Book Excerpts and Notes
The Great Omission
Steve Saint
Chapter 1:
• Connecting it to the Waodani - Lots
of people showed up to do things for them. No one did it with them and let
them continue.
Chapter 2 - the need is too great:
• The need is too great for current
model of missions. 100,000 missionaries. 3 billion people yet to receive the
offer Christ made them
Chapter 3 - Dependency:
• Deception of dependency
◦ Perceptive nationals will begin
pitting one foreign aid organization against another. Competitive dependency
beats helpless dependency.
◦ "Not only is dependency one of the
devil's most frequently used barriers to stop the spread of Christ's message
of forgiveness, but it is one of the longest lasting. Once established, it
is extremely difficult to break." (53,54)
◦ Guard against dependency
◦ If they didn't build it, they don't
own it, and they won't repair it.
◦ "When, in the name of Christ's
Comission, we do for indigenous believers what they can and should do for
themselves, we undermine the very church that God has sent us to plant"
(56).
Chapter 4 - Myth of formal education:
• Dentistry Story - we do damage to the
gospel when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to for having
formal education. Indigenous brothers and sisters have what it takes. We
need them and their help.
Chapter 5 - Myth of technology:
• Ravi Zecherias - "If you want to know
what water is like, don't ask the fish." If you want to know about
technology, don't ask a North American... we're immersed in it.
Chapter 6 - Ways technology CAN help:
• Three most important relevant areas
of technological need - transportation, communication, and "door-openers."
Chapter 7 - Myth of Money:
• Money is like medicine. You take it
in specific doses.
• In the U.S. we perceive money like
so: too little is what you make. "Enough" is more than you make. And "Too
much" can never happen. For a development project to work, ask not only how
much is enough, but how much is too much.
• "Too much money is more often the
cause of mission failure than too little."
• Try and get new Christian
communities:
◦ Self propegating (leading others to
Christ)
◦ Self governing (organize and police
their own affairs)
◦ self-supporting (support their own
ministries)
• * Not only can they not afford lots
of the tools we use, I can't afford them! Only an organization can!
Chapter 8 - Critical observations:
• Are we on the right road? Ask the
tough questions. You have to do God's will, God's way.
• "In missions it's more important that
what we do is productive on the receiving end than that we feel good about
it on the sending end." (148)
• "Whenever possbile, believers should
work within their own culture. The exception to this is the necessity that
the message and church need to be planted in every people group where it
doesn't yet exist." The purpose, then, of missions is to plant the
church where it doesn't exist so that it can then evangelize it's own world.
(158)
Mincaye's observations about U.S. culture
• Foreigners are always in a big hurry,
but spend most of their time sitting down.
• Some strangers are very friendly,
like the ones that "gave" us food, but most of the other foreigners seem
very angry. They won't talk to anyone for very long
• Foreigners don't like to talk to each
other much. Lots of times they drive away from everyone and then talk to
them on little things they wear on their belts.
• In airports, when they can't get away
from each other, they all sit close but look away from each other and talk
into those same little things on their belts.