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From the Inside Out: Reimagining Mission, Recreating the World
"For the sake of the world, we question.
For the sake of the gospel, we examine.
For the sake of the dignity of the image-bearers we serve--as well as ourselves--we inquire."
The evolution that has taken place in the world of mission over the last twenty-five years has left many Christians asking brutally honest questions about what we do and why we do it. Are we doing more damage than good? What does it look like to truly love and serve the marginalized in an authentic and effective way? What, actually, is the gospel and is it truly good news?
In this groundbreaking book, Ryan Kuja vividly examines the world of Christian mission as few have seen it. With a beautiful balance of storytelling and theological reflection birthed from his own painful and powerful experiences on and off the field--from rural villages in South Sudan to major cities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America--Ryan guides us into global mission's past and present, revealing where the light and hope lie, helping recover a missional future that will usher us into a new era.
This is mission reimagined for a world recreated . . . from the inside out.
In this compelling book, Kuja challenges the exploitative roots of McMission and calls us to something deeper. He never gives up on mission but invites us into a posture that will be more sustainable, more holistic and ultimately more transformative. Read it with an open mind and heart and you will be challenged.
--Craig Greenfield, author of Subversive Jesus and founder of Alongsiders International
A bold and courageous examination of unconscious motivations for mission, whereby we discover the way of interior freedom that allows for more effective service in our world. A timely clarion call for the integration of contemplation and action.
--Phileena Heuertz, author of Pilgrimage of a Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life and co-founder of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism
In From the Inside Out, Ryan Kuja helps us to right-size our egoic ventures of fixing the world to seeing its people through wildly curious, deeply wise, and always loving eyes. No matter your current worldview, From the Inside Out is sure to expand its boundaries of beauty and reconciliation. This transformational book will be required reading for all Make Way Partners staff and mission volunteers.
--Kimberly Smith Highland, author of Passport Through Darkness and founder of Make Way Partners
A timely contribution to the conversation about mission, which masterfully weaves together stories from the author's own experience, biblical reflection and theological insight. Even as he challenges widespread misconceptions of cross-cultural mission, Kuja's intention is to awaken a fresh and liberating engagement with God's redeeming work in the world.
--Emmanuel Katongole, Associate Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame and author of The Sacrifice of Africa
A global citizen with a background in international mission, relief, and development, Ryan Kuja has lived in fifteen cities and rural villages on five continents. He holds an MA in Theology and Culture from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology as well a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Ryan is a writer and spiritual director, currently serving as the Field Director of Word Made Flesh in Medellin, Colombia, where he lives with his wife.
The evolution that has taken place in the world of mission over the last twenty-five years has left many Christians asking brutally honest questions about what we do and why we do it. Are we doing more damage than good? What does it look like to truly love and serve the marginalized in an authentic and effective way? What, actually, is the gospel and is it truly good news?
In this groundbreaking book, Ryan Kuja vividly examines the world of Christian mission as few have seen it. With a beautiful balance of storytelling and theological reflection birthed from his own painful and powerful experiences on and off the field--from rural villages in South Sudan to major cities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America--Ryan guides us into global mission's past and present, revealing where the light and hope lie, helping recover a missional future that will usher us into a new era.
This is mission reimagined for a world recreated . . . from the inside out.
In this compelling book, Kuja challenges the exploitative roots of McMission and calls us to something deeper. He never gives up on mission but invites us into a posture that will be more sustainable, more holistic and ultimately more transformative. Read it with an open mind and heart and you will be challenged.
--Craig Greenfield, author of Subversive Jesus and founder of Alongsiders International
A bold and courageous examination of unconscious motivations for mission, whereby we discover the way of interior freedom that allows for more effective service in our world. A timely clarion call for the integration of contemplation and action.
--Phileena Heuertz, author of Pilgrimage of a Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life and co-founder of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism
In From the Inside Out, Ryan Kuja helps us to right-size our egoic ventures of fixing the world to seeing its people through wildly curious, deeply wise, and always loving eyes. No matter your current worldview, From the Inside Out is sure to expand its boundaries of beauty and reconciliation. This transformational book will be required reading for all Make Way Partners staff and mission volunteers.
--Kimberly Smith Highland, author of Passport Through Darkness and founder of Make Way Partners
A timely contribution to the conversation about mission, which masterfully weaves together stories from the author's own experience, biblical reflection and theological insight. Even as he challenges widespread misconceptions of cross-cultural mission, Kuja's intention is to awaken a fresh and liberating engagement with God's redeeming work in the world.
--Emmanuel Katongole, Associate Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame and author of The Sacrifice of Africa
A global citizen with a background in international mission, relief, and development, Ryan Kuja has lived in fifteen cities and rural villages on five continents. He holds an MA in Theology and Culture from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology as well a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Ryan is a writer and spiritual director, currently serving as the Field Director of Word Made Flesh in Medellin, Colombia, where he lives with his wife.
- GenresSpirituality
Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2018
9 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 12, 2018
Reading Ryan Kuja's book, From the Inside Out, was like coming home for me. It articulated so many of the questions I've been wrestling with over the years regarding my need for personal wholeness as the ground for authentic service in the world. Furthermore, his honest assessment of Western missions in general, including the way they have been historically intertwined with Western colonialism, made me want to stand up and cheer. If only more people were willing to ask the hard questions -- both of themselves and of the world at large! From the Inside Out should be on the shelf of every Christian missionary, charity worker, and non-profit activist who is seriously engaged in the work of social transformation. I'll be recommending it for many years to come.
August 20, 2019
I resonated strongly with his words on wholeness. The world is broken and we are broken. I don’t even have to look outside my own mind and heart to recognize the need for healing and restoration and that reality is amplified as soon as I lift my eyes up to the broader world. What can promote and facilitate healing? Love. Unity. Integration belief and action. Peace.
August 23, 2020
A helpful critique of western missional philosophy and what underlies the unhealthy approach to helping the materially poor and marginalized. This is a must-read for anyone currently working or planning to work cross-culturally. Kuja offers a well-written depiction of what a better posture for western, majority world workers to take when engaging across cultures and with people on the margins.
November 17, 2020
Really great book and an immensely important perspective on missions, development and justice issues. Kuja represents a turn in global mission that is more thoughtful and more mutual in it's application. A lot of what Kuja discussed depicted what I also experienced in my eight years serving under a non-profit in Tanzania. The ethnocentrism, white privilege, savior complex and neo-colonial attitudes that he discusses are prevalent. My hope is that this view and approach subverts the prevalent approach to mission that is much more western-centric rather mutual or mission-centric.
My only knock on the book, and it's a small one, is that there were a couple times where Kuja skirted around a couple difficult parts in the text. As an example, he discussed Jesus' interaction with the Syro-Phoenician woman without delving into Jesus' specific words saying "it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs". That is a seemingly hard text to understand, because a plain reading can exhibit that Jesus just called this woman, and perhaps broadly her people group, dogs. That required a bit more exegesis because it is an important text to consider in cross-cultural ministry. There were a couple other times like this, but overall, they didn't detract too much from the broader aspect of the book. I definitely recommend this book to anyone considering missions and global justice issues as a hard check on our motivations and approaches.
My only knock on the book, and it's a small one, is that there were a couple times where Kuja skirted around a couple difficult parts in the text. As an example, he discussed Jesus' interaction with the Syro-Phoenician woman without delving into Jesus' specific words saying "it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs". That is a seemingly hard text to understand, because a plain reading can exhibit that Jesus just called this woman, and perhaps broadly her people group, dogs. That required a bit more exegesis because it is an important text to consider in cross-cultural ministry. There were a couple other times like this, but overall, they didn't detract too much from the broader aspect of the book. I definitely recommend this book to anyone considering missions and global justice issues as a hard check on our motivations and approaches.
January 19, 2021
This is a very important book. It presents an honest critique of Western Christian cross-cultural mission, written with a vulnerability that exemplifies Kuja's thesis. It is not an easy book to digest because it challenges so many assumptions central to the thinking of the evangelical church in the West. Take it slowly and prayerfully. Tease it out and let it work a paradigm shift. Until all who seek to 'make a difference' in the developing world are willing to acknowledge our own brokenness (current, not just in the past) and to be vulnerable on a level playing field of shared suffering and limitation, all our efforts will simply perpetuate the poverty we think we're trying to eliminate.
December 29, 2018
Thought provoking
This book is a must read for any church, youth group, or individual considering short or long term missions trips. Each chapter includes questions for reflection. I first became aware ofthe book following the incident where the young missionary was killed by the inhabitants of a remote island off India.
The book is a challenge to recognize the impact that well intentions have on others, how colonialism still impacts Western culture and our approach to the rest of the world.
This book is a must read for any church, youth group, or individual considering short or long term missions trips. Each chapter includes questions for reflection. I first became aware ofthe book following the incident where the young missionary was killed by the inhabitants of a remote island off India.
The book is a challenge to recognize the impact that well intentions have on others, how colonialism still impacts Western culture and our approach to the rest of the world.
September 30, 2018
I had never read this type of book before and I have never done his type of work. I was intrigued when I was asked to read and review Ryan’s book. Let me share 5 key points that I take away from my look at From The Inside Out.
Who Am I ?
“Was part of the reason why I was engaging in mission to fulfill my personal need for meaning and purpose?”
“I began to consider for the first time that I had a compulsive need to do mission work that was rooted in a profound sense of personal inadequacy. Mission had given me a sense of identity. I didn’t know who I was without it—I was a missionary or I was nothing at all.”
“Good intentions are where we begin. They are not an invitation to get on a plane and show up somewhere ready to “help.”
“The energy moving within the “helper” to alleviate suffering often turns into an action that unwittingly results in two consequences. First, it may unintentionally create harm to the vulnerable population. But it often does more than just that. At a psycho-spiritual level, participating in mission”“relieves the helper’s guilt, and sets their own psyche free through the declaration that “I did my part. I helped someone who needed it badly. I bought medicine for a sick man. I bought a meal for a beggar. I held babies at the orphanage. I helped build a house for a poor family.” It is all about me.”
What are our motivations for doing things? We initially do things because we want to do them. They make us feel good. They make us feel important. It is about us and what we can achieve. They give us a sense of identity. It is who we are.
However, we seem to eventually realize it is not just about us. It is not our identity. It is not who we are. It is more about how we interact with those we come across in life. We certainly can teach and help others but we have much to learn from others and can be helped by others too.
A few years back I was a stay at home dad. After about six months I became depressed. I felt I did not know who I was anymore. I had placed my identity in my work. I now realize that I am not my work. I am bigger than my work. I also came to realize that I am a conduit of God’s work if I let go and open to the presence and actions of God within. That is who I am. I do this best when I sit in the silence of my centering prayer practice twice per day.
The Desert: Inner Work
“Avoiding the deep questions and in-depth reflection is something North Americans are good at it; inner work seems optional in a society fixated on accomplishment, success, and achieving great things.”
“We are wired for compassionate service. But divesting ourselves from the inner spiritual life precludes us from doing helping work in ways that can catalyze real change. Mission and spirituality were meant to be intimate allies, but instead became divorcees.”
“The desert invites us to go into the vulnerable places inside to face and to let go of what we find, to leave the God we know and meet a God we don’t yet know and can’t possibly imagine. That is the heart of desert spirituality, forming us for the work of mission by forming us into the image of the God we can’t yet conceive of.”
“If we haven’t engaged our own pain, we cannot be fully present with another in their pain. If we haven’t reflected deeply on our own woundedness, the best we can do is see ourselves as whole and the other as broken.”
“The call is an invitation into the self as much as it is an invitation into the world. The call is a commissioning into formation as much as it is a sending outward.”
We perform our best outer work when we do our inner work. Our outer world is a function of our inner world. We need a balance between our inner and outer work. Too much inner work spawns no outer work. Too much outer work leads to burnout.
Our inner work teaches us who we are. We need to slow down. Silence teaches who we are. Silence teaches us the actions we need to take. Silence also teaches us when we should take no action. We are not always the best person to perform a particular task. Silence can teach us that our motivation for performing a task is not healthy for us and the person we think we will help.
Silence also reveals the parts of us we wish to hide and suppress. Sometimes these parts need to be dealt with. Other times the silence can heal them so we can move on.
Listen, Learn, Respect
“The Ethiopian Church began 1,700 years ago when “Christianity was still in its infancy, more than a thousand years prior to Europe colonizing the continent.”
“Forgetting that Christianity is both an African religion and a Western religion impacts how we do mission, how we understand our role and the people and places we visit.
“People who have been historically traumatized, held captive by the colonial imagination, told that “we” have the answers to “their” problems and internalized centuries of oppressive influences, are apt to be suspicious of foreigners showing up with answers.”
“At the core of one narrative is a message about who Africans and other non-Western people are, the soft articulation that the economically poor suffer so greatly because they can’t help themselves and need us (Westerners) to rescue them and solve their problems. The messages often also carry the claim that the Majority World needs development according to the Western template, in line with our way of seeing and our vision of what the world could, should, or must be.”
“Theologian and philosopher Kierkegaard noted that when you label someone, you negate them. The process of labeling negates individuality and personhood. People in grave predicaments in foreign countries are not powerless, inept, or incapable, passively waiting for rescue.”
“Mission tends to look like American society: a race to complete tasks, accomplish projects, and get things done—prioritizing product over process—rather than bottom-up approaches that prioritize empowerment of the real experts on issues of poverty and injustice—local people.”
We cannot and should not force ourselves and our ways on others. We must listen more to others and we must learn more from others. We must involve them in the process. People do not always want to be rescued. They may want to be helped but at the same time they want us to respect who they are and what they wish to accomplish.
Mission work involves slowing down and best leveraging the people you want to help. Their commitment and involvement will be a better indicator of the lasting and permanent change that may happen.
And most importantly, I l love what Ryan says, “Wherever we go in the world, God is already there. We don’t bring God or Jesus anywhere.” I think we too often forget this. God is and will always be there. It is now up to us to discern how best we can act when we see the actions that are currently in play. How can we best join them?
Cultural Intelligence
“Paul did the hard work of translation, interpreting his understanding of Jesus in a way that made sense to people. In Athens, he didn’t just show up and announce a message or speak about his own experience and his personal conversion to Christ. Instead he used Greek concepts and philosophy that people could understand and resonate with. In short, Paul contextualized the message of Jesus so that it would have relevancy to the worldview of the Athenians.”
“Part of the reason God was able to use Paul in such a powerful way was because of Paul’s cultural intelligence—his ability to take culture, both his own and that of others, into account.”
“Cultures are generally centered around one of two organizing principles, individualism or collectivism. Individualist cultures, which include North America, the majority of Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, highly value personal freedom and independence. The locus of organization of these societies is the individual self, where the needs of the individual are more important than the needs of the group.”
“Collectivist cultures, including most of East and South Asia, Latin America, and Africa, are based on an organizing principle that values the group over the individual and emphasize the importance of community and family. Rather than placing highest significance on independence, collectivism emphasizes interdependence.”
We can learn a lot about how to mission by studying the Apostle Paul. Paul understood how to do mission because he did not force it upon others. Paul took his culture and the culture of others into account to best advance his mission work. He contextualized his mission work.
I was particularly intrigued that we must take into account the collectivist culture of East and South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. If we do not, we most likely will fail in our efforts. North America is an individualistic society. We need to make the shift to better understand the collectivist approach or we will not be able to help. We may even do more harm than good.
Next Steps
“Saying yes will be a matter of embracing a deep spirituality, rejoining action and contemplation, remarrying inner life and outward action, embracing the desert spaces, and allowing the false self to be transformed.”
I agree with Ryan. Without inner work, the outer work of mission will not be possible. When we better know who we are and can take this with us and be vulnerable, we will have a better chance at success.
I encourage you to read this honest, articulate and well researched book! You will better understand mission, its cultural context and the desperate need for inner work as part of its process.
Rich Lewis
www.SilenceTeaches.com
Who Am I ?
“Was part of the reason why I was engaging in mission to fulfill my personal need for meaning and purpose?”
“I began to consider for the first time that I had a compulsive need to do mission work that was rooted in a profound sense of personal inadequacy. Mission had given me a sense of identity. I didn’t know who I was without it—I was a missionary or I was nothing at all.”
“Good intentions are where we begin. They are not an invitation to get on a plane and show up somewhere ready to “help.”
“The energy moving within the “helper” to alleviate suffering often turns into an action that unwittingly results in two consequences. First, it may unintentionally create harm to the vulnerable population. But it often does more than just that. At a psycho-spiritual level, participating in mission”“relieves the helper’s guilt, and sets their own psyche free through the declaration that “I did my part. I helped someone who needed it badly. I bought medicine for a sick man. I bought a meal for a beggar. I held babies at the orphanage. I helped build a house for a poor family.” It is all about me.”
What are our motivations for doing things? We initially do things because we want to do them. They make us feel good. They make us feel important. It is about us and what we can achieve. They give us a sense of identity. It is who we are.
However, we seem to eventually realize it is not just about us. It is not our identity. It is not who we are. It is more about how we interact with those we come across in life. We certainly can teach and help others but we have much to learn from others and can be helped by others too.
A few years back I was a stay at home dad. After about six months I became depressed. I felt I did not know who I was anymore. I had placed my identity in my work. I now realize that I am not my work. I am bigger than my work. I also came to realize that I am a conduit of God’s work if I let go and open to the presence and actions of God within. That is who I am. I do this best when I sit in the silence of my centering prayer practice twice per day.
The Desert: Inner Work
“Avoiding the deep questions and in-depth reflection is something North Americans are good at it; inner work seems optional in a society fixated on accomplishment, success, and achieving great things.”
“We are wired for compassionate service. But divesting ourselves from the inner spiritual life precludes us from doing helping work in ways that can catalyze real change. Mission and spirituality were meant to be intimate allies, but instead became divorcees.”
“The desert invites us to go into the vulnerable places inside to face and to let go of what we find, to leave the God we know and meet a God we don’t yet know and can’t possibly imagine. That is the heart of desert spirituality, forming us for the work of mission by forming us into the image of the God we can’t yet conceive of.”
“If we haven’t engaged our own pain, we cannot be fully present with another in their pain. If we haven’t reflected deeply on our own woundedness, the best we can do is see ourselves as whole and the other as broken.”
“The call is an invitation into the self as much as it is an invitation into the world. The call is a commissioning into formation as much as it is a sending outward.”
We perform our best outer work when we do our inner work. Our outer world is a function of our inner world. We need a balance between our inner and outer work. Too much inner work spawns no outer work. Too much outer work leads to burnout.
Our inner work teaches us who we are. We need to slow down. Silence teaches who we are. Silence teaches us the actions we need to take. Silence also teaches us when we should take no action. We are not always the best person to perform a particular task. Silence can teach us that our motivation for performing a task is not healthy for us and the person we think we will help.
Silence also reveals the parts of us we wish to hide and suppress. Sometimes these parts need to be dealt with. Other times the silence can heal them so we can move on.
Listen, Learn, Respect
“The Ethiopian Church began 1,700 years ago when “Christianity was still in its infancy, more than a thousand years prior to Europe colonizing the continent.”
“Forgetting that Christianity is both an African religion and a Western religion impacts how we do mission, how we understand our role and the people and places we visit.
“People who have been historically traumatized, held captive by the colonial imagination, told that “we” have the answers to “their” problems and internalized centuries of oppressive influences, are apt to be suspicious of foreigners showing up with answers.”
“At the core of one narrative is a message about who Africans and other non-Western people are, the soft articulation that the economically poor suffer so greatly because they can’t help themselves and need us (Westerners) to rescue them and solve their problems. The messages often also carry the claim that the Majority World needs development according to the Western template, in line with our way of seeing and our vision of what the world could, should, or must be.”
“Theologian and philosopher Kierkegaard noted that when you label someone, you negate them. The process of labeling negates individuality and personhood. People in grave predicaments in foreign countries are not powerless, inept, or incapable, passively waiting for rescue.”
“Mission tends to look like American society: a race to complete tasks, accomplish projects, and get things done—prioritizing product over process—rather than bottom-up approaches that prioritize empowerment of the real experts on issues of poverty and injustice—local people.”
We cannot and should not force ourselves and our ways on others. We must listen more to others and we must learn more from others. We must involve them in the process. People do not always want to be rescued. They may want to be helped but at the same time they want us to respect who they are and what they wish to accomplish.
Mission work involves slowing down and best leveraging the people you want to help. Their commitment and involvement will be a better indicator of the lasting and permanent change that may happen.
And most importantly, I l love what Ryan says, “Wherever we go in the world, God is already there. We don’t bring God or Jesus anywhere.” I think we too often forget this. God is and will always be there. It is now up to us to discern how best we can act when we see the actions that are currently in play. How can we best join them?
Cultural Intelligence
“Paul did the hard work of translation, interpreting his understanding of Jesus in a way that made sense to people. In Athens, he didn’t just show up and announce a message or speak about his own experience and his personal conversion to Christ. Instead he used Greek concepts and philosophy that people could understand and resonate with. In short, Paul contextualized the message of Jesus so that it would have relevancy to the worldview of the Athenians.”
“Part of the reason God was able to use Paul in such a powerful way was because of Paul’s cultural intelligence—his ability to take culture, both his own and that of others, into account.”
“Cultures are generally centered around one of two organizing principles, individualism or collectivism. Individualist cultures, which include North America, the majority of Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, highly value personal freedom and independence. The locus of organization of these societies is the individual self, where the needs of the individual are more important than the needs of the group.”
“Collectivist cultures, including most of East and South Asia, Latin America, and Africa, are based on an organizing principle that values the group over the individual and emphasize the importance of community and family. Rather than placing highest significance on independence, collectivism emphasizes interdependence.”
We can learn a lot about how to mission by studying the Apostle Paul. Paul understood how to do mission because he did not force it upon others. Paul took his culture and the culture of others into account to best advance his mission work. He contextualized his mission work.
I was particularly intrigued that we must take into account the collectivist culture of East and South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. If we do not, we most likely will fail in our efforts. North America is an individualistic society. We need to make the shift to better understand the collectivist approach or we will not be able to help. We may even do more harm than good.
Next Steps
“Saying yes will be a matter of embracing a deep spirituality, rejoining action and contemplation, remarrying inner life and outward action, embracing the desert spaces, and allowing the false self to be transformed.”
I agree with Ryan. Without inner work, the outer work of mission will not be possible. When we better know who we are and can take this with us and be vulnerable, we will have a better chance at success.
I encourage you to read this honest, articulate and well researched book! You will better understand mission, its cultural context and the desperate need for inner work as part of its process.
Rich Lewis
www.SilenceTeaches.com
February 24, 2021
“Becoming wounded healers is the way forward in global mission and justice work. The journey to a place of mutuality and shared brokenness takes us to the heart of the gospel narrative and the very center of the mission of God.”
Kuja brings a fresh and exciting perspective to missions in From the Inside Out. This book has helped to articulate my own thoughts, and challenged many of my perspectives. Overall an incredible, thought provoking read that I highly recommend.
Kuja brings a fresh and exciting perspective to missions in From the Inside Out. This book has helped to articulate my own thoughts, and challenged many of my perspectives. Overall an incredible, thought provoking read that I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews