CHAPTER 1
TheMission Attitude
The emergence of the "global village" has made daily living morecomplicated than ever before. The creative and destructive interactionof publics with each other changes local and world affairs faster thanever. One result of the emerging multicultural reality is that demographicresearch has expanded dramatically in the last half century.Research is increasingly detailed, constantly updated, accessible to theaverage person as well as corporations, and urgent for all sectors ofsociety.
Nevertheless, I find that local, regional, and national churches areeither indifferent or befuddled by demographic research. Churches purchaseexpensive research packages for their postal code and subscribeto search engines, but they rarely do anything with this information.Research into demographic trends and lifestyle preferences rarely figuresin their annual strategic planning. Staff leaders are poorly trainedto navigate the engine or interpret the data. This is in marked contrastto other sectors (government, business, law, education, social service,health care, and even the military) that use demographic research effectivelyto market effectively, plan strategically, and shape policy.
Why is the church surprisingly slow to undertake demographic research?I think there are two reasons, and both result from the lingeringvestiges of Christendom.
First, the church persists in approaching mission as a subject. It isan abstraction and an intellectual exercise. The church spends so muchtime thinking about mission (negotiating mission, explaining mission,debating about mission, justifying mission, and reconciling missionwith other religions and ideological agendas) that leaders are exhaustedand overly cautious, and very little mission gets done.
Mission is not a subject, but an attitude. It is a disposition to blesspeople other than ourselves. It is the opposite of self-centeredness. Missionis a stance toward the world that is fundamentally compassionate.It prioritizes the needs of "the other" above the needs of "the member."The common attitude of Christendom is that "first-mile giving" addressesthe needs of the church, and "second-mile giving" addressesthe needs of the world. The mission attitude is just the opposite. Thepriority of compassion is for the stranger to grace, and those who havealready experienced grace are content with whatever is left over.
Second, the church persists in doing mission as a program. It issomething church representatives are deployed to accomplish. Thechurch raises money to pay somebody else to do mission (professionalsand missionaries, agencies and denominations). Church members,therefore, are always at arm's length from mission. It is how churchesspend a portion of their resources, a percentage of their money, and aproportion of their time.
Mission is not a program, but a habit. This disposition to blesspeople other than ourselves is so automatic that Christians are oftennot even conscious that they have made room for the stranger. It isbuilt into the routine of daily living. It is like a software platform thatis hidden from view, but provides the format in which every otherprogram operates. Because mission is a habit, the intuitive choice isalways self-sacrifice, even in the most risky situations. Count on it! Regardlessof context or culture, and regardless of demographic diversityor lifestyle orientation, the Christian will instinctively behave lovingly,patiently, kindly, and peaceably, with goodness, generosity, and justice.
The mission attitude means that the challenge to bless others isnever an "if" but a "how." It is the mission attitude that drives anyreligious organization to do demographic research in the first place.Demographic research is extraordinarily pragmatic. It is an imprecisemethodology that reveals what works. It is imprecise because "whatworks" is constantly changing. Researchers must pay attention, andpractitioners must be ready to adapt on short notice. If anything, demographicresearch encourages "bottom-up" thinking rather than the"top-down" thinking familiar to Christendom. Theologians want tostart with universal principles and defend sacred strategies for personnel,property, and procedure. Missionaries want to start with basicneeds and uncover public expectations, and then innovate tactics that,in themselves, are never sacred at all. As I often say in workshops, allthat matters is the Gospel, and everything else is tactics.
I have discovered that ambiguity about mission is itself related tothe experience of different demographic groups. Certain groups do notget very far learning how to use a demographic search engine and becomequickly confused interpreting demographic data. I can see theparticipants (clergy or lay) becoming impatient with the methodologiesand puzzled by the detailed information about diverse publics.Why bother? Why must they acquire new skills that they never learnedin seminary? Why should they reflect on the nuances of age, culture,relationships, occupations, educations, worldviews, and perspectiveson seemingly small matters of media, recreation, personal debt management,and other details of everyday living? Inevitably, within aboutthirty minutes of the workshop, someone asks, What exactly is mission?
The demographic makeup of groups asking about the meaning ofmission is remarkably consistent. These are almost always relatively affluent,educated, professional men and women over forty-five yearsold, of western European descent, whose family has lived in WesternEurope, England, Canada, the United States, Australia, or New Zealandfor at least three generations. On the other hand, the questionalmost never arises among groups composed of relatively poor, modestlyeducated, laboring men and women under forty-five years old,of non-Western European descent, whose family has immigrated to anew place within the past two generations. There is a sense in whichcontemporary Christians who have grown up in a world shaped by thechurch have been struck with a kind of "spiritual amnesia." They haveforgotten the meaning of mission. They have been privileged for solong, and have assumed such a posture of entitlement, that they haveno sense of what it would mean to receive mission, and therefore theyhave no sense of what it really means to participate in mission.
Demographic research, for some Christian organizations, is a tiresomeand pointless exercise. They subscribe to demographic searchengines but fail to hire, train, and deploy leaders to use it effectively.They download printed demographic reports but fail to integrate theminto strategic planning. The search engine remains idle, and the reportcollects dust, because so many church groups do their planning"top down" to prioritize internal institutional concerns. If personneland property claim 95 percent of a church budget, and program andoutreach receive barely 5 percent of a budget, why bother to do demographicresearch?
Demographic research, for other Christian organizations, is anexciting and poignant adventure. They not only subscribe to searchengines but also train leaders to use them. They not only downloadprinted reports but also incorporate them into annual evaluation andstrategic planning. These churches do their planning "bottom up" toprioritize external mission concerns. They have found creative ways tominimize personnel and property costs, so that budgets for programand outreach are greatly increased. Demographic research is absolutelyurgent.
The surge in demographic research among churches parallels therise of church planting, church transformation, parachurch outreach,faith-based nonprofit organizational development, microphilanthropies,multisite ministries, house churches, and fresh expressions of theHoly Spirit.
What is mission? Mission is what happens whenever the blessings ofGod intersect with human needs. The diagram below is my latest attemptto describe the mission attitude that prompts church leaders toengage demographic research.
This diagram is not intended to be a theology of mission. It is simplyintended to describe the phenomenon of mission. It explains toconfused Christians and outside observers why Christians feel urgentabout mission, and how mission-driven Christians link demographicresearch with strategic planning.
It all begins with an actual experience of God's redemptive grace,and the awareness that God's desire to bless the world is universal,constant, and surprisingly personal. God's blessing is like the benefitsof nature. Jesus says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecuteyou, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; forhe makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain onthe righteous and on the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:44-45). God's missionis to redeem, reunite, renew the world; use whatever incompletemetaphor you like.
Yet God's blessing is more personal than this. God calls you byname; God knows the number of hairs on your head; God epitomizesself-sacrifice, going far beyond reasonable behavior, and to theextremes of human endurance, to do whatever it takes to "rescue" eachand every human being. The mission attitude is connected with experiencesof incarnation. As people instinctively "reach up" to find hope inthe midst of hopelessness, they can experience God's touch "reachingdown" to bless them at the precise point of their need.
The list identified in this diagram exemplifies, but does not exhaust,the multiple ways people experience hopelessness. The mission attitudeidentifies with people who are trapped by self-destructive habits or oppressivecontexts from which there seems no escape. To be "missionminded" is to experience a "heartburst" of compassion for those whoare broken and yearning for healing, those who are lost and yearningfor guidance, those who are anxious and yearning for assurance, thosewho are lonely and yearning for meaningful intimacy, and those whoare victims and yearning for justice. Again, this is very personal. Onecannot be sensitive to the needs of others without being aware of one'sown neediness, and one cannot risk intervention without some confidenceof divine help.
Similarly, the list identified in this diagram exemplifies, but doesnot exhaust, the multiple ways in which God's love is revealed tobring hope. The mission attitude celebrates the grace that liberates thetrapped, giving them a fresh start and a new life. To be mission mindedis to anticipate the power of God to heal the broken, guide the lost,keep promises to reassure the anxious, model perfect relationships, andvindicate the abused. This, too, is very personal. One cannot give whatone has not received, and one cannot anticipate what one has not previouslyexperienced in some way.
The same mission attitude that experiences hope and empathizeswith hopelessness regards the organized church as one agent that connectsthe real presence of God with the spiritual yearning of real people.Churches vary. Even congregations of the same denomination havedistinct identities shaped by nuances of core values and beliefs. God'sgrace is like the sun, shining on the just and the unjust, and the churchis like a lens held up between sun and earth. It refracts and concentratesthe light on a particular spot on the ground. Two things happen:
• First, the church magnifies that spot on the ground.That is the "primary mission field" of any given church.Demographic research reveals the trends, lifestyle segments,microcultures, and affinities that exist and evolvewithin the church's primary sphere of influence.
• Second, the church intensifies the light to warm, illumine,and even burn or purify that spot on the ground. In otherwords, the "primary mission field" is different because thechurch is active in its midst. Things change. Life is improved.Communities are shaped to be healthier, safer,and vital.
The church exists to impact the community, or communities, thatsurround it. The goal of mission is really not to generate faith. It is togenerate hope. Faith may come later, and it may take forms that aredifferent from that of the church itself. The goal of mission is to givefaith a chance. The church rescues the community from hopelessnessand gives people a reason to endure, persist, anticipate, and eventuallyovercome the challenges that beset them.
There are three elements to mission in any primary mission field:preservation of positive tradition, change of heart, and social action.Every church is a unique blend of all three mission motivations.
• Positive Tradition is all about the urgency to maintainthe institutional church:
Caring and mutual support among church members
Welcoming the diversity of the public and expandingmembership
Preserving a theological, denominational, or local tradition
Cultivating a specific taste for the arts and an atmosphereof goodwill
Honoring the benefits of membership
• Change of Heart is all about the urgency to transformlives and reshape lifestyles:
Healing broken lives
Convincing people about Christian faith
Embedding confidence and hope for personal redemption
Living a more fruitful or blessed life
Discovering a fulfilling, personal destiny
• Social Action is all about the necessities of living andvindicating helpless or oppressed people:
Obtaining the basics of food, clothing, and shelter
Living in safety, respect, and peace
Nurturing healthy intimacy and family relationships
Protecting human rights and intervening to rescue victims
Liberating the full potential of every human being
All of these mission motivations are applied to the primary missionfield in different ways. The methods and goals are shaped by theunique expectations of the publics within any given mission field.
Only now does a mission-minded church pay attention to the issuesof personnel, program, and resources. Nothing is assumed aboutthe structure or ministries of a church. Everything is adjustable andadaptable. A mission-minded church is remarkably pragmatic. It isclear about outcomes to bless the surrounding publics in particularways and is prepared to make whatever adjustments are necessary to accomplishthose outcomes. Church members will initiate new creativeideas, constantly improve ongoing programs, and readily terminateeven the most historic or beloved strategies if they are ineffective.
The adjustable strategies of a church that are shaped by the expectationsof the mission field encompass much of what Christendommight once have considered "sacred." Even leadership is matched tothe needs and expectations of the mission field, rather than the needsand expectations of the parent denomination. Hospitality, worship,education, small groups, and outreach are all adjusted to address theemerging needs of the mission field. Even the location and facility floorplan, the technologies and the financial management strategy, and theinternal and external methods of advertising and communication are"up for grabs." As we all know, the content, message, methods, andstructures that were relevant just one hundred years ago are often irrelevanttoday, and whatever adjustments the church makes today mightbecome irrelevant in just ten years. Other things endure. Convictionabout essential values and beliefs, clarity about outcomes, and adaptabilityin everything else is as crucial to the post-Christendom churchas it was to the pre-Christendom church of the apostolic age.
It really is imperative that church leaders approach demographicresearch with the right attitude. The goal is not really to attract peopleto the church, but to bless people beyond the church. Even more thanthis, the goal is to bless people so that they, in turn, bless still more people.It is the cascade effect of mission that not only accelerates churchgrowth but also impacts the world locally and globally. If leaders studydemographics solely for the purpose of what they can do to people, thentheir analysis will be limited to a quick study of the community everyten years. However, when leaders study demographics to discover whatthey can do with people, through people, and alongside people, thentheir analysis continues on a daily basis. Demographic research helpsthe church mature members, equip leaders, and collaborate with partnersto reshape society.
