Missions Responsibility
My doctoral research and dissertation studied the nexus of global multisites, leadership dynamics, indigeneity, self-efficacy, and missiology. Essentially, I examined various approaches to local church when the leadership missions strategy or culture of that church is removed from the locality. What happens when the local expression becomes more about execution of missional strategy rather than the formulation of missional strategy?
Let me suggest a great rule of thumb for missions work: The locality should carry the responsibility. Missions becomes about 1) establishing a locality (a Gospel outpost in some shape or form), 2) a discipleship and grouping component (i.e., believers who give control of their lives in response to that missions outpost must be nurtured and then grouped towards a local expression of church), and 3) an empowering component wherein responsibility is developed and then turned over to the local expression.
As such, missions areas should recognize the phase, and the pitfalls associated with each phase. Here are at least three pitfalls: Phase 1) Gospel expressions, but not a Gospel outpost, Phase 2) journeying or encouraging rather than a progression towards spiritual maturity or insisting on a grouping form rather than exploring the best form for the context, and Phase 3) dependency on foreign input or strategic leadership/direction/funding and/or relinquishing responsibility without developing responsibility.
Against these phases, we can measure progress and can create feedback loops (based on good humility characteristics in discipleship (Phase 2) wherein global localities/local churches enrich the efforts of one another. This emphasis on responsibility and examination of who carries the responsibility/when recognizes the uniqueness of each church and context, a developmental and evaluative process, the local responsibility each church carries forward contextually, while also helping us learn from one another. There's also a missions universality to the approach of developing a local responsibility for the church to be contextually missional.
