It's so easy.... What you do is plant a church with a few "experienced" leaders (probably 22-27 years old) that have done this at a very unreached Baylor University campus. (The only more unreached campus might be Liberty or Oral Roberts.) They have multiplied a lifegroup, raised up interns, and done an intensive year of biblical study at Elevate and 24:14 (formerly Master's Commission and Antioch Training School) and Staff Values Training. The curriculum is mainly inspirational teaching that if you pray, fast, and believe hard enough you will be the channel that the Holy Spirit uses to bring about the long-awaited revival for some forgotten war-torn country in the 10/40 window. You learn about the country by reading wikipedia, a few guidebooks, and the Operation World prayer guide. Since you know more about the country than the average ignorant-on-world-affairs American you must be ready to go!
The plan is to go hangout in the country and learn the language. You don't want to get a job in the country because that takes too much time away from planting churches. You don't want to learn the language before you go, because that will delay the urgent revival that is going to happen there. You spend a year "working" in the U.S. by support raising. You've been told that you are sacrificing the best years of your life to spread the gospel so you think you need a salary that is at least as good as people serving themselves by working 8-5 in the U.S. You have to include airfare to all the retreats, conferences, and furloughs. You also need money for trips out of the country every six months to renew your visa because you aren't in the country as missionaries or employees (you didn't take time to prepare for something like that). You are in the country technically as tourists.
You take your training guide from AMI and expect to spend the first year learning the language and hanging out with people; your second year building a core church; your third year continuing to build your church and establishing a training school, your fourth year raising up new leaders and by year five you are outta there! Now you are off you your next country to establish a world-wide movement of revival. You don't get bogged down by things that affect other missions organizations like relief work. You stay focused - purposeful.
I don't know where the timelines and missions philosophy came from, but I know that these goals - touted as the way that God works - often fail miserably. The number of churches that Antioch has planted is always used as proof that they are abiding in Jesus and that their process is better than all others.
What is never discussed is failure.
Numerous mission teams have fallen apart. They go live the life as expats in a foreign land, but unlike other normal people, they don't have jobs. They might live a life of wealth that many in that land could never hope to attain. They hang out at shops or the tennis club (seriously) and find ways to strike up conversations with people about Jesus. Well, they don't speak the language for a long time, so the first and often only people that they befriend are those that already speak English. Someone in Uzbekistan, Russia, Lebanon or Turkey who already speaks English and sees wealthy Americans who don't have jobs must be pretty interested. "Please tell me about this Jesus." He must be the secret to their success.
Many teams don't ever stay long enough to really learn the language. They are not committed for the long term because the AMI training guide told them that they should be sailing along after a few years. When this doesn't happen, they question themselves, they question God, and they quickly have a revelation that God is pointing them in a new direction! Home.
These decisions are never discussed from the front of the church at ACC on Sunday morning let alone analyzed to learn from failure. The missionaries might come back to AMI for a few months and find a new job supporting the troops in the field or they might silently shrink away. The processes don't change. The machine keeps rolling on.
There are 200 freshmen Baylor students at World Mandate who have yet to experience the real world. They are filled with dreams and ready to take the lead....
Wow!! Thank God there are people out there like you who can see that a relationship with God is personal, not mandated upon via "chosen" individuals.
ReplyDeleteI don't know all the missionaries personally, but I do know several on the field, and some in the 10/40 window. Having a legitimate business on the mission field is how they get into the country in the first place. They are not there as tourists. To run a business while also planting a church is a lot of work, and I commend them for it.
ReplyDeleteI think you should look at the experienced mission organizations and missionaries that commend Antioch on it's people and processes (YWAM, Campus Crusade etc). If AMI is such a failure, why do they have so many good things to say about it and partner with them so much?
Well, Anon, actually.... Antioch has ties to YWAM and has at least been influenced by CRU (Camus Crusade), if during no other time, then while Antioch was still with Highland Baptist-Waco.
DeleteTwo of Antioch-Waco's traditional advisors, Floyd McClung Jr. and Angus (aka "Gus") Hunter, are, to the best of my knowledge, from YWAM. I think that McClung has likewise served with All Nations.
The beliefs and structures of these organizations are similar to one another -- and some ex-members from each of these three groups have come forward alleging spiritual abuse.
Perhaps a better known example has been Laurie Jacobson's alleged experience of abusive practices at a YWAM facility:
"My Experience in YWAM: A Personal Account and Critique of Cultic Manipulation", Cultic Studies Journal, 1986, Volume 3, Number 2, pages 204-233 -- available through the International Cultic Studies Association website:
https://www.icsahome.com/articles/my-experience-in-ywam-jacobson
Ms. Jacobson's alleged experience in YWAM was in several ways not dissimilar to my experience with Antioch-Waco.
Floyd McClung Jr. later wrote a rebuttal to Ms. Jacobson's testimony:
"Authority: Its Use and Abuse", Cultic Studies Journal, 1988, Volume 5, Number 2, pages 237-245:
https://www.icsahome.com/articles/authority--its-use-and-abuse-csj-5-2
I was dismayed by McClung's authoritarian tone in that article, and I was surprised at and concerned by his expectation that people who are not always Christian pray for these leaders who are being accused of abusive practices. I felt that his expectations were kinda not always reasonable, especially for non-Christian researchers of abusive groups.
I was also surprised and concerned that he seemed to demonstrate little concern for the possibility that perhaps there was some problem in his organization in lower ranks of leadership -- a problem that has occurred repeatedly in the Antioch Movement / Antioch-Waco as well.
Frankly, McClung’s response kinda mirrored the sentiment I have noted from Antioch founding pastor Jimmy Seibert and other Antioch leaders. When they have gone on the record publicly – typically Seibert or whoever the senior / founding Antioch pastor is – particularly with Antioch-Waco, it has often to denounce and discredit the abuse survivors and / or researchers, rather than acknowledge the abuses that have occurred and the pattern of organizational failures, most notably connected to the leadership.
So, suffice it to say that these groups have some overlap at least in influence, beliefs and / or organizational structure, if not leadership. Particularly when it comes to overlap in leadership, I would expect these organizations to hold views of one another that are somewhat favorably-biased -- and biased against abused ex-members like me, and allegedly Jacobson. As a result, I do not consider their glowing reviews of one another to be reliable.
But honestly, beyond that, the Bible teaches us to use discernment, anyway.
Excuse me, Campus Crusade (for Christ)... but I think they're known as CRU these days. No, the group doesn't have much to do with Albert Camus -- well, at least as far as I know. I was briefly involved with a CRU group at Baylor I think around my final senior year.
Delete...and "has often been"... man, grammar checkers are so bad anymore... ; )
Thanks for this blog. I can see that you've been there at ACC. you've nailed down quite well many of the young, idealistic, naive and unprepared so-called missionaries that ACC has launched (or failed to launch, as too often has been the case).
ReplyDeleteBut I would also want to draw your attention to people like Bill Adams and Fred Mueller who have eschewed the typical 5 year thingy (I'm guessing because it doesn't work). These are two ACC missionaries who have laid down their lives for the Gospel in rural Russian for the past 15 year, leaving behind the trappings of American wealth and prosperity.
But you hit the nail on the head... Church planting, real Church planting, is a lifetime process, one that can't be developed in an incubator in Waco.
Again, thanks for the great blog. I look forward to checking back again.
Thanks for the comments so far on this post and for some of the "balanced" statements. I agree that there are some great people out there that are the exception. I lament the ones that are no longer out there - questioning what happened, questioning life, questioning God.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe I’m actually going to give this blog any of my time. Over the years a few things about it have increasingly bothered me, so I’m going to dedicate a brief about of time and space to expose the weakness of this blog. I am a Baylor professor and a ten year Antioch Community Church member. My motive is to alleviate the fears of people whose family members attend this church.
ReplyDeleteFirst, anytime any group calls its members to radical obedience, it’s going to be dubbed cult-like. What Antioch does well, and what other churches could stand to learn, is that it asks the congregation to radically, wholly, and completely be obedient to scripture and to what the Lord is speaking. The emphasis placed on spiritual obedience and authority is twofold. First, this church wants to bring God glory in all that it does. Second, this church wants people to experience God’s best, His absolute holiness all the days of their life. Really, the relationship between church and body is not much different than that of father and child. And if you have a sound theological understanding of New Testament churches, you know how biblical this model is.
Second, let us consider some of the people associated with this church, and then ask ourselves whether or not we trust their character. World-renowned speakers such as Max Lucado, Christine Cain, Floyd McClung, and even President of Baylor, Judge Ken Starr, have all graced Antioch’s pulpit. The children of respectable Christian leaders like Max Lucado, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Beth Moore, have attended ACC. Popular Christian artists like Kari Jobe, Shane and Shane, Phil Whickham, and even Chris Tomlin have relationships here. It’s difficult to believe that all of these respected, influential Christian leaders were duped by ACC.
Third, why has little been said about how much this church does for the Waco community and the world? The leadership intentionally planted in the most crime ridden part of Waco. They built homes for themselves and community members. Since their establishment, the crime rate has exponentially decreased. If I am not mistaken, 10% of all the church’s tithe goes directly into the Waco community. For instance, when Waco isd cut school breakfast from their budget, ACC picked up the tab. And to what world disaster has ACC not humbly offered their services? They have built villages in Sri Lanka and Haiti; they organized a medical and supply team after Katrina hit New Orleans, and they did the same for Japan. Every ACC church plant, with which I am familiar, walks out in similar values.
Fourth, and lastly, we would be foolish not to ask: who is espousing such hurtful rhetoric? The truth is, we don’t know. This blogger remains anonymous. I would imagine it’s difficult for any discerning person to trust this male(?) female(? )who hides behind anonymity. What clout, what right does this person have to attack such a church so highly esteemed by tens of thousands? Really, friends, we should take little credence in this blog. Instead, I find myself extending grace to someone who had an unfortunate experience and allowed him or herself to get bitter rather than better.
I absolutely adore the Baylor professor who criticized the blogger for staying anonymous when the professor posted anonymous as well. Too rich for words.
ReplyDelete