discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 156
156 Contrasting Philosophies and Strategies of Mission
Self-Government, Self-Support, and Self-Propagation
In 1854 Henry Venn began talking about getting churches on mission
fields away from their dependency on the mission organizations
that planted them. By 1861, Venn and Rufus Anderson were
expounding on the three-self principles: self-government, self-support,
and self-propagation. In 1890 Presbyterian missionary John
Nevius used very similar concepts in helping birth the Church in
Korea. Nevius felt strongly that foreign funds should never be used
to pay local pastors.
Although the three-selfs of Venn and Anderson fueled a thrust
forward in indigenization, it has become clear that a Three-Self
church is not automatically indigenous or contextualized. A church,
for example, that is governing itself and caring for its own financial
needs and reaching out to new people could still be thought of as a
foreign transplant by non-members. So, while the three-self formula
has been helpful, it is incomplete in describing the eventual goal of
missionary work. Because the three-selfs are largely external things,
Paul Hiebert suggested adding a fourth self, self-theologizing, as a
criteria for authentic contextualization. 10
Where the pace is slower, there will be great temptation to use mission
funds to pay church workers. This almost always creates an unhealthy economic
dependency, developing what Brett Elder has called an “ecclesiastical welfare
system.” Elder points out that rather than birthing strong churches, economic
dependence generally breeds status-quo stagnation characterized by feelings of
powerlessness, helplessness, and futurelessness. 11
In contrast with what tends to be a one-by-one addition in the sturdy construction
philosophy is the multiplication mentality of those who believe things
can move more quickly. Multiplication refers to replicating the expansion of the
Church described in the New Testament. A multiplication mentality emphasizes
the idea that the Church must be aggressively expanding. The focus in multiplication
is not on laboriously building up individuals or working to consolidate
existing churches but on multiplying believers and ministries.
5. Truth Encounters Versus Power Encounters
Another continuum of attitudes that often go into a philosophy of mission
relates to how the gospel message should be delivered. People on one end of
this attitude continuum are sold on apologetics. For them the gospel needs to
be presented through truth encounters in which reasoned arguments are made
for the truth of the gospel. Those holding positions on the other end of the
continuum like to point to power encounters in which the Creator of the Universe
defeats evil in dramatic ways, demolishing obstacles to His kingdom.