Growing Local Missionaries: Equipping Churches to Sow Shalom in Their Own Cultural Backyard

by Dan Steigerwald

Growing Local Missionaries is about real action for the good of the world––equipping people to move in their neighborhoods and cities with confidence in both their God-given identity and their capacity to pass on practical missionary skills.

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2014

Reviews

[Rachel]

This book is helpful for someone who has no idea how to make friends outside the church. For those of us for whom that comes naturally, it's a little bizarro-world. The author seems to assume that readers are uncomfortable with people who aren't Christian and that we automatically judge them and have to fight that in order to be friends. Sorry, Dan, but that's just not true of all of us. Lots of what he says is helpful and meaningful, but the recurring subtle tone of us-and-them leaves a bad taste. I am keeping my copy for the time being in case I run into folks who are more like his target audience, but I will share it only with caveats.

[Eric]

This book assumes you are a Christian, and have never interacted with someone who is not only not Christian, but also that you are better than that other person who is not Christian! The author, though seeming like a great guy to hang out with and work beside, targets non-Christians with exercises which literally have the "Participant Observer" meet people door to door, find out what they like (as if you're examining an animal in nature), and bring home a souvenir (token or symbol of the outside group) to remind you of their qualities.

This is one of the most offensive approaches to missionary work I think I've encountered, other than having my own door knocked upon by someone actually doing this. There is absolutely no consideration that the other group may have more than token value, though a second star because the author, Dan Steigerwald does actually do the work of feeding Jesus' sheep by working side by side with those other than his own faith.

When I worked with youth in short term mission environments, this approach was one we desperately stayed away from! We made sure were were not the outside 'tourists' checking out some of those non-Christian types, and definitely didn't look at them as the "other" - we made sure we saw that their experiences were different than ours, their perspective flowing from varied, often challenging experiences, and their humanity very often more genuine, even raw because of what they have been through.

Please, please find another approach to mission work!