Volumes are appearing today about the emergence of missionary-sending movements from churches in countries once seen as receiving nations. Scott Klingsmith’s book examines the social, cultural, and spiritual factors which influenced the rise of four missionary sending movements in East-Central Europe (ECE) after the revolutions of 1989: two in Romania and one each in Poland and Hungary. Cases include a single local church, a specific mission agency, and several national cooperative efforts among churches and agencies. One might question how representative the small number of cases could be. Klingsmith, acknowledging that he chose cases that were accessible and with which he had some familiarity, nevertheless suggests that his approach may be more instructive than attempting to treat all missionary-sending movements across an expanse as complex as East-Central Europe. Klingsmith’s near-emic (insider) perspective is the result of years of ministry in the region. He was witness to ECE missionary-sending movements, and many of his informants consider him an insider.
The research is well rooted in the literature, reflecting the influence of biologist and systems theorist Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy, sociologist Talcott Parsons, and missiologist and anthropologist Paul G. Hiebert. Though Klingsmith speaks of “missionary-sending movements,” he acknowledges that it is still too early to talk of such, as all these groups began sending missionaries less than ten years ago. Klingsmith is to be commended for doing such a study when the church in freedom is still so young. His work may well be one of the “base-line” studies to which researchers will refer in decades to come, as movements grow and proliferate. Klingsmith presents a well-organized “slice of reality,” showing what is happening right now, that is, many small movements. As Malcolm Gladwell, whom he quotes, says, the paradox of the epidemic is “that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first” (The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference [Boston: Little, Brown, 2000], 192).
The book has significance for global Christianity today because it treats churches once seen as “receiving nations” now operating as “sending nations.” Klingsmith moves the reader from four detailed case studies to the larger, global situation in ever greater concentric circles, first looking at countries surrounding Poland, Romania, and Hungary (i.e., Ukraine, Moldova, etc.) and then widening the scope to the worldwide scene.
This insightful book will be particularly fascinating to those who have served in EastCentral Europe, but also for Western missionaries planning to minister in the region and for leaders of Western missions. For those who contemplate working alongside believers in other post-communist churches and societies, Missions Beyond the Wall is a gold mine providing different models churches might consider in seeking to find a truly indigenous way of doing mission.
Editor’s note: Excerpts from Scott Klingsmith’s dissertation, upon which Missions Beyond the Wall is based, were previously published in the East-West Church and Ministry Report 12 (Summer 2004): 9-12; 12 (Fall 2004): 16, 15; 13 (Winter 2005): 12-15; 13 (Spring 2005): 8-11; 13 (Summer 2005): 13-14.
Miriam Charter is Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies, Ambrose University College, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.