In my March/April 2023 MF column Questions of Strategy Part 1, I wrote about some of the criticisms I’ve heard during 42 years on staff with Frontier Ventures. Here are a couple more examples.

Movements to Christ are problematic.

It would not be unreasonable or unrealistic to say that every church has problems. As some have joked, “I love the church, it is people I struggle with.” But I’m not talking about those kinds of problems. Instead, many who are critical of “Kingdom Movements”1 are often outsiders judging the situation with surface knowledge at best. It is fine to ask questions and critique approaches or guess about how their activities will or will not produce lasting fruit. But recent examples I have read or heard are more often “final judgements” on what others are doing or prescriptions for how the church in that culture (which is unknown to them) should function.
With our Western, long-established churches, seminaries, missions and institutions, we can create extensive processes which end up putting “a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear.” (Acts 15:9) One expectation is that we must have clearly defined, “fully” qualified elders. Who and how elders are selected is crucial, but we can make it a formal, drawn-out process, requiring much more than the NT does. While we don’t know too much about Paul’s actual practice, he was only in cities like Corinth, Ephesus, Caesarea, and Rome for two years. By the time he is in Rome, it has only been some 35 years since the resurrection. The movement among Gentiles started in earnest some 16 years after that (in Antioch). Most Gentiles, in each of those cities, had believed only a few years, yet they are the elders Paul, Timothy, and Titus appointed.
We all want to see churches that last, but it is usual for small house churches to split and change and recreate themselves.2 If they grow, they get too large, so they often split for good reasons—because of space and to keep relationships deep. Important indicators of health are that people are growing in the Word, living out their faith, sharing with others, and seeing more people believe.

What does “Creation Care” have to do with missions?

It is unfortunate that the issue of caring for the earth God created and came to dwell in, has become a hot political “either/or” issue. It was and still is a mandate from him that we are in charge of the earth. (Gen 1:28) As we desire to reach the peoples of the earth, it makes a lot of sense that we would want to engage in serving in this way, as a reflection of God’s love and a “door–opener” for the gospel.
It turns out the most challenging environmental issues in the world tend to impact the poor among the least– reached and/or unevangelized the most. Those who have resources simply move out of areas with bad water or industrial waste. This is true even in the U.S. The history of missions demonstrates that restoring a healthy environment and providing health/medical services are wonderful ways to demonstrate the love of God and open people to hear the Gospel.
Let me illustrate this with a personal story. After 38 years living in a home near the Frontier Ventures/WCIU campus in Pasadena California, we moved to a different home 10 miles away. There was only one old lemon tree and one overgrown plant in the yard. So, my wife and I re–planted the whole back yard—drip system and all. We have three fruit trees and lots of flowering plants. It now creates far more oxygen than before, and it looks great. We love to sit at our backyard table for lunch almost every day. It brings us great joy.
And our new neighbors have noticed. One came to me and said, “You are good neighbors, I want to take you and your wife to lunch.” We enjoyed his driving us to a nice lunch at his favorite Japanese restaurant. I was able to share what we do with him and talk about his faith journey.
That same year when I was working in the yard, my Bible study was in Genesis 1–3.3 For the first time I took notice of Genesis 2:8,
“The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden and there He placed the man whom He had formed.” (NET Bible, emphasis mine.)
As I worked in the yard, I realized that I was doing something that God did! That must be good.

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