We hosted David English a couple weeks ago - it was a really good time. He is the director of a para-church organization that helps equip tentmakers around the world.
I spent about eight hours with him over a three day span - he lectured three times, we had him for dinner, and I chatted with him one-on-one.
Central to his thinking in regard to missions (and becoming more of a focus for Emily and me) is that tentmaking is the best approach to incarnational ministry. By incarnational, I mean ministry that is patterned after Christ's ministry (Hudson Taylor being a good example), where people enter a situation, live as and among the people, and give the Gospel through preaching and example. It is ministry that focuses on living contextually, serving sacrificially, and modeling the Gospel in each part of life. Now, there were elements where our ministry with CCC was incarnational, but I would argue that it was not the primary thrust of ministry. We lived in an apartment that exceeded the financial capabilities of those that we worked with. Granted, it was less than what we could have in the states by a long shot, but still, it wasn't teaching our disciples anything about that part of life.
And what are the most difficult parts of life for most? Are they not 1) the job environment (esp. in a corrupt country) and 2) the use of resources. Stats show that more couples in the States split over money than any other frustration, and our international experience shows the same thing is happening overseas. I'd argue that these are the tough spots for just about anybody, but we had nothing that we could really teach or model to our disciples because we were not really in the fray with them. It wasn't just us, but pretty much everybody in CCC is in the same boat on this one.
Why did we have 98 or 99% fall away upon graduation? We had people (Emily and I included) who neither were working in the difficult environment (i.e. with the corporate world there) nor had experience working in such a difficult environment nor were financially depending on such an institution. So, no modeling could happen, and really little helpful council could be given. We could go to the Word, but a lack of personal experience or discipleship typically means that a mentor uses proof-texts to project his ideas about proper behavior instead of walking through the difficulty with his disciple.
Back to Dave - he contends that a careful reading of the Pauline epistles shows (call if you want the references and argumentation :) that Paul specifically chose tentmaking for two main reasons. 1)he was not dependent on others giving and could give the Gospel freely 2) business allowed him a tremendous venue for interaction and discipleship among all types of people. While initially skeptical, the more that I have studied and reflected upon Paul's life, I think that Dave's argument is very strong.
Does this mean that there is no value in vocational missions? No - we affirm that there is still significant value there. But, with Dave, we are beginning to think that the primary venue for missions needs to be through other fields in society - business, teaching, healthcare, etc. Instead of being a 90/10 vocational/tentmaking split, perhaps it should be more of a 10/90 split, where nine of ten missionaries is a tentmaker and the others serve key fields like pastoral training/counseling. The benefits could be tremendous in regard to effective witness and discipleship but also in terms of cost-effectiveness. When you have to raise $5-6K/month to be a Western vocational missionary in some places, that takes a serious drain on the sending church and the necessary correspondence.
It was also interesting to meet with him because he stresses the need to have an area of expertise to be a blessing to others. While Emily and I have growing expertise in evangelism and discipleship, we are far from that in any other field. So, we continue to pray about where the Lord might have us after GCTS - perhaps business school, perhaps working at a company in the States, etc.
1 comment:
empowering, interesting and almost radical.
perhaps :o)
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