The Mission Phoenix
Looking ahead to the resurrection of Lutheran global mission
Where did Ablaze! come from?
As an Area Director for LCMS WM (2000 - 2003), I was a defacto member of the group that was tasked with developing a mission vision and strategy to guide the efforts of LCMS World Mission over the next 15 years (2002 - 2017). In addition to the Area Directors, the group included LCMS WM senior staff: Bob Roegner, Dan Mattson, Al Buckman, John Mueller, and others at various times.
The senior staff members wanted to create a "BAG" vision - a Big, Audacious Goal. The idea was that this would galvanize the LCMS and our Lutheran partners around the world. In fact, I was the one who proposed that we should be trying to create a global Lutheran Mission Movement - terminology that has since found its way into Ablaze! publications.
The Area Directors, for the most part, wanted to focus on what we as a Synod were doing or were able to do in terms of global mission work. We considered it to be somewhat dishonest to "count" what our partners do in mission as somehow being what we are doing. As such, the Area Directors were focused on increasing the number of overseas missionaries, the number of churches planted, and the like. The senior staff, for the most part, liked the 100 million 'critical event' goal.
You can see which idea prevailed. The Area Directors who wanted to focus our LCMS resources on sending evangelistic, church-planting missionaries were not offered a position in the new Ablaze! structure.
How is Ablaze! doing?
There are two parts to that question - Ablaze! in the USA and Ablaze! overseas.
As soon as it became clear that the senior staff was going to prevail with the 100 million goal, Dr. Bob Scudieri got ahead of the game. He saw which way the wind was blowing, and he quickly claimed 50 million 'critical events' as the goal of US missions. At this time, North America was one of 12 world areas, but Bob claimed half the goal. That meant that he should get half of the resources. Very quickly, LCMS WM reorganized along the lines of other denominational mission boards - "home mission" (USA) and "foreign missions" (International). Two new positions were created - Associate Executive directorships for North American and for International missions. Ablaze! was seen as two halves - one half domestic mission, and one half international mission.
On the domestic side, Ablaze! North America seems to be going well. District Presidents, District mission executives, pastors, and laity can be found who are positively enthusiastic. I am close with a few DP's who love Ablaze! and love the way that the LCMS WM (North America) understands their role in supporting the mission efforts of Districts.
On the International side, I think it is fair to say that Ablaze! is not nearly as successful. The following section is a review of the Ablaze! goals for our international mission work.
A review of Ablaze! international goals
On the LCMS website (http://www.lcms.org/), you will notice that the "National Mission Ablaze! Goals" are featured prominently, right under the Ablaze! counter. You will not find a similar display of the "International Mission Ablaze! Goals". In fact, it is difficult to find any Ablaze! goals for the international work anywhere. They can be found, however, either in the FAQ section or in the Fan Into Flame! section of the website.
Here are the Ablaze! goals for our overseas mission work, as currently stated:
Goal: "Adding missionaries to the field - triple our missionary base" (source: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=11004).
Analysis: In 1990, LCMS WM had about 180 career missionary units on the field. Today, we have about 70. So, tripling our missionary base would bring us up above 1990 levels. The truth is that the number of evangelistic, church-planting missionaries serving overseas is at a low not seen for decades (see Mission Facts).
Hoowever, it seems to me that this goal is somewhat disingenuous. It is clear from the description of the goal that LCMS WM is NOT imagining tripling the number of evangelistic, church planting missionaries. The "missionary base" may well include 1 year volunteer missionaries, missionaries who serve in the US, English teachers, administrators, and missionaries that our partner churches send. We just don't know. However, the average LCMS member will understand this to mean that we plan to triple the number of career, cross-cultural, evangelistic, church-planting missionaries.
Goal: "Support Sustainable Projects" (source: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=11004).
The idea behind this is that we will financially support the good ideas of our partner churches, especially where it will help them to grow, to develop leadership, and to share the Gospel. In reality, LCMS WM has been doing this for years. As Area Director, one of my primary responsibilities was to review and approve/ not approve projects from our partner churches.
There are three problems with this goal. One: sending money can easily become a substitute for sending our sons and daughters overseas. This is, in fact, happening.
Two: I was present at the conference of the International Lutheran Council (ILC) when Ablaze! was introduced for the first time to our partner churches (Iguazu Falls, Brazil, August 2003). Bob Roegner made the presentation. Within literally a matter of minutes, our partner church presidents understood that if you want US dollars, then you will need to label whatever you do as "Ablaze!". The international projects that we are funding, in large part, are not newly-developed Ablaze! projects. They are projects that our international partner churches have had on the books for a long time, and they have now been repackaged as Ablaze! in order to get the funding.
Three: With the focus on projects, LCMS WM becomes an administrative / supervisory agency, rather than a missionary sending and supporting agency. It is worthwhile to note that the number of St. Louis LCMS WM staff about equals the number of career missionaries (see mission facts).
Goal: Plant 3000 churches overseas. (source: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=10024)
This has been fading from view as a goal, and with good reason. It seems abundantly clear that LCMS WM does NOT mean that our missionaries will plant 3000 churches overseas. With maybe a dozen (maximum) evangelistic, church-planting missionaries overseas, the only possible explanation is that we will count the number of churches planted by our international partner churches.
