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.

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The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity

We do not usually do book reviews around here, but every once in a while, an extraordinary book comes along well worth a mention. Because The Shack so vividly explains who God is through his relationship with the book's main character, it is actually (though you might not think so at first) an excellent book to develop our skills of incarnational ministry.

So, first I ask: What is the essence of incarnational ministry? Our pleasure as Christians is to honor Jesus by joining in the world around us, to be a light in that darkness, so that other may know who he is and what he has done to redeem them from their sin. That may not sound like an answer to that particular question, but what is important is what is not in the answer.

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Fruit and Struggle

Here is a summary of a recent testimony from a couple of fellow believers who lived among the Dong people and struggled to proclaim the good news to them:

The first year was really rough. We saw little progress, and asked God for a certain number of people. And God gave those. Seeing his work, we felt we really should have prayed bigger!

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Movements of God in History

If we long to see the Lord work wonders among the Dong people and establish his Church among them, how do we go about such a huge task? We would do well to look to examples in the past. One of the most successful movements of Christ among the minority peoples in China was undoubtedly among the Lisu people in the early 1900s.

J.O. Fraser served the Lord among the Lisu people of Yunnan Province and, in letters back home, wrote some incredible insights into how the work of God progresses among the unreached:

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Cash or Christ

The case against the Christians in one particular Dong county now has too many witnesses to not be conclusive. The first suggestion that money was a problem came from some of the more experienced foreigners.

Then, as time moved on, almost every foreign visitor to this county who met Dong Christians could see some degree of the desire for money. The root of the problem may lie in a combination of the perceived "richness" of foreigners coupled with the generous attitude of the Christian foreigners who come, but it has now spread to more than just relationships with foreigners. Now, the attitude pervades to relationships with Chinese nationals.

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What Does the Dong Church Need?

We might think it is just foreigners who do not understand the Dong people, their customs, way of life, and worldview. Really, though, the Chinese Three Self church is pretty clueless too. And while we are at it, the Chinese house churches seem to not be much better.

When the Dong church needs teaching, who is going to give it to them? Can materials and teaching methods be brought in from outside and applied to the Dong. Maybe, maybe not, but who is to say? How do we even know when what is taught really applies to the Dong life. Or better yet, starting by looking at the need instead of whether our answers fit their need, who can say what specific teachings the Dong culture most needs to hear?

Lots of questions, but not so many answers, huh? Basically, the answer is we need people on the ground. It does not matter much if they are Chinese nationals or foreigners. The real need is for culturally sensitive folks who are willing to dig into the Dong way of thinking and the Dong way of life. Those folks will be able to pinpoint teaching that will "scratch where the Dong people itch".

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Need for Solid Bible Teaching

A brother and sister who live among the Dong relate this story, which shows some of the pressing needs of Dong Christians:

The first thing they all asked us when we had all sat down in the living room was, "Is it ok to sacrifice to our ancestors?" At first, we did not know quite what to say. The question had a testing feeling to it, as if they were making sure we gave them the same answer as they had heard elsewhere.

Come to find out, several of them had just come from "training" in a nearby city. They receive most of their training from Chinese house church Christians, and though the house church has an incredible zeal for the Lord, they often lack cultural awareness. I do not want to say anything bad about them, but this story is a great example of what we often see in the local Christians.

They had been told, in more or less black and white terms, that sacrificing to their ancestors was wrong. Do not hear me wrong, we very much agreed with the teaching, but these Dong believers did not seem to have any biblical basis for such a statement nor did they understand any of what the Bible says on the topic.

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Drum Towers and Villages Burning

We have talked before about different ways to help Dong communities improve their standard of living. Several methods of doing this are already in action among the Dong people: building schools, providing textbooks, health education classes, flood disaster relief, and much more.

Probably the most devastating and prevalent problem for Dong communities is fire. It destroys entire villages, cultural monuments, keeps children from returning to school, and even worse. The DongTeam Journal has breeched the fire topic before, and this is only a continuation of the same thought.

At the top of every DongTeam.org page sits a pleasant photograph of a Dong drum tower from Dudong in Sanjiang County. That very drum tower is now ashes. More than 100 homes were lost in that fire, taking a beautiful example of Dong ingenuity with it, only four years after being built.

That emtpy spot in the middle of this photograph, in the middle of all the new houses...that is the former Dudong Drum Tower. Sure, drum towers are not more important than people's lives or homes, but this is just a very clear reminder of the prevalent problem of fires in Dong villages. The Chinese government is already quite active in several different fire prevention campaigns, and one in particular is a simple and effective way to try to keep these fires from spreading.

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The Long Term Witness

It is easy to keep talking about what is happening among the Dong people at this very moment, current and up-to-date prayer requests. That is great, of course, but we need to make sure and remember those prayer needs that are so consistent that we have long since forgotten to pray.

In one area, the Dong people have been hearing stories from the Bible very consistently over the past couple years or more. The Christians in this situation are able to proclaim the good news in a very natural and culturally appropriate way. Basically, the Dong are hearing the gospel in a way they can easily understand.

Some of these have become believers. Some are just interested. And more than likely, some are not interested at all. Let's pray for the Dong people hearing this message and for the Christians as they tell the greatest story on Earth.

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Discussing What the Dong Need

How important is it for the Dong church to establish its own identity? How important is Dong music, Dong language, and culture-specific Bible teaching?

Some do not bother with all this culture stuff and just skip straight to presenting the gospel in one form or another. The simple fact, though, is that as an "unreached people group", the Dong people, by definition, are going to be receiving the gospel from outside of their own culture. So, there will be cultural adaptation going on, it is just a matter of who does the adapting, how they adapt, and what they adapt.

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The Convenience of Denying Him

This story comes to DongTeam from a fellow believer:

I was talking with a Dong friend of mine about a small Dong church and the hardships they had been going through. I was saying that every county was different: some places are lax and some are aggressively against the gospel. I mentioned to my friend that those believers had been pressured to sign documents denying their faith and received threats of what would happen if they did not (they did not, by the way).

My Dong friend replied, "Well, there is no harm in saying you do not believe, if that will get you out of trouble." I was taken so much by surprise, I did not quite know how to reply.

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Are Our Training Sessions Just a Temptation to Sin?

"So, why did you become a Christian," one Dong Christian asked another believer she had just met from another area.

"Oh, why would you not become a Christian? You get free trips to go play!"

This interaction was shared with DongTeam a few days ago, and though we do not like to share such negative stories of Dong Christians, this reflects a prevailing mood among Dong Christians, and one that needs much prayer. Let us try to see this interaction from a Dong perspective and find how we can pray specific and direct prayers for our Dong brothers and sisters.

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Training Sessions and Communicating the Gospel

After praying last time for the Dong churches that do not seem to be growing spiritually, it is most fitting that the possible causes of that lack of growth also be discussed and prayed through. Why are they not growing? What can be done to help them grow?

To some extent, the lack of growth is a matter of the Dong Christians themselves not exercising their faith. They could do more, yes, but the example set before them by non-Dong Christians (Chinese and foreigners) is still a very important part to solving this problem.

It is a matter of cross cultural communication. The outsider communicates a message, but those words and actions together mean something different to a Dong person and the received message ends up quite different.

This is a continual process (or should be) on the part of the outsiders to communicate the Gospel in such a way that Dong people will understand that message as the Bible explains it. That is not easy and is a process full of continual challenges, but if not done, the Gospel will die out (just what we are now witnessing happen) because it was never communicated in the first place.

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Call to Kingdom Business

The Chinese government seems to have stopped renewing registrations for non-government organizations. The effects of this move are yet to be fully realized, but the Dong too could be affected.

At least one China-registered organization works among the Dong people, providing free medical services by foreign medical volunteers and basic hygiene training workshops for villagers. Even before the registration renewal problems, this organization and others have faced many difficulties to providing non-profit services to China's countryside peoples.

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The Problem with Sharing Christ in Dong Villages

"I am not eloquent...but am slow of speech and of tongue" (Ex 4:10). God had a message to speak through Moses, but Moses did not exactly agree with God's plan. Many of us, Dong included, suffer from the same "uncircumcised lips."

We need to pray for our Dong brothers and sisters. One particular group of believers has not grown for over six years. There are none beyond the initial few believers and they feel no motivation to share any further in their home village or area.

What is really going on? When we dig a little deeper to understand the trends and motivations behind the actions of our brothers and sisters, how can we help? How do we pray? We do not want to apply the Exodus verse too liberally and imply that they are not sharing enough.

We also have a message, though. And we definitely have a mandate from Christ to share that message. Still we struggle with our Dong brothers to find the best way to encourage and pray for them. In the process, we just might hear words for ourselves.

This group of Dong believers has had a lot of interaction with foreigners. One possible problem is that they are mimicking the only pattern they know: what they have seen the foreigners do. Foreigners are, by definition, not local; they travel from place to place and do not put down roots in all of the villages they visit. That same model does not necessarily work for a Dong believer.

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Faith in God Alone

Humans so easily put their faith in other humans. We so easily lose our sole dependence on God. We begin to lean on what we can see and hear in this world, instead of turning again and again on the Lord to lead us and guide us.

We all have experienced it and know how strong this tendency runs in all of us, and knowing this, we need to pray for our Dong brothers and sisters. The believers mentioned in the last entry are facing this problem.

They have had Christians coming from other areas to teach them, but now seem to place their faith in that teaching rather than their personal experiences with God himself. They talk about the teachers and the next teaching session instead of about Christ and the Word.

This tendency is made all the easier because the Chinese Bible is so difficult to read for these Dong believers, usually with only a middle school education. Spending time in the Word and studying it together is not an easy thing to do, and often the difficulty of the language itself can strip the fulfillment of time in the Word. Waiting for the next person to come along and give a teaching is much easier.

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Intent on Music

From a recent prayer journey participant:

What caught my attention while visiting the Dong was their creativity expressed through music. As we walked through villages we heard recorded singing, and saw how intent the people were to listen.

Seeing their love of music brought my thoughts to Revelation 7:9-10:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb...And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb."

This passage brought joy inside to think that one day we will be singing alongside Dong brothers and sisters in Christ. Let's pray this verse for the Dong believers, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (Col 3:16).

Missions, Movements, and Evangelism

In his 1981 book Freedom of Simplicity, Richard Foster makes a high challenge to the way we view missionaries and the communication which we should expect from them:

Missionaries need to quit boring us with technicolor travelogues and plunge us into an understanding of the theology of missions, the sociology of people movements, and the anthropology of cross-cultural evangelism.

What Richard Foster is describing is the role the professional missionary should play. As it stands, it is very easy for missionaries to give us exactly what we expect. Few of us want to dig deep into the theology of missions, sociology of other peoples, and anthropology of cross-cultural evangelism. We just want some pretty pictures and an avenue through which we can feel as if we are involved in missions, though missionary and Church alike are only scratching the surface of the need.

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Time for Discipling Oral People Groups

We have already seen that chronological Bible stories are one of the most effective methods for evangelizing and discipling oral peoples. What is the cost? Why do we not do it more?

Time and access. Some of the problem is the lack of understanding of oral people groups, and a reliance on "the way I have always done it" methodology. Even after we understand the people, their culture, how they see the world, and we already know how to communicate the Gospel, this is a very time costly method.

We actually have to be there. You cannot pass out the tract for this one. Yes, recordings of the stories can be distributed, but well grounded teaching and explanation needs to follow. Somebody has to teach the teachers. Somebody has to tell the stories over and over. Somebody has to apply the stories and lessons to the daily lives of the Dong people, and to do that, must be with them on a daily basis.

Here is where the biggest obstacle to the Gospel, in the Dong context, becomes clear: it is difficult for any outsider to be able to locate and live close the Dong people, and therefore, the large amount of time needed to grow the church through oral methods is broken into short trips from a larger city.

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Discipleship Models in Oral Cultures

We have been looking into oral people groups and how to see church growth among them. The Dong are an oral people. The primary factor of classifying them as an oral culture is not that they do not have Christian materials in their language and are forced to turn to the limited Chinese materials (basically, just the Bible and little else). The main factor is that Dong people better respond to and more easily remember and ingest oral teaching and stories.

Those that work among the Dong need to think through the issues and model a style of chruch growth founded in the written word, but communicated through the spoken word. Those of us praying for the Dong should not only pray for those who have to grapple with these issues, but also glorify God for the Dong church he is making.

Ultimately, we only water, and we would do well to study the best places and methods for our watering. It is God who provides the growth. Since the work is God's and we are in communication with God, we should be before the throne praying in Spirit and truth, glorifying God as he accomplishes his work the way he knows will work best among the Dong people.

How Do We Disciple through Stories?

We may be able to recognize an oral culture when we see one. We may even be able to adjust the style of evangelism to fit an oral culture by storying chronologically through the Bible. These two tools or adjustments would greatly improve our efforts to bring all the people of the world to a better understanding of who Jesus is. Once they believe, though, how can the church continue to grow and disciple if there is no written language?

This is a crucial problem for the chruch in many people groups; the problem of church growth in oral cultures is not restricted only the Dong, or even the people groups of China.

Storying has proven effective even in non-oral cultures: even people who have grown up in the church in the United States have listened dumbstruck upon hearing the core message of the Bible communicated through basic chronological storying. They had masses of Bible knowledge, but had never clearly caught the central themes of the Bible. They had a huge ring full of keys, all important, but among the boggling number of keys did not realize which ones opened the front door.

Storying is especially effective for evangelism. As we have seen, even in non-oral cultures, it has the ability to clearly explain the core truths of the Bible in a way that paints a much clearer image of Jesus. Once these people come to Christ, though, how do they grow? Can stories also be used for church growth, for discipling?

The quick answer is "yes." But how? The greatest problem is not the method. One person can learn what they need, a particular set of stories and a set of teachings connected to those stories, and share those with the church on a regular basis. The problem is how these things can be easily replicated in the church.

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Evangelism in Oral Cultures

It may sound like a ridiculous question, but how do we share our faith in an oral culture? The answer greatly depends upon how the person sharing is accustomed to sharing in their home culture. How should the presentation of the Gospel be adjusted for an oral culture?

We should not assume there will ever be any one answer to a question like this, but we are wise to ask these questions so that the Gospel is better understood and received among all the peoples of the earth.

One answer is right in front of us. It is encapsulated in the true message of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not a wordy history of the Hebrew people nor a well preserved collection of legends and stories from the Jewish culture. The only message from Genesis through the prophets is God's one big answer to our one big problem.

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Church Growth in Oral Cultures

English speakers have an incredible amount of materials on hand to facilitate learning: books, magazines, web sites, laws, and everything else in print. We all know some languages have no written form; no news there. However, the definition of "oral culture" is far more broad than just language that do not have a written system. Many cultures have that written language, but still tend toward oral communication in passing on culture.

Many of us reading this journal come from non-oral cultures. When we assess what needs to be done for the Gospel to spread among all peoples, we begin to think they need our help to develop a written language, teach them to read, and start producing printed material. When all that is done, what is the value attached to those printed materials, from the perspective of the host culture?

That question is too far off to answer, and likely has many answers for many situations. However, for those of us who long to see a truly Dong church reproducing in a way natural and easily replicable for Dong other people, we have to constantly evaluate what is modeled when non-Dong reach out to Dong.

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Pay or Offering?

There is a fine line between giving money to Christian work with expectations of how it will be used and giving money as a tithe or offering for God's work. In the former, the money is basically pay for expected results. The latter is giving money as a response to God's leading.

It is God's work. When an offering is given to God's work, it is given to support the work on God's terms, not our own. When applied to nationals, they are acting in the wisdom of God to complete his will. Money with expectations will contort God's will. Offerings, however, will support the work as the pastors under God's leadership see fit.

The trick, as mentioned in the previous journal entry, is that the Asian mind and thinking can, and usually does, look for the expectations of those giving the money, even if it was given from a right heart and good motives. Only after a strong relationship has been built, and the nationals clearly understand the expectations (or the lack of expectations), should money be given.

And even then, it should be given according to the local standard of giving, but we can cover this issue later.

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Foreign Money

In Asian society, the one who pays the money is the boss. And the boss is not to be questioned. They will do what they are told, and even what they are not told. In other words, they are always reading between the lines, a trait necessary for communication in an Asian context, to find out what they think you want them to do.

Money can produce ugly results when applied to Christian work. If a national pastor received funds to support his work for the Lord, he would apply all the unspoken expectations of the one who gave the money to his work. He feels he is being paid to fulfill the values of the one giving the money, the values as he has interpreted them.

The first prayer point (more to follow in later journal entries) is simple: when money is applied to spiritual work, the work turns secular. The goals are numbers not souls, results not the glory of God. Let's pray for the Dong pastors as they struggle with this new and formerly unknown problem.

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Indigenous

We have discussed a couple aspects of indigenous up till now. We have mentioned the "three self" aspects and the importance of the church rooted in God. The most important aspect of indigenous, though, could be stated "of the Dong, by the Dong, and for the Dong."

They need to own it. There is a tendency to look to foreigners for financial assistance. There is another very Asian tendency to look to foreigners as the real leaders over the church.

Neither of these can be true. The Dong have to do it for themselves. Foreigners may have some part in God's plan for the Dong church, but ultimately, it is the Dong church. They need to follow Christ's leading as a church.

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More to the Story

There is more to indigenous than those three self principles, though. It is all three of those and more. To slightly revise the Gettysburg Address: the Dong church of God, by God, for God, shall not perish from the earth.

"Indigenous church" is a concept founded in scripture. Or should we say, people are made in his image—heard that somewhere—and thus fundamentally have a "culture" that is of God. The church is not of, by, or for any culture. The church is of God, and as such, can be for any culture.

So, when we pray for an indigenous church among the Dong people, let us keep this in mind. There is a facet of "indigenous" that pertains to God; we are not just talking about a Dong-looking church.

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What is Indigenous?

In China, the state sanctioned Protestant church is called the Three Self Patriotic Movement. It may be an abnormal place to go looking for missiological concepts, but the Chinese government is on to something. What are the three selfs?

• Self Administration - lead from within


• Self Support - financed from within


• Self Propogation - futher evangelization made from within

In the stated vision of DongTeam.org, an indigenous church is our objective as we pray for the Dong church. The American Heritage Dictionary defines indigenous as "originating and living or occurring naturally in an area or environment." The three self priniciples are excellent, and are the ultimate goal, but only touch the "living or occuring" part of the definition.

Let's pray first for this part of an indiginous church: the working out of indigenous principles for those churches that already exist.

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The Verbal Word

What can you do for people that cannot read or write their own language? How do you disciple them? How will hundreds of thousands of people hear the good news?

The Bible is the living word that speaks to us regardless of circumstances, the issues we face, or the background from which we come. It is key in any work of God in any culture; it is the key to solid growth of the church. It is also a book...which complicates work among illiterate people groups.

Audio Bible stories. The Dong people could very much use such materials, and we need to pray for continued development in this area.

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Spreading Out

Not to say that Dong farmers are necessarily poor, but they certainly do not have much cash lying around. Home and food they have for the most part, but if a believer felt led to leave the village to share the gospel in other areas, they are hard pressed to do so.

Foreign funding is not the answer. The answer needs to be sustainable by the Dong people themselves. That is what "indeginous" means on the DongTeam Introduction page. The Dong church needs to be sustainable by Dong people; it needs to be fully Dong, indeginous to the Dong.

In the Bible, there seem to be two different methods (as we read in Paul's letters). The disciples seem to have worked full time off the tithes and offerings of the church. Paul, at least some of the time or in certain places, fully supported himself. Let us pray for the support of our brothers who are going out and sharing the gospel outside the village.

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