Diaspora Ministry Design and The Innovator’s Dilemma
tedesler.substack.com
Last week a denominational leader asked me about how they might structure diaspora ministry. Missionaries who have returned home have the skills and experience to plant churches within these immigrant communities. Take, for example, a career missionary family who finds themselves in the US after serving in Afghanistan. They want to continue to work with Afghans, and there are large diaspora communities in the US where they can work. Should the missionary report to the missions agency of the denomination, or should they be a part of the denomination’s domestic structure? In counseling this leader, my suggestion was that they should start with their philosophy of ministry.
Ted that is a Great perspective. Perhaps another dimension isn't about bending strategy towards a pastoral or apostolic audience but rather towards the focus people of the ministry. There are more affluent, generation 1.5, or 2.0, etc., that yield more towards a pull approach. Whereas, the first generation tends towards a more indigenous form. A multicultural church is a homogenous unit, not based on ethnicity, but perhaps vocation, stage of life, and a shared sense of hybrid identity. Then by definition, there will be people that don't fit that model either. As soon as a multicultural church chooses a language or languages to worship, they exclude people. I wholeheartedly agree with the premise that we need all three. - B. Houston
Ted that is a Great perspective. Perhaps another dimension isn't about bending strategy towards a pastoral or apostolic audience but rather towards the focus people of the ministry. There are more affluent, generation 1.5, or 2.0, etc., that yield more towards a pull approach. Whereas, the first generation tends towards a more indigenous form. A multicultural church is a homogenous unit, not based on ethnicity, but perhaps vocation, stage of life, and a shared sense of hybrid identity. Then by definition, there will be people that don't fit that model either. As soon as a multicultural church chooses a language or languages to worship, they exclude people. I wholeheartedly agree with the premise that we need all three. - B. Houston