This was from a positional paper he delivered on the historical foundation of mission at Torch Trinity Graduate University in 2016. It is readily available on academia.
Thank you, Harvey, for underlining the priority of formation. I was reminded of these paragraphs in Michael Stroope’s book Transcending Mission:
““The ultimate goal is for people to be transformed into witnesses and pilgrims who speak of God and embody the Spirit's fruits of patience, gentleness, humility, love, and unity (Eph 4:1-3). This in turn results in more witnesses and pilgrims; formation begets transformation. The antithesis of formation is mobilization.
Mission mobilizers exist because people must be convinced to do something they are incapable of or don't want to do. Without formation, believers must be forced from outside themselves rather than from within their character and from conviction. They must be convinced to get up from where they are and go to somewhere they are not. The mobilizer's task is to justify mission to churches and individuals with the result that some will surrender to the mission call and others will fund the mission endeavor. The net effect is an overemphasis on the deployment of unformed people.“
Harvey, where did the Thang Deih Lian quote come from?
This was from a positional paper he delivered on the historical foundation of mission at Torch Trinity Graduate University in 2016. It is readily available on academia.
Thank you, Harvey, for underlining the priority of formation. I was reminded of these paragraphs in Michael Stroope’s book Transcending Mission:
““The ultimate goal is for people to be transformed into witnesses and pilgrims who speak of God and embody the Spirit's fruits of patience, gentleness, humility, love, and unity (Eph 4:1-3). This in turn results in more witnesses and pilgrims; formation begets transformation. The antithesis of formation is mobilization.
Mission mobilizers exist because people must be convinced to do something they are incapable of or don't want to do. Without formation, believers must be forced from outside themselves rather than from within their character and from conviction. They must be convinced to get up from where they are and go to somewhere they are not. The mobilizer's task is to justify mission to churches and individuals with the result that some will surrender to the mission call and others will fund the mission endeavor. The net effect is an overemphasis on the deployment of unformed people.“