Filling the Hole in Holistic Missions

Holistic ministry is the great rallying cry in missions today—the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. This is a powerful statement. It zeroes in on the three major components of holistic mission. First, Jesus has commanded the whole church, not just an elite few, to make disciples of all peoples. Second, he directed the church to declare the whole gospel—everything he commanded, not just salvation. So we must exhibit the gospel in all aspects of life—the physical, emotional, social, and economic, as well as the spiritual. And we must lead believers into obedience in all areas of life. Third, the church must take Jesus’ message to the whole world, to all people groups.

But how does the missions enterprise carry out this dictum? It runs programs—programs to feed, clothe, build, rescue, train, provide medical care, run micro-finance programs, do business development, evangelize, disciple, etc. I saw this over and over at Lausanne 04, the mission movement’s primary global consultation.

Programs provide very real help, but suffer limitations. The work often becomes a job and the people become projects. Have you ever seen a program treat people impersonally or unlovingly? We all have. Programs don’t love people; people do. Everything hangs on workers walking with God.

And who does this missions work? A small, select few, not “the whole church.” These are largely professional, paid workers, not everyday Christians who simply follow Jesus and love people. Ministry is their job. Many are deeply committed, caring Christians. But they cannot demonstrate everyday discipleship under all the pressures of everyday life simply because they don’t live there. They cannot demonstrate how to handle the tension between discipleship and working full-time or how to integrate work and witness or how to live for God in every aspect of life.

The “full-time” model also communicates a negative story. Only full-timers have the time, the training, and the special call to do much ministry. Everyday Christians cannot do that much. Worse, since doing ministry is the primary source of value, their work is devalued as “secular.” Most Christians have no idea of how their work is supposed to serve God. This implies that the gospel doesn’t really work in everyday life; it doesn’t speak to all of life. It only works for full-time Christians. This thinking has traded the whole gospel taken by the whole church for a shriveled gospel taken by the select few.

But, great news! The apostle Paul and his co-workers proved that the whole gospel works for the whole church in all of life. Paul integrated work and discipleship in all of life as an everyday Christian. He worked full-time to support himself while taking the gospel to the ancient world. So did his co-workers.*

So did real tentmakers throughout history and so they do today.

Christianity traveled through businessmen, soldiers, students, teachers, refugees, pilgrims, doctors, lawyers, prisoners, slaves and hostages, Christian lay people of all kinds: bearers of the Christian message as they traveled. So largely, expansion was not the work of pastors, but of Christian men and women in their ordinary routines of life.                           — David Wright (condensed)

Gladys Aylward won Chinese to Christ by how she served, loved, and shared the gospel in her inn. She won the respect of the local Mandarin so that he made her the area foot-inspector to enforce the new law ending foot-binding. This gave her great influence for good as well as opportunity for witness.

Today, tentmakers model the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. “Rob” has been negotiating contracts with local headmen for a company in a Muslim country. His character, his work and his care for people including children led his driver to tell him one day that he had figured out that Rob was a “man of God.” Rob asked him to keep this quiet. But when they met with the next headman, he introduced Rob as “a man of God.” Surrounded by his entourage and local villagers, the head man told Rob, “Tell us a story about God.” Really frightened, he figured he might as well go for it. So beginning in Genesis, he told about God’s working in history and about Jesus. When he finished, the headman said, “Now that was a story! I want you to tell this to all my people whenever you come.” As a result, people began coming to Christ and churches have developed and spread throughout this unreached people group.

Biblical tentmaking makes it normative for all Christians to make disciples, live devout lives, serve God in all of life, and reach out to those different from themselves. Tentmakers fill a gaping hole in present day missions demonstrating the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. Many thousands more are needed to rebuild this primary pattern in the church. It is hard to overstate the impact everyday Christians can have by becoming effective tentmakers.

*See 2 Th. 3:6-10 where Paul refers to Silvanus, Timothy and himself twelve times as “we,” “us,” and “our.” For a fuller treatment, see “Why Did Paul Make Tents?” and “New Millennium Missions.”)

What GO Courses Do to People

Global Opportunities has been running our GO Equipped! tentmaking courses for over 10 years now. They do things for people and they do things to them.

It gets them over the hump.

Those who've been considering tentmaking begin to imagine themselves actually doing it. They begin to see themselves actually finding a job overseas, leaving their job here, living and connecting with the people, and opening their hearts and home to them.

R & D attended a course in Victoria, BC, Canada and started seriously searching for teaching jobs. About a year later they began teaching in an international school in Beirut.

Michelle just attended our Pasadena course in October and is heading to Asia later this year to teach.

It gives them understanding of how everyday Christians can do ministry. It provides a new Biblical model of work-faith integration which leads to their saying, “Aha. I could do that!”

MB had been a tentmaker in Uzbekistan. Then an incredible door opened to one of the most oppressive and needy countries on earth. But he was scared he could not share Christ there. Ari and I both urged him on and he accepted the invitation. On his way there, he made time to attend our course in Pasadena. It helped him gain insight into how he could witness even there and he has had remarkable impact.

It refocuses them and opens new windows.

Sergio & Angela were heading to Thailand to serve in a children’s home. They had a great heart to serve even though this required support funds. At a Fort Myers course, they saw a whole new perspective and Sergio ended up using his science and engineering skills to teach in a high school in Thailand.

Chris came to a Pasadena course after serving as a missionary in Thailand. With strong people and teaching gifts, he saw the power of using them in tentmaking, earned a PhD and returned to Thailand to teach English.

It equips them to be effective by focusing on core principles and ministry skills.

Jon & his wife attended the course in Dallas. In late summer they moved to India to start an outsourcing business which employs both believers and non-believers. His leadership has improved employees’ work habits and helped some to Christ. He said that “The course must have been developed out of years of experience in the field. I still draw on it—the importance of jumping right into the culture, living out what I believe during day-to-day business, of opening up the home... I could go on. The course was truly sent by God at just the right time…”    

It gets them overseas as tentmakers. Around 50% end up overseas. Coming can be dangerous!

There’s still time to register for the Fort Myers course if you act quickly. Get info/register.

To see other courses, go here.

This month's editor - David English

In order to bring variety in writing style, focus, and insight, four editors rotate in producing each issue of TM Briefs: Stienar Opheim of Tent, Norway, and David English, Phill Sandahl and Ari Rocklin of Global Opportunities, US & Canada.  From time to time we will also include
guest editors.

This issue is produced by David, Director of GO.

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