When Martin Luther attached his 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg, he had no idea what would transpire in the coming years. While not wanting to be too dramatic I think it’s fair to say that when Radius first started training students, we were just getting a glimpse into what was going on in missions and what would happen in the next few years. 

The catalyst that caused the idea of Radius to gather momentum from 2005-2012 was that the founders felt most missionaries weren’t getting trained well which was resulting in a high attrition rate and a stagnant establishment of healthy churches among unreached people groups. Missionaries were getting trained, but not in historic, biblically founded methods. A whole wave of substitute methods had taken their place.

IM (Insider Movements), DMM (Disciple Making Movements), CPM (Church Planting Movements), the Camel Method, B4T, T4T, Any-3, and Four Fields (which contain beliefs in a Person of Peace, Self-Revelation, Self-Correction, the using of unregenerate individuals to lead Bible Studies, and a host of other short cut methods), were what most outgoing missionaries were learning. I personally was told by one seasoned missionary that, “Learning language is old-school, God is now working through dreams, visions, and miracles.” I was stunned; this woman had tremendous influence in the US Center for World Missions (USWMC) and has had no small impact on missions.

Books were being written to support and encourage these methods. Miraculous Movements, by Jerry Trousdale, made the statement, “Do not teach or preach, instead facilitate discovery and obedience. When people are simply exposed to the Scriptures, God will reveal the truth to them.” ¹ If this lack of concern for heresy doesn’t concern you, it should. The cavalier attitudes that such proponents have had regarding error and syncretism are stunning.

‘Church’ got redefined in the new missions’ universe. ‘The gospel,’ too, got a makeover. One writer defined faith as, “Faith is defined as the continuous act of choosing to be obedient to God’s Word regardless of what it may cost, even our lives.”² In such a definition I, and you, would truly be doomed to hell.

One book, a fictional account³, presented a blow-by-blow way to see the gospel move quickly through a people group. It was all hypothetical, yet it was endorsed by leaders in Frontiers, Pioneers, IMB, Perspectives in World Missions, e3 Partners, AIM, and many others. It had 7 full pages of endorsements! This and many other books have come off the presses in the last 20 years hailing the victories and speed that these new methods claim to offer.

As the tidal wave (of course with exceptions) of momentum and excitement to use these new methods was building it was also pushing to the side voices that would not get on board. Over the years, Radius has invited most of, if not all, the main voices of these new techniques to come down to our campus, to take two hours in front of our students to lay out the biblical rationale for these new methods, and then address questions our students have. They could not make a case. NONE of the proponents of the ‘new way’ could do anything more than tell stories of ‘how it is working.’ Attempts to use the Scriptures to support the new methods failed each time.

Finally, after years of waiting for a book that would expose the huge divide in missions today, that book came out in 2022 and it has stirred up no small controversy. When the emperor finds out he has no clothes on, it’s embarrassing. In No Shortcuts to Success, Matt Rhodes⁴ wrote carefully about what has happened over the last two decades.

The point of the book was not to denigrate any person or agency, but the reality happens to be that missionaries from one particular mission board, the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), were responsible for the creation of the majority of these new methods. In time most of the creators of these new methods left the IMB but their methods still live on and are used and endorsed by many.

So, it was no surprise to read Zane Pratt and Mark Stevens (both men are highly placed in the IMB) critical review of Matt Rhodes’ book. To summarize their critique, they ended their article with this sentence, “These misrepresentations are so egregious that we are compelled to recommend that no one read, distribute, or teach from this book.” Here is Rhodes’ response to the review.

That statement didn’t cause us at Radius to be surprised. We have seen over the years a growing inability to have respectful, fact-based vs. story-based conversations regarding these new methods. Discussing ideas and the biblical foundations that undergird those ideas has become rare. But to BAN A BOOK was unheard of. The emperor is rightly embarrassed. Early on one agency actually asked us to stop sending out the Radius Report as for years the Radius Report was nearly the only voice questioning the new methods. That is not the case today. We know many agencies have allowed these new methods within their doors. But once a missionary claims to have planted, 5, 10, 50, or 500,000 (as one CPM proponent claimed in front of our students) churches in short time frames, it is hard to undo that narrative.

Yes, the divide in the missions world is now being noticed by many, and those finding themselves using the new methods are being questioned in ways they weren’t before. More and more methods in missions are being critically evaluated…. and they should be. The divide is real and increasingly obvious.

Are the proponents and practitioners of the new methods actually in the same state spiritually as the Roman Catholic church was when Luther took his stand? Of course not. I don’t believe anyone in this discussion is doubting the salvation of those they disagree with. But make no mistake, these new methods and historic methods do not – cannot – co-exist! One is NOT a slight derivative of the other.

Historic methods that mandate language and culture fluency, clear teaching of the Word of God by competent teachers, careful discipleship of new believers (not laying hands quickly in appointing leaders of churches), churches that meet a full New Testament driven definition (not just “where two or three are gathered,” Matt. 18:20) are not a kissing cousin of the new methods. They are a universe apart.

Some feel the cure is better theological preparation for workers and, in some cases, this may be true. But the reality is that many well-grounded workers have, when it comes to missions methods, set aside their theological moorings. The pressure for results in the missions world at times is huge. I personally know of well-trained workers who have been denied financial support because they would not guarantee their church quick results.

We know that those who read the Radius Report care about seeing the gospel proclaimed to every tongue, tribe, and nation. Please pray that new missionaries would be aware enough of the two very different worlds they are being presented with to get biblically sound preparation.

 

 

¹ ‘Miraculous Movements’ by Jerry Trousdale, Thomas Nelson, pg. 106
² ‘Contagious Disciple Making’ by David and Paul Watson, pg. 37
³ ‘Stubborn Perseverance’ by James Nyman (pen name)
⁴ ‘No Shortcuts to Success, a Manifesto for Modern Missions’, by Matt Rhodes, forward by Mark Dever, Crossway Books