MissionsGlossary  

 

Appropriate Technology Help for developing countries based on both needs and resources. Examples: A hand irrigation pump works better than an electric one if you don't have electric power. If someone wants to write a letter, but doesn't have a computer, a piece of paper and a pencil work better than the latest version of WordPerfect.

Authoritarianism An illegitimate system of rule by fear and arbitrary violence, usually in the hands of one spectacular leader - often a power-hungry individual like Uganda's Idi Amin, often a visionary who uses violence to attain his ends - like Napoleon or Castro.

Call An urging from God that shouldn't be transferred, put on hold or disconnected. And even if it sounds like there's static on the line, remember that whether we are called to a place, a people, or a task; we all are called to use our gifts to serve the King.

Candidate Someone who has applied to a mission agency. The candidate secretary is the one who corresponds with people who apply to a mission. Some agencies gather candidates interested in career service at a week or two of candidate school to orient them to the agency and to evaluate each candidate for acceptance. Once accepted by the mission board the candidate is called an appointee.

Church planting Starting new churches.

Contextualization Putting the truths of God into the context of the local culture. This involves seeing how one's own culture distorts your understanding of biblical truths, and then taking the universal truths and applying them in another culture.

Deputation Commonly refers to the prayer and financial support rallying that career and short-term missionaries do before leaving for the field and during furloughs.

Development A process enabling a community to provide for its own needs, beyond former levels, with dignity and justice. Be careful! This word has been abused in the context of colonialism, and many people think of development as: "We'll give you this money, if you throw away your ancient culture and become Westerners."

Ethnocentrism Seeing the world through the lenses of your own people or culture such that your culture always looks best and becomes the pattern everyone else should fit into. Sometimes what we think of as the Gospel truth is merely the Gospel contextualized into our culture. By no means is ethnocentrism restricted to the majority culture in a country, but it is a nearly universal tendency among humans.

Expatriate Someone who has left his or her home country to live and work in another country. When we visit another country, we call ourselves expatriates or expats for short. Sometimes Christians can be considered expatriates everywhere in the world, because our true home is in Jesus, so we are strangers in the world.

Incarnational Ministry The Gospel embodied in real people, not just theory. God became human; He did not drop a message from the sky. In the same way, we identify with the culture in order to understand, appreciate and communicate.

Indigenous Organization characterized by self-leadership, self-funding and self-propagation. An organization is indigenous when positive elements of its culture are used to determine its nature.

International What we call a national when he or she comes to our country.

Missiology The study of missions and mission strategies; the theology of missions; how and why we do mission.

Mission agency A Christian organization helping to further God's work in the world. Mission board and sending agency are virtually the same thing.

Missionary Method Analysis of and identification with the host culture (including language acquisition) plus communication of the Gospel, in a way that challenges individuals to commitment.

National  Any person who is from the country to which you are going. The nationals on your short-term mission trip are those who call the country you visit their home. The national leaders are local people who are leading the church or mission. A national church is one that is led by national leaders.

Nationalism A Nation is a distinct group of people, usually demarcated by a common language, religion or culture. Nationalism is 1.the belief in the extension of the boundaries of the nation from soft lines (cultural) to physical lines (geographical). Example: In the United States, the push to designate English as the official language across the entire physical territory of the State. 2.The process of imagining a nation into existence. Example: In Indonesia, hundreds of distinct ethnic groups view themselves as Indonesians, a relatively new entity.

Para-church Refers to a Christian organization independent of any church denominational structures.

Re-entry A process of cultural re-adjustment for missionaries returning to their home countries, often characterized by a catatonic state induced by large grocery stores and shopping malls.

Relief The urgent provision of resources to reduce suffering resulting from a natural or man-made disaster.

Support The finances and prayer you will need to ask others to give for your mission trip. A supporter is one who gives and prays. A support team is the group of people who supports you. They may or may not know each other.

Syncretism Developing your world view by taking a few verses from the Bible, a couple of Zen koans, some sections from the Upanishads, key lines from Calvin and Hobbes, and any other words of wisdom you find, throwing them all in a blender, and adding enough sugar till it tastes just right for you.

Ten-Forty or 10/40 Window Not a new computer program for doing your taxes, but rather a geographic region extending from the 10th to 40th parallel that encompasses most of North Africa, parts of the Middle East, Korea and Japan. This window represents the largest unreached part of the world.

Tentmaker A cross-cultural witness who works at a paying, usually secular, job. Often they are able to gain entry into "closed" countries which restrict traditional mission efforts. Tentmakers rarely make tents for a living, like the apostle Paul did, but they all should have the intention to further God's work.

Term Can refer to the length of a missionary's time commitment to a mission organization. Many career missionaries serve successive terms of two to five years. Often they spend a period of months in their home countries between terms, usually called a furlough. A short-term can be as short as two weeks or as long as three years.

The Field Short for the mission field. A field is anywhere that missionaries do their work. Regrettably, field sounds like it's out in the country or on a farm. Most mission situations are not farms, and are usually urbanized to some extent. A field director is one who oversees those who are working together in a particular country, people group, or location.

Totalitarianism A special version of authoritarian control - political or cultural - that invades the individual's private sphere in all aspects of life, and operates by the willing participation of the people in their own oppression. Totalitarianism is often confused with regular tyranny, and shouldn't be: totalitarianism is far more rational, systematic, and invisible than little-fish dictators. Along these lines, totalitarianism could only emerge in the twentieth century, thanks to information technology. There were three in the past hundred years: Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Third Reich, and Mao's People's Republic. Many thinkers see today's global economy and entertainment-based soothing of outrage as the foundations of the next totalitarian system, McWorld.

Unreached peoples Essentially "unchurched" peoples lacking an indigenous, evangelizing church-planting movement. Without such a movement, the people within these groups will likely never hear and obey the Gospel. People within these groups can be defined by ethno-linguistic factors or by socioeconomic realities.

Visa Don't leave home without it, since it's what gives you written permission to travel in someone else's country.

Xenophobia Fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.