1. Introduction to
Missiology
Ch.26 Introduction to the
Strategy and Methods of
Missions
2. Strategy and Methods
• Strategy – the overall plan,
principles, or ways by which
resources and opportunities will
be utilized in the task
• Methods – the comprehensive
and flexible body of tactics or
actions, the detailed means by
which God’s people implement
the mission imperative
3. Three Basic Questions
• How are we doing in our efforts to
evangelize the entire world?
• What are our overall plans to
accomplish world evangelization?
• How can every church and Christian be
involved?
4. 1. How Are We Doing?
• There was a radical shift in strategy in the last
quarter century
– From even emphasis to 10/40 window & UPG
– From addition to multiplication
– From Institutional to CPM
• NAMB – increased focus on effective church
planting
• IMB – increased focus on Church Planting
Movements (CPM)
5. Why CPM through house
churches?
Radical - True alternative to the
institutional church as propagated by
western missionaries
Trans-cultural – Bible focus and
simplicity of form minimizes cross-
cultural dysfunction
Relational – People are encouraged to
relate personally rather than
institutionally
6. The Key Reason:
4.Reproducibility – not dependent
upon
– Particular culture
– Money
– Property
– Specially educated leaders
This Model is Foundational to most Church Planting Movements (CPM)
7. A Chinese CPM Example
3500 3400
340,000
3000 Churches Baptize
d
2500 Believer
s
10,000+
2000
churches
1500
in 2003!
1000
550
500 195
3 9 26 76
0
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000
8. An East Asia Example
4500 240,000 4300
Baptize
4000 Churches d
Believer
3500 s
3000
2500 2000
2000
1200
1500
1000 547
78 220
500 28 36
0
1989 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000
9. Why the Shift in Strategy?
• Pointed critique by experts
– McGavran, Engel & Norton, Dayton & Fraser
– Focus shifts to evangelism & church planting from
institutional missions
• Great Commission Christian movement
– Spurred by WEF meeting in Lausanne
– Led to increased cooperation among mission
agencies, including SBC
10. Historical Perspective:
Mission Strategy
• NT – evangelism & CP by lay people
• Ulfilas – scripture translation as primary
method of reaching new people groups
• Columba & Aiden – Adequate
leadership training of missionary monks
• Boniface – an established church
sending missionaries
• Medieval – Forget it!
11. Historical Perspective (Cont)
• Bartolome de las Casas – humanitarian
service (to new world indians)
• Nobili & Ricci – accommodation to
culture in India and China
• New England missionaries
– Gathering converts into new churches
– Establishing Christian towns
12. William Carey’s Contribution:
Five Principles
• Widespread gospel preaching
• Bible distribution in heart language
• Early establishment of new churches
• Careful study of indigenous culture
• Training up an indigenous clergy
13. Venn, Anderson & Nevius
• Bi-vocational leadership
• Methodology appropriate to the local setting
• Full-time leaders called out and supported by
the local church
• Culturally appropriate church architecture
• Extensive training of leaders
• New churches planted by existing churches
14. Twentieth Century Trends
• Ecumenical Churches – gradualism
– Dialogue, presence, seed sowing
– Dominated by liberal theology
– Abandoned the notion of conversion
• Evangelical Churches – disciplemaking
– Evangelism and church planting is key
– Humanitarian efforts are supplemental
– Increasing focus on UPGs and CPM
15. 2. What Are Our Plans?
An Eleven Step Model
• Decide on the goal • Project results
• Study the culture • Decide team roles
• Define the workforce • Develop detailed
• Choose methods plans
• Establish • Implement plans
approaches • Evaluate results
• Adjust and continue
16. Characteristics of Effective
Strategy
1. Centered on Kingdom growth
2. Holistic – evangelism, discipling, planting,
church development, leadership training,
improving the physical aspects of peoples
lives
3. Research Based – effective strategies are
discovered – pilot projects
4. Result Oriented – What is the result of
executing the strategy?
17. Effective Missionary
Methodology
1. Relies on the Holy Spirit
– He leads us to methods
– He motivates us to use them
– He grants effectiveness as we work
2. Demonstrates Flexibility
– Always more than one way to achieve a
goal
– Limited to biblically congruent methods
18. Effective Methodology (con’t)
1. Centers on evangelism and church
planting
– Churches accommodated to the needs
and styles of the people in that region
– Churches that are “dynamically
equivalent” to the churches of the NT
2. Culturally Appropriate
– Recognizing the cultural diversity in the
world
– Adjusting without compromising the
message
19. Effective Methodology
1. Incorporates the characteristic of
reproducibility
– The test for every activity is whether the
indigenous church can multiply it in their
setting
20. Contemporary Methodologies
1. Small Groups play an important part
– Cell church
– House church networks
– Adaptive to particular cultural settings
2. Contextualized Worship to enhance
evangelism
3. Professional marketing approaches
21. Contemporary Methodologies
(Cont)
1. Decentralized approaches to identify,
train and deploy new leaders
2. Exponential increase in short-term
mission experiences
Notes de l'éditeur
Radical - Greatest discontinuity with the traditional western church Trans-cultural – Doesn’t really address forms in a way that is culture specific
Church Planting Movements are rapidly reproducing indigenous churches planting churches in and through a people group or population segment. Let’s examine a couple of Church Planting Movements to get a better picture of how God is using them to reconcile a lost world to Himself. In 1991, Southern Baptists appointed a Strategy Coordinator to an unreached people group in East Asia. After language study, the SC began relating to 3 underground house churches with about 85 members. The churches were struggling to survive under considerable persecution. The Strategy Coordinator marshaled prayer support, evangelism and church planting training and cast a vision for a Church Planting Movement that would reach the entire area with the gospel. A year later, the three churches had multiplied into nine. In the following years they increased to 26, 76, 195 and 550. By this time, the Strategy Coordinator recognized that the movement was growing exponentially without his direct involvement. When researchers returned to survey the work two years later, they found an estimated 3,400 churches and approximately 340,000 baptized believers. In eight years, God used a Church Planting Movement to transform the area from 3 struggling churches into a vast movement of born again believers.
Let’s view another Church Planting Movement. This one occurred in Northern India. When the International Mission Board assigned a Strategy Coordinator to the Bhojpuri People in 1989, he found 28 churches among a people group of nearly 90 million. The Strategy Coordinator set about training national evangelists and church planters to start reproducing churches that would evangelize, disciple and multiply believers across the country. By 1993, the 28 Bhojpuri churches had increased to 36. In the years that followed, their numbers climbed to 78, 220, 547, 1200 and 2000 churches in 1999. By autumn of the year 2000, the Strategy Coordinator could only guess how many churches and believers had emerged from the Bhojpuri Church Planting Movement. In October 2000, a research team visited the area and conservatively estimated the number of churches at 4,300 and the number of believers to be at least 240,000. These spontaneous explosions of multiplying churches are changing the face of lostness wherever they occur. Their almost exponential increase in believers vastly outstrips population growth rates and transforms the religious landscape.