Agencies Changing Focus: Twelve Trends in Missions

By Clint Morgan

As Kingdom thinkers, we should be aware of trends affecting world outreach. To be effective in reaching the lost, we must know the major factors shaping the flow of our culture. On the other hand, as a mission agency, we also must be aware of trends and issues potentially influencing our operations, programs, and ministries.

Below are some of the leading contemporary trends that will influence how we do missions now and in the near future. Some missiologists see the world stage changing so rapidly that any predictions or strategies beyond a three-year period are basically unreliable. With that caveat in mind, consider 12 major trends impacting world outreach.

• Mutuality: Former pioneer nations are quickly becoming the next missionary force to reach the world. We must work together as equals. The days of having only one strategy are over. Believers in the West must recognize we no longer set or dominate the agenda of world outreach.

• UPG (Unreached People Groups)—Focus on people groups rather than a geographical location such as a country or city: In the early days of sending agencies, the main focus was a particular country. Now, we know the majority population in a country may be Christian, but many unreached people groups may still exist within that context.

• Short-Term Missions Emphasis: Specialization missionaries are moving front and center, ahead of the general or career missionaries that were the norm for more than a century. Missiologists are divided as to whether this trend is effective and will produce positive results both in the short- and long-term.

• Partnerships: Sending churches, evangelical mission agencies, and other organizations with mature national churches are developing stronger partnerships. The ultimate purpose is to enhance our effectiveness in expanding the Kingdom. We must safeguard our distinctives but not allow them to separate us from the larger body of Christ. Nothing short of interdependence will maximize the potential of believers to expand His Kingdom.       

• Focus on Social Justice and Humanitarian Efforts: If we combine ministering to needs and sharing our faith, we will touch the whole man. Though generally classified as a generational issue, this approach finds its roots in philosophical and theological positions.

• BAM (Business As Mission): The raised level of resistance to mission agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO) in many countries provides an impetus for agencies to employ different methods to penetrate creative access contexts. This doesn’t mean missionaries simply pose as business specialists. Instead, missional entrepreneurs find their place in expanding the Kingdom.

• Local Leadership: We must learn to leverage the commitment and passion of local leaders. Missionaries must change roles willingly from main leader to shared leadership. The focus on leadership training must never take a back seat, whether done by the missionary force or local educators.

• Greater Financial Accountability: Believers will give if properly motivated, but they demand accountability, and they should. Missional churches will hold missionaries and agencies more accountable in the areas of soliciting and distribution of funds.

• Focus on the Mission: Churches are becoming more mission-focused and less missionary-focused. Once, missionaries were heroes who traveled where others could not go to share the gospel. This is no longer true, and this greatly affects believers’ support of missionaries versus support of an agency, a project, or special interest group.

• Increased Resistance: Last year, an estimated 165,000 people died in religious clashes. Some sources report over 200 million believers face persecution each year. All indications point toward an increase in resistance to the gospel in the coming years.

• Mergers: We are very likely to see some significant mergers of smaller mission agencies. This moves beyond partnerships to the actual merging of assets and shifting of personnel into a consolidated missionary force. These should not be acts of convenience, but rather joining forces to be strategically stronger.

• Technology: Missionaries today are way past the slide projector and laser pointers. What will the next generation bring to our ministries? It is truly hard to imagine what technology will look like 10 years from now. Technology is constantly in flux, and those who desire to thrive in any long-term venture will commit to moving forward with this flow.

It is impossible to predict with a great degree of precision the sum total of the effects these trends will have on International Missions. However, we must be keenly aware these factors will affect our operations and execution of strategies as we make use of the positive elements and take preventative measures to offset the negative effects.

About the Writer: Clint Morgan has been general director of International Missions since 2011. Learn more: www.fwbgo.com.