Acquire Wisdom

Copyright © 2009 by Galen Currah, George Patterson and Edward Aw
This document may be stored, shared and published in any media.

Wise relief and development workers avoid helping the poor in ways that build dependency. It is well documented how careless handouts make the poor lose initiative and self-respect; many begin to depend on others’ generosity, and greed moves them to lie about their needs. However, this grave error is not unique to those who serve the poor. Church and mission history reveals that dependency is just as common, and far more destructive, among churches and believers who are not poor. The demon of ‘Sophisticated Dependency’ is an invisible member of the advisory board of many churches, mission agencies and seminaries. Two major problems arise.

Copyright © 2009 by Galen Currah and George Patterson
This document may be stored, shared and published in any media.

The role of Western missionaries in church planting and disciple making is changing because of fewer volunteers, legal restrictions, reduced funding and a shift to short-term mission. While some missionaries are becoming more fruitful, others show symptoms of despondence as sending churches lose their missionary vision. Great missionary work is yet to be done, but it may not be done in the same ways it was done before. Here are a few recommended points of counsel with which mentors should be able to help churches, missionaries and candidates think, pray and plan.

I recently sent out my my newsletter summarizing one of my many trips overseas to mentor/coach a house church planting movement in Asia.

Here is the paragraph that seems to have sparked much interest.

“House church planting has become (perhaps already has been for awhile) the new way to make money in Asia (country changed).  Proclaim you have many house churches and there will be someone most willing to throw money at you (in US dollars none the less).  This drives me insane on several levels. First, many of the claims are false – double-triple counting people, claiming those that are not theirs, etc.  Second, just gathering some believers in a house does not make a house church. Even worse, leaving them with no nurturing – just as bad as leaving a child – it’s called abuse. There will be a terrible day of accounting for these supposed ‘leaders’.”

Copyright © 2009 by Galen Currah, George Patterson and Edward Aw
This document may be stored, shared and published in any media.

Christian researchers have concluded, after watching North American trends for three decades, that the evangelical movement has stagnated. (Evangelicals are those who have strong beliefs about the sole authority of the Bible, the Lordship of Jesus, his atonement at the Cross, and personal faith for salvation.) Since those conclusions derive from statistics, that is, from percentages of populations, they tend to be weak in explaining the causes of stagnation, or the lack of causes that should have led to more growth. Fortunately, many church planting movements in other parts of the world have more than offset the decline in North America.