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Shifting Paradigms in Missions

Friday, 25 January 2008 00:00 João Mordomo
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by João Mordomo

It has become increasingly recognized in the Christian missions movement over the past three decades that a monumental shift – what Lamin Sanneh of Yale Divinity School refers to as a “Copernican shift” – has taken place in the global center of gravity of Christianity. For example, in the 1970’s, missiologist Walbert Buhlmann wrote of the coming of the “third church,” that is, the church of the third world in the third millennium. As Larry Pate and Lawrence Keyes observed, back in 1986,

It is becoming clear to most missiologists who look across the mountain ranges of the future that the “feet of those who bring good news” are rapidly changing color. New streams of brown, black, yellow, and red feet are joining with the white to proclaim the salvation message. The gospel no longer masquerades as a white person’s good news about a white, western imperialistic God. It is Koreans-to- Nepal, Singaporeans-to-Nigeria, Brazilians-to-North Africa good news! More and more, the news is spreading from every people to every people.

Little did Pate and Keyes know when they wrote “Brazilians-to-North Africa good news,” that they were describing Crossover-Brasil! Born in 1996, it is the only Brazilian mission agency dedicated exclusively to reaching the Muslim peoples originating in Eurasia. Now, if this task were not daunting enough, Brazilians face the additional challenge of finding sufficient financial resources to support their work. Sadly, many Brazilian mission agencies have been employing the old “support-raising” model that they inherited from North American and European missionaries. While this model works well in industrialized nations in which the Protestant work ethic is firmly embedded in the culture and people have disposable income available at the end of each month, it is not effective for most emerging missions movements. In light of these challenges, nothing less than a monumental new model is needed to unleash the Brazilian missionary force, one that is capable of helping Brazilian missionaries “get out, get in, stay in, and sink in,” in order to help bring about the total transformation of communities, societies, peoples and nations for the glory of the Father:

  • “Get out” – Many potential Brazilian missionaries never leave the country due to the extreme difficulty of raising their own salary. A model is needed that will give these workers the financial freedom to be released to engage in the work to which the Father has called them
  • “Get in” – The vast majority of the world’s unreached peoples live in restricted access nations that do not welcome missionaries. A model is needed that will allow Brazilian workers to freely enter into these countries, preferably as welcome residents.
  • “Stay in” – Despite the fact that workers can enter some of these restricted nations as tourists or students, this is only credible for a limited amount of time. (Who ever heard of a tourist who’s been in the country for years, speaks the language fluently and has his own apartment?!) A model is needed that will give Brazilian workers the liberty to stay in a country with credibility for the long haul.
  • “Sink in” – Suppose that a worker manages to overcome the first three hurdles. It does no good to be credibly present for the long haul without actually penetrating the culture and tapping into social networks in order to share the love of Christ. A model is needed that will provide Brazilian cross-cultural workers with a legitimate platform to maintain contact with the same group of people, day after day after day.
This new, “do-it-all” model exists, and it has a name. Increasingly, it is called the “business-as-mission” (BAM) model. While it may sound new, it is anything but. It was the apostle Paul’s model of choice. It served as the backbone for the expansion of the early Church. It was employed by some of history’s most mission-active groups such as the Nestorians and Moravians. William Carey said he used this model “whenever possible.” The Basel Mission in the 1800’s followed his lead.

Today this model is on the ascendancy, and for very good reasons. It not only helps Brazilians and others overcome major barriers, but it is an integrated, “wholistic” model that is legitimate and credible and serves people and peoples in the name of Christ by meeting their needs through job creation and community service that result in the establishment of local churches. In addition, it avoids duplicity and gives the cross-cultural worker a genuine sense of identity, well-being and purpose. It is this new model that Crossover-Brasil has adopted to fulfill the mission of reaching Turks, Kurds and Arabs with the love of God.