Perspectives On The World Christian Movement Lesson 12 slides from instructor Mike Bell, Director of Global Missions Group www.globalmissions.org

1. Christian Community Development
MikeBell,
Executive Director, Global Missions Group

3. Terms
RELIEF -- urgent provision of resources to reduce suffering resulting
from a natural or man-made disaster.
REHABILITATION -- restoring a community to pre-disaster
conditions and rectifying the conditions which brought about the
disaster.
DEVELOPMENT-- a process enabling a community to provide for its
own needs, beyond former levels, with dignity and justice. It involves
improved capacity & indigenous engagement.

4. NEED: RELIEF, REHAB OR DEVELOPMENT?

5. NEED: RELIEF, REHAB OR DEVELOPMENT?

6. RELIEF, REHAB OR DEVELOPMENT?

7. Need Relief, REHAB or
Development?

8. Often places that
require
development are
filled with
ingenuity…

9. Secular development --
is designed to improve living conditions &
encouraging a higher quality of life…it believes
people can improve their circumstances through
outside help and human effort. The question:
what are the physical needs?
Biblical development--is God-centered; seeking to honor
God, relying on Him as the principal participant in the
process of man’s healing. The question: what are the
spiritual & physical needs, and how does the Gospel & a
Biblical worldview inform the solution? End game: God is
glorified.
Secular & Biblical Development

10. The Range of Physical Necessities
The Wheel of Development
Sanitation
Spirituality
Health
Shelter
& Clothing
Communication
Education
Economics &
Infrastructure
Transportation
Income production
Climate &
Weather
Water & Food
Environment & Energy

11. Model of Participation
Type of Involvement of Local
People
Relationship of
Outsiders to Local
People
Coercion Locals submit to predetermined plans developed
by outsiders
Doing To
Compliance Locals assigned to tasks, often with incentives,
by outsiders who decide and direct the process.
Doing For
Consultation Locals opinions are asked, outsiders analyze
and decide on a course of action
Doing For
Cooperation Locals work with outsiders to determine
priorities; responsibility remains with the
outsiders to direct the process.
Doing With
Co-learning Locals and outsiders share their knowledge to
create appropriate goals and plans, execute those
plans and evaluate the results.
Doing With
Community Initiated Locals set their own agenda and mobilize to carry
it out without any outside initiators and facilitators.
Responding To

13. Why should community development matter
to Christ followers?

14. Isaiah 58:10…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in
the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
God’s expressed heart for the marginalized
Matthew 5:15-17
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead
they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may
see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

15. An act of worship
Proverbs 19:17
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will
reward them for what they have done.
Matthew 25:45
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for me.’

16. It dovetails into UPG evangelism

17. Galatians 3:8-9
8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the
Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel
in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be
blessed through you.”
What is the Gospel?
Because of the Gospel Of The Kingdom

18. 1 Corinthains 15:3-4 ”…Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”
The broader context…
24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the
kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all
dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he
has put all his enemies under his feet. 26

19. “This inscription is from around 9 BC….
It says that “Providence … [sent
Augustus] as a savior [σωτῆρα]” and
claims “the birthday of the god
Augustus was the beginning of the
good news [εὐαγγελίων, euangelion,
gospel] for the world that came by
reason of him.” This “good news”
propagated various messages, such as
the royal victory, ascension, or birth of a
king. For Paul, the true gospel certainly
proclaimed the reign of a king, namely
Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 17:3–7). The
gospel is a royal declaration.”
Jackson Wu, lecture at Singapore
Bible Seminary

20. The kingdom of God: the central message of the
New Testament;
• The phrase “Kingdom of God/Heaven” is spoken by
Jesus over 90 times in the four Gospels.
• The Kingdom is the center of John the Baptist's
proclamation about Jesus (Mark 1:15, Matt. 3:2)
• When Jesus sent out his disciples, he sent them to
“preach the Kingdom of God and heal the sick.” (Mt.
10:7-8; Luke 9:2)

21. • The first thing Jesus spoke about was the Kingdom (Mark 1:14-
15; Matt 4:17)
• The last thing Jesus spoke about to His disciples was the Kingdom
(Acts 1:1-3)
• Jesus said the purpose he was sent to earth for was to preach the
Kingdom (Luke 4:42-44)
• Most of the parables Jesus taught were about the Kingdom or living
in it (Matt. 13:19, 24, 31, 33)
• Jesus said the gospel of the Kingdom must be preached
everywhere before he returns (Matt. 24:14)
• Acts begins and ends with the Kingdom (Acts 1:3, 28:30-31)

22. Every kingdom has;
• A king
• Subjects
• Rule (a “constitution” or laws)
• A realm
Colossians 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all
his fullness dwell in him, and through him to
reconcile to himself all things, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, by making peace through
His blood, shed on the cross.

23. “There is not a square inch in
the whole domain of our
human existence over which
Christ, who is Sovereign over
all, does not cry, Mine!”
― Abraham Kuyper

24. Addressing a broken world (development) is a
Kingdom activity
Matthew 6:10
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven”
The Kingdom Of God is Any realm where God’s will
is Done.
So what is His will?

25. Matthew 28:18-19
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age.“

27. Wholistic Jesus:
Matthew 4:23
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every
disease and sickness among the people.
Jesus taught truth (metaphysical), how to live (physical) and
about the afterlife (metaphysical). He delivered the possessed
(physical/metaphysical), healed, fed, increased the capacity of
a fishing business & stood up against corruption (physical).

28. God’s will: Disciples who replicate and reflect
His glory wholistically through;
• Truth (reality/redemption)
• Justice (obeying truth)
• Compassion (widows-orphans-aliens –the
impoverished)
• Beauty (image bearers reflecting the
creator in creating)

29. Kingdom Culture and the Great Commission
TRUTH
BEAUTY
on earth
as it is
in heaven
DEMOGRAPHIC
GEOGRAPHIC
Thy kingdom come, Thy
will be done
Kingdom
Culture
Progress (Isaiah 9:7): “of the increase of his
government… there will be no end”
Time (Matt. 28:20b)
“until the end of the age”

30. The Gospel is the good news that the Kingdom of God has
come and King Jesus is reigning over the cosmos. Jesus
paid the penalty for sin on the cross, conquering death
through his resurrection and reconciling all of creation to
himself. He offers eternal life to all who believe, repent and
give allegiance Him. His redeemed followers, in relational
obedience to all Jesus commanded, “salt” society in the
power of the Holy Spirit, bringing truth, justice and beauty into
every sphere of existence. The result of more people
following Jesus is more human flourishing, spiritually and
physically until His return, to the glory of God.

31. GOD
Coram Deo: before the
face of God
Faith
Science
Business
Missions
Justice
Devotional
Life
Art
Bread
Reason
Theology
Ethics
Politics
Evangelism
Nature
Community
Service
Gospel
A Biblical worldview of God and man leads to
wholistic living & flourishing (aka development);

32. William Carey, a Wholistic Gospel
Missionary, linguist,
humanitarian, moral reformer,
and educator.
Helped to outlaw infanticide in
1802
Established schools for
females
Helped to end sati, widow
burning in 1829

33. William Wilberforce; a Wholistic Gospel
Championed causes and
campaigns such as the Society for
the Suppression of Vice, British
missionary work in India, the
creation of a free colony in Sierra
Leone, the foundation of
the Church Mission Society,
the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, and abolition of
the slave trade in the United
Kingdom.
Does this diversity reflect an
evangelical posture today?

34. Reaction
“Fundamentalists”
A Church Divided…
Accommodation
“Modernists”
Church
Secularism
Pessimistic
Eschatology
Liberal
Theology

35. The false distinction;
*Faith
*Grace
*Missions
*Ethics
* Theology
* Evangelism
* Discipleship
* Devotions
Secular
GOD
Physical
* Works
* Reason
* Business
* Politics
* Science
* Economics
* Mass Media
* The Arts
‘Physical’ Ministries
Social Justice
Weekdays
Spiritual Disciplines
Spiritual Warfare
Sundays
Spiritual

36. Good News for the Whole Person
"You can give
without loving.
But you cannot
love without
giving."
- Amy Carmichael
“One cannot save
and then pitchfork
souls into heaven…
Souls are more or
less securely
fastened to their
bodies…and as you
cannot get the souls
out and deal with
them separately, you
have to take them
both together."

37. “An individual gospel without a social gospel is a soul without a
body and a social gospel without an individual gospel is a body
without a soul. One is a ghost and the other is a corpse.” E.
Stanley Jones, The Unshakeable Kingdom And The
Unchanging Person, page 49

38. Three approaches to social action:
1) Social Action is a consequence of evangelism.
2) Social Action can be a bridge to evangelism.
3) Social Action accompanies evangelism as its
partner.
“The symbiotic ministry implies that both evangelism and social
action, though separate in function, are inseparable in relation, and
essential to the whole ministry of the Church.” Dr. Ted Yamamori,
FHI

39. “One of the most difficult things for some people to understand is why it is
impossible, not just unwise, to think of words and deeds as being separable.
The Bible as God’s Word would be little more than dreamy philosophy if it did
not refer almost constantly to the deeds of God, the deeds of key human
followers, and the deeds of His Son. In the same way, our missionary outreach
must be filled with meaningful deeds or our words run thin and we do not
effectively reveal the character of God. The World Evangelical Alliance speaks
discerningly of Integral Mission or holistic transformation [as] the proclamation
and demonstration of the gospel. It is not
simply that evangelism and social action are to be done
alongside each other. They are not two different things.
Note that “holistic” here does not merely mean the whole
man but the whole of society, the whole of this world.”
Ralph Winter, The Rise, Reduction and Recovery Of
Kingdom Mission 1800-2000, pages 12-13.

40. Is Africa “reached”?
633 Million Christians?
• Zambia 95.5%
• Rwanda 93.6%
• Uganda 88%
• Kenya 85.1%
• Malawi 79.9%
• Ghana 71.2%
• Nigeria 58%
Protestant % only
• Liberia 85.5%
• Namibia 76.3%
• Namibia 68%
• Botswana 66%
• Ethiopia 63.4%
• Swaziland 57.7%

41. Sub Sahara Africa • 388 million living on $1 a
day or less
• 239 million
undernourished
• GDP per capita (current
US$) 1,286
• Life expectancy at birth,
53.8
• Infant mortality rate, (per
1,000 live births) 76.4
• 22.9 million infected with
HIV, 5% of the population
ages 15-49

42. “I spent many hours asking God how this
could be. How could we, as Christians and
especially missionaries, be patting ourselves
on our backs for a job well done in Southern
and Central Africa? How could we speak so
glowingly of the Gospel's great reformation of
Europe and North America and not see that
none of that nation-changing reality is being
experienced in Africa? How could anyone
conceive of this utterly devastated Africa…as
finished?” Landa Cope, The Old Testament
Template

43. If we reduce the Gospel solely to naming the name of
Christ, persons are saved but the social order is
ignored. This is crippled Christianity with a crippled
result.” (Jones 1972). If we act as if individuals are
saved now and the Kingdom is only in heaven when
Jesus comes, then we in effect leave the social order
to the devil. “vast areas of human life are left out,
unredeemed-the economic, the social and political”
(ibid). Into this vacuum other ideologies and
kingdoms move with their seductive and deceptive
claims of a new humanity and a better
tomorrow…shakeable kingdoms all.” – Bryant
Myers, Walking With The Poor

45. What is poverty?

46. Human beings are endowed with infinite dignity and
entrusted with the power to exercise stewardship over the
created world…Poverty is the most extraordinary waste of
human potential…the present disparity that exists between
developing and developed countries…is something to which
we as Christians can never be resigned. We cannot pray the
Lord’s Prayer, “thy Kingdom come” and then sit back and do
nothing about the plight of the poor.” Lord Brian Griffiths of
Fforestfach, For the Least Of These, page 180

47. Metaphysical poverty
• Spiritual blindness (no Jesus)
• Spiritual hunger
(might know Jesus but not His Kingdom)

48. Physical poverty
• Middle and upper class North
Americans tend to emphasize food,
money, clean water, medicine, housing,
jobs, etc.
• Under-resourced people typically talk in
terms of shame, inferiority,
powerlessness, humiliation, fear,
hopelessness, depression, social
isolation and voicelessness.

49. 7 Steps to Physical Poverty
What it feels like to be poor in the developing world…
 Take away ELECTRICITY
 Take away CLEAN WATER
 Take away two of your daily MEALS
 Take away your HEALTH CARE
 Take away most of your CLOTHES
 Replace your HOUSE with a small shack
 Take away your HOPE

50. Hunger
Disease
Lack of
education
Fewer job
opportunities
Can’t Work
Poverty

51. Key thought:
If we don’t understand what truly causes
poverty, we will focus on symptoms, rather than
the sickness.

52. • War (civil & national)
• Corruption
• Resource curse (dependence on exporting, often a
single resource)
• Isolation, making domestic and international trade
difficult
• Current or a legacy of colonial and other exploitative
economic relationships
• Disease and natural disasters
• Poor national and personal decision making
Typical explanations for physical poverty:

53. What causes poverty?
Lies

54. • Human capacity (false limitations)
• Reality (capricious spirit world/closed system)
• Resources (scarcity)
• The future (fatalism)
• Happiness (hedonism)
Lies about;

55. Others
Rest of
Creation
Self
Economic System
Political
System
Religious System
Social
System
Poverty of
Being
Poverty of
Stewardship
Poverty of
Community
Poverty of Spiritual
Intimacy
God

56. John 8:44
44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to
carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer
from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is
no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Where do lies originate?

57. Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms.
Demonically driven...

58. 2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets
itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take
captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and
deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition
and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather
than on Christ.

59. The opposite of poverty is flourishing or
“shalom”
We call it peace, but it means far more than mere
peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies...
shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness,
and delight — a rich state of affairs in which
natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts
fruitfully employed… Cornelius Plantinga, Not The
Way It’s Supposed To Be
• Metaphysical
• Physical

60. What causes flourishing?
Truth

61. John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
John 8:31-32 …“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my
disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free.”
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...

62. • Human capacity (imago dei)
• Reality (benevolent creator/open system)
• Resources (metaphysical to physical)
• The future (progress/potential)
• Happiness
(community/giving/sacrifice/abundance w/o
attachment)
Truth about;

63. Others
Rest of
Creation
Self
Economic System
Political
System
Religious System
Social
System
God

64. 64
Growing Healthy Cultures
Lies a culture holds to be true
Truth the culture embraces
Principles of the
Development Ethic

65. Ideas have consequences.
Fruit = Consequences
Branches = Behavior
Trunk = Values
Roots = Belief System

66. “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both
when they are right and when they are wrong, are more
powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is
ruled by little else….I am sure that the power of vested
interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual
encroachment of ideas.”
—John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory Employment,
Interest and Money, p. 383 (1935)

67. Ideas spread through culture
The Intellectuals
(religion, philosophy)
The Balladeers
(popular music, the arts)
The Professionals
(law, politics, economics)
The masses

68. The Spread of Ideas
 Ideas travel around the globe,
from one area to another.
 Ideas pass to future
generations.
 Ideas diffuse into cultures
through classes of people.
Vertically
Temporally
Horizontally

69. Worldview Impact on Popular Culture
Development
Economics
Environment
Law
Education
FamilyLife
The Arts
Politics
Worldview
Lifestyles
Institutions
Lifestyles
Institutions

70. The strategy; “Inside Out”
Regeneration &
Mindset
Renewal
Family
Church
Sectors & spheres of influence with
Kingdom culture;
Community: Society & Culture
Arts
Media
Commerce
Law
Governance
Mt. 13:31-33,
Parable of the Mustard
Seed & Yeast Science
Education
• Truth
• Justice
• Beauty
• Compassion
• Generosity
• Creativity
• Innovation
• Discovery

71. Conversion and baptism according to the Great Commission do not
mark the conclusion, but the beginning of personal renewal, as well
as the renewal of the family, church, economics, state, and society.
Every individual should become a pupil (disciple) of Jesus Christ. In
the command to teach “them to obey everything I have commanded
you,” the Great Commission includes the exhortation to teach the
whole range of biblical ethics. In transforming the individual, his or
her everyday life, and his or her environment, mission overcomes
sinful structures and visible injustice. Thomas Schirrmacher
Perspectives Issue: 07-2009, The Great Commission – An
Exploration of the Old and New Testament

72. “There can be no economic progress in a country where
there is no social peace. True social peace is grounded
on justice. Justice in turn is a function of righteousness.
And righteousness is possible only when the moral
absolutes of God are affirmed and people are Spirit-
empowered to act rightly.”-- Rev. Dr. Agustin Vencer, Jr.
Former International Director, World Evangelical Alliance

73. Matthew 28:19
“…teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you.“
• Vishal Mangalwadi, “Truth and Transformation”
• Truth Centered Transformation www.tctprogram.com
Acting on truth leads to flourishing…

74. The Challenges of CCD
• Western assumptions
• Corruption
• The sins of poverty
• The Risk Of Dependency
• Finding Solid Field Partners
• Natural/Man Made Disasters

76. Engagement:
• Wholistic Discipleship & ABCD
www.coramdeo.com www.tctprogram.org
• Pastoral/Leadership/Business Training
• BAM: Micro/Medium/Large enterprise
• Surrogate Funded Development Projects
• Relational Ministry
• Church Planting*

77. “Church planting cannot be the final
objective of mission, only the beginning. A
church full of life and love, working for the
good of the community in which God has
placed it, is the proper end of mission.
Transformational development that does not
work towards such a church is neither
sustainable nor Christian.” Bryant Meyers,
Walking With The Poor: Principles and
Practices Of Transformational
Development

78. In China alone, since 1978 over 600 million
have been lifted out of extreme poverty.
Global poverty rates have been halved since
1990 and are on pace to be halved again.
The only way this has been possible is by
embracing the biblical principles of private
property, the rule of law, ingenuity, productive
work, and well-functioning global markets
that encourage and reward our God-given
creativity and talents. Anne Bradley, For
The Least of These page xxv.

79. “Every art has it’s rules to which
the work of the person practicing it
corresponds. Since living is the
noblest work of all, there cannot be
any more proper study than the art
of living…Since the highest kind of
life for a human being is that which
approached most closely the living
and life-giving God, the nature of
theological life is living to
God…Men live to God when they
live in accord with the will of God,
to the glory of God, and with God
working in them.” William Ames,
The Marrow Of Theology 1623

80. Truth, through scripture,
creation & reason
Light & Truth
Urim and Thummim

81. Traditional American society…possessed a quartet of characteristics,
intimately bound together…These were: a conviction that the purpose
of life, however vaguely conceived, was to establish the Kingdom of
Heaven on earth; an aptitude for the exercise of mechanical skills; a
moral outlook that subordinated the interests of the individual to the
group; and an ability to assemble, galvanize and marshal financial,
material and human resources to a single purpose and on a massive,
or lesser scale. All of these elements were intimately associated with
the colony’s Puritan origins. Kenneth and William Hopper, The
Puritan Gift, page 3

82. Devoting eight months of weekly lectures in 1705 to economic
vocation, (Pastor) Willard asserted the importance of choosing
a profitable trade and conducting it prudently. Merchants in
particular ought to acquire the requisite training, intelligence
and “Skill” to pursue wealth beyond a merely competent living.
“It is not enough to get an Estate, but there is Duty to endeavor
that it may prosper,” he wrote, because “Riches are consistent
with Godliness, and the more a Man hath the more Advantage
he hath to do Good with it.” Public service transposed
economic ambition into a means of holiness. Cotton Mather’s
most thorough statement on secular vocation, his 1701 A
Christian And His Calling, correlated moral obligation,
providential order, spiritual felicity, commercial knowledge, and
market profits.
Mark Valeri, Heavenly Merchandize p. 160

83. Effects of worldviews on economic
philosophy
Open System Closed System
“Oikonomia”
(Stewardship of a
free market &
resources)
Idealistic
Socialism
(Material Mechanical
Universe)
Classic
Communism
(Institutionalized
Control/planned
economy)
Predatory
Capitalism
(Consumerism)
Amoral
Moral
Universe

84. Why are so many well intentioned Christians
drawn to dead end strategies? Perhaps it is
because the right path seems
counterintuitive. To untutored intuition, it
seems obvious that if there are some rich
people and some poor people, we can cure
poverty by taking some of the wealth of the
rich and giving it to the poor. It just doesn’t
happen to be true.
Jay Richards, For The Lease Of These,
page 344

85. Christianity created Western civilization. Had the followers
of Jesus remained an obscure Jewish sect, most of you
would not have learned to read and the rest of you would
be reading from hand held scrolls. Without a theology
committed to reason, progress, and moral equality, today
the entire world would be about where non-European
societies were in, say, 1800: A world with many astrologers
and alchemists but no scientists. A world of despots,
lacking universities, banks, factories, eyeglasses, chimneys, and pianos. A world
where most infants do not live to the age of five and many women die in
childbirth-a world truly living in "dark ages." The modern world only arose in
Christian societies…Not in “secular” society – there having been none. And all
the modernization that has since occurred outside Christendom was imported
from the west, often brought by colonizers and missionaries. Rodney Stark,
The Victory Of Reason, page 233

86. Jay Richards, Ten Tough Steps Out Of Poverty:
• Teach a purposeful universe/reality
• Right cultural mores
• Understanding wealth & poverty
• Rule of law
• Strong mediating institutions
• Limited Government
• Formal property rights
• Economic freedom
• Focus on comparative advantage
• Work hard

87. It is only a slight simplification to sum up in a single
phrase the pathway to widespread wealth creation:
economic freedom. I do not mean freedom in the
sense of getting to do whatever you want to do, but
in the sense of “ordered liberty” – the conditions
under which we can pursue our proper, God-given
ends, and can engage in win-win exchanges with
our fellow human beings. We now know that these
conditions correlate with a reduction in
poverty….We now have decades of research
demonstrating this. Jay Richards, For The Lease
Of These, page 351

88. What these latest findings demonstrate is the church's
relative ineffectiveness and impotency at helping the
poor…It is not Christian activism that has created history's
greatest poverty reduction initiatives in India and China.
And it is not micro but rather macroeconomics that really
makes a difference…some activists tout these poverty
reduction numbers, saying, "See, we can make a
difference!" Then they encourage us to get involved in our
own small way, because if we do, "We can defeat poverty
in this generation" or, "The church can end extreme
poverty.“ But of course, it is a stretch to suggest we can
end any sort of poverty. Mark Galli, The Best Ways to
Fight Poverty—Really, Christianity Today, February
2012

89. “Areas where Protestant missionaries had a
significant presence in the past are on
average more economically developed today,
with comparatively better health, lower infant
mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy,
higher educational attainment (especially for
women), and more robust membership in
nongovernmental associations. In short:
Want a blossoming democracy today? The
solution is simple—if you have a time
machine: Send a 19th-century missionary.”

90. Woodberry would temper our triumphalism, to be sure, reminding us that all
these positive outcomes were somewhat unintended, a sign of God's
greater purposes being worked out through the lives of devoted but
imperfect people. As Dana Robert notes, "Bob's research shows that the
total is more than the sum of its parts. Christians collectively make a
difference in society.“ Looking back now, more than a century later, we see
just how long that transformative difference can endure. The Surprising
Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries,
Christianity Today, Jan-Feb 2014

91. Christian Community Development
MikeBell,
Executive Director, HealingNations