I know someone out there has already thought of this and has written something incredibly profound and copyrighted, of course. I went to a conference the other day where the speaker said that "best practices are the most important things".
Now first off we need not mention how "best practices" are pretty fluid, what might "work in one place with a specific people group, might not work with another in another place. I know I know how crazy does that sound.
Best practices are not the drive force and do not dictate what we do. What works is not the most important thing that drives the mission. Biblical Faithfulness and cultural relavence are driving forces. Biblical faithfulness is unchanging, there are not people groups and cultures that change this fact. We Hold to the scriptures as if there is no tomorrow, or better yet as if there is. Now this doesnt mean that we hold ourselves up in the corner and forget about the people groups to which we are to minister to. We study the people groups and express the Gospel in an understnadbale way taking into account, language, tradition, road blocks among other considerations but a best practice from some someone somewhere is not the Gospel that we hold to.
So where do "Best practices" fit. They belong to the people that have studied the people they are ministering to. They can find a method that works well but all the while undersntad that it might working with this person or thee people but it is not a blanket "thus saith the Lord" on how everyone should minister. Find a way to express the Gospel in a Biblically faithful and culturally understadable way.
Now first off we need not mention how "best practices" are pretty fluid, what might "work in one place with a specific people group, might not work with another in another place. I know I know how crazy does that sound.
Best practices are not the drive force and do not dictate what we do. What works is not the most important thing that drives the mission. Biblical Faithfulness and cultural relavence are driving forces. Biblical faithfulness is unchanging, there are not people groups and cultures that change this fact. We Hold to the scriptures as if there is no tomorrow, or better yet as if there is. Now this doesnt mean that we hold ourselves up in the corner and forget about the people groups to which we are to minister to. We study the people groups and express the Gospel in an understnadbale way taking into account, language, tradition, road blocks among other considerations but a best practice from some someone somewhere is not the Gospel that we hold to.
So where do "Best practices" fit. They belong to the people that have studied the people they are ministering to. They can find a method that works well but all the while undersntad that it might working with this person or thee people but it is not a blanket "thus saith the Lord" on how everyone should minister. Find a way to express the Gospel in a Biblically faithful and culturally understadable way.
So when we go to Fargo "best practices" or the "what works" of the 80's 90's and even since the turn of the millenium are not going to drive the mission. The way that we minister to one people group there could and will look different from that of the other groups.
Will you partner with us on this mission?
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment