Money, Power and Mission

Oscar Muriu is Senior Pastor at the Nairobi Chapel in Nairobi. He was invited to speak at Urbana 09 and used the platform to deliver one of the most intelligent, powerful and moving messages on the subject of Incarnational ministry that you're ever likely to hear. Let's talk about this:

Money and Power: Oscar Muriu from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

Partnerships

Every year more than 1.6 million people from the U.S. participate in short-term mission trips which normally last from 5-15 days. As growing numbers of people go to minister with Christians in other parts of the world, many are working to make this type of ministry more effective through greater cultural awareness and recognition of the wisdom that can be found in mutually edifying relationships. One of the ways that large churches, inparticular are exploring is that of congregation to field partnerships in which the local church focuses on one particular area of the world over an extended period of time. Instead of a local church sending teams to as many different places as possible, the partnership model sends short-term mission teams to a focused area of the world in order to foster a sustained, collaborative work. The following clip is from a worship service at Bethany, Oklahoma First Church of the Nazarene. This church has made a ten year commitment to work in partnership with Swaziland. This clip is interesting because it demonstrates a partnership in worship and also gives a glipse into some of the partnership initiatives in Swaziland. True partnership in this type of relationship is difficult at best and I am sure that there are many shortcomings in this particular example. It is, however, an interesting move on the part of a local church and the church in Swaziland.

Amazing, horrifying as well as incredible stories keep coming out from Haiti. One particular scene was on CNN which I saw this morning. A group of people, with faces covered in soot and standing in the midst of their crumbled life where singing a song in Creole. I recognized the tune to the hymn:

“Jesus knows all about our struggles, He will guide till the day is done; There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus, No, not one! No, not one!
“There's not an hour that He is not near us, No, not one! no, not one!
No night so dark, but His love can cheer us, No, not one! no, not one!”

Several things come to mind when looking at this. First is that there is a lot that I can learn from amazing people like this who have learned to live by faith in ways that show trust beyond what is seen. I also thought of Dr. Paul Orjala who was a missionary and linguist in Haiti. Paul loved music and a major part of his ministry was teaching Hymns to people. I don’t know if the legacy of missionaries like Paul Orjala was the source of these brave Haitian’s song, but due to the high influence that missionaries had in introducing hymns, there is a good change that the gift of music gave these Haitians reason to hope that Jesus not only knows, but he is with us.

There is no way to make sense of all that is happening in Haiti, but I lift up my brothers and sisters today who are bearing unfathomable pain.

Searching for Authenticity (Conclusion)

So what? After the series of three posts, a natural question surfaces; “so what?” or what are the implications to all of this? I originally wrote this as I was working through some ideas about short-term missions, and so the following are implications for short-term missions.

“If short-term missions are so costly and seem to have very few actual benefits (and may even have adverse results); “why do so many people feel compelled to participate in short-term missions?”
There are a variety of answers that can be given to this question which go beyond short-term mission simply being a new and passing fad of the church, or a simply a well marketed business.

The first indicator is the sociological ambience out of which short-term missions has emerged. Christianity (as well as other faiths) has historically expanded or adapted in movement with historical or sociological shifts. The expansion of Europe which came into being through newly discovered navigation technology, and which resulted in each expanding nation to establish ‘ownership’ of new territories in varied ways (Seed) also was the ambience in which Christianity expanded.

Similar to the Celtic Christians whose pilgrimages focus on a spiritual benefit for themselves, short-term missions is a shift in missions giving and participation. Although the findings of Priest, VerBeek, and others are that the benefits of short-term missions appear to be different than the “urban legends”, and although findings in tourism anthropological studies, such as Hutnyk indicate that the orientalistic perceptions that people carry with them are often a type of consumerism of the poor, there is consistent findings that there is greater benefit for those who participate in going on a short-term mission trip than those who host short-term missions teams. If this assumption is true, then it would appear that much of the motivation for continued short-term missions emerges from self gratification or even the capital which is gained from acts of charity.

Beyond the underlying sociological and even ethnocentric motivations behind short-term missions, I would argue that there is an element in which short-term missions as Christian pilgrimage is not only a natural expression of the missio Dei, but provides a basis for missions that engages the whole church in the whole mission of God. A balanced aspect of the practice of short-term mission is found in Miriam Adeney’s work (2003,2006). Her aspect of the shalom tourist, is an expression of Christian pilgrimage which takes into account the needed respect and care for host locations of short-term missions. A difficult question was raised by Oscar Muriu, pastor of the Calvary Church in Nairobi, Kenya at a conference on short-term missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (July,2009). Muriu asked, “how does short-term missions follow the example of Christ, giving up power?” Continuing, Muriu stated that the problem is that we model mission only on the great commission – the “go and do passage” and don’t take into consideration the Philippians 2 passage which state that Christ went—not because of resources that He had, but because of His humility. Jesus chose to be incarnate into poverty. In Matt. 10, Jesus gave the same call to His disciples. True Christian pilgrimage should be transformational for those who go, but should also reflect that their going is not an expression of their resources, but rather a reflection of their Christianity.

Perhaps, the phrase “short-term missions” is not the best description of this phenomenon. A major problem that has emerged in the recent literature on short-term missions is that people perceive their trip as a short-term participation in mission which begins when they board a plane and ends when they return home. In this sense, mission is strictly defined by location. Perhaps a better aspect of this phenomenon is to find ways to make short-term missions more than just a short project, but rather, a continuous way to live. I would argue that a good descriptor of this which is consistent with a scripture and which is in harmony with much of the Christian tradition is that of pilgrimage which is not defined by crossing salt water or by boarding a plane, but rather pilgrimage in the sense of a centered set in which the focus of the Christian pilgrim is Christ and His mission. Another way to describe this would be to use Lamin Sanneh’s articulation of mission by translation. With this understanding, short-term mission trips become a pilgrimage which begins long before a person boards a plane and continues long after they return home. The activities of those who participate in short-term missions in this light are activities which are incarnation in nature and which partner with a long term perspective of God’s mission.

Whereas the reading for this study focused on describing the context which fosters the phenomenon of short-term mission, further research which focuses on the relationships between pilgrimage and short-term missions connected with research related missionary ecclesiology could give a framework for constructive development of short-term mission practice in the future.

Searching for Authenticity (Part III)

This is the third (and I think the last) part of this three part saga.

Similar to the Celtic peregrini was the early Jesuits of the 15th century. John O’Malley (1993) gives an interesting perspective of how the early Jesuits, primarily between 1540 and 1590 viewed themselves and their purpose which, in many ways is not unlike that of the Celtic Christians. Later Jesuits (after 1590) became intertwined in the political and social power struggles of the Roman Catholic Church. These Jesuits became identified with ministry of “location” such as educational efforts which required them to remain in one place over a long period of time. The Jesuits of the 16th century (1540-1590) however, saw themselves primarily as pilgrims or apostles who like Paul moved from place to place with the urgency to spread the Gospel as they went. In these examples, the Celtic Christians were not unlike much of the contemporary short-term mission movement which does not focus primarily on evangelism, but rather on what earlier Christians would call works of piety.

One clarification, I believe is necessary at this point. Definition of “place” and “journey” are broader than simple locations of a building or a trip. A primary difference between many aspects of historic pilgrimage and pilgrimage as I am describing it is that historically, the primary motivation for pilgrimage was to go to sacred spaces, and it was therefore very focused on “place”. The shift that I am describing and which is articulated by the sources that I am referencing is that pilgrimage has become something other than a focus on “place”, it is a movement toward community (social bonding capital) and a movement toward authentic faith. This type of pilgrimage is often expressed in physical journeys, but the physical journey itself does not make it pilgrimage as I am describing.

Similar aspects of a focus away from location to a focus on journey or pilgrimage are evident in the writings of mission theology which builds on an understanding of the missio Dei as the central identity of Christianity. (Newbigin 1978, Bosch 1991, Guder 1998, Goheen 2000). The focus of these writings is a move away from an ecclesiology of location toward what Michael Goheen calls missionary ecclesiology.
In his book, The Open Secret, Lesslie Newbigin develops a missionary ecclesiology out of a Trinitarian approach to missions. “Newbigin’s approach to the theology of mission underwent a significant change of emphasis in the 1960’s, particularly as a result of the WCC’s New Delhi assembly in 1961.”(Weston 2006, 81) Before this time, Newbigin (as well as most others) saw the Church as the primary ‘agent’ in the work of world mission, or to use Wuthnow and Putnam term, “location”. During the New Delhi assembly, however, he began to understand that a Trinitarian approach which set the work of the trinity instead of the Church as the primary agent of mission as an understanding that would do justice to what the Bible said related to God’s Mission. This development can be seen in The Open Secret in which Newbigin argues that “a Trinitarian approach to mission holds together three facets of the work of God in a dynamic and creative tension: the ‘proclamation’ of the Kingdom (in the authority of the Father), the ‘presence’ of the Kingdom (in and through the Son), and the ‘prevenience’ of the Kingdom (through the ministry of the Spirit who ‘goes before’ the Church in its missionary work)” (Newbigin 1978,72). This core Trinitarian understanding of mission is not particularly new in Newbigin, David Bosch builds on the ecclesiology of Karl Barth in a more explicit way than does Newbigin and comes to many of the same conclusions that mission is not an activity of the church, but rather the very nature of the Triune God reflected in the church (Bosch 1991, 373-380). Church and mission are interdependent elements in Bosch as well as Newbigin. This is clearly seen in the words of David Bosch; “It has become impossible to talk about the church without at the same time talking about mission. One can no longer talk about church and mission, only about the mission of the church…A church without mission or a mission without church are both contradictions.” (1991, 372).

A trinitarian or missional hermeneutic points out that scripture does not particularly give a foundation for developing missions, but that the missio Dei is foundational for understanding all of scripture since mission is God’s nature (Wright 2006). In the New Testament, the Church sends apostles to people of varied ethnic groups. The church, however, did not limit mission to sending missionaries to “the ends of the earth.”As the body of Christ which reflects Gods nature of mission, The Church didn’t just have missionaries; the Church itself was the missionary in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria as well as to the ends of the earth. Another way to state this perspective is to say that the church is not just a sending church; rather it is a “sent” church (Guder 1998). The emphasis is not on church as “location”, but rather on church as a people who are reflecting the mission nature of God.

Seminal work which describes this shift in postmodern culture was done by Paul Hiebert (1994) who described epistemological shifts in terms of bounded and centered sets. Heibert describes a bounded set, as a grouping with well defined bounds. A centred set groups things on the basis of how they relate to other things. For the sake of this study, a church that is defined by location could be defined in terms of a bounded set. The primary boundaries would be church membership and focus on identity with the location or structure. The societal as well as theological shift, however, that is defined, not according to identity with location, but rather pilgrimage, could be defined in terms of what Heibert calls a centered set since the church would be defined by its center, the Triune God of Scripture. The trouble with the former, writes Hiebert, is that this may become too exacting and exclusive, while an advantage of the latter is that Jesus Christ becomes the focus of all that the Church is and does.

Interestingly, this theological shift which defines the church in relation to the missio Dei instead of location is parallel with sociological movements in the U.S. which reflect a general movement of society toward meaning or reality that is discovered in pilgrimage or to use Heiberts terms, a centered set. These are also parallels to the phenomenon of short-term missions which is a move away from a professionalization of missions in which mission activity is professionalized through structures and organizations which prepare, send and filter missionaries toward what Ralph Winter has called “re-amateurization of missions” similar to that of the Student Volunteer Movement (1996). Although there are similarities in short-term missions and the Student Volunteer Movement, I would argue that there is more dissimilarity which flows out of the socio ecclesiological context which has fostered short-term missions and which is quite different than the context out of which the Student Volunteer Movement emerged.

Although it is evident that the phenomenon of short-term missions has occurred within the atmosphere of social change, it is debatable if this shift away from a focus on location to a focus on pilgrimage is a shift that is contrary to the essence of the Christian Church. Perhaps it could more safely be argued that it is unnatural for the church to focus primarily on location and consider mission as something that is above and beyond the normality of the church.
If it is within the nature of God and in turn, within the nature of the church to be translated from one context to another, this would indicate obstacles as the Gospel is carried from societies which are perceived as societies of power. Some have stated that it is inevitable that movement from cultures which have been “colonializers” to other parts of the world is by nature oppressive and racist (Said 1978). In this understanding, Christianity would by nature be bound to location or would inevitably be colonialistic as they carry the gospel from one location to another.

Similar to the thesis of Edward Said is the work of anthropologist, John Hutnyk (1996). In his book, The rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, charity and the poverty of representations, instead of exploring the people of Calcutta as a normal approach for anthropologists, his study is focused on those who visit Calcutta. There is a wealth of parallel theory and implications to short-term missions since Hutnyk focuses on people who travel to Calcutta on a budget, mostly from North America, Europe and Australia. Like short-term mission travelers, budget travelers (or backpack travelers) come not to bask in the glory of the Raj, but to explore the underbelly of Asia and to do some volunteer work in order to alleviate their guilt. Hutnyk explains that although these travelers (like short-term mission travelers) have the best of motives, like short-term mission travelers, they do not question the way they frame their exposure to Calcutta. They frame or represent what they see, based on what Hutnyk calls “the rumours of Calcutta”. He states, “they have heard the ‘rumour of Calcutta, the imagery by which the city is known. For them the city is already enframed” (Hutnyk 1996, 163). This framing is similar to Edward Said’s argument that the colonializers often ‘orientalize’ the other based on ‘the rumour’. In a similar vein is Robert Priest’s article, Missionary Positions: Christian, Modernist, Postmodernist (Priest, 2001) which questions the ‘rumour’ related to the origins of term ‘missionary position’ as a means of orientalism or a way of enframing a ‘rumoured’ perception of missionaries. In the case of Calcutta, Hutnyk points out that budget travelers, have a perception before they arrive (the rumour) which provides the framework by which they will experience the city. Similar to John Urry’s (2002) perception of the ‘tourist gaze’, Hutnyk says that this ‘enframing’ leads to a problematic aspect in which Third World tourism participates in a voyeuristic consumption of poverty (1996,11). This consumption by what Hutnyk calls budget travelers of backpack travelers, which are parallel to short-term mission travelers includes photographs and souvenirs, but also entails ‘good works’ experiences and cultural capital. The ties between Hutnyk’s work and short-term missions are unmistakable and disturbing. The interesting connection related to this study is that this class of tourist which Hutnyk describes are people who are critical of what he calls “modern lodge” tourists who are explicitly seeking their own comfort and a sense of similarity to their home. He also points out that these backpacking travelers are also in search for ‘authentic experiences’ (1996,9), and a ‘once in a lifetime experience’, which, is often warped by ‘enframing’, but which is similar to Wuthnow’s and Putnam’s theory of a search for authenticity.

Contrary to the theories of Said and Hutnyk, Lamin Sanneh (Sanneh), defines a distinct position for Christianity as the gospel is carried from one culture to another. Sanneh defines the difference between what he calls mission by diffusion and mission by translation. Mission by diffusion is related to religion which expands from its initial cultural base and is implanted in other societies primarily as a matter of cultural identity. This would be consistent with the observations of Said and Hutnyk. Mission by translation, however, carries with it a deep theological vocation, which arises as an inevitable stage in the process of reception and adaptation. These two ways are not always easy to separate. “Mission by diffusion (, however,) is unquestionably the stronger strand of Islam, whereas mission as translation is the vintage mark of Christianity”(Sanneh 1990,29). A central theme for Sanneh is that “mission as translation makes the bold, fundamental assertion that the recipient culture is the authentic destination of God’s salvific promise ...it is the missio Dei that allowed translation to enlarge the boundaries of the proclamation”(1990,31). The understanding of Sanneh is that Christianity is fundamentally not a faith of location, but rather is by nature, a faith that finds its purpose as well as its identity as it moves beyond location.
In Paul D. Hanson’s biblical theology (Hanson), a common thread of the nature of the people of God is “community”. An interesting concomitant to community found in Hanson’s research is the theme of pilgrimage. Reflective of Paul Hieberts centered sets in which we move toward a center, Hanson indicates that the person of faith remains a pilgrim in this world, who looks yet “to the things that are unseen” (2 Cor. 4:18). And since that pilgrim shares with fellow believers an important role in God’s plan for the redemption of creation, Paul’s eschatological paradox lies at the heart of his understanding of the community of faith (Hanson 2001,444). In this sense, Hanson moves away from an individualistic approach to apostolic calling and is indicating that the church is apostolic in nature, as it is called of God. Another key component of Hanson’s thesis is the forward-looking, eschatological nature of biblical community which leans forward toward the fullness of the Kingdom of God. The community of faith was thus a pilgrim community. It oriented its life toward God’s future, as the people called to participate in the in breaking of a divine order of shalom (2001, 13). This emphasis on pilgrimage being an essential part of the Christian identity is found throughout Hanson’s research as he states that “the true community of faith is thus a pilgrim people, seeing its forms and structures as provisional within a world being transformed from brokenness to wholeness” (2001,493).

Searching for Authenticity (Part II)

To those who are reading along in this series of articles, this is the second post. This post fundamentally asks where or how we search for authenticity. It includes some elements which you may not agree with or which you would like to dialog further about. I invite your observations.

In literature related to spirituality, this duality of dwelling and seeking can be seen as a phenomenon that goes beyond contemporary social trends. Philip Sheldrake describes this duality between the spirituality in place and spirituality that is found in journey (1996) as he describes the early Celtic traditions before 700 which describe primarily a faith of transition between the fixed stable life and the more unstable life-styles of what he calls the holy wanderers. Perhaps the recent social shifts described by Putnam and Wuthnow help to explain the present fascination with Celtic Christianity. Sheldrake points out that many of the current perceptions of Celtic Christianity are not all together accurate. The “myth”, however, that has developed about Celtic Christianity resonates deeply with societal shifts away from a spirituality of place to a spirituality of journey. Celtic Christianity seems to embrace a more contextual, grounded, varied yet uncomplicated, messy, even chaotic faith and spirituality than the conventional, institutional forms (Sheldrake 1996, 3). According to Sheldrake, The importance of pilgrimage and journey in the Celtic tradition, balanced with a strong sense of place, are sentiments that are very much in tune with the experience and temper of our own age (1996, 3) and are perhaps a clue to the connection in short-term missions to expressions of “finding reality” when people travel for short-term missions. A physical journey that acts out an inner journey, therefore, may be understood as one factor that differentiates this type of travel from many forms of modern tourism outside of what has been called niche tourism.

In the introduction of Tourism: Between Place and Performance, Coleman and Crang (2004) describe a form of moving away from location and toward discovery. Their focus is somewhat distinct from that of Wuthnow and Putnam as they describe various modes of tourism. One particular mode that they describe draws from George Ritzer’s foundational “McDonaldization Theory” (2008). This particular mode of tourism, according to Coleman and Crang is about expanding the space of home rather than visiting the other (2008, 2). In this sense, they are moving toward a type of location, but in reality they may just be taking their own location on a trip. Reflective of many short-term missions trips, this form of tourism is associated with the McDonaldization of travel in which tourists seek out tourist space such as a McDonalds where they will find familiar surroundings and predictable food, those who bring food from home along with them, or those who chose to stay in tourists hotels which reflect surroundings reflective of their home surroundings. This form of tourism, according to Coleman and Crang insulates tourists rather than allowing them to experience the culture of the location as they seek more of the same. A twist to this search for sameness is the search for an experience of others which is staged or which is in some way reflective of similarity. Goffman’s theory of front and back regions (Hughes-Freeland 1998) describe how the front or that which is experienced by the tourist is the staged show, while the back regions contain the authentic experience. MacCannell (1976) argues that as people seek the authentic, the back stage is put on show and in the process, authenticity is lost or threatened. An example of this in short-term missions are missionaries who receive requests from short-term mission teams who want to come and be a part of a Jesus Film showing or they want to come and ‘do evangelism’. Because these were people who donate money and want to see where there donations were going, missionaries scurry to get a group of people from a local church who will set up the film in a park so that the visitors can experience an ‘authentic’ experience. In this sense, the back stage had been moved to the front stage.

A second mode of tourism described by Coleman and Crang which has linkage to short-term missions and which is contrasted with those who seek more of the same, is what they describe in terms of ‘romantic’ (as opposed to ‘mass which is used to describe those who seek sameness). This mode of tourism includes those who seek for places which carry symbolic capital and which are measured by the adventure, difficulty, cost, or exotic nature of the trip. Coleman and Crang point out that since this type of tourism is always just beyond the reach of tourists, it is driven by type of loss of authentic place (2004, 4). This understanding of a search for location can be found in tourism literature from the mid to early 1970’s. Dean MacCannell (1976) is cited by Coleman and Craig as he noted tourism as an existential quest for ‘authentic’ experiences.

Brent Plate (2009) describes contemporary pilgrimages (which could be classified as niche tourism) to places such as the Trinity Atomic Test Site in New Mexico, the gravesite of Elvis Presley, and ground zero in New York as places that people visit because a kind of sacred power has been invested in the particular place. Plate argues that although some would call this just “tourism” instead of “real pilgrimages”, that there are many similarities in the two and that there is very little if any real distinction. According to Plate, both are born from a desire to travel, to head into an unknown, foreign place where one might experience new sights and sounds and tastes and smells, and ultimately to be corporeally inspired by some transcendent locale. There is something about the quest itself, whether for noble, pious, pure, impure, or just plain curious reasons, that make the journey potentially transformative…pilgrimage is tightly bound to our sense of identity, and sometimes the best way to find ourselves is to get lost. (Plate 2009, 263)
The lines between tourism and pilgrimage therefore are not as clearly delineated as would appear since contemporary tourism has aspects of pilgrimage. The distinction between pilgrimage and missions also present a challenge when considering short-term missions.

In the case of Celtic pilgrimage or other Christian pilgrimage, some would debate whether one would call this missions and whether the participants would be considered missionaries since the primary focus was spiritual or ascetical (Sheldrade 1996, 67). Another way to state this is that the primary objective of pilgrimage is normally the person who is on the spiritual journey, as opposed to the focus of missions which is normally on the host location and the salvation of others. Sheldrake (1996,67) points out that some have described the Celtic Church as a mission church rather than a missionary one. The primary reason for this is the fact that the wondering ascetics did little explicit conversion work, but rather found ways to work out their own salvation as they journeyed.

Searching for Authenticity (Part I)

This posting is the first of three to four posts that I will make related to some concepts that I am working with related to some social and theological shifts that are happening in western society. I would welcome any input or further thoughts that you may have.

Although the popularity of short-term missions from the U.S. has come into focus in primarily the past ten to fifteen years, the social and global shifts which foster an environment conducive to such a pervasive phenomenon have been in formation for much longer. Robert Wuthnow gives a sociological interpretation out of extensive research related to spiritual journeys and spiritual practices in his book After Heaven: Spirituality in America since the 1950s. (1998). Wuthnow’s finding is that since the 1950s, Americans have shifted in their expression of spirituality from a focus on dwelling to a focus on seeking. According to Wuthnow, in the past, people primarily identified their faith by membership in a church that had a specific location. Because of social economic shifts, however, this general perception has changed somewhat. An example of this shift is that people produce less durable goods, and to a larger degree they produce a network of communication or serve as brokers of goods or information. This shift from a focus on dwelling to a focus on seeking can also be seen in how people perceive institutions. The older pattern, according to Wuthnow (8) was tightly bounded and hierarchical. Institutions were literally the building blocks of society. The newer pattern, however, emphasizes looser connections, diversity, and negotiation; practical activity takes precedence over organizational positions. Sociologist Robert Putnam makes a similar observation in his seminal book Bowling Alone (2000). Putnam describes the social shift in the United States away from membership in social organizations and away from what he describes as physical capital.

This shift has produced confusion in measuring progress of success of institutions such as a local church. There have been several notable studies conducted which wrestle with the complexity of measuring church vitality in the U.S. and how that is measured. Many of the popular studies have focused primarily on measuring Spiritual vitality in relation to church attendance. A prominent example of this is the Barna Group. Although Barna recognizes that measuring church vitality is changing, they primarily use measures of location (to use Wuthnow’s term). The following is an example from an article of the Barna Group:

With Americans pursuing a growing number of "church" options, some of the traditional measures of church health are being redefined. According to a new study released by The Barna Group, which has been studying church participation patterns since 1984, popular measures such as the percentage of people who are "unchurched" - based on attendance at a conventional church service - are out of date. Various new forms of faith community and experience, such as house churches, marketplace ministries and cyberchurches, must be figured into the mix - and make calculating the percentage of Americans who can be counted as "unchurched" more complicated. The fact that millions of people are now involved in multiple faith communities - for instance, attending a conventional church one week, a house church the next, and interacting with an online faith community in-between - has rendered the standard measures of "churched" and "unchurched" much less precise.

Although this article recognizes the same phenomenon of people moving away from spiritual identity based on location, studies like these which measure the decline in church membership and a lack of consistent attendance to events in the church building conclude that spirituality is declining in the United States. Putnam, however, indicates that the younger generation is not less engaged than their predecessors, but engaged in new ways (2000,26). Similar to the proposal of Wuthnow, Putnam acknowledges the move away from dwelling or physical capital and toward seeking or social capital. A similar argument is made by Wuthnow in his more recent book, Boundless Faith (2009) in which he disputes arguments of Jenkins (2007) and other common assumptions which assert Christianity is flourishing in many parts of the world beyond the United States, and therefore, Christian churches in the U.S. are drawing inward, and are withdrawing involvement from global activity. Wuthnow also disputes the assumption that local churches in the United States focus inwardly with little or no interest in their communities or the global context. Wuthnow’s primary thesis in Boundless Faith is concomitant with the thesis of Putnam that instead of a move away from spirituality, there is a younger generation that is seeking new and different ways to express their faith. This new and different expression flows directly from the theories of spirituality moving from identification with location to an expression of seeking which can be seen in the phenomenon of short-term missions as well as increase in niche tourism which focuses on a type of spiritual pilgrimage.