Tena tātou katoa e te iwi mīhana… (Greetings to all the people in mission),

This month’s [sort-of] whakataukī (proverb) is well known to New Zealanders: “Ka mate, ka mate; ka ora, ka ora!…” (It is death, it is death; it is life, it is life!…). It is the beginning of the haka (war dance/chant) by the fierce warrior chief Te Rauparaha, co-opted by the New Zealand All Blacks as their most common pre-match chant.

There is some speculation around the exact meaning of this haka. What seems certain is that Te Rauparaha was on the run, and fearing for his life he hid in a kumara (sweet potato) pit. There he was in a life or death situation until the danger passed and he was able to safely emerge back into the light of the sun (“whiti te ra!”). Te Rauparaha went on to have a son, Tamihana, who became a prominent Māori evangelist. Although some of my whanau (family) were killed and (for one generation) forced out of our South Wairarapa homeland by Te Rauparaha on a rampage, I am grateful that he survived the incident related to the haka, for his son born afterwards was of great value to the Kingdom of God.

We just never know how God will redeem for good what people intend for harm (cf. Genesis 50:20). Which brings me to the subject of the hour—the late John Chau (pictured, from his public Instagram account – now a moving memorial),

The modern missions movement… is by and large gone.

I am not going to replicate what has been writtten elsewhere. If you want a reasonably well-balanced overview of the facts (with some omissions – such as John’s belief that access to Sentinel had been opened), I  recommend the New York Times article at this link. What is of more interest to me is the overwhelmingly negative commentary in response to the tragedy—and from Christians no less. If you are in any doubt that confidence in the modern missions movement was waning, doubt no more. It is by and large gone.

I choose my words carefully, for the modern missions movement was a unique manifestation of missions, born in a colonial era that has long since had its day. Much of the reaction to John Chau’s choices was a reaction to an entrenched perception of modern missions.

If the very public retrenchment by the Southern Baptist’s IMB mission in 2016, along with Global Mapping and EMQ 1.0’s respective collapses in 2017, rang a significant death knell, the response to John’s killing in 2018 would be the last nail in the coffin.

Since the revival of Evangelical missions activity marked by the 1974 Lausanne Consultation, the modern missionary movement has been morphing into something else. Over the past forty years we have seen emerge myriad experiments in the way missions is practiced, each seeking that magic bullet that would “finish the task”, whatever you imagine that task to be—conversions, churches, development, wellbeing, liberation, renewal…

Researchers identified areas of greatest ‘need’. Strategists conceived grand plans. The concept of creative-access was promoted, and ‘tentmaking’ became BAM (business as mission). Social action is now social justice. Church planting is morphing into rapid-replication discipleship-making movements. Membership has become partnership. Long-term often lasts one term (approx. 3 years), but short-term is more likely. Relocation is giving way to visitation. Missions are amalgamating, the donor base is diminishing, and digitally active ‘Evangelical’ believers are saying we should just leave the Sentinelese alone.

I paint with a broad brush in a tight space, but you get the point. For all his virtues, I believe John presents us with a significant exclamation mark on the close of a chapter in the annals of missions.

So where do we go from here? I suggest we “do not go gentle into that good night” but “rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Dylan Thomas).

The modern missions movement is done, but the mission of God is not.

The modern missions movement is done, but the mission of God is not. God continues to self-reveal in a world desperately in need of redemption and Christ continues to call us by His Spirit to follow Him into that world to make disciples of those who would respond to the revelation of God. As children of Abraham by faith, the dominant focus of our missions practices today should harken back to the call of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3—to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. We know enough now to realise that imposing our cultural values and civil systems on others does not exactly bless them. We may not always get things right and with the best of intentions we may stumble into tragic ends, but that should not keep us from ‘going’.

The colonial impulse to mission must give way to a communal impulse.

The age of the missionary-civiliser has past. The colonial impulse to mission must give way to a communal impulse. If I were to single out one unwise choice by John Chau it would be that he chose to go alone. The Sentinelese were successfully visited before, by a 13 member team led by a young Indian female anthropologist. Perhaps if John had followed suit…?

Whether to live or die, we should not go gentle (timidly) into the new mission era, but we should go together.  Let us encourage one another on this so that we #stayonmission.

Ma te Atua e manaaki ki a koutou (may you all experience the very best things from God),

Jay