Monday, January 28, 2019

If Disillusioned Volunteers and Missiologists Got Together

As I mentioned in a previous post, I enjoy satire as a form of commiserating frustrations, so I wanted to share with you some links to folks who share many of my frustrations and twisted sense of humor.  I also want to put out to the world a "What if?" that's been on my mind lately.

A few years back a friend introduced me to SAIH Norway's youtube page.  Their videos, including the "charity single"  Africa for Norway cracked me up, and I loved the related resources on their RadiAid website. While my memory of the timeline is fuzzy, somewhere in there I read about the game JadedAid  and was highly amused. And then there was the BarbieSavior Instagram that I loved so much I incorporated into slides for my workshops.  Well, now there is The Failed Missionary Podcast's White Savior Series, which, while not suitable for work, does answer my question of what would happen if you got a bunch of these folks together and recorded their conversations.

While thus far I've been mostly just observing the rise of what I'm calling the Jaded Missionary Movement (see also my Pinterest board for many articles on this theme), I am pondering what would happen if these folks, who have strong online followings (Oh, and don't forget about The Very Worst Missionary) were put in a room with a bunch of professors of mission---say, for example--at an event hosted by the American Society of Missiology.  There is so much the two groups could teach one another.  What could they accomplish together when it comes to changing the conversations in "Western" churches about how to be better disciples?  I believe the answer is: A Lot. 

Until that day comes,  I'm going to keep on encouraging mission scholars/professors to check out the aforementioned websites and telling jaded missionaries that their observations are valid and that, instead of walking away, it is time to dig deeper, because they have hit upon something truly valuable.