Historical Profiling: Missionary Toolbox Part 2

Last post was about a useful instrument for a missionary - the Profile. This post continues that discussion with another dimension within that instrument: Understanding the History of your people group.

In order to find out more about the current status of your people group and their current worldview, it is helpful to look at their history. Here are some questions to consider *Adapted from Dr. Bob Brown of the International Mission Board (name changed for security purposes):

1. Write a brief narrative of how your people group came to their current geographic location.

*Bob Brown says that history is written not with ink but with blood. Take a careful note of where battles or assassinations occurred. 

2. Describe the most significant events for your people group or their country (ie. specific geographic segments, who was involved, cultural practices that continue to this day as a result). Paint a word picture of the story of the people group's salvation/victories through these events. Try to come up with the 5 most important stories of this people and contemplate any insights this has for your ministry. How can you start in conversation about these events to move to a spiritual conversation?

3. From the info you discover in these stories, identify any bridges and/or barriers to sharing the gospel of Jesus.

4. How does this historical information shape how a New Testament church would look and function within this people group (size, location, leadership, practices)?

Profiling: A Missionary's Strategy Toolbox

While serving in Central & Eastern Europe, I received strategy training (along with other International Mission Board strategists). One really effective tool developed by a great strategic thinker (whom I will call Dr. Bob Brown* for security purposes) is a Profile for understanding the people group with whom you'll be working. This tool was adapted from cultural research that Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins completed in Kenya. Over the next few posts, I'll share various dimensions from that tool. It is my hope that it might be used in your ongoing church planting and cross-cultural evangelism efforts wherever you are. For those doing cross-cultural ethnic work in the greater Atlanta area, pay careful attention to each dimension, no matter how recent the people group has emerged. Also, please keep in mind that to study an urban structure, each part within the city must be "mapped."

The first dimension this tool highlights is the "Geographic Dimension". Dr. Brown poses several questions for your consideration using a geographic map. Dr. Brown suggests we think in terms of major traffic channels, major intersections, specific neighborhoods, geographic areas where groups gather in homogenous groups, and specific landmarks. These are the type of questions he poses:

1. How would you describe the geographic features where your people group lives?

2. How does your people group travel? Do they use cars or public transportation? Why?

3. What is the distance your people group will travel to shop? to worship?

Dr. Brown suggests looking at those physical features of the geography and then contemplate the social importance your people group places on each item. What are the major water sources? Is there a history behind where people settled? What are the boundaries of land and water? Are there any mountains? Are there any areas that traffic has to pass to get from point A to point B?

And the big question: Do you take a different route or enjoy different landmarks than your people group?
The way you answer that question might make the difference between an unreached people group and a new church plant!

*A good example of a church in Texas using this tool to "map" out their people group can be found here.

Moscow: Missions in the Context of Urban Need

An Article from Evangelical Missions Quarterly, April 2013

Many evangelicals are beginning to engage a cultural strategy (A-E-I-O-U) that touches five cultural issues in Moscow. Buck Burch talks about how Evangelical Christians in Russia's capital have crafted a strategy for meeting needs as a part of their emerging urban missiology. 

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