The Next Christendom is an influential book by author Phillip Jenkins that explores the current and future leadership of worldwide Christianity.  He uses the term “Global South” to describe the center of future Christian leadership, referring to where Christianity is most present and growing as a demographic and cultural force.  The Global South refers roughly to Latin America, Africa and and parts of Asia.

For a missionary to relocate to his or her home country for a season messes with their identity.  Probably the number one attraction to missions besides the general heart for promoting the Kingdom of god is the passion for cross-cultural engagement.  So in order to continue engaging cross-culturally I have immersed myself in Spanish language study. As an introvert I learn language mainly through individual practice of reading and listening.  Once I reach a level of proficiency I move on to conversation and writing.  This is how it was for me during the past 19 years I became fluent in Portuguese.

What I want to write about here is the wonderful flavor I sense as I experience the Latin-American Church in Southern California through Christian radio.  I’ve been busy will a lot of remodeling and renovation projects lately and have been listening to several hours of Spanish Christian radio most weekdays.  One of the things that most impresses me by the radio programming is how conservative and orthodox it is as opposed to a lot of “mainstream” Christian American radio programming.

It is very common to hear testimonies and preaching about spiritual warfare, homosexuality, the necessity of conversion, etc… in a clear and unapologetic way.  This programming reminds me of the pentecostal Christian context that I was raised in.  Phillip Jenkins states that the Christian Global South is conservative and charismatic (regarding the gifts of the Spirit, spiritual warfare, etc).  The typical Christian in the world today, and increasingly in the future is a woman of color from a developing nation.

After 4 and 1/2 years at a North America seminary, which was a great experience, it is great to be influenced by the clear gospel I see represented by the Spanish-speaking Church in Southern California.

One last thing I want to mention is the love I witness in these programs for the United States as a nation.  There is so much mobilization for prayer for the nation, and informative updates regarding how the Church at large should be in prayer for the sphere of politics and education.

Please pray for my Spanish-language studies, I believe that this will be an important tool for future ministry trips to the Iberian Peninsula.

“É bom reter uma coisa e não abrir mão da outra, pois quem teme a Deus evitará ambos os extremos” (Eclesiastes 7:18)

Eu e Kati nunca nos encaixamos nos padrões tradicionais de ministério cristão. Durante 20 anos trabalhando na implantação de igrejas nós nunca recebemos salário maior que 25% do nosso orçamento familiar. Quando Deus me chamou para ser pastor eu até pensei, “Quem sabe eu não me torno o líder de um ministério grande que pode alcançar uma influência global… muitas atividades, um fundo ministerial para viajar o mundo, etc”. Mas comigo não foi assim!

Por causa da necessidade por mais sustento financeiro, também continuei a servir ministérios fora da igreja local, principalmente a JOCUM. Desse jeito eu podia continuar a levantar sustento missionário para cobrir as despesas da nossa família e perseverar na implantação de igrejas. Fomos conduzidos, não só pelas necessidades, mas também em oração para entender de Deus outras fontes de provisão que poderiam aparecer… ou não.

Na JOCUM , eu e a Kati fomos sempre missionários de “meio-período” porque tínhamos que nos dividir entre a missão e a igreja. Essa situação limitou bastante a nossa agilidade de levantar sustento. Não podíamos viajar muito, o que é essencial para o ministério que depende de parcerias financeiras na missão transcultural.

Nesse período, eu e a Kati começamos a sentir que o que nós estávamos vivendo representava um grande movimento “tectônico” em missões na nossa geração: a descentralização de liderança e a exaltação dos leigos.

Sempre que estávamos ensinando novos líderes em escolas ministeriais,  percebemos a necessidade de um “destino” mais abrangente para enviá-los. A maioria destes candidatos não queriam ser pastores ou missionários na definição mais tradicional. Entendemos que os líderes emergentes da geração milenar queriam servir a Deus através daquilo que a sociedade ocidental considera  ser  “uma vocação secular”.

Foi aí, que eu e a Kati compreendemos a urgência de não só praticarmos aquilo que estávamos pregando, mas também de nos envolvermos pessoalmente nas esferas da sociedade. Não estou dizendo que obreiros de agências missionárias e líderes eclesiásticos não estão inseridos na sociedade. Apenas relato aqui o que eu percebi em relação a essa geração emergente: o chamado que se destacava deste povo era redimir as vocações seculares por um propósito missional. E eu e a Kati queríamos fazer parte disso! Jamais teríamos autoridade para encorajar esta nova geração, em uma nova direção, se nós mesmos também, não a encarnássemos.

Agora, já faz mais de 10 anos que abraçamos essa mudança de paradigma – o que nós chamamos de “multivocacional”. Às vezes olhamos para trás com saudade da definição simples dos papéis mais tradicionais de liderança espiritual: “pastor”, “missionário”, etc. Navegar missões sem fins lucrativos, servir a igreja local, empreendimentos como negócios, a vida familiar e o mais importante – o relacionamento com Jesus – às vezes parece muito complicado. E percebo que, pelo menos no nosso caso, navegar constantemente entre papéis (funções) diferentes significa que os frutos crescem mais devagar. É assim quando cultivamos várias árvores no mesmo tempo.

O meu desejo é que o que escrevo aqui sirva como encorajamento para qualquer pessoa que se encontra no mesmo lugar, ou algo parecido. Você às vezes questiona a sua “identidade ministerial”? Bem-vindo à mudança de paradigma do terceiro milénio, e  abrace isso! E se você tem uma posição de liderança mais tradicional, abrace isto também, e por favor tente compreender as diversas novas formas de ministério que surgirão em sua volta…  novas e diversas formas de ser líder cristão… novas e diversas formas de ser missionário de Jesus.

David Dawson

“It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them” (Ecc. 7:18 NAS)

My wife and I have never fit neatly into mainstream Christian ministry vocations.  During our 20 years of churchplanting the most we ever received in the form of a church salary was 25% of our family budget.  When God called me to be a pastor I thought just maybe I would become the leader of a large ministry that could provide me with a large salary and expense account.  Maybe pastoral ministry would slingshot me into the global influence I dreamed of.  Never happened.

In part because of the need for extra missionary support I kept serving an international missions organization as well (YWAM), by which I could continue to raise financial support so our family and ministry could survive.  I say “in part” because I like to think that God was guiding Kati and I through this whole process of finding our fit in ministry. But in retrospect I can see how God often led us through practical realities as well: what we needed and where provision came from.

But at best Kati and I were “part-time” YWAMers because when we weren’t leading and teaching in UofN schools we were pastoring churches.  This significantly limited our ability to be mobile – to go to all the strategic conferences and meetings that are the bread-and-butter of cross-cultural missionaries.

Then there was the fact that more and more we sensed what we believe is the major tectonic shift in Christian ministry in our generation: decentralization and the emergence of the laity.  When teaching new leaders in the church or missions agency environments, Kati and I incredibly became convinced that the main need was for a broad scope of sending out.  And most of the young people we discipled wanted to serve God through a what Western society considers a secular vocation.

So Kati and I also felt a divine pressure to practice what we preached and be engaged in the spheres of society as well.  This is not to say that missions agency workers and church leaders aren’t engaged in society.  But the wave all around us was one of young people redeeming the secular vocations for missional purpose, and we wanted to be a part of it.  We wanted to have the authority to say we agreed with what we considered to be the greatest paradigm shift in ministry of our generation.  And this authority would only come from our being practitioners as well as propagators.

But now 10 or so years into this paradigm shift – what we call multivocational – we sometimes look back longing for the simplicity of traditional ministry roles such as pastor and missionary.  Having to constantly navigate different roles is exhausting and the fruit grows slower because your tending to several trees at the same time.

So that’s my rant and my encouragement to anyone who finds themselves in the same place.  Do you question your identity?  Do you find yourself having difficulty in defining who you are on a tax return?  Welcome to the missional paradigm shift of the 3rd millennium, and embrace it!  And if you find yourself in a more traditional ministry role, embrace that too, with a generosity of comprehension to different and new forms that will increasingly crop up around you.  Different and new forms of Christian leader, different and new forms of missionary.

David Dawson