AVOIDING THE OFF ROAD EXPERINCE

Parachurch Ministry: An Outlet for the Pew Person’s Ministry Passion

I did a shape workshop yesterday (that is a workshop that helps people look at their spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personalities and experiences for ministry) and not one person was sure what they wanted to do for a ministry. Out of 26 people not one! We have trained them well.

Some national events have been both immediately visible and have had a lasting impact on the U.S. For example Dec 7th, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the September 11, 2001 the terrorists attack in New York. Even the Scopes “Monkey Trial” had a visible and immediate impact on churches and the culture at large. In contrast to those events, there were probably only a handful of people who were aware of the first U.S. chapter meeting of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in the in 1939. The initial chapter meeting may have been inauspicious, but it signaled the beginning of the modern American Parachurch Movement.

Anyone born since 1939 has lived all their lives during the greatest Parachurch explosion in 2,000 years of Church History. There have been Parachurch organizations around for hundreds of years. (In the broadest sense a Parachurch organization is, “any Christian organization that works alongside the church, but is itself not a church”).

Actually, most of the early monastery movements began as Parachurch ventures. But, the sphere of Parachurch activity and influence has reached unparalleled heights in America since World War II. Stephen Board wrote an article entitled “The Great Evangelical Power Shift” in 1979. In the article he said that Parachurch organizations were clearly having more mission impact in the culture at large than the churches were.

Why Has Post WWII America Produced More Parachurch Organizations Than Any Other Generation in the 2000 Year History of the Church?

Ironically, the grand daddy of the American Parachurch Movement, Inter-Varsity, came from Great Britain. Since World War II, however, there has been an astonishing number of Parachurch organizations birthed on American soil. That leads us to a cause-effect question; why did the post WW II generation of American Christians create the largest number of Para church organizations in the history of the church? I think that the answer is two-fold. Para organizations provide the only outlet for “local mission passion” for thousands of church lay people. They are the only ministry alternatives available to those who want to travel “off road.” Plus the Para organizations are sensitive to the emerging people groups. It is the recognition of a new people groups, e.g. people with AIDS, that spurs the creation of new Parachurch organizations.