Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – The Tale of Two Brothers: Innovation in Missions and Church Planting

By Elizabeth Childs Drury
April 2010  

In an Ideal World…
Ron and Billy would have engaged enthusiastically in the approaches to kingdom work presented in David Garrison’s Church Planting Movements¹ and in Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen’s Great Commission Companies². Both books would have fit paradigms they already knew, and both would have excited them about serving the Lord through abilities and interests they had been perfecting for their entire adult lives.

Ron would have chosen the church-planting approach advocated by Garrison. He would have been energized by the promises of big, quick results. Recalling his sense of frustration as an evangelist in Mongolia, Ron (the introvert) could easily imagine applying his strategic and administrative mind to the role of strategy coordinator—a role in which planning, facilitating, and trouble-shooting were needed more than giftedness in one-on-one evangelism.

In a short span of time and without deep relationships, Ron doubted his success at leading many to Christ. But as strategy coordinator, Ron knew that he could quickly and efficiently pack a powerful punch by steering successful, fruit-bearing, task-oriented, working relationships with a handful of fellow believers. He had known throughout his career no greater thrill than looking at the big picture and then mobilizing staff to accomplish the goals in their own ways.

“If God could use me to do that with the gospel among unreached people,” Ron thought, “I could really make a difference!” And Bible Boulevard would surely approve, since Ron would be doing this work as a bona fide missionary.

Billy, on the other hand, would have chosen the longer-term approach of Rundle and Steffen. He loved engineering and knew the textile and heavy construction industries inside and out. He knew how to run such companies. He did not feel worthy of the lofty title of missionary and would have felt embarrassed by all the attention from Bible Boulevard.

But sharing Christ was his deepest passion—what his work in industry, his role as a father, and his volunteerism at church were all about. To think that he could continue in his profit-seeking, quality-watching, innovating desk job and also join hand-in-hand with evangelistic, church-planting missionaries would have surpassed his wildest dreams of serving the Lord.

In the home in which Ron and Billy grew up, ministry was holistic, and it was a family affair. In an ideal world, Ron and Billy would have cooperated to identify an unreached people group in a place where conditions were favorable for industry and for a church-planting movement. They would have joined forces synergistically to form an economically sound, missionally active Great Commission company to bless the whole community, nation, or region.

Like their parents, they would have cooperated and used their unique abilities and passions to reach and mobilize unique groups of people for God’s ultimate purposes.

Alas, It Is Not an Ideal World…
But, alas, they lived not in an ideal world, but in one small dot on the map of Mississippi. And in that world, as soon as sympathetic supporters in Midland would find out that dear Ron was working with worldly Billy, whose aim was to turn a profit, the whole scheme would sound suspect, and interest and prayer would ebb away.

“We should have known it was too good to be true,” a naysayer would say. “Ron’s low support goal alone should have tipped us off.” 

Pages: ALL   Prev    1    2    3    4    Next   

Elizabeth Childs Drury is a Ph.D. student in intercultural education at Biola University. She has an M.A. in linguistics (University of South Carolina) and a B.A. in English (Southern Wesleyan University in Central, South Carolina). She and her husband, Scott, have four young sons.