“We want to engage the local church in reaching the unreached.”

What role does the local church play in global missions? Watch this video from Pioneers to hear their take on it.

Trevin has some nagging questions about DeYoung and Glibert’s new book What Is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission

And DeYoung responds here.

What is the mission?

To preach?

To love?

To stand up for social justice?

Mission involves effort– disciple making cannot be done passively and will not happen accidentally to those embedded in the religious moralism and relevant irreligion of a post-Christian culture.

Your missiology is showing when the debate becomes either/or.

Your missiology is showing when the both/and doesn’t lean enough in the direction you prefer.

Proclamation is essential, but “preaching” alone is not enough. Making disciples requires incarnation – redemptive presence. Something both “seem” to agree with. Its the getting there that troubles them both.

[UPDATE 11/15/11] Read Ed Stetzer’s extensive review of the book here.

Because of the truths mentioned at the end of my previous article, much changed for me, and by proxy, for my little church back home. Too much changed to list it all here because everything changed. A few notables:

• Having come up with a missiology not much more than an afterthought, I was shaken. I saw a broken world outside of our city in need of a Savior, and that the responsibility for the mission lies firmly on the local church, which must take the nations seriously. Jesus led our little church to begin sending.

• I began to see how missiology precedes ecclesiology. Mission, contextualized and appropriate, gives birth to churches that make sense of the culture around them and express the Gospel in culturally appropriate ways. Thus, our little church began to rethink who we were and all we were doing. We began to equip our people (as much as we knew how) to be missionaries in our city–where they worked, played, shopped, ate and hung out.

• Realizing our people were missionaries sent by God to the specific places they were in (1 Cor. 12:24), we began to let the Spirit lead us to the ways in which we should work in our city according to His wisdom through prayer, the passions/giftings of our people and the relationships He was birthing. Instead of choosing a few key projects and forcing all of our people to fit into ministry positions they may or may not be gifted to fill, we taught people they were to be on mission where they were, and that the church is a family that would serve them as the Spirit led them. They relished that freedom and flourished under it.

I find myself now in a place I would not have imagined a few short years ago. I am a missionary. You are, as well, but I am one of the over-the-top-crazy-stories-of-provision-through-fund-raising types. My home church was so shaped by walking alongside Upstream that I wanted to see the same thing happen for other churches, so I joined the Upstream team, and raise support by Godʼs grace and amazing partnerships with friends.

I want to see churches thinking and acting like missionaries. I want to see them equipping their people, helping them develop a solid biblical missiology, and sending them out as Godʼs ambassadors to the places He has sovereignly ordained, both near home and around the world.

My story in part is representative of what we at Upstream want to accomplish. Our desire is to truly serve churches in developing a healthy, biblically accurate understanding of mission, and to implement it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who will lead them to a people and place. We do not want to tell churches where to go or how to get there; we simply want to help them think and act like missionaries both locally and globally.

Written by Rodney Calfee. Rodney helps churches think and act like missionaries both domestically and around the world. He lives with his family in Birmingham, Ala.

Part 1 of a two-part story on the shaping of one man’s missiology.

The cheesy line applies to me: If you had told me a few years ago what Iʼd be doing now, I wouldnʼt have believed you.

I grew up in a Baptist church, learning about missionaries in Royal Ambassadors (RAs) and hearing stories from those who visited us in a church service every year or so. I was always particularly interested in the fantastical stories of danger, miraculous healing and the like. So began the shaping of my missiology.

Unfortunately, it didn’t change much over the next 20 years.

Mission was an add-on. The people who did missionary work were usually a bit “hard core” (read: crazy), and they needed to move their families all over the world. I understood evangelism, or so I thought, but mission was extra. And I was good with stopping at evangelism; that would never cause me to move to Africa.

Three years ago I was on staff at a church plant as the music guy, and we were really trying. I spent a lot of time in a government housing project a few blocks from our building wanting to develop relationships, see the Gospel take root and spur major social change among the residents. Many people within our church body regularly joined me to work there.

Looking back now, I canʼt pinpoint a single lasting relationship with anyone on campus. Most of the residents there came to know me, if not by name, then as “that guy who does GED classes” or “that guy whoʼs always picking up trash here for no reason and doesnʼt even live here” or something of the sort. We recognized something was missing in the way we tried to live the Gospel, but our efforts to overcome the inadequacies continually fell short.

Enter the Upstream Collective. Three guys from Upstream came to our little city and spoke to a group of us who were part of a small church-planting network. They used words like contextualization, tribes, and person of peace, and kept talking about the church acting like a missionary. I was intrigued.

A couple weeks later I was on a plane headed to Taipei, Taiwan, for about 10 days of what they called disorientation. I was not prepared. On this Jet Set trip I expected to learn a bit more about how to better engage with the people in the housing community. Instead, I was wrecked, and a missiology was born.

I saw for the first time on this trip how by grace, God has called us to join Him on mission; and that we then become, by default, missionaries. It is a part of our identity–our mission, that is. As a result of Godʼs reconciling us to Himself through Christ, who became sin for us, we are made His emissaries to the kingdoms of the world (2 Cor. 5:16-21). I also saw and heard firsthand the methodologies of missionaries–how they were taking the Gospel across cultures.

Then, the strangest thing happened. I was reminded how all who follow Jesus are exiles (John 17:16; Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11). We are all outsiders who give allegiance to a Kingdom that is not our home. In essence, we are all crossing culture. We are all missionaries, even in our own “home” cultures, and even if you remain, like me, in the same culture in which you grew up.

[Part 2]

Written by Rodney Calfee. Rodney helps churches think and act like missionaries both domestically and around the world. He lives with his family in Birmingham, Ala.

Upstream’s own Caleb Crider argues in his TheMissionBook.com article, Spirit-led, that a follower of Christ should unabashedly obey the direction of the Holy Spirit.

“Forget ‘unreached people groups,’ your ‘strategic focus,’ or ‘what works,’” he writes, “our only guide for mission is the Holy Spirit.”

Crider points to Paul’s experience as documented in Acts 16, when the Spirit prevented him from traveling to locations he had determined were on his must-visit list. He is portrayed as surrendering his previous ideas of what he needed to do through obeying the step-by-step guidance of the Holy Spirit. This, Crider said, is the pattern for all believers on mission.

“God doesn’t send us out alone,” he said. “The power in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is his Holy Spirit goes with us, directing, empowering and guiding us in truth. As missionaries, we cannot depend on our own strategies or wisdom.”

Many Christians, however, would disagree with Crider’s perspective.

Traditionally, missionary efforts factor in demographics, ethnography and statistics. Mission agencies such as Frontiers, Pioneers and Mission to Unreached Peoples emphasize making disciples in the areas of the world concentrated with the most people who have not professed faith in Jesus Christ. They say the church should focus its efforts among those who do not have access to the Gospel. If God is calling you to serve among a statistically “reached” people group, you won’t be serving with them.

Is Paul’s experience with the Holy Spirit normative? Does God “reveal” his will outside of Scripture? Dan Philips of the Pyromaniacs blog takes issue with Henry Blackaby’s teaching about being Spirit-led. Philips, like many conservative reformed Christians, takes a dispensational approach and believes in an absence of new revelation of the Holy Spirit after a certain historical event. Such individuals think everything that was going to be revealed by the Holy Spirit already has been in Scripture. Therefore the details of when and where a missionary should serve should be left to wisdom, opportunity, desire and providence.

Obviously, Crider disagrees.

“When I talk about the missionary depending on the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Crider said, “I’m not talking about revelation. I’m talking about direction–the sort of guidance Paul refers to in Romans 8:4-16. Being led by the Spirit is evidence we are adopted sons of God. In Galatians 5:16-25, Paul writes that we must walk by the Spirit, lest we do what seems right to us. The Holy Spirit orchestrates the Church on mission.”

Who or what do you listen to when determining to whom you are sent? Is the Holy Spirit active in leading his followers on mission with personal revelation, or should we be focusing on something else for guidance?

At The Upstream Collective, we often talk about the importance of being led by the Holy Spirit. We believe this is how God administers the church’s efforts as missionaries. But how does the Spirit lead?

For starters, the missionary impulse is of God. All Christians are missionaries (some of us just aren’t very good at it). As you come to recognize opportunities to translate the Gospel into the cultures of those around you, that is God speaking to you.

Begin the process of discerning God’s direction for you in mission with prayer. Pray for wisdom as you explore options, and protection from those opportunities that aren’t where God wants you. Finding your place in mission isn’t like deciding what to buy your mom for Christmas; Romans 8:14 says, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” This is demonstrated through Paul’s experience, as we read in Acts 16, when the Spirit prevented and forbade the apostle from entering into Asia. Don’t put God in a box. The Spirit has a history of leading His messengers to unexpected peoples and places.

God will make it clear to you. Jonah was swallowed up by his calling to Nineveh. Paul was blinded by his. Daniel was abducted by the people to whom he was sent. Peter’s call came through a dream that challenged his prejudice. Your calling may not be quite so dramatic, but in any case, you will know it’s God calling because when He speaks to you, it leaves a mark. You don’t “get over” a calling to your place in mission.

Secondly, God uses the church to organize us on mission. If you feel “called” to a people or place, confirm it with your church. If they’re not in agreement, prayerfully wait and do your best to prove your calling to them. Without the church’s confirmation (the Bible refers to it as “unity”), you go dangerously alone.

Thirdly, be aware of the welcome. In Luke 10, Jesus sends the disciples to the places He was about to go. He tells them they’ll know they’re in the right place when they are welcomed in. This isn’t to say everyone is going to be happy to see you, and it’s likely your “welcome” may look more like indifference, but be sure to pay attention to where you see evidence that God has prepared the way for you.

Finally, look for fruit. Now we need to be clear here–fruit isn’t the same as numbers, results, success, baptisms or conversions. The truth is, you may never see any of these things. Nevertheless, the Scriptures make it clear that the Holy Spirit leaves evidence of His presence and activity; the result is always love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control. You may see it developed in others. It may be produced in you.

Discerning the Spirit’s direction for your place in His global mission is not science. It’s a product of walking with Him and seeing things through His eyes. When we’re intentional about following His leadership and committed to radical obedience, we can be sure our plans and strategies are guided by Him.

Written by Caleb Crider. Caleb is co-founder of The Upstream Collective. He lives in Portland, Ore., where he is a part of the Evergreen Community.

Upstream’s Ernest Goodman has written extensively about the subject, but we want to point you to Eddie Arthur’s post Mission and Anthropology over at Kouya Chronicle. There, he responds in agreement to a recent post on Goodman’s Missions, Misunderstood:

There is, of course, a place for scientific thinking in mission work, but it must be subordinated to biblical thinking and reflection. In one of his books, David Smith points out the interesting paradox that it is those Christian churches and organisations that make the most of their reliance on the Bible who are the most likely to turn to social sciences to inform their mission work.

For a perspective that embraces the anthropological view of mission, visit Justin Long’s blog, The Long View (a paid subscription site). If you know of any resources that might speak to the issue, be sure to share in the comments below.

Perhaps another, more minor point here can help explain the tension of this interaction. And as this other point is a bit personal, I can only share it if you promise to keep it between you and me. Agreed? Good. You see, I have a bit of a man crush on Mr. Frost. Actually, it’s not entirely secret as his wife and mine are both aware of the situation. It is fair to say his writings and teachings have had more impact on my missiology than any other contemporary. Plus, he is a great guy and friend.

So the question for me was, what to do in this scenario? Yet a more profound question quickly came to mind: What is the church’s role in relation to the sent-ness of God? Then I began thinking about the meanings and context that lead to Frost’s and separately, to Upstream’s nomenclature.

Chances are if Frost were to have the opportunity to deliver only one talk to today’s church, it would be on the concept of the missio Dei–the sending of God. He and Alan Hirsch continue to contend strongly that the church needs to break away from being an attractional entity to being a missional people. In being missional, the church is to place the mission of God at the heart of all she does and is. Because the church has Christ as the center of and for the church, the mission He is about is what we are to be about. And if the church has mission at its core, then worship, discipleship and community will be healthier and more properly developed. From our Christology will come our missiology, which will then determine our ecclesiology. This line of thinking leads to the concept that the church is a sent people.

If a church affords a member of the Upstream crew a chance to share one idea, odds are good the topic will be about the church taking ownership of the Great Commission. Whereas the church has often been content over the years to “pay, pray and get out of the way,” Upstream is challenging today’s church to see and act on how God is leading her to take the gospel to the nations. Instead of outsourcing missions, the church is most church-like when she is making disciples of all nations. This line of thinking leads to the concept that the church is a sending people.

I should share that I agree with Frost. We are the sent church because God sent Himself out and in turn sends us out in the same way. As the church views itself as a sent people, it is only natural for it to make disciples of the nations.

As for the Upstream position, I agree with that, too. As the church embraces the Great Commission, she will be about sending people out much as the church in Antioch did with Paul and Barnabas. As the church functions as a sending people, it is only natural for her to make disciples of the nations, including disciples in her local community.

Michael and I had the opportunity to discuss this during the Jet Set week. Thankfully, it did not end in a big brouhaha because I like him and I am afraid he could whip me in either a fistfight or theological debate. We agreed the church is both a sent and sending people. So if someone refers to the bride of Christ as the sent church or the sending church, it is probably more a matter of context, though each should, it seems in most situations, lead to the other. Ultimately and harmoniously, Christ’s is a sent and sending church.

Written by almost an M, who is networking and consulting in the United States. He seeks to learn, grow and influence others while seeking to play a part individually and with his family in obeying the Great Commission.

Each member’s end goal is the same, allowing for a unified body, but each member’s outworking of that focus is different, enabling the unique contributions of each one’s gifts for the good of the whole effort. This model is becoming more important in any context. Here are a few reasons why this is particularly true in Europe, as we’ve learned while here:

It opens countless doorways into the local community. Most people in the post-modern climate of Europe do not take the concept of a “missionary” seriously, and are even suspicious of it. Having some team members devoted to marketplace engagement creates non-threatening and even community-building avenues for starting and deepening relationships. If you go in with a humble mindset, patiently learning the culture and doing work that serves those people and creates new jobs for them, you will be seen as a friend and legitimate member of the community rather than an outsider. This in turn will create numerous opportunities for networking.

It’s a great way to create a sustainable ministry. With some team members out in the marketplace, a church-planting team is freed up right from the start from being wholly dependent on sending churches and organizations for all of its resources. This is especially important in a context like Europe, where costs are incredibly high. Integrating business-minded individuals into the team kick-starts a church in the right direction toward becoming financially independent, and it enables those generating financial resources to focus on serving members of their team and others with whom they are working in the city, thus playing a key foundational role in the ministry efforts.

It’s important for holistic discipleship. In Western European and Scandinavian areas, the divide between the worlds of the sacred and the secular has become a vast schism. One missionary in France told us the majority of French people don’t even consider questions about God. If they do practice any sort of religion (probably Catholicism in France), it is utterly disengaged from the world of real life and has no bearing on their worldview and lifestyle. Many in younger generations are completely secular in their mindset, approaching life as pure humanists. In this context, it is incredibly important for churches to model and then integrate into their discipleship a Biblical worldview in which all of life is sacred and under God’s rule.

In part, this means we teach people the value of work in God’s calling for humanity, and thus help them to restore a view of their work as a meaningful expression of worship to God and obedience to his command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion…” (Gen. 1:28). If an entire team is comprised of fully-funded missionaries or church planters, who will be in the trenches of the marketplace with ordinary people, standing beside them to wrestle with the same struggles they face trying to work out their faith in their jobs?

As we consider opportunities for ministry and church planting in Europe, this must be a key part of our conversations. How might these realities shape our vision?

Written by Luke Daugherty , Sojourn Community Church. Luke is a participant in his church’s Jet Set to Paris, Marseille and Belgrade.

Church planter Brent Williams baptizes a church member in a tub in the commons area of the library where the church meets. Williams said it takes about two hours to pump in enough water from the bathroom sink, "but it is worth it."

One cold Anchorage night Brent Williams arrived at Brian’s parent’s house to find Brian’s dad had a gun to his head.

It had been about a year since the leadership of Mobberly Baptist Church of Longview, Texas, had sent Williams and his family to Anchorage after developing a vision to plant a church in the city. In October 2010 they launched True North Church, which continues to see new people beginning a journey toward Christ. Others are collectively growing in a walk of biblical obedience, including seven who have been baptized.

Brian is one of those seven. After his dad attempted suicide, Brian began meeting with Williams and attending church services. Eventually he told Williams he had surrendered his life to Christ the night Williams shared the Gospel with his father.

Mobberly’s involvement in Alaska began when Joe Parnell, a church planting strategist, had a friend who invited him to bring a team up on a mission trip to Anchorage. The Texans quickly fell in love with the city, so the church continued to send teams. After much prayer, Parnell and other church leaders began developing a vision, desire and strategy for the city.

Since 2006 Mobberly has sent several teams to Anchorage, including six in 2010. They plan to send four more this year.

“Without them, we couldn’t be here; not just financially, but spiritually,” Williams said. “I’m just amazed that a church in Texas, 4,500 miles away, loves people of my city with such a great passion, even though they’ve never met them.”

True North Church hopes to follow the reproducing example Mobberly models through planting a church by October—the first anniversary of its launch. Parnell said Mobberly hopes to plant one church (that will in turn plant a church) each year for the next 10 years. Currently they are beginning work in South Dakota and discussing the United Kingdom as the location of their next plant, as well as exploring other options for future plants.

“For years we’ve done mission trips where we go and lead people to Christ, but too many times we’ve just left people there with nothing to hold on to,” Parnell said. “God’s way of doing that is to create a church.”

A church leader may hesitate to consider church planting for fear of his congregation’s response, but Parnell insists if God is leading, then the support will come.

“I’ve never seen our people react with such excitement. They are giving money to (church planting) without taking money from their regular giving,” he said. “Don’t be afraid of how people are going to react. Most of them will … feel like they’re a part of a church that’s really doing something.”

Mobberly plans to gradually phase out of its direct involvement with True North Church. However, Parnell insists they will always have a connection with the church plant. This means more to Williams than he can express.

“They’re willing to do whatever it takes, whenever it’s asked to see churches planted in Alaska. It’s just amazing,” he said. “I stand in awe of how big God is and what He does when He really changes people’s hearts. He’s grabbed hold of the leadership of Mobberly … they’ve conveyed this to their people, and they’re willing to do it. I do not have enough words to describe my joy.

“We do not feel alone. We’re not isolated. We know there’s a church that is spiritually and financially behind us 100 percent.”

Written by Natalie Bunch. Natalie is a freelance writer who lives in North Carolina. She served as a missionary writer based out of Prague, Czech Republic, from 2007-2009, and plans to return to full-time international mission work with her husband.