I recount joining a brother in Christ one morning who serves with an organization called Partnership for Community Development. We discussed a cross-cultural training exercise in which you take a box and fill it with random stuff. One person has to shake the box and tell you what’s inside. They’re always wrong. The second person gets to open the box and pick up the contents, only blindfolded. They’re closer than the last guy but not exactly acing it. Then the last guy gets to open the box, look at the content, and tell you what it is. I promise you there are way funner games to play but this one really make a great point.
You see, the first guy is like a foreigner trying to work in a country he’s not from and doesn’t live in. He can hear what things are like and he has an idea of what could be done from the other side of the world. ultimately however he only serves based on an idea. The second guy is like a foreigner that decides to move to a country and do something there that will seek to impact community. While this gives someone a closer look at the real issues the project is still owned and operated by a foreigner.
Now, the last guy…this is your game winner. This is like an indigenous person who can completely see and understand what the issues are, define them, and hopefully propose a strategy of how they need to be addressed in that context.
For centuries, our missional efforts to foreign lands have mostly been directed and facilitated by an outside organization. While in the initial stages this may be the best we can hope for and not unbiblical, it leaves a lot of probability for financial dependency, ethnocentric practices, and often short term functionality. And even if I (a white American) choose to live among a people group I will be at best the number 2 guy in the box game.
One of the most necessary but humbling realities to foreign missionaries is the recognition of their limitedness to reach and disciple a foreign people group. And it really doesn’t matter if it’s within the US or throughout the world, a foreigner is not just defined by one’s nationality. There are many cultures among Americans that I personally am foreign to.
At KSC our aim is to pray to the Lord of the Harvest for one or two ethnic disciples who will lead in the strategy and vision to reach their own people. Indigenous Church Planting is just that. Whether we plant churches in Clarkston or abroad we value ownership of vision and functionality by indigenous peoples.
KSC has pursued church planting efforts through it’s members among 8 different peoples groups world-wide. As a pastor my job is to coach and encourage those whom God calls to pursue reaching their own and beyond. We see this as highly functional and extremely necessary to long-term church planting among the nations both here and abroad.
Lord, bless us with visionaries from around the world. Bless us with patience and persistence to train others to lay hold of God’s vision to reach their own. Bless us with resources that will initiate long term sustainable works to support indigenous leadership. Lord raise up the nations to complete the Great Commission.
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