Andrew Scott Analyzes Shifting Global Trends and Missions

/ Phill

What do shifting global trends mean for missions? Andrew Scott, author of Scattered, connects the dots. He presents his arguments in the opening session of the Global Intent tentmaker training course.

Andrew shares some global facts that are a wake-up call to all Jesus followers. This is a message for all who believe the Great Commission applies to them.

Did you know?

  • 80% of least reached people live in countries hostile to missionary activity
  • The #1 reason for coming to faith is watching the life of a Jesus follower
  • 90% of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists will never meet even ONE Jesus follower in their lifetime

Tactical Shift

In order to finish the task we need to change our tactics. We need to take advantage of the opportunities these shifting trends provide. We need methods that are scalable and sustainable. The predominant model we have today was designed by, and for, the West. We need a model that works for the whole church worldwide.

How can we give the unreached a chance to watch Jesus followers up close and personal? Scatter the believers to live and work dispersed among them in their everyday life. The globalization trends make that more possible today than ever before.

Doors are wide open in the global marketplace. 45% of global companies cannot find the talent they need. Many of these countries are where missionaries cannot enter. Yet, they will pay believers to come and provide the services they need.

Tentmaking – the Method of the Apostle Paul – Revisited

He concludes tentmaking opens the door to making a much larger impact in global evangelization in two significant ways. First, all believers are invited to participate in spreading the gospel. Second, there are opportunities to bring the gospel to the least reached if we change our paradigms for connecting with them.In his model there are no closed countries. When we work with the trends he outlines, we have the capacity to scale to a much larger force of Kingdom workers.

Some of the advantages of the tentmaking model is that the worker has a credible presence in the community and workplace. His sustenance comes from his work and not some mysterious outside source. People in the community see he struggles with the problems they do. As such he is a model of how Jesus works for all of life.

This becomes a natural pathway to developing the discipleship model presented in the New Testament.

Andrew Scott develops his case more fully in the short video, “Andrew Scott on the Future Direction of Missions,” now available at https://intent.org/trends-video.

The Global Intent YouTube channel https://youtube.com/globalintent has many other useful videos to teach tentmaking and how to get involved. 

By Phill Sandahl