The best way for a local church to conduct missions today is to send the whole church, according to Bob Roberts in his remarkable book, Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World. Ordinary church members with skills in agriculture, water treatment, medicine, small business, law and other areas need to become involved and connect internationally. We need to go and live out the kingdom, and lives will be transformed, leading to the establishment of churches, rather than the other way round.
We also need to re-think missions trips. The current purpose of most missions trips is to make the team members feel good, not to maximise the value to the recipients. Instead of going and constructing houses, we should be using the funds as seed money for new businesses which enable employees to afford to purchase houses by monthly payments over a period of time. This creates sustainable economic improvement in the community, rather than inadvertently increasing dependence.
The author advocates a policy of “knocking on the front door”; that is, approaching the leadership of a country and offering to serve, rather than going into the country as “secret missionaries”. He writes extensively about his experience in Afghanistan, Vietnam and other countries which are typically regarded as “closed” to mission work. The book is filled with fresh and challenging ideas. I highly recommend it.