Basic Missions Literacy

What should we expect from the average Christian?

What is a reasonable expectation for us to have regarding “missions literacy” for the average Christian?

There is a wide gap between what missiologists think about missions and what average Christians consider to be missions. The rather infamous 2021 Barna study revealed an astonishingly low missions literacy rate. 51% of churchgoers had not heard of the Great Commission. When I gather with other missions leaders we do not talk about this much. We are drawn to topics that are far past a simple understanding of the Great Commission. We might talk about the overwhelming number of unreached people groups, missions deconstruction, the global south missions movement, the role of money in missions and so on. Thus, I rarely hear leaders talk about the basic challenge of missions literacy in churches.

In their recently released book, The Sending Shepherd, Denny Spitters and Matthew Ellison cite research about how often pastors teach on missions. 50% of pastors “rarely or never preach on sending missionaries or reaching people of other faiths” (p. 10). There is plenty more in this study which highlights the lack of senior pastor involvement in missions. There are also positive suggestions on how to overcome this. It is a good book but a little alarming.

What does basic missions literacy look like? What would we want to see as a “minimum basic requirement” for missions understanding in the pews? Here are four easy to understand concepts that might make up a basic literacy rubric for an average Christian.

1. Lostness: A soteriology that includes lostness

Universalism is a heresy that enjoys broad acceptance in contemporary, broadscale evangelicalism. What does the average Christian believe about those who are not a part of the Kingdom? Do we believe that people who do not know Jesus are going to hell? Are we content with demonstrations of love and acts of service, or do we believe that Jesus must be proclaimed? For missions to have any meaning we must teach lostness.

If there is to be any sense of urgency about the Great Commission, lostness must be taught in our churches.

2. Biblical Narrative: An understanding that the missions story is told from Genesis to Revelation.

Missions did not appear in Matthew 28:18-20 for the first time. I would not expect an average Christian to know the ins and outs of the whole sweep of redemptive history. I would, however, want them to connect the dots between the Abrahamic Covenant, Israel, Jesus, the Apostle’s ministry, and the implications missions has on eschatology. These are necessary threads for basic Bible literacy, and missions is best understood as a part of this thread.

I believe that preachers in the West have a lot to learn regarding this major storyline. Every church should consider covering the timeline of redemptive history each year. Pick the peaks in the story and teach through it. Nothing will help provide purpose for your congregation quite like seeing how they fit into cosmic purposes. Topical, issue-based teaching has created gross illiteracy about the broad sweep of the Bible.

3. Nations: People must understand God’s heart for nations and that it requires cross-cultural outreach.

It doesn’t matter if we are talking about the Afghans across town or in Kabul. God loves Afghans and wants to see his love expressed to them. Somebody has to bridge this cross-cultural divide. The Bible talks in terms of cultures and nations. Monocultural ministry is different from cross-cultural ministry. Basic missions literacy must include a biblical view of God’s heart for all nations (panta ta ethne).

This is also where the sending of missionaries must be taught as a priority of missions. There are many important expressions of global missions that are not sending, such as diaspora, digital, and denizen (that is a fancy word which means “native” or “indigenous”). From the Americans to the Zambians, and all in between, our church movements must send.

4. State of Affairs: Some understanding of the current state of the world in relationship to how God’s work is unfolding.

Understand the true state of gospel advance globally helps us to pray and give strategically. It informs priorities in missions. For the average Christian, I am personally leaning more toward using David Barrett’s “World ABC” model. Loosely defined, this model describes those living in cultures with Christan presence as World C. World A represents those in unreached cultures. World B is where they are mixed together. World B can be reached most easily by World C - they live down the street from you. World A requires the sending of missionaries.

A Third of Us is a good way to communicate the current state of global missions. A third of us humans live in cultures with virtually no churches or Christians. It aligns with World ABC but has a taste of inclusion thrown in.

Since the 1970s, missions leaders have focused this message on unreached people groups (UPGs) and the 1040 Window. UPG descriptions can become bogged down in anthropological issues. It is necessary and applicable for missionaries who know the details. The 1040 Window is tied to geography in a world where people movement makes geography less helpful. These are still good motifs, but for basic missions literacy, World ABC and A Third of Us may be better. It puts the cookies on the bottom shelf.

Conclusion

Imagine if, in thousands of churches, average Christians understood these four basic ideas. What if preachers emphasized these four basic ideas from the pulpit, using their authority to instill a missions literacy into each Christian? If we are on the brink of revival, as some are stating, could we see that revival include a healthy, basic literacy of missions?

Please feel free to comment below on what you might include in basic missions literacy for the average Christian.