The DMN shares some lessons Rick Warren says the church should learn and un-learn about church mission work.
The lessons comes from the AP and the summer 2007 issue of Leadership:
We need to learn… humility. The focus of world Christianity in the future will be South America, Africa, and Asia. Get used to it.
To unlearn… our consumer approach to spirituality. The American church needs to move from selfish consumerism to unselfish contribution.
To learn… a new approach to missions, and who does it, and where, and how it’s funded.
To unlearn… our dependence on specialized parachurch ministries. The church is called to embody the whole Gospel.
To learn… to go and to serve. The old approach was praying, then studying, then giving, then — maybe one day — going. Now, we just go and see how we can serve.
To unlearn… our method of goal-setting. Most leaders set their goals too low and try to accomplish them too quickly. We need to set big goals and devote the rest of our lives to accomplishing them.
To learn… that average Christians can do missions. People around the world want to learn from peers — mother to mother, businessperson to businessperson, teen to teen.
To unlearn… our desire to pay. Americans’ reflex is to try to solve a problem by throwing money at it, which often creates dependency and harms the church.
To learn… to trust the people we serve. Assume that indigenous leaders have a better idea of what their people need than we do.
Do you struggle with any of these? Think Warren is right on – or a little off in his assessment?
