Doing Mission Out of Affluence: Reflections on Recruiting

Western missionaries are increasingly rich by the standards of the majority of the world's peoples. The paucity and relative sterility of efforts by Western missionaries to bring the good news to the poorest of the poor derives from their relative personal affluence. The statuses and the strategies upon which Western missionary endeavors rely are at serious odds with New Testament teaching on the incarnation, the cross, and weakness as models for missionary life. Failure to return to the “end of the procession” model of missions outlined in 1 Corinthians 4 will spell the doom of Western missions as a vital Christian force.