A Cultural Problem
I was sitting in a plane reading through the Oct. 8-14th edition of The Economist titled, "What Next? A special report on the world economy." It was refreshingly honest...and a little depressing. Though I expected reading through the economic implications of rising inflation, aging demographics and interest rates, a few things in particular caught my attention. When cultural nuance is understood, I pay attention.
"This is a cultural problem," says Dominique Nicky Fahrizal..." p. 41 with reference to the 131 people (including 33 children) who died at soccer game in Malang, Java.
"When Chinese diplomats portray their country as the victim of Western low blows, and promise to punch back, they are answering calls from Mr Xi to show "fighting spirit"....Tests of American strength began long before Mr Trump's election. His predecessor Barack Obama sought to work with China on such global challenges as climate change, and made a point of not condemning its political system....
De-Globalization?
Recent supply chain issues and the fragility of interdependence due to the forces of globalization have caused a reaction. Some are calling this "de-globalization" (Zeihan, Peter. 2022. The End of the World is Just the Beginning. New York: HarperCollins Publishers)(Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/losers-deglobalization), etc. Others are calling the future to a new form of regionalism (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/era-globalization-over-michael-weidokal/, etc.). Gallo (2022) states bluntly, "Regionalization is the new globalization." (https://www.ie.edu/insights/articles/regionalization-is-the-new-globalization-and-it-is-latin-americas-opportunity/)
Altman and Bastian (HBR 2022) have a more nuanced approach:
Globalization has always been an uneven process, with cross-country differences and international conflicts significantly dampening international flows. That’s a big part of why — even before the present crisis — only...
Irreplaceable Witness
When I was in high school, along with swimming and playing water polo, I played trombone in the band (jazz and orchestral). Casa Roble Fundamental High School (my alma mater) had a great music program, though there were three different band teachers during my four-year high school tenure. Still, we had a lot of fun. The 80s were also the height of synth pop. Synthesizers were all the rage, as was programming and all one could do with a synth that one couldn't previously afford. For example, there were samples of clarinets, flutes, horns, timpani, etc. Entire arrangements could now be made in one's home on a synth using multitracks. Everyone was using (what was then) new technology.
One of our band mates picked up on this, and for about a year designated himself the official "suggestion" person whenever a band section screwed up. The teacher would stop the orchestra. This individual would raise their hand. The teacher would roll his eyes knowing what was coming....
Missions & The Environment
Mission is in the context of witness. Witness comes from giving up control to Jesus to experience fully the personal and universal reality that is God. And that means approaching the world with God-directed faithfulness.
A lot of air time and ink has been spilled on the changing climate. Some refuse to believe any climate change is man-made, while others refute climate change altogether. From a missional perspective, what we believe on those issues are red herrings to what we're to do, regardless of warming or cooling. So let's unpack this Biblically:
1. There is no "gaia" mother earth. That is pagan nonsense. We are not just a part of nature, we have dominion over it.
2. How we exercise dominion (i.e., what characteristics we choose to display despite power dynamics) matters. It is why kind parents are lauded and abusive parents are abhorred. Both remain parents. But how they exercise their parenting (patience, wisdom, kindness, LOVE, etc.) matters. And it...
Mission & Race
Missions history has a complicated relationship with race, and much ink has been spilled on missions history, colonialism, and associated definitions. To be sure, colonialism and missions are not synonymous, and we would do well to remember they are separate. And as race applies to skin color (which it does not always), we would equally do well to remember that 1) people within each race witnessed were on mission to those in their race or associated races, and 2) missions by definition requires some sense of cross-race witness, and 3) witness and missions are not necessarily dominated by a power dynamic, but rather, often by love, compassion, and the internal leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Even as Christians have been ardent voices and leaders in viewing each race with human dignity and compassion (just one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_Kingdom). There are also many Christians, who, driven by their cultural preferences use Scripture to...
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,...
UUPG Engagement
UUPG stands for Unengaged Unreached People Group. Organizations like The Joshua Project have been identifying various groups for many years. Missions loves UUPGs because they identifying and engaging them is one way to narrow the scope, allow no one group to slip through Gospel proclamation cracks, and harken back to missional engagement for the last 2000 years. I grew up on Jim Elliott's journals. Jim Elliott was a part of a team that died trying to reach a UUPG, and God's great story that same UUPG find redemption as a result of their fearless engagement.
UUPG engagement, however, is more complex than ever before for several reasons:
1. Turns out people groups don't perfectly segregate themselves from the rest of society. Many are being driven to cities. And people groups meet and marry each other.
2. Just because a group has a distinctive culture does not mean they've no access to the Gospel, nor that they do not understand the Gospel. Much time may be...
Education, the Future, and Missions
Education is in trouble. Scratch that. It's in deep kimchee. If you think it might be bad, it's far worse than you think. Really. In fact, if you think it's good...listen to the experts (on all sides of the political aisle):
https://blogs.darden.virginia.edu/brunerblog/2014/10/the-trouble-is-crisis-and-critics-in-american-higher-education/
https://www.businessinsider.com/higher-education-is-changing-and-it-is-in-trouble-2015-3?op=1
https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/7-challenges-threatening-future-of-higher-education/
https://www.deseret.com/2022/9/8/23319117/nebraska-republican-ben-sasse-vision-for-higher-education
A 2015 article by a...
Discovery Day
Today is known both as Indigenous Peoples' Day and Columbus Day. Since culture at large is into renaming things for fear that someone may be offended or that history may not be as sanitized as they prefer, I am renaming it "Discovery Day" (for the purposes of this blog post only). The term "indigenous" is so fraught with challenge for definition, even the UN will only approximate a definition. And since the character of Columbus doesn't measure up to the achievement (accidental or otherwise) of popularizing a new discovery of a continent for Europeans, it seems that any name of any discoverer will immediately come with an asterisk. Columbus wasn't the first European to "discover" the Americas, and there was more ancient interaction of peoples than we admit. The world has always been connected. But the discovery of the Americas was not popularized until around the time of Columbus.
Some teachers call any first meetings of two cultural groups "First Contact." Though...
Conde Nast Traveler - The Future of Travel
Other than books, on occasion magazines can be helpful source of information about what's coming. I pay particular attention when it dovetails with other resources I'm reading. Such was the case with a magazine I picked up several weeks ago by a magazine called Conde Nast Traveler on "The Future of Travel."
https://www.cntraveler.com/future-of-travel
Here you can read more about cities being built (right now) on the water, the speed of travel, and ecotourism (along with other great topics). For the purpose of this blog, I want to highlight a quote, a worldview, and a concern.
The quote comes from page 44:
“We are moving from an age of talking to an age of doing. Sideline commentary on what needs to happen is no longer valuable.”
– Andy Ridley, Conde Nast Traveler Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022, p. 41
I couldn't agree more. Though Mr. Ridley was talking about ecotourism and environmental protection, I would apply the quote to missions, the local church, and...
