[Alliance for Vulnerable Mission]

I’m a little wary of the term ‘innovation’. It sounds like ‘doing something different’, but begs the question of which different thing is actually appropriate to do. This raises the question to me, of research, in the broad sense of the term: how does one discover which innovation is needed?

In other words, it is easy to go around in our own circles, with minimal actual engagement with the hearts of people we are reaching. Many missionaries interact with those considered ‘poorer’. ‘American’ conjures up images that do not die easily for them. If one is offering a service, and offering to pay for it, and even offering to pay others to participate in offering it, then asking them (as they are the locals with the knowledge) to guide us … that is a contorted route to follow. Then its our ‘innovation’ against their ‘making money’.

Hence I suggest that the innovation we need, in today’s world that is supposed to be post-colonial and not neo-imperialistic, i.e., in which we want to work with people without dominating them, I think we must make sure we have an innovative wing in what we do that has removed money from the scene. An, let’s add to that, which uses an indigenous language, not matter how good how many people are in English. Then let’s begin innovating – in those tough circumstances.