While this statement could apply to a lot of things, this time we’re talking about Americans and sharing the Gospel in international contexts.

We’ve written a good bit about the good, not so good and how of short-term mission trips. Recently while on such a venture to Eastern Europe, Alvin Reid comments on a few ways he has seen God use his team members who have become learners and partnered with local churches to share the Gospel.

Certainly puppets aren’t the most effective kingdom-growth tools in every cultural context.

We want to know. What are your top 3 most influential books for cross-cultural missions? This certainly includes books written specifically with the missional church in the West in view, but lest we leave missions out of missional, what books are you reading or have read that have informed your cross-cultural missiology?

What non-Western authors have influenced you?

Leave your top 3 in the comments. We will be compiling this list and adding it to our Resources page.

Unfortunately, sometimes members of the American church get the idea the title of “missionary” is for a select few who have special training in how to evangelize, are well-traveled and -educated, occupy certain jobs or whose parents were missionaries before them.

Certainly many believers do not fit this definition.

How do you define “missionary?” Tell us about it, below.

“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.