Missions Misunderstood

From the early days of television through the 1970's, there were three television networks. They had no competition and total control over what Americans watched on TV.

Then came cable. 24 hours a day of news. Sports. Movies. Weather. Home shopping. Music videos. They focused on smaller markets, but gave people what they wanted to watch. Suddenly, people had choices. Satellite expanded the television universe to micro markets. The soap opera network. The game show network. Do-it-yourself home repairs. Extreme sports, classic sports, international sports. Poker.

Now the internet. YouTube. iTunes. Sidereel. Anyone can watch whatever they want, anytime. And not only watch, but connect with other fans and create their own content.

This is happening with mainstream Christianity as well. Splinters, spin-offs, and startups dot the landscape of American Christianity and provide an infinite number of ways for churches to connect and cooperate. Exclusivity is passé; most of the churches involved are aligned with multiple networks. "Loyalty" is redefined; churches maintain these associations only as long as they serve their intended purposes. Christians used to connect via centralized "broadcasts" such as denominations, personalities, or geography. Now they're connected via the "cloud;" allowing them to partner with others according to their beliefs, worldview, practice, politics, and interests. Some are pretty unique. Others are nearly identical.

The Southern Baptist Convention is NBC in the 1960's. Now there are hundreds of ways for likeminded believers to connect with one another. The Founders movement. Purpose Driven. Mosaic. Allelon. Acts 29. Glocal. The Missional Church Network. CBF. New Baptist Covenant. Emergent. The Antioch Church Network is a new channel to watch.

Why does all this matter?

Because it all comes down to influence. You don't need to be the president of anything to change everything for some people. Steve McCoy is a nobody in his church's denomination. To artistic, reformed-leaning, music-loving, post-denominational bloggers, he's a rock star. Follow his blog for a little while and you'll understand.

And because if you're dependent on one of the old broadcast TV-style networks, you need to find some new ways to connect.

So I've had a couple of inquiries about the "new" "trend"(it's really neither, but more on that later) away from full-time, professional missionaries and toward volunteer and short-term mission endeavors. I've made no secret of my own discomfort with being a professional missionary, so some of my readers ask if I'm excited by the potential shift toward an alternative that might facilitate broader involvement.

I'm not.

What I do is not something you can do on a week-long visit to the Old World, no matter how many language-courses-on-tape you've listened through. The cultural immersion required for relational and incarnational ministry is a long-term investment. I believe in the short-term involvement of volunteers, and I expect divine appointments through which God can affect tremendous change, but I believe that hit-and-run evangelism will not communicate the gospel to Western European peoples better than sharing life with people over time. We need both long and short-term people on the mission field in order to be effective in contextually-appropriate ministry. I'm not special, but I'm here.

With that said, people (especially those who support me) need to realize that I'm not doing what I do so that they don't have to. Sending money to me (through my organization, of course) is not what you get to do instead of being a missionary yourself. The Commission is not one you can or should hire out, and I'm not your stand-in. In fact, if you give to missions for any reason other than obedience to God, please stop. We don't need your money.

A missions organization asking about the "trend" toward volunteers is like a travel agency asking about the "trend" of customers using the internet to make travel arrangements. The democratization of missions activities means that the professionals no longer have a corner on the market. We need to take extra measures to spell out the benefit (relevance?) of career missions. If people don't see the point, or see better way (say, missional expatiratism, or incarnational immigration?), of course they're going to pursue it.

Heck, if we've got professional missionaries wondering about the validity of professional missions, maybe we're not doing a very good job of rationalizing our system.