Recent Sermons

Monday, November 19, 2007

History of Missions - Session 1


Dr. Shorb organizes the history of modern missions around three paradigm shifts. He points out that in each, someone initiated a change that was met with general disdain. The advent of the modern missionary movement began with William Carey. Multi-denominational 20th century missions is epitomized by the ministry of J. Hudson Taylor. The third paradigm is actually the vision of IPM - training nationals and backing away from ethnocentrism.

The first era under the inspiration of Carey purposed to evangelize and civilize the heathen. Carey and Judson both have biographies that demonstrate this strong evangelistic thrust which concentrated on coastal areas. Interior penetration was difficult during the early part of the 19th century. The whole of the first era was dominated by European missionaries (England, Norway, Sweden, and Germany).

The second era placed an emphasis upon specialization (e.g., church planting, medicine, translation work, and radio). 20th century missionaries began to see a more cooperative effort that was interdenominational. Missionaries like J. Hudson Taylor began an interior push as characterized by the name of his mission: China Inland Missions. The era was marked as para-church. Much control and trust was placed upon mission boards. There was no strong local church emphasis even with good, Baptist, independent boards. Local churches were at fault in that they seemed to be willing to relinquish control and direction to the boards. The second era was dominated by American and Canadian missionaries.

The third era has yet to develop fully. We seem to be on the cusp of the second. Shorb challenged the Northern California FBF to change. The world is dynamic and churches are in danger of getting stuck in a traditional rut.

More emphasis must be placed on training nationals during the third era. The ethnocentrism of the 20th century must give way to enabling nationals to do the work of the ministry. We should also avoid training those nationals here where they seemed to be lured into the materialism and prosperity.

There ought to be a concentration on reaching the frontiers during this next paradigm shift. The 10/40 window (an easy to remember title for a band of the globe which lies across Africa and Asia from 10 degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator) contains much of the unreached nations dominated by Islam and Hinduism. These unreached frontiers are closed to American missionaries but not to nationals.

Dr. Shorb predicts that by 2050 China and India will be the dominate economic powers. They will send missionaries to the United States. Churches need to become proactive in missions planning. Boards and organizations should be tools that serve the local church in setting up a missions plan that thrives for the new paradigm before us - even creating a 'missionary pastor' in larger churches to set that direction.