Yes We Have More Tomatoes

A couple of months ago I posted some comments in a piece entitled “What’s a Tomato?” This really didn't have anything to do with tomatoes, but I began a conversation about the changing nature of mission which has left us in a quandary in which it is hard to even identify missions. I also mentioned the enormous need to focus mission in what many call ‘incarnational mission’. I would like to pick up that conversation and reflect on some of the shifts in how mission is viewed which are at the center of the changes in mission.
An interesting trend in current missions is a movement away from mission as building structures and the organization and a move toward mission as relationship and reconciliation. Coupled with this emphasis of mission as relationship is the enormous amounts of money which are tied to mission as development. These trends as they connect to the growing phenomenon of short-term missions have resulted in a change in which mission is viewed completely different than it was just 15 to 20 years ago.
I see these changes as potentially very positive changes since they are moves away from mechanical approaches to mission and changes which have a greater focus on relationship and on human interaction. A few years ago I stayed at the home of Anthropologist, Paul Hiebert while I was in Chicago for PhD seminars. One evening as we were chatting over bowls of ice cream, Paul said, “the tension in mission is that we thought that structures or organizations are eternal and that people are dispensable, when in reality it is just the opposite.” Hiebert’s words have haunted me ever since. Too many times we sacrifice people in order to advance the organization. In the current (young) generation, however, there is a significant move toward mission as relationship and focused on people. This is a positive change. These changes, however, present their own challenges for God’s mission to not get lost in mission which is anthrocentric so that mission is just something that is beneficial for me as I gain social capital and self fulfillment.
I have attached a short video clip of Dana Robert who teaches at Boston College and was also a keynote speaker at the Edinburgh 2010 Conference. Dr. Robert discusses this shift and the challenge it presents for missions. This is a fascinating area to discuss and I welcome your thoughts.

Assembly Required

Although the instructions say “read all instructions before assembling”, when it comes to purchasing something that needs to be assembled, I am one of those types of people who will dig into trying to assemble, and will read the instructions as I go along instead of reading the complete instructions first. This probably says a lot about the way I learn. Some people prefer to know the theory and basis of something before moving to practical application. I learn better if I can mix hands on experience with theoretical understanding. Many people learn that way, and yet educational systems tend to focus on learning for the “instructions first” type people. For those of us who are educators, there are incredible opportunities due to technology to either bring experiences into the class room or to allow students to be in a context outside of the traditional classroom where technology can allow students to interact with sources which give theoretical or broader understanding of what they are experiencing. At NTS where I teach, we have designed a pilot program which will begin in just a couple of weeks which explores this type of learning by allowing students to be in a global context, but to have connection to interactive learning experiences which integrates practice with theory. I will be posting more about this exciting new initiative over the next few weeks, but for now I have attached the link to an interesting podcast which is an interview with Chris Dede who teaches at Harvard. The focus of this interview is the integration of learning styles with technology. If you have creative ideas for me, I welcome your thoughts.

http://www.educause.edu/blog/jcummings/ChrisDedeonEmergingTechnologie/166539