3 Waves of World Mission

Someone needs to write a book on it. Someone other than me who likes that kind of thing. Have you noticed the way the strategic focus of world mission has changed over the last few decades? From villages to universities to theological training.

The past few weeks I have been slowly sorting and categorising the papers dumped in the bottom draw of my filing cabinet consisting of my notes and worksheets from every conference, training seminar, or topical elective I've attended over the past 8 years. For me one of the glaring blind spots in content was world mission. It's not that world mission wasn't on the agenda of the churches and groups I've been a part of; we've prayed for missionaries and had them visit on home assignment, but I don't feel a theology of the priority of the nations has ever been clearly taught to me. The topic has regularly arisen through systematic exegesis of the Bible, though usually with the application that most of us are the Gentiles to which the gospel has been brought, Australia is the end of the world, and the gospel is for everyone; Jew/Greek, Man/Woman, Rich/Poor, Coke lover/Pepsi lover, Mac users/PC users so go and talk to people you normally wouldn't about Jesus.

I would contend that those in positions of leadership over this time are in reality very supportive of world mission. I suppose I'm just comparing my circles to my impression of much of the US scene, where I hear often of rallies and articles and entire books devoted to the continued sending out to the nations. In the case of John Piper (provide appropriate quote) I kind of got the vibe he believes that Jesus can't return until every people group has heard the gospel. Without discussing the merits or otherwise of this position, I don't feel the teaching I have received has gone even close to pushing particularly the benefits of going places you can't get to by car. And to be clear that world mission was still a concern; the potential failure of developing a focused theological reason hasn't stopped many of those same people teaching me and those who heard the same teaching, from making the decision to go to the nations themselves.

Over the past couple of months as I've met a number of new missionary families heading overseas, I've been pondering the changing emphasis of a number of mission organisations.

1st Wave: Groundwork
There will always be pioneers who use their trade and business acumen to get into countries that are otherwise closed to Christians. Lot's of medical professionals are able to do this kind of work. Consequently, they are often simply being Christian as part of the community occasionally able to begin new gospel work and oftentimes supporting existing ministries.

2nd Wave: Strategic Influence
In countries where access is more freely available there has been a significant shift from this groundwork ministry. Almost certainly built on  the foundation laid by gospel pioneers, for a time the focus shifted to university campuses. It is strategic because of the disproportionate influence that people of this age can have in a country. These students are the ones who in time will be moving into positions of power and they have a whole lot of life ahead of them. University remains in many countries a time of life when individuals are particularly open to new ideas and thoughts, thus creating an opportunity for the gospel to be heard.

The focus on universities also reflects a shift of emphasis to send out those native to the country to do the work of evangelism, rather than the (usually Western) foreigner seeking to be the one in the greatest position of leadership. The very nature of university work means you invest for a short period of time, after which the individuals leave to be messengers of the gospel in a different context. The gospel though communicated by a foreigner is now in the hands of the locals, spread by locals to locals.

3rd Wave: Equipping via Theological Education
The latest change is also as a result of God's grace through the pioneers. In many cases it is also thanks to (reflected in university ministry) the shift of focus to locals being the main bearers of that gospel message after the initial saving work of Jesus through the foreign missionaries. But the phenomenal march of the gospel in many of these countries through the locals has meant that there are many Christians and Christian leaders with little to no training. This deficiency is being attempted to be rectified through the third wave of missionary emphasis turning to the equipping of the existing church leaders through theological education. We're sending well-trained foreigners to train well the local existing leadership, building on the work of the past.

Have you noticed the changing strategy?