A Church Living in a Particular Environment

The end vision of DongTeam.org is an indigenous, reproductive Dong church solidly founded in Christ and the Bible, living in the freedom that comes through Christ and sharing that freedom throughout their own and other people groups.

When we say we want to see an indigenous Dong church, what does that mean? Just recently, DongTeam was sent some thoughts by a fellow prayer warrior on that very topic, and we felt it would be helpful to share those thoughts with all of you.

Slightly altered to fit the DongTeam audience, here is what was said:
The English 'indigenous' is from the Latin word 'indigena' which means "having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment"
At the core of our vision statement is the word "indigenous". If we are to see the vision realized, we need to continually ask ourselves "what does this mean?" and "what are the challenges to seeing this realized?"
I want to think about the word "indigenous". It reminds us that our goal is not for something foreign or transplanted, but for something that has grown up in the context of the people to whom we are called.
Of course, there is a foreignness to the good news. It is not "occurring naturally" among the peoples to whom we are sent or for whom we pray, otherwise they would not be unreached. It is a "mystery which has been kept hidden … but is now disclosed" (Col 1:26).
However, we don't want it to remain foreign, and we don't want the church movement that is the result of people receiving the good news to be foreign. We want it to be something that is "produced, growing, and living" in their culture.
We would love to hear your comments on an "indigenous church" by visiting the DongTeam Prayer Journal page for this entry by following the link above.