Theological Thoughts for Thursday - An Emergent Concept of Missions

The young man sits in on the lecture presented at a large church. "The Sins of Missionaries." He hears the repentant, yet horrific stories of a missionary who worked tirelessly to promote his home culture and how religion was performed in his home country. The retired missionary spoke softly while recounting his mistakes. When a young convert was succesfully won, he was immediately removed from his native culture and taken to the missionary compound. After relinquishing all worldy desires and former friends, he was deemed worthy of baptism. Even though the new convert wanted to share his faith with his former friends, the missionary felt it was too risky to have him around his old contact. Any attempt at further evangelism of the people must begin again with the missionary making new contacts.

The young listener begins to search his soul and his own conversion history. There are some positives: the people group he belongs to is reached with the gospel, the Bible is found in his native tongue, and a few indigenous churches are beginning to find their footing. He also instinctively felt the negatives: the indigenous church is weak and only present in urban centers, the theology of the national church is just beginning to surface and often at odds with traditional theology, and as he listens to the missionary it reminds him a little too much of his own conversion.

He was converted as a child. His parents belonged to a church that fit for them. His heart language was never spoken in his parent's church. The world his parents knew was so vastly different than his own. Their veiws belonged to the culture of a previous generation. Although the customs and traditions his parents used felt right, there was something missing. His parents always kept him away from outside influence, but he knew all too well that new converts were sequestered within the missionary compound.

His mind slowly began to wrap around the cold, difficult truth that his people group was among the least reached and that those ministering to it were still breaking every rule of modern missionary methodology. They were committing every sin.

This young man is none other than me. I'm not from a tribe in Bourneo, I grew up in a lower-middle class United Methodist family in America. I'm a missionary candidate with the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. And I also happen to be Postmodern. The established church must develop a new paradigm concerning my generation or be willing to shutter the doors on thousands of churches across America.

As Postmodernity swept across western Europe, it left Christianity in its wake. The establish church stood firm and rigidly condemned the new worldview. No concession was necessary. Today, massive cathedrals attract tourists across Postmodern Europe. Few flock to hear the saving message of Jesus Christ.

In the next few weeks I will try and build a missiology that resonates with Postmoderns. I hold out a tremendous amount of hope for my generation. I see a church with a new and different theology that radically loves Christ. I envision the greatest missionary movement going forth as my generation, who grew up bridging a cultural divide, form an indigenous church and help others to do the same.


I might show my passion and write about this subject for the whole summer. I might get really frustrated and give up after a week or two. For instance: Postmoderns, by definition, don't like definitions. No word in the postmodern vocabulary carries the same meaning for more than a few months. Because the theology of this movement is patently unsystematic, these posts are more like nailing Jell-o to a tree than constructing a house. The postmodern movement doesn't have a theology of missions, yet. I will try and define terms as I go, but I make no promises that these writings will fall within the common knowledge of older generations. Enjoy.