I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same
The Three in One, the One in
Three.
-The breastplate of Patrick (A.D. 389-461)
Knowing that I have come to the strong
conviction that the ultimate goal of all mission activity should be the
planting and establishing of healthy churches, a friend asked my opinion about
whether I thought there was any role, therefore, for missionaries who are not
church-planting pastors. In response, I thought of Patrick. The kind of model for
mission work I really have come to believe in I actually have never
seen anybody try. There are, of course, elements of our ideal model for missions we have retro-fitted into our current situation. But what Patrick did was unprecedented, then and now.
First, Patrick spent many years
in preparation in the monasteries of France before he was ordained to be a
missionary to Ireland. When Patrick finally left Roman-abandoned Britain to
bring the gospel to the barbaric Gaelic-speaking Celts and Picts of the wild
frontier of Ireland, the land of his former enslavers, he took with him an
entire entourage. He is said to have encouraged his co-laborers on the ship along the way to Ireland's shores with the words, “Let
us fish well, for the Lord called us to be fishers of men and to preach the
gospel to every creature.”[1]
This group of gospel-preaching fishers-of-men was like a traveling micro-village
comprised of not only clergy but smiths, farmers, and at one point even whole
families. They were a nearly self-sufficient village of their own and their plan was to set
up camp adjacent to a pagan village or cluster of villages. Once in place they
would not only preach and teach, but also live out the gospel in their daily
lives before the neighboring pagan village. Almost immediately after their
arrival to Ireland a local tribal chief converted and gave them a piece of land
upon which stood an old a barn. Patrick converted the barn into a church
meeting place. Through trade and relations over time the Christian community
would begin to absorb and transform the pagan community. A new entourage would then
be formed and be sent out to set up shop next to another village until it too was
completely evangelized and it went like this for decades until the whole region
(long after Patrick) was won for Christ. For an inspiring synopsis of Patrick’s
approach check out The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter. I don't
agree with all of Hunter's concluding applications which resonate with the Emergent
church movement but the history is fascinating. I think this is a good model
for a mission or church-planting team today. Only, things might operate
differently in an urban setting. Likewise, in our context and others where
there are existing established churches, it is important to get as
many national Christians involved in the church-village as possible. In general
we foreigners ought to take a back seat and thrust the national believers into
the leadership roles as much as possible. That's not always immediately possible
and it means a lot of extra work at training and constant conflict resolution,
but it is ideal. This is why we have been spending more time trying to develop
leadership training here for national pastors and hopefully potential
church-planters.
So, of course, not everyone participating
in the church-planting endeavor is going to be a pastor. There are needs to be
met in any context within and outside the believing community (only that farmers, smithies, and laborers may translate
to administrators, techies, and developers). When those needs are met by the church-planters as a ministry of a new local church community it really puts the church on the
map and helps to bolster the gospel message which must be primary. There are a variety of gifts, skills, and tasks, but everyone should have the same goal - to see the gospel preached and the church
established and thriving and planting more churches.
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