Written by: Michael Badriaki on November 1, 2013

“You have a heart for missions.

  You love to be part of the action.

On the ground. In the thick of ministry.

   Serving where you can.

        THIS IS FOR YOU”

There is a chance that anyone who has been at the airport or on a plane and certainly a church mission trip, he or she has interfaced with teams of travelers dressed in inform T-shirts; and might share reminiscent social feelings of curiosities at various levels about these groups and what it is they really are about.  Yet for the frequent Short-term church mission trip participates, the motivation is usually predicated on the evangelical notion of “the great commission” regardless of whether they are aware or not about what they are going to do on arrival to the final national or international destination.

As I was reading Elliot’s book on Contemporary social theory, I was draw to the necessity of how social theory might provide a pick into the short-term mission universe.Elliot  discuses a breath of subjects  from The Textures of society, The Frankfurt school, Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Theories of Structuration, Contemporary Critical Theory, Feminism and Post-feminist Theory, Postmodernity, Networks, Risks, Liquids, et cetera which are pertinent to church missional activities since they happen in  societal contexts.

The author’s description and application of Natalie’s life to the science of social theory was impressive. Furthermore, Elliot reveals “Like Natalie, most people- of the time – possess a basic social theory, which they use to orientate themselves to others and the wider world”[1] Since I am involved in training and facilitating workshops on cultural adaptability and intelligence for a numerous church mission groups and non-church based ones,  different scenarios came to mind. For example, the memories of the words of a flyer which a friend had given me kept flashing in my mind. In case one missed them, I have quoted the advertisement in beginning of this write up. The seductive and catchy commercial phrase was sandwiched between ethnographic banners from previous short-terms events aimed at recruiting potential short-termers; who would also accompany a roughly seven hundred thousand to a million dollar per-planned mass evangelistic crusade, which is marketed as a week-long event featuring an American evangelist in East Africa.

Of course it is reasonable to consider all the extra logistical expenses that are not included in the financial summation mentioned above. They will be accrued from short-termers expected to sojourn from all over the United States and United Kingdom, estimated to be around two hundred fifty evangelical church goers. What a clear illustration of globalization and a Christian mission consumer culture at work! I wonder what classical social theorists like Karl Max, Weber, and Durkheim would think about these events? What should most of the Africans who are of low-income status think about such an exorbitant western evangelical event?  Perhaps McGrath’s rendition of Max’s thought may serve to provoke further discussion:

Religion is the product of social and economic alienation. It arises from that alienation, and at the same time encourages that alienation by a form of spiritual intoxication which renders those masses incapable of recognizing their situation and doing something about it. Religion is a comfort, which enables people to tolerate their economic alienation. If there were no such alienation, there would be no need for religion.[2]

Let me be the first to note that I have always been suspicious of Marxist theories, yet sometimes they seem to take advantage of the incongruousness created by the lack of better imagination within Christian evangelicalism. Christian ecclesiology and misology could be aided by an awareness of the perspectives of social theories like globalization. If most people function with a certain level of social theory, how is it that the discussion of social theory as a discipline is not part and parcel of church theology and bible studies? Elliot writes that globalization which refers to the chronic intensification of patterns of interconnectedness, reshapes not only institutions and organizations but also the very fabric of identity and personal life.[3] Short-term missionaries are not immune to this fact as it embodied in the case of the mega American evangelistic case study in East Africa mentioned earlier on.

I also found the subject of “the new individualism”[4] intriguing. According to Elliot, “Our contention, broadly speaking, is that throughout the polished, expensive cities of the West there is an emergent ‘new individualism’ centered on continual self-actualization and instant self-reinvention”[5] Remember that commercial to the short-termers at the start of this document that asserts, ““You have a heart for missions. You love to be part of the action. On the ground. In the thick of ministry. Serving where you can. THIS IS FOR YOU”? I counted the times the word “you” is used and it appears four times. There is a strong consumerist emphasis on the volunteer’s experience and satisfaction. The appeal also promises utilitarian opportunity for the short-termers. Elliot shows “Today this is nowhere more evident than in the pressure consumerism puts on us to ‘transform’ and ‘improve’ every aspect of ourselves”[6] Consumerism and individualism go hand in hand.

Christian spirituality is informed by the idea that a person’s life is changed by being in union with God; “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can”[7] A person’s redemptive transformation in that regard, is administered by God and not by the forces of consumerism.

Elliot’s scholarly work can help Christians, by alerting the church about the pitfalls that come from a lack of social theory knowledge. I am convinced that the irrelevant but regular debates “short-term verses long-term missions” usually miss the point.  The issues at hand are about the holistic spiritual formation of believers and there is need for church to pay close attention to the consumerist attitude towards religion and it relationship to globalization. Elliot writes:

What is pathological is the blinkered fixation on instant Change-whether of the body, selfhood or society. The desire for instant reinvention of the self, Lemert and I argue, links to much broader institutional transformations of the world order. For the culture of globalization, as Richard Sennett rightly notes, is governed by the logic of acute shorttermism[8]

Any thoughts mate?

About the Author

Michael Badriaki