For the Love of God

Principles and Practice of Compassion in Missions

Ireland

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781498240123
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Compassionate missions constitutes a growing focus among evangelical denominations and agencies. Because of this, there exists a growing need to be guided by sound principles and best practices. This edited volume sets forth both the biblical foundations and preferred methods for churches wanting to engage in compassion as part of their missionary efforts. The aim throughout is that compassionate missions would be guided by indigenous principles that help establish autonomous local churches, capable of being salt and light in their communities. The contributors to this volume have over 200 years of missions experience. Through their first-hand knowledge of the challenges and pitfalls faced by missionaries engaging in compassion, these authors set forth foundational principles and practical guidelines related to some of the most pressing issues confronting missionaries today. These include HIV/AIDS, UPGs, human trafficking, orphans and vulnerable children, gender issues, and many more. Pastors, missionaries, missions boards, and educators will find this a valuable resource as the church in the twenty-first century continues to engage in the Great Commission.

Part 1

1

Introduction

Jerry M. Ireland

Perhaps more than ever before, there exists a profound need to clarify a biblical and responsible approach to the church’s compassion mandate in cross-cultural missions. Though Christian missions has a long history of demonstrating compassion, today’s missionary faces an ever-growing number of challenges and pitfalls in this area. In recent times, cross-cultural Christian workers1 have responded to a wide range of issues, including the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, HIV/AIDS in Swaziland, human trafficking in India, a Tsunami in East Asia, and extreme poverty with its many devastating effects in many places around the globe. These tragedies all demonstrate that missionary work frequently intersects with human need and suffering. Sometimes missionary responses to these needs have been well thought out and guided by sound biblical and indigenous principles. Other times, the well-intentioned but ill-conceived efforts of missionaries in response to various compassion-oriented issues have created dependency and exhibited little or no connection to the local community. Such efforts can have a net effect of leaving those we would help worse off than they were before.2

Some missions agencies have also witnessed an astonishingly sharp increase in new missionary candidates and short-term mission teams interested primarily or solely in “social justice”—which has become something of a catch-all term for all things related to compassion. Others have noticed an increase in giving toward relief and development type ministries, while funds going to evangelism and discipleship have declined.3 These realities have forced at least one major American denomination to articulate more clearly its approach to compassion ministries when it noticed that many candidates wanting to work in the area of social justice saw no need to connect their work to evangelism or discipleship.4 Yet, when compassionate missions stand apart from evangelistic efforts and apart from the work of the local church, the uniquely redemptive role of the church is either diminished or lost altogether. Therefore, missionaries must find ways to engage in compassion in ways that are more directly linked to the evangelistic calling of the church. The biblical paradigm is one in which word and deed are not two separate tracks of ministry, but rather are inherently connected and interwoven.

This book is designed to help bridge the gap that sometimes exists between compassion and evangelism. To accomplish this, we not only address the theoretical and biblical principles of compassion in what we hope is a sound and somewhat expansive manner (part one), but also provide some practical guidelines intended to help missionaries navigate the difficult terrain of compassionate missions (part two).

All of the contributors to this volume have at least one advanced degree related to the topic they address. This formal training is buttressed by years of hands-on experience. Together they have well over two hundred years of missions involvement. They have worked in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. As they have traveled the globe and taught on compassion in missions and worked with local believers to build healthy churches that exhibit a robust understanding of God’s own concern for the poor and marginalized, they have found themselves searching in vain for a single volume that addresses both the theoretical and practical side of compassionate missions. This book was born out of that search.

Another reason for this text is that dominant issues in compassionate missions change frequently, and not always for good reasons. Not long ago, HIV/AIDS and orphans were a primary concern. Nearly every evangelical church in the United States had heard of Heidi and Rolland Baker and their ministry to street children in Mozambique. In early 2015, as this book was being written, the Ebola crisis in West Africa and its once non-stop coverage by Western news outlets had begun to fade. At the same time, human trafficking had been a dominant focus of evangelical compassionate missions for at least a decade. 5 By the time this book goes to press, it seems likely that a new crisis will have captured the attention of evangelicals, and some will demand that we drop everything and turn our attention there. Yet, some of these issues never went away or even subsided to any significant degree on the world stage. Consider, for example, the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Though significant milestones have been reached, this virus continues its devastating spread in countries around the world, and though the emphasis on HIV/AIDS as a major concern in missions has diminished, the need has not.6 To put it plainly, our tendency to change course in pursuit of what appears to be “the next big thing,” even before we have sufficiently addressed the last big thing, merely points to the enduring need to direct emotional and cultural currents with solid biblical foundations and best practices. When this does not happen disaster often ensues. In short, to paraphrase the late Carl F. H. Henry, a reactionary theology will not do.7 As Scott W. Sunquist puts it, “Christian missionary involvement must not be bound to what is popular, popularly known, or even what seems like ‘viable’ mission.”8

Another reality that presses the need for this text centers on the fact that evangelical missionaries have not always done a good job of integrating compassionate work with the national and local churches in the country where they serve.9 Because of this, we are forced to ask some searching questions. Are our compassionate efforts in missions driven by real needs and by biblical mandates, or by whatever captivates our attention? Do we engage in compassionate ministries out of a need to feel good about ourselves or out of a clear understanding of what the Bible teaches? Does the manner in which we conduct compassionate missions focus on the needs of those we are helping or on their assets? Do we involve those we seek to help in the process, or do we merely presume to know what they need and forge ahead? What is the difference between compassionate work done by missionaries and that done by any number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and parachurch organizations? Should there be a difference? These are questions every missionary working in compassionate ministry should take the time to consider and work through, and this volume has been conceived with these very questions in mind. We have made a conscious attempt to not be driven by the ever-changing and fickle winds of a consumer culture, but by realities that we know, from first-hand experience, directly impact the task of reaching the lost for Christ.

Overview

Part one of this text focuses on guiding and foundational principles. In chapter 2, Jerry Ireland explores the theological foundations for compassion through a study of the biblical concept of the kingdom of God, wherein compassion constitutes a fundamental aspect of what it means to be the people of God. He then looks at how this biblical understanding should inform the praxis of missionaries and the flourishing of indigenous local churches. Following this, Alan Johnson further develops the idea of how compassion can be done according to indigenous principles. Following Ralph Winter, he distinguishes between the marks of the church and the purpose of the missions...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• List of Contributors
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Bibliography