-David Wesley
The challenge for missions is not getting people to “go”. People are willing to go. The challenge in the new era of missions, according to Oscar Muriu is that we have to be willing to die. This is a drastic change from missions as I have often experienced it in Latin America or other parts of the world where we work to keep missionaries away from dangerous situations. I would agree, however, that we are in a changing global dynamic which will continue to change the nature of mission in the years to come. In an incredibly current book which was published nearly 20 years ago, South African Missiologist, David Bosch says:
“The bravest among missionary thinkers have already for some time begun to sense a new paradigm for mission was emerging. More than thirty years ago Hendrik Kraemer (1959) said that we had to recognize a crisis in mission, even an “impasse”. And yet, he said, ‘we do not stand at the end of mission’; rather, ‘we stand at the definite end of a specific period or era of mission, and the clearer we see this and accept this with all our heart, the better’. We are called to a new’pioneer task which will be more demanding and less romantic than the heroic deeds of the past missionary era.’”(Bosch 1991:8).
Bosch and well as Kraemer’s writing of 20 and 50 years ago speak directly into the current global mission environment. Instead of fanfare’s to send off and receive missionaries, instead of comfortable homes, latest gadgets, and other “North Americaness”, we are entering a paradigm in mission which is marked by ‘normal’ people who are Christians and who scatter out to work and live as Christians and who depend on local economies. These are people who live as Christian witness. The reason that they ‘go’ is primarily as a natural expression of who they are, more than a motives of “taking Christ to a dark world”. This new paradigm is marked by sacrifice and marked by authenticity which will attract others by its authenticity instead of by it’s buildings, technology or impressiveness. In many ways this new paradigm looks like the models of scripture more than the models which developed out of colonialist periods.
What I am stating and reflecting from Bosch, is not my own desire for what mission should be, but rather a reflection on what mission is becoming. In many ways, I find the authenticity of this refreshing. On the other side, I honestly find the sacrificial nature of this threatening. But then, this is God’s mission and not ours and he did say that anyone who followed Him would have to “take up His cross”.
