Facilitating dialogue to promote open and multi-faceted discussion and awareness

Maybe the Greenhouse images makes for a better analogy.

I’ve become very interested in the concept of economy building.  What is essential to the creation of a healthy economic unit?  At first I thought I would use the tiny, desktop aquariums called EcoSpheres as an analogy for what has been on my mind, but these self-contained systems don’t promote healthy growth.  Rather, they are a testament to how long a system can survive in spite of severe isolation.  I think ais more in line with my thoughts.  Is it possible to create a safe zone for an economy to grow stronger and faster than it would if left to itself?  This question intrigues me; we could potentially bring a whole family of disciplines to the table in an effort to answer it.  Economics, sociology, anthropology – all from viewed through the lens of the “kingdom of God.”

So here’s the setup:  Picture us going to a poverty stricken village in Africa.  We sit down with the village elders, and we tell them that we have some ideas about how to bring health, stability, and prosperity to their people… What would we actually bring them?  Would we be trying to change their mindset, their environment, or their assets… what are the most important factors and in which order?

An Integrated Approach to Discipling the Nations

Here is a concept that has been in the background of my mind as I’ve been pondering this question.   There’s a passage from the book His Kingdom Come (a book about how the kingdom of God has been practically implemented throughout history) that I think would be helpful.  Jim Steir writes in the introduction:  “In 1975 God spoke to Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright, and several other Christian leaders that there are seven spheres of life which influence the values and beliefs of any society…education; religion (church and mission); family; government; economy (including business, science, and technology); celebration (arts, entertainment, and sports); and public communications (media).”

Thus the ideal society should be seeking the fullest expression of God’s principles in their forms of:

• Education
• Religion
• Family
• Government
• Economy
• Celebration
• Public Communications.

Although these seven spheres resonate with me ideologically, I’m still trying to figure out how they can be practically implemented.  To go back to our African village, do the village elders need us to bring a fully packaged, entirely new way of doing all of these spheres?  Or do they just need more money, and they can figure out how to conquer poverty themselves?  I think there’s a happy median between these two interrogatives.  Personally, I’ve studied business and grown up in missions so these are the two filters that I’m most comfortable applying to the situation.  Maybe two people: a missionary educator and a kingdom entrepreneur would be all that is needed to effect change.  So, how do we bring the two-handed gospel to people still outside modernity, outside prosperity?  There must be creative ways to nurture cultural strengths while eliminating the knowledge gap in addition to providing spiritual and economic cultivation.

What I think I’m really asking is: Does the current philosophy of missions work or does a new one need to be developed that includes an economic component?

What do you think?  What have you read?  What can you bring to the table?  I want to begin developing a body of knowledge that could be used to assist those seeking to be builders of social greenhouses, those who are going to the impoverished villages of Africa, Haiti, or our own depressed American communities.