The global missions landscape is far different today than it was fifty years ago. Transportation has become steadily more efficient and cheaper over the past five decades which has set up off a migration bloom all across the globe. This migration bloom has led to large-scale movement of the world’s unreached people groups (UPG’s) into countries with large evangelical populations. While we bemoan the difficulty of gaining access to some of these peoples, our eyes fail to see large pockets of them in our own community. But the opportunity is there. I have advocated for diaspora missions on this blog in the past. Rather than further discussing the opportunities we have to send full-time workers to diaspora peoples, I now want to address how this migration bloom should change the way our overseas teams operate. Here is how overseas teams should embrace this global reality:
1. Overseas teams should start by discovering if the UPG they are reaching lives in their home country. If they are in fact located there, they should find out exactly where they are. There needs to be ethnographic survey work done in these communities in order to fully realize the opportunities available. This survey work will also help in understanding the diaspora’s connection to their home community overseas.
2. Once this has been discovered the missions worker should deliberately connect with churches in that area who are interested in engaging their diaspora population. This needs to be a deliberate effort to cultivate a strong partnership. The missionary should look for churches that are willing to consistently engage the targeted UPG. If a church is not consistently engaging the UPG, its heart for them will likely shrivel.
3. Missionaries should spend 2 weeks-2 months (ideally a couple of months) per year among the diaspora population sowing Gospel seeds and passing interested people off to local church partners who can help people learn more about Christ once they go back overseas. The purpose of this is two-fold. On the one hand the missionary is evangelizing his people in a new context and the Gospel is being exposed to new people. But perhaps more importantly, he is training other believers to be involved with the UPG back home. Imagine if every missionary was committed to such a model. In the span of a decade, engagement of UPG’s in western settings would skyrocket. All because the missionary is helping to give christians new eyes for the people living amongst them.
I suppose one common objection that might be stated by overseas workers has something to do with the cost and logistics of bringing their families home for two months every year. In response to this, a couple of things can be said. First, if a worker has a very large family then the family may consider sending only one parent each year. I can already hear the outcry against such a suggestion. “You can’t possibly expect a family to go without one of the parents for 1-2 months a year!” But brothers and sisters, these types of sacrifices are part of the call to come and die (Luke 14:26). Not wanting to be separated for long periods of time is perfectly understandable, but that preference needs to be laid down at the cross as we seek to reach the nations. With regard to concerns about cost, this is obviously alleviated if only one family member is going. However, even if a family endeavors to take back their entire family each year it is very conceivable that their strong partner churches would be willing to help with airfare, lodging, etc.
The nature of missions is changing. And the change is not just about new fields opening in diaspora communities. It is also changing the way that long-term overseas workers should think about their role. A commitment to coming home in order to evangelize the diaspora in connection with local churches who follow up with interested contacts should be the new way that we conceive of our overseas workers.
This is how we should take advantage of this migration bloom.
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