WHAT IF... (Rethinking missions in a digital age)

Rev Dr Lorna Khoo

When we think of Missions, it is usually one of these scenarios:

A) Persons or teams going to a foreign country and staying there for several years to reach out to the people via education, social enterprises, etc. The country may be “adopted” and resources (prayer, funds, personnel, and equipment) will be sent there to build up the ministry. A church or a school may be established there after a while.

B) Teams might be sent there for short term exposure experwiences. They may help physically to construct toilets, to do teaching, to do a programme for the children or congregation. The people who usually go on such trips would be teens and youth, and adults of various ages.

We ask…

1. WHO ARE THE PEOPLE MOBILISED FOR MISSIONS?

Usually they are the older children, the able bodied adults, those who can set aside a block of time for travel, and those who can afford the trip or whose churches can afford to sponsor them for the trip.

But what about younger children, busy adults, handicapped, bedridden and mobility challenged adults, and retirees who have limited income? Yes, they can be prayer warriors. But can they not be mobilised for frontline missions?

2. COST OF MISSION TRIPS

Mission trips to nearby third world countries are usually fairly economical. These places are ‘easier to reach’ with speedier results. They are favoured by most churches. But recent mission studies have indicated the urgent needs for outreach to ‘hard ground’ – these are places where much will be sown with very slow and little results. These are places where longer trips are required and expenses are higher as some are in ‘the first world’. How can these places be reached? Does it mean that only rich congregations can do the work? Even then, sending children, youth, and retirees to this mission field would be rather challenging.

Some people have wondered if the money spent on mission and mission exposure trips – even to nearby third world countries - might be better utilised by the locals in their own ministries. Locals are more experienced in building houses or toilets than our urbanites. Time would be saved for missionaries if they do not need to play travel guides and hosts to teams upon teams of neophytes (or some ‘spiritual tourists’).

With COVID-19 changing the landscape of the travel industry and highlighting the health threats in different countries, perhaps it is time for us to re-think how we do mission- mission trips and mission exposure trips?

3. THE NEW NORMAL

Some people are waiting for the COVID-19 situation to be contained and to “get back to normal life.”

Hello! The world has changed since COVID-19 emerged. We are facing a serious recession. Money will be scarce. There will be travel restrictions. And in case we have forgotten - the largest growing group of people in Singapore are not the youth (as in the 70s to 90s), it is instead the silver generation! Unlike the previous cohort of seniors, these have more education, more resources, and more networking capabilities. They are the untapped potential treasure trove.

THE QUESTION: How then do we re-envision doing missions for the post- COVID-19 scenario?

4. THE GIFT: DIGITAL MISSIONS

If the COVID-19 Circuit Breaker taught us anything, it is that there is a digital world and that world is here to stay. This might not be something new to the younger generation of digital natives but it is something that the older ones have been dragged into to discover. Like it or not, they have had to have cell meetings, Bible studies, and office meetings on Zoom, Google Hangout, Microsoft Teams, etc. Pastors have to become tech- savvy to some degree as sermons and training sessions have to be pre-recorded in their homes for on-line services.

While in the past, older people have dismissed the digital world as ‘virtual’ and ‘for only the young’, now we know it is the new reality. True relationships and deep communications can take place online.

With this new insight- let’s rethink the need for our frequent mission trips/mission exposure trips….

THE PLUSES:

A) More people can be involved. As long as they have a phone, computer or laptop, and Wi-Fi, they can be engaged in missions.

B) Children, the handicapped, the mobility challenged, the bed ridden, those in homes for the aged, and the retirees can all be mobilised.

C) Less money needs to be pumped in to support their travel. More can be given to the people in the field for the local work there.

THE CONCERNS:

A) It requires training and equipment. Our young digital natives can help. Webinars might pose high learning curves for newbies. Training one-to-one with teamviewers would be very helpful. Churches can recruit and equip the younger ones to train the children and the older people on how to do the work.

B) It requires security. There should be a way of monitoring what digital missionaries (this new group of local church mission supporters) say and do.

C) Every individual request for money and resources from the field needs to be carefully filtered through leadership lest we end up as fairy godfathers or godmothers raising local ‘rice Christians’ in the long run.

D) Young digital missionaries from Singapore should not be introducing spiritually or morally questionable world wide web sites to children and youth in the mission fields.

We need a team to help think through this sector.

Does it mean no mission trips at all? No.

It would be good if those engaged in missions digitally can go to the country at least once in their lifetime or if they have the means, within the first 24 months of their involvement. This will provide the physical encounters that digital interactions do lack.

They can make a second trip after many years of digital missions.

THE WAY FORWARD

Here are two small examples of digital mission possibilities:

A) We know that CRU Malaysia has done digital missions. The person doing it is actually the daughter of a Methodist pastor in Malaysia! Years ago, when letters were the main way of communicating with people – training sessions, friendships (remember pen pals?), and even spiritual direction were done that way. Digital missions by CRU is simply friendship evangelism across countries through English lessons.

B) DIGITAL 360 founder SC Lim told me this: “X group of people want to learn English. They go to Western countries to learn. When they return home, their written English is good but they can’t speak English for lack of practice. What if there can be English mentors who are willing to meet them once a week for a verbal conversations or even Bible Study lessons? This can be digital missions.”

I would like to meet people interested in exploring the above concerns to form teams for equipping the churches in digital missions. Please email me at lorna@hvmc.sg before 15 December 2020 with your name, church, handphone, and area where you think you can help.