STRATEGY:General

For strategies for different Age and Interest Groups, look under AGE/INTEREST or CHURCH.

Top 3 DEVELOPMENTAL INSIGHTS
What have been the three top developmental insights you have had about mission mobilization, either your own or others? Here are three off the top of my head:

  1. Mobilization/Renewal: In the late '80s, I stumbled upon an Orlando Costas refrain, "mobilization without renewal is mere organization, renewal without mobilization is mere religion." I began to learn more from the classic Pentecostal "restoration" movements about praise and worship before God and man.
  2. Harvest/Jubilee: In the early '90s, I began to see that what began as a Decade of Destiny would climax in a celebration of centuries. I began to seriously think about the potential of evangelization and mobilization in the context of Jesus' 2,000th jubilee from 1999 to 2001. I also began speaking into the civic "turn of the millennium" movement as a vehicle to understand how the Christian jubilee might be perceived in its larger societal context.
  3. Evangelization/Civilization: In the mid '90s, I began to ask, "What is an evangelized world for?" I started to take a look at the international systems which contribute to human development and global civilization and felt that I needed to be more on the forefront of defining future culture. My vision of Christ's Lordship over this planet has grown and my faith in Him as the End of the human journey has been strengthened.

RESPONSE From <NateWilson@XC.org> That's a heavy question and I'm not sure I can match the pith that comes "off the top of your head!" I'm afraid I'm more defining current trends whereas your comments are much more forward-looking...

  1. Bibliocentricity: The Richardson/Sjogren Biblical basis for missions was a tremendous breakthrough in mobilizing me, and I believe that we must keep a solid foundation in the Bible. Piper's developments on that theme have been helpful too.
  2. Strategy: The unreached mentality, the closure mentality, and the advocacy mentality have all played a major role in developing my mission vision, and I believe that we must continue to provide frameworks such as these for looking at the big picture of missions and finding a meaningful place in it.
  3. Networking: The way in which work is done seems to be completing a shift from Individualistic "Just Do It" to Networking followed by Group action. I have experienced an idealogical clash between the networking style of mission mobilization agencies and the Traditional churches (which are the least mobilized) who are still in the former paradigm. I think it has yet to penetrate the traditional seminaries...

WORLD HEALTH ORG.--LESSONS LEARNED
From: Bob Hall <100354.3311@CompuServe.COM> Excerpted from FRIDAYFax #17, May 3rd, 1996

  1. Global movements are built on national campaigns Humanly speaking, it is not impossible to reach a whole nation with the gospel if it is possible to vaccinate children in war zones. For example, violent battles in Sri Lanka were interrupted for 8 hours while the country's 1.6 million children were vaccinated. According to Goode, there are already some examples of national initiatives, such as EHC (Every Home for Christ) and DAWN.
  2. Global campaigns require strategic partnership and coordination Says Goode, "The WHO's procedure is characterised by the cooperation of various groups and organisations towards a common aim. In the Christian world, similar evangelistic cooperation must occur."
  3. Global campaigns require detailed planning "The WHO's press releases," says Goode, "contain clear, verifiable statistical information collected from careful research and observation of trends in literally every area. Their aim? To constantly demonstrate the size of the remaining task, the progress which has been made, to document and to explain the measures required in order to reach the aim." Source: Steve Goode and WHO press release of 5 Jan 1996

PIPE: Free Will Baptist Bible College
In 1992, Free Will Baptist Bible College student John Weaver recruited 100 students to travel out of town to an optional missions conference. I asked him to share with us how he managed to pull this off, and he shared a little acronym "PIPE" and explained it:

"P" First you see the challenge and you PRAY about it.
"I" Then you go around INFORMING people about the thing to which you are mobilizing them.
"P" Then all you can do is keep PRAYING for God to lead people and
"E" EXPECT God to bring fruit to the endeavour.
As long as we're talking about spiritual acronyms, I might as well share another one that John gave me: "LIPS" Love, Pray, Inform, & Shepherd. These acronyms are models for missions mobilization that apparently worked quite well for Free Will Baptist Bible College, Nashville.

 

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