Howard Brant writes: “God alone knows the exact numbers of workers coming out of the new initiatives. What we can identify, however, is the epicenters of the largest movements.” He then goes on to talk about Korea, China, Nigeria and other non Western countries that are sending out significant numbers of new workers to “participate in the Mission of God.”
One of the questions we raised in a previous post is how would new workers from such non Western countries join with the existing missions force? What would common training look like across this multicultural work force?
A couple of principles come quickly to mind that should direct us in our mobilization and training. A first principle would be to over communicate widely. In the process of over communicating widely, we make people from many ‘epicenters of mission’ [other Support Centers, partners, other mission sending initiatives] aware of our own cultural expectations and assumptions as well as allow opportunity for these people to help us better frame our efforts in a more global manner. A second principle would be to have an open learning stance. An open learning stance means you see benefit in ideas and experiences shared from a variety of perspectives, different from your own, and that these ideas and experiences actually influence your own plans and strategies. A final principle would be to seek to demonstrate humility. The shift of the base of world Christianity to the southern hemisphere places many of us in a decreasing ‘power’ position. We can no longer act as if we are the center, as if we are the ‘central office’ alone. The Gospel drives us towards humility by the simple understanding of grace. It should drive us to humility in our relationships with this ever growing multicultural work force as we become one of many workers sent out into ‘the Mission of God’.
Navigating this shift can seem daunting. However, it is also thrilling to be part of God’s larger mission not only to gather people from all tribes, tongues and nations to His worshipping community , but also to send people from all tribes, tongues and nations out to reach others and invite them into His worshipping community.
Filed under: Collaboration, Global realities, Partnership |
Thoughts Along The Journey 
It seems that these principles enforce a certain ethos. They describe a unique environment. Could we find some stories that illustrate this? Stories help communicate principles and engage the heart.
The principles do enforce or describe a certain ethos. We need to “catch” people engaged in living out these principles and encourage/bless them. We also need to hear stories of how these principles are being lived out as you say. I’m hopeful that others will respond and share some stories.