“Doing Missions Like It’s 1930?” Gary Corwin, EMQ 2009 (EMQ subscription required to view, sorry) . While updating my bibliography I ran across this particular article.
In it, Corwin makes three suggestions of what might happen in the near future: 1) agency economic survival will depend upon a somewhat different criteria mix than it has in the recent past; 2) the profile of the missionary harvest force will change; 3) missions will become a far more dangerous enterprise for cross-cultural workers.
I can theorize about why today seems like the 1930s–and I relate it to the Fourth Turning’s theory of generational patterns. (See my Generational Future of Missions for a look at this). Both today and the 1930s were in the middle of a “Crisis” period for America (and for many other countries around the world who are on parallel generational tracks).
This is one reason why I think another Student Volunteer Movement really isn’t likely (make no mistake, I’d love if it did). The last SVM got started in 1886, at the beginning of the Awakening period. It was shattered during the Unraveling and subsequent Crisis. It waned in the following High. I don’t think a similar movement could possibly start during either an unraveling or a crisis. I think the opportune time would be a High or, most ideally, an Awakening.
See also
“A Haystack that Changed the World,” Ryan Shaw, EMQ, Oct. 2006.
“Student heroes: do it again, Lord.” Gary Corwin, EMQ, Oct. 2003.
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