Clearly, the Spirit was at work through your prayers!

Here is another point of continued prayers:  Pray for provision as the churches step forward with plans to construct buildings.  Pray that with each step the Turkana take, they see God’s provision!  I truly hope that within the next five years, we see many new church building erected in the rural villages of Turkana.

Thank you all for your encouragement and support.  No matter the situation, all ministry needs to be bathed in prayer.  I think it is probably easy for us to assume that “foreign” missions is tougher (and, in some ways, it is indeed very difficult), and therefore more in need of prayer.  But in truth, all ministry is impossible when we are not working under the power of prayer.