March 4, 2005

Shepherd's Conference: Rethinking Missions

I right now sitting in a seminar dealing with the subject of missions. The main purpose of this session appears to be to promote The Master's Academy International--the "missions wing" of The Master's Seminary.

The program has a three-step approach to theological training on the mission field:

(1) Local church based training program. This is a training a program for people in the local church, teaching them how to teach the word of God.
(2) Advanced students. This will train qualified men to take leadership rolls in the church.
(3) Trustworthy pastors. Those who make it to this level will be the biblical expositors of their culture.

As this conference progresses, a couple of things are concerning me. It seems like there is a disregard for the work missionaries have done in these countries over the years. The guy who is speaking now just spoke disparagingly of puppet ministries!

I guess I am always wary when people present something and say "this is the only way to do it...and people who have been doing the work of missions for the past decades have been all wrong." Perhaps this skepticism comes from my days in the Bill Gothard ministry, where he would say things like "we have done more in Taiwan in two weeks than missionaries have done in the last 50 years."

After this is over, I will be talking with representatives from different fields. I will update this post after those conversations.

Update: I just talked to a gentleman who works in Brazil with this ministry, and I am very interested in confirming a couple of things he told me. Sorry, no details here.

Posted by Andrew on March 4, 2005 2:08 PM.

Comments

Good observations. Methinks we all take our turn at thinking that the past would have been so much better if we had been there to help them out.

Posted by: GoTennis at March 5, 2005 7:08 AM

Perhaps another thing we do is oversimplify the work of those who did the work in the past.

I remember reading the history of a mission a few months ago. I was almost surprised that they were aware of and struggled with the exact same issues that we struggle with today. Sure, they made mistakes, so does everyone. But they also weren't just blindly plunging ahead - many of them were thoughtful men and women who looked to the Lord for guidance.

Posted by: Jim Cottrill at March 11, 2005 1:10 PM

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