LRP/UPG Workers in a LRP/UPG Workers in a Changing WorldChanging World

This workgroup intends to identify and offer solutions to the challenges and

issues related to placing, training, and caring for laborers serving among the Least Reached Peoples (Unreached

People Groups), especially in light of constantly changing “sending” and

“receiving” contexts.

What do you perceive are the significant changes that have occured in the world over the

past 30 years?

PERCEIVED CHANGESPERCEIVED CHANGES• GLOBALIZATION• COMMUNICATION / INTERNET• IMPACT OF WESTERN MEDIA• POPULATION GROWTH• LIFE EXPENCTANCY• URBANIZATION• RISE IN NATURAL DISASTERS• ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES• GROWING ECOLOGICAL CRISIS• ENERGY CRISIS• INCREASE IN EDUCATION• RISE OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH• GROWTH OF MIDDLE CLASS• SHIFT OF ECON POWER: WEST TO

EAST• BANKING AND FINANCE• MULTI LEVEL MARKETING • HIV / AIDS• INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CULTURE• INTERCULTURAL MARRIAGES• CHILDREN WITHOUT CHILDHOOD

• BREAK UP OF USSR• NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION• INCR. INDEPENDENCE OF THE

SOUTH• INCR. FUNDAMENTALISM• TERRORISM / EXTREMISM• LIFESTYLE CHANGES / FASHION• BREAKDOWN OF MORAL /

FAMILY / GENERATIONAL VALUES• WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP• RELIGIOUS DRIVEN GLOBAL

CONFLICTS• MOBILITY AND MIGRATION• REFUGEES AND DISPLACED

PEOPLES• TOURISM• POSITIVE/NEGATIVE ASPECTS• LINKAGES• CHANGES IN SOCIOLOGICAL

CULTURE• STRATEGIC ALLIANCES• MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

What do you perceive are the significant changes that have

occurred in the missions movement over the past 30

years?

CHANGES IN MISSIONCHANGES IN MISSION• NO THEOLOGY OF SUFFERING• RISE IN PERSECUTION• CULTURAL SENSITIVITY• RISE OF GLOBAL PRAYER MOVEMENT• STRATEGIC ALLIANCE• INTERAGENCY PARTNERSHIP• MISSION FIELD NOW MISSION FORCE /

NEW SENDING COUNTRIES• HOLISTIC MISSIONS• INCREASE IN SHORT-TERM MISSIONS• UPG FOCUS• SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL• RISE IN ATTRITION OF CAREER

MISSIONARIES• MULTI-REGIONAL COORD OF MINISTRY

EFFORTS• DISASSOCIATION FROM IDENTITY AS

MISSIONARY• MOVE FROM LIFETIME CAREER MISSIONS

TO MINI-CAREER• RISE IN TENTMAKING• INCR. AWARENESS OF BUSINESS AS

MISSION• INCR. VARIETY OF MISSIONARY

EXPRESSION / PLATFORM• CHANGE FROM MAINLINE TO HOUSE-

CHURCH

• MISSION RESEARCH• MORE MEMBER CARE• GROWTH OF PARACHURCH MISSION• TECHNOLOGY-BASED PROCLAMATION• INCR. EMPOWER OF INDIG. LEADERSHIP• INCR. PERCEPTION M’S ARE REACHABLE• TWO-THIRD WORLD MISSIONARIES• EASE OF COMMUNICATION• CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS• MISSION AWARENESS IN LOCAL

CHURCHES• MAJORITY OF NON-WESTERN

MISSIONARIES• INCREASED MISSIOLOGICAL AWARENESS• GROWTH IN FEMALE LEADERSHIP• INCREASE IN BIBLE TRANSLATION• MOVE FROM CHURCH-BASED WELFARE TO

STATE-BASED WELFARE• SECOND-CAREER “FINISHER”

MISSIONARIES• EMPHASIS ON MISSIONARY TRAINING• MISSION OPPORTUNITIES OUT OF CRISIS

AND DISASTERS

What do you perceive are the greatest challenges that face

the UPG Movement in terms of recruiting, equipping,

deploying and caring for LRP workers today?

RECRUITMENT CHALLENGESRECRUITMENT CHALLENGES

• Short-term vision among the candidates• Recruiting from places where people are

already interested• Lack of understanding of the UPG concept

in local churches / by pastors• Creating a conciousness of the need of

UPG people • Lack of missions education in seminaries /

Bible colleges / churches• Unwillingness to release the best workers

because of the fear of the loss of workers for the local chuch & the fear of potential loss of income to church & families.

• Apathy – too comfortable at home, don’t care about the UPGs.

• Lonely out there – security leads to being cut off.

• NGOs often recruit heavily.• Sensitivity of UPG work makes it difficult to

promote work / difficult to tell who needs to go where

• Competition of secular world in terms of measuring ‘success’ / expectations of home culture

• Short-term teams ROI is not proportionate.• High academic requirements marginalizes

the contributions from the people group they are serving

• Majority of congregation women and they are willing to go, but they are considered 2nd class and the church is not willing to send them.

• Strategic recruitment – finding the right people for the specific need.

• Perception of being less prestigious• Recruit national missionaries for near-

culture evangelism.• Recruiting people who are not gifted as

evangelists / but evangelists don’t understand UPG.

• Absence of theology of suffering, need for preparation for theology of suffering.

• Lack of mobilizers with actual knowledge of the field / mobilizers need to spend time

EQUIPPING CHALLENGESEQUIPPING CHALLENGES• Lack of missionary trainers with field

experience• Helping people get at home in the

culture/learning to love God with their minds by learning how to analyze the culture

• Lack of mission schools that focus on preparation or sending long-term/short-term missionaries.

• Mismatch between the doctrines schools are teaching and the teaching missionaries need for on the field.

• Lack of teaching in spiritual warfare which a lot of UPG workers face

• Too much training required and people lose the fire.

• Need more models for training for tentmakers • Need more organic models that come from

the natural relationships within the church for training tentmakers

• Lack of emphasis on the spiritual in the missionary training programs.

• Find quality training in the local languages• Focus on character development of

missionaries

• How to equip our mission workers to have a platform among the UPGs whether a businessman, teacher, etc.

• Lack of balance between the practical side and the spiritual side / Sometimes too much emphasis on one and not enough on the other

• Lack of on-the-job training: what it means to apply what they learned.

• Many books in English but not applicable in othe settings… cannot just translate, has to be adapted and contextualized

• Lack of knowledge among the ordinary Christians in the church… we tend to think trained professionals are needed… equipping the regular member.

• Need more mentors for missionary candidates from the church to the field

• How do we help indigenous writers to capture their struggles, insights, etc. for their own mission group.

• How do we equip through orality methods?• Losing non-Western missionaries to the West

for education (who stay there)• Equipping of families for transition

DEPLOYING CHALLENGESDEPLOYING CHALLENGES• Visa / Process of keeping people on

the field long-term• Cost of keeping people in the field• Lack of data of UPG groups –

sometimes we don’t know where to send to

• Lack of research on the target UPG• Lack of communication between the

sending bodies (chuch/agency) – tendency of problem in duplicating workers in the same area – competition between workers, rivalries, internal conflicts.

• Challenge of working with a multicultural team

• Lack of an affinity people strategy by the sending agency: matching the ethnicity of the missionary with a suitable ethnicity of the people group

• Challenge of getting the worker to become a significant trusted person among his adopted people… his identity at home

• Teams – too often deploying people with too few people, not enough gifts to pool together

• Fear of the loss of comforts / fear of the loss of the safety of home culture

• Not a good field receiving partnerships to help with logistics, cultural adaptation, etc

• Lack of viable platforms• Difference between the church call and the

personal call – person feels they are led to a particular upg,church feels otherwise

• The demand to produce quick results• Connecting with national workers• Lack of support for national workers

MEMBER CARE CHALLENGESMEMBER CARE CHALLENGES

• Perception of the local church that missionaries are super-spiritual, not succumbing to pressures

• Uncaring evaluation teams.

• MK education for children who are not English-speakers

• Emotional and physical protection for singles

• Younger Western generation looking for too much care

• The whole missions process communicates it is second-class people who do the care-giving: not good enough to go, but they can be caregivers.

• Educating churches because many have very poor sending structures

• Member care needs to have an interaction element – phone, email, letter, etc.

• Lack of awareness of the churches from newer sending-countries about what member care is all about

• Need more models of member care (most existing models from Western organizations are very expensive).

• “The lack thereof” – in many fields there simply is no member care

• Sending churches often forget their people

• Cost of member care

• Many people involved in member care go to the field with no long-term field experience.

• Children of missionaries – not just in the field, but also returning home, readjusting to home

• The people actually doing member care needs to have a heart for people

• Member care givers from the same culture as member care receivers.

What has to occur within the UPG Movement to address the

greatest challenges in each area / missional task in our

changing world?

RECRUITMENTRECRUITMENT

• Materials and tools can be gathered to be used by recruiters. These materials should be secondary to the relationship that needs to be developed between recruiters and pastors.

• Cultural appropriate ways (fishing) can be developed to draw in people, like Urbana (road shows). These already exist but how can they be used?

EQUIPPINGEQUIPPING

• Training Pathways:– Basic discipleship / maturity equipping– Field experience / calling– Basic training: spiritual, Biblical doctrine, heart– Field: on the job-training (internship, ongoing

equipping)– Not seminary approach.

• Major focus must be on heart issues: men and women of God.

DEPLOYINGDEPLOYING• Financing Long Term Deployment

– We affirm tentmaking is a viable option for urban situations and where there are no clergy or missionary visas available

– Praying-in funds– Business As Missions – viable and profitable kingdom businesses– Traditional funding models (faith pledges, central mission funds, etc.)– Funding of non-western missionaries by western churches– One-on-one support (big wage earner supporting a worker)– Is there absolutely no money from the sending countries (i.e. Philippines,

Indonesia)? Need to develop the donor base in these countries.• Team

– We affirm that the preference is for workers to be sent out in teams.– If there are no other team members from the same agency/company available,

then we need to be willing to form God’s teams (inter-agency)– We need individuals who are willing to promote and develop these inter-agency

teams (looking at what is available and what is still needed in terms of gifting and skill set) – team leader/facilitator

MEMBER CAREMEMBER CARE

• Translation of “where there is no doctor,” Serving as Senders, The Reentry Team in different languages

• Organizing regional member care retreats.

MEMBER CARE ACTIONMEMBER CARE ACTIONPoint person: P. S.Point person: P. S.

• Establish an e-forum / join existing WEA forum on member care

• Setting up a sub e-forum for Ethne member care, to keep in touch and share resources

• Listed currently available member care resources

• Organize area and regional member care retreats for workers on the field

• Campaigns – getting people to speak at local churches on member care

DEPLOYMENT ACTIONDEPLOYMENT ACTIONPoint person: A. S.Point person: A. S.

• Reaffirm tentmaking as a viable solution for funding issues for willing candidates

• Reaffirm agencies to pool resources so more workers could work on the field

• Continue discussion by e-mail

• …

TRAINING ACTIONTRAINING ACTIONPoint person: S.B.Point person: S.B.

• Curriculums to help people thrive in an environment of persecution

• Modular based training

• Continuing discussions on e-groups

• Improve education amongst lay people

RECRUITMENT ACTIONRECRUITMENT ACTIONPoint person: A. B.Point person: A. B.

• Developing an e-forum

• Set up a secure website

• E-groups for recruiting needs and recruiting resources.

• …