When Your Audience is Clueless

by Paul Borthwick

The clueless are the informational have-nots, who, like the poor of the world, constitute the vast majority and often represent the more difficult challenge.

An elder once asked me, "What is the capital of Africa?"

A ministerial associate offered to help us communicate with our missionaries in Quito, Ecuador, by ham radio. His preconceived ideas about the Third World crumbled when I responded, "Why wouldn't we just call or fax, or e-mail them?"

Although such experiences happen infrequently, they illustrate one basic truth: in spite of our increasingly multicultural world, the development of the "information highway" to the "global village" many people— including the people in the pews of our churches— seem increasingly insular and ignorant of world events, world missions and the worldwide work of the church of Jesus Christ.

George Hunter III, in his book How to Reach Secular People (Abingdon Press, 1992) lists "ignorance of basic Christianity" as his first characteristic in the secular person's profile (p. 44). Perhaps we could profile the average pew-sitter as "ignorant of basic missiology."

No one knows this better than the visiting international leader, or the returning missionary reporting to parishioners in the local church, at least those in the United States.

Many Christians are simply clueless about their missionaries.

• They don't know where you live. The abysmal knowledge of geography grows more commonplace across the US.
• They don't know how you got there. Many have little understanding of sending organizations, faith missions or of what IFMA, IFMA or ECFA stand for.
• They don't know what it's like where you live. They live with stereotypes created by missionary stories in the past, CNN, or "Rambo" and "Indiana Jones" movies.
• They don't know what you do. Many assume that everyone in missions is either a Bible translator, an itinerant evangelist or perhaps a medical doctor.
• They often don't know why you do it. As theological pluralism and secularism increase, the theological foundations for why we do global missions gets shaky.

How this global ignorance has come about is material for a Ph.D. dissertation, researchers and historians. I just know that it is here, and I want to offer some suggestions on what to do about it.

My experience as a missions pastor and as a speaker at missions conferences has revealed a disturbing trend. It is not that everyone is apathetic about the Great Commission and the worldwide spread of the gospel. Indeed, I frequently meet lay people who articulate a deep understanding and commitment.

What concerns me is the trend of the informational rich getting richer, while the informational poor get poorer. Many churches boast well-informed and active missions committees. Missions pastors (at least in churches with 500 members) are becoming common.

The problem is that these information-rich are seen in the local church as specialists with their own area of interest, an interest which is not trickling out to their congregations. The missions pastor represents the church at the Global Conference on World Evangelism in Korea, but the senior pastor cannot tell you what GCOWE stands for. The missions committee wrestles with strategies for empowering the national church, while the elders still think that all missionaries are sent from organizations based in Wheaton, Illinois.

The clueless are the informational have-nots, who, like the poor of the world, constitute the vast majority and often represent the more difficult challenge.

BASIC PRINCIPLES
Don't' start by telling your audience, "I am glad to be here today. I understand that most of you fall into the category which Paul Borthwick calls the clueless." Don't scold your listeners for being people of their time. Instead, help them grow by naturally presenting more accurate information.

1. Don't assume. Several summers ago, I profiled our church's youth mission team to Burkina Faso over a dozen times for our congregation. Every time, I managed to sneak in that Burkina Faso was formerly Upper Volta; it's in West Africa, and it's a country where Christianity and Islam confront each other directly. I know I oversimplified, but I didn't try to distinguish folk Islam from orthodox Islam.

To communicate effectively, you must explain what the acronyms stand for. Identify where the country is (people I meet seem to have the greatest struggles with Africa and the former U.S.S.R), describe what it's like to live there, and what work is being done.

"Don't assume" also applies to how missionaries are sent. A recently unemployed man came to me looking for work. "I'm ready for missions," he said, "and I think my skills in mass communication could be useful."

I knew he was correct, so I replied, "Okay. Let's get together to talk soon."

"Oh, I was hoping you'd have some immediate opening," he said, "because I have a family of six to support and a $1,500-per month mortgage."

Something similar occurred when an early-retired couple offered their 35-plus years of experience in human resources to a mission agency. They came back to my office very excited: "The mission offered us a job in the international office!" they reported.

"They offered you a job?" I replied in surprise.

"Yes, they offered us the job."

"You mean they you the job?" (I was delighted, thinking that their support would come from some special account in the agency's office administration budget.)

"Yes. Why? What other option is there?"

"Well, they offered you the job— if you can raise the money to support yourself and all of the related costs associated with the job."

The color drained from their faces, along with their excitement. I realized that they and the mission administrators were speaking different languages. The couple spoke business language: A job offer meant salary, benefits and money to support the work (maybe even secretarial help). The people in the missions headquarters spoke mission agency language: A job offer meant, "Yes, we can sure use your skills and experience, provided that you can raise all the money."

Many parishioners have no idea how missions sending structures work— whether we are considering denominational missions or interdenominational agencies. We need to explain how things like funding, job assignments, and supervisory relationships work.

2. Use terms people understand. Few in our congregations comprehend terms we missions professionals casually toss around every day. When I asked a new Christian in our church, "What is the Great Commission?" he responded, "About 25 percent."

Here are some other painful examples I have heard over the past few years:

• A man asked me if church planting was some variation of agricultural missions.
• A woman asked why some missionaries were making tents in Morocco, a country where everyone she knew lived in cement houses.
• A church leader, after listening to a dynamic presentation from Luis Bush, asked, "I have only one question: What's 80-2000?" After I explained, he asked, "A.D. 2000? Why don't they call it 2000 A.D. the way the rest of us refer to dates?"

"Linguists," "church-planting" and "contextualization" might mean something to the informational haves, but for many have-nots, they sound like secret codes. A word of explanation, however, will keep people on track.

3. Go back to basics. The Western church's biblical literacy today frightens any who remember the days when memorizing the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and the Ten Commandments was mandatory Sunday School learning. In the contemporary church, it is nearly miraculous to discover a seminary graduate who has memorized 10 verses concerning God's worldwide purposes. If you assume that your Sunday morning audience possesses basic biblical knowledge, you are walking on thin ice.

The wise missions communicator will salt his or her messages with the biblical basis for the church's global enterprise:

• that we have been "blessed to be a blessing to the nations" (Gen. 12:1-4).
• that God is the one true God who desires that his glory be declared among the nations (Psalm 96:3)
• that Jesus commands his followers to take the message of his redemptive sacrifice and reconciling love to all the nations (Matt. 24:14; 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
• that Jesus demonstrated our model for missions (Phil. 2:5-11).

At some point, we need to discuss the uniqueness of Christ. The West's theological pluralism affects the people in the pews. They wonder why we're trying to convert those devout Muslims and holy Hindus to Jesus in the first place. The motive for missions challenges the theologically clueless to ask what it means that Jesus is one mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), the only "way, truth and life" by which people can come into relationship with God the Father (John 14:6), and the "only name" by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).

4. Political correctness matters. An enthusiastic veteran of missionary service hoped to set a date to visit our church services, telling me, "I'd like to speak at your church, and I'll bring several of my boys from Papua New Guinea."

"Do you mean you're coming with children?" I asked.

"No, I'll be accompanied by the national boys who lead the PNG church," he replied.

While no one should be overwhelmed and intimidated by the cultural obsession with non-offensive language, it is wise to use more inclusive phrases. If we want to avoid losing listeners because of some poorly chosen words (which they will deem offensive), we should:

• use "men and women" rather than just "men"
• never refer to Mary Slessor as "white queen of the cannibals" or to missionaries as the "great white hope"
• avoid overly triumphalistic language, especially language implying that the US or the Western world will complete its agenda for world missions.

5. Put yourself in their position. Cultural identification comes with the territory of doing the work of Christ across cultures. Missionaries often discover that they need to keep these skills alive when they return to their sending churches.

People immersed in missions must approach a supporting church as they would a foreign culture. They must describe a world and a work that listeners have virtually no frame of reference to understand (or one based on media-driven stereotypes).

Ask yourself? "What can I share with these people that will connect with their world and help them be interested in mine?" Using things people already know (CNN, the headlines in the newspaper, USA Today) helps you bring your world to the person in the pew. Whenever the international speaker communicates, "Let's see how the work of God in my world can encourage you in your world," the audience will likely pay attention.

6. Avoid unnecessary polarization. Today's listeners turn off when we give the impression that "all the greatest needs of our world exist outside of North America" or "the Hindu, Muslim, Chinese and tribal blocs make up the majority of the lost, and these live outside of the reach of the church."

First, this approach contradicts what they know from reading their daily newspapers about violence in our cities, hunger among our homeless and family dissolution in our society. And it contradicts their daily experiences. They meet plenty of lost, secularized people every day, and they're asking, "How can we think about world missions when I have no idea how to reach my neighbor?" Second, the number of Muslims, Hindus and Chinese they meet increases every year, and people respond, "Why send people to the Middle East or India or Beijing when the world has come to us?"

Listeners must see the needs at home as well as the needs around the globe. ACMC (Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment) calls this developing bifocal vision: near-sighted concern about needs close to home, and far-sighted, concern about the world. Jesus called it being witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

A FEW PRACTICAL TOOLS
Three other reminders can help your listeners.

1. Use questions. This is the best way to discover what people know. "Does anyone know where Mozambique is?" "What do you think a missionary does?" "I left my comfortable home in suburbia to move to Bogota. Can anyone give me a verse in the Bible that might explain why I did this?"

Questions involve the listeners (incredibly important in an interactive world) and help you understand their perspectives and their stereo-types. Incorporating their responses into the message later also gives you a great opportunity to connect with them.

2. Use quality visuals. The multi-media generation does not appreciate talking heads presentations. George Verwer of Operation Mobilization invariably comes with a world map beach ball to accompany his world map windbreaker. InterVarsity holds the attention of 20,000 at Urbana using top-quality videos. Steve Green and Scott Wesely Brown communicate missions through music. Despite their stereotyping, even slides can be effective. Anteing that helps touch people's senses (beyond just hearing) will help.

3. Use the obvious.As I said earlier, use things people already know (CNN, the newspaper, etc.). Be creative. I ask listeners to turn down their collars and pray for the country on the label, to illustrate that they participate in other countries whether they know it or not.

DON'T GIVE UP
I urge missionaries and international partners alike: Don't give up on the uninformed. Don't yield to the temptation to spend all of your time in churches with the informational haves. See yourself as an educator for the global purposes of God and as a missionary for the cause of world missions.

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