{"id":20326,"date":"2018-11-15T07:20:34","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T15:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20326"},"modified":"2018-11-15T07:20:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T15:20:34","slug":"moving-missions-into-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/moving-missions-into-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Missions into the Digital Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

My research is focused on missionary effectiveness and sustainability in the 21st<\/sup> century, and I\u2019m asking the question, \u201cWhat do missionaries and missionary sending organization need to do differently in this century than they have been doing for the past 50-100 years?\u201d I\u2019m convinced that missionaries and mission organizations that want to see Kingdom movement for the glory of God must pay attention to what is going on in the world around them. We must be relevant to present age\u2014for though our message is timeless, the means and methods of delivering that message must be adapted to the people and places that we are called to reach. Fritz Kling said it well in his book The Meeting of the Waters,<\/em> asserting that modern missionaries need to be \u201crelevant and<\/em> orthodox, productive and <\/em>faithful, current and<\/em> grounded, innovative and <\/em>contented.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the book, The Leadership Mystique: Leading behavior in the Human Enterprise,<\/em> author Manfred Kets de Vries describes the attributes that are critical to leading well in the \u201cdigital age.\u201d[2]<\/a> The essential leadership attributes that he identifies are: self-management, cognitive complexity, cultural relativity, action orientation, generativity, team-building skills, impression management, task-relevant knowledge, and the ability to inspire trust.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Might those same attributes be applicable to missionary effectiveness as well?<\/p>\n

I believe that Kets de Vries\u2019 list could be divided into three categories in relation to missionary effectiveness in the digital age: Timeless Attributes, Lost Attributes, and 21st<\/sup> Century Attributes.<\/p>\n

Timeless Attributes <\/strong>are attributes that have long been valued and incorporated into mission work and still are relevant in the digital age.<\/strong> In my opinion those would include self-management, action orientation, and team-building skills. Missionary heroes of the past, like Amy Carmichael and Hudson Taylor, were known for such abilities, while modern movement leader Ying Kai exemplifies what such skills look like in our time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is no small comfort to me to know that God has called me to my work, putting me where I am and as I am. I have not sought the position, and I dare not leave it. He knows why He places me here-whether to do, or learn, or suffer. [4]<\/a> –Hudson Taylor, 1899<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lost Attributes <\/strong>are those that were once highly valued among mission agencies, but seem to have fallen along the wayside. I agree with Kets de Vries, that these are needed for leaders in the digital age, and I would suggest that mission leaders look for ways to reincorporate these attributes into their ministry endeavors. The Lost Attributes are task-relevant knowledge and the ability to inspire trust. I often feel like missionaries could be compared to the toys that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer meets on the Island of Misfit Toys. Many of us didn\u2019t quite fit in back in the States, and struggled to find our place in the world. Unfortunately, this can lead to misdirection and ineffectiveness on the mission field, particularly if one never really develops a skill or capacity for doing ministry. There is a lack of \u201ctask relevant knowledge\u201d among many foreign missionaries, especially those who think that having a theology degree or preaching experience qualifies them for mission work. Knowledge that is relevant to the task of foreign missions includes language learning, cultural intelligence, and discipleship training, just for starters.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanguage-learning requires sustained hard work. Isolated posts demand extraordinary professional competence and self-reliance under pressure. The mission field is no place for lazy, undisciplined people.\u201d[5]<\/a> \u2013Gerald E. Bates, 1977<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As for the ability to inspire trust, this too is lacking but needed. Because missionaries are dependent upon the donations of others, there is a strong tendency to exaggerate the truth our even lie about what\u2019s actually happening on the field. Such behaviors might raise funds, but they don\u2019t inspire trust. Trust requires transparency, authenticity, and a willingness for genuine accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI well remember the time when the men\u2026with our mission met on a retreat in South Africa where we talked about these issues and looked each other in the eyes and asked painful questions about obedience and failure. That\u2019s good and missionaries need that. I certainly do. Home churches need to do that with the missionaries they send out.\u201d\u2014David Wegener, 2013<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m particularly interested in those attributes that represent a change from the way things have been done in the past to the way things must be done now, given the present realities of global connectivity, millennial mindsets, the shift of the global center of Christianity, and the changing funding priorities of donors. These would be the traits that fall into the third category\u2014the one I\u2019ve labeled 21st<\/sup> Century Attributes<\/strong>, and would include what Kets de Vries\u2019 calls managing cognitive complexity, cultural relativity, generativity, and impression management. I\u2019d like to briefly explain why I believe each of these are particularly relevant to missionary effectiveness in the 21st<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n

Managing cognitive complexity<\/u> is a skill that people either have or don\u2019t have, according to Kets de Vries. It is the ability to \u201cquickly grasp the essence of a complex idea\u201d and then \u201csimplify it for others.\u201d[6]<\/a> Mission agencies that do not have leaders who can manage cognitive complexities will not be able to keep up with the challenges of our modern world.<\/p>\n

Cultural relativity<\/u> is a freedom from ethnocentrism. Mission work must be free of any hint of colonialism in the present age.<\/p>\n

Generativity<\/u> is about \u201cgetting pleasure out of dealing with the next generation,\u201d[7]<\/a> or in a nutshell, mentoring. According the Forbes Magazine, mentoring is critical to retaining millennials. \u201cAmong millennials, there is a collective shout to employers to develop them, mentor them, and give them opportunities to lead.\u201d[8]<\/a> We can assume that millennial missionaries desire the same.<\/p>\n

Impression management<\/u> is the ability to \u201cpositively reframe difficult situations\u201d[9]<\/a> and includes storytelling. In a world where social media makes communication accessible and possible 24\/7\/365, missionaries and mission agencies MUST know how to communicate effectively both within their ministry context and back home to supporters.<\/p>\n

I will be exploring all of these concepts deeper in my dissertation.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Fritz Kling, The Meeting of the Waters: 7 Global Currents That Will Propel the Future Church<\/em>, 1st ed (Colorado Springs, Colo: David C. Cook, 2010). 26<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in the Human Enterprise<\/em>, 2nd ed (Harlow, England\u202f; New York: Prentice Hall\/Financial Times, 2006). 237.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Kets de Vries. 239-241.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u201cThe 15 Best James Hudson Taylor Quotes – Leadership Resources,\u201d October 14, 2013, https:\/\/www.leadershipresources.org\/the-15-best-james-hudson-taylor-quotes\/.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u201cWho Is Qualified to Be Called as a Missionary?,\u201d accessed November 15, 2018, https:\/\/missionexus.org\/who-is-qualified-to-be-called-as-a-missionary\/.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Kets de Vries, The Leadership Mystique<\/em>. 239.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Kets de Vries. 239.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Kaytie Zimmerman, \u201cModern Mentoring Is The Key To Retaining Millennials,\u201d Forbes, accessed November 15, 2018, https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kaytiezimmerman\/2016\/07\/18\/modern-mentoring-is-the-key-to-retaining-millennials\/.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Kets de Vries, The Leadership Mystique<\/em>. 240.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My research is focused on missionary effectiveness and sustainability in the 21st century, and I\u2019m asking the question, \u201cWhat do missionaries and missionary sending organization need to do differently in this century than they have been doing for the past 50-100 years?\u201d I\u2019m convinced that missionaries and mission organizations that want to see Kingdom movement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[536],"class_list":["post-20326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kets-de-vries","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20327,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20326\/revisions\/20327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}