Year 2 Vision Statement

Overall Vision

Our vision is to glorify God by participating in the coming reign of Jesus Christ in Phayao. We will pursue this vision in, at least, these 3 areas:

• We will seek to radically follow the Way of Jesus in this particular context. Our desire is to “be strange in the right ways.” This means that we strive to live within the structures and practices of Phayao culture (“right ways”) in order to reduce unnecessary barriers between our neighbors and ourselves. Yet, we want to live “strangely” in light of the radical call of Jesus’ ethic. Our hope is to live this way faithfully, and, with the grace of God, invite our neighbors into this alternative way of living.[1]

• We will seek to be, and form, a church(es) who lives out the reign of Jesus in community for the sake of the world. Our emphasis will be to cultivate community that is relevant, in practice and form, to the culture of Phayao and serves holistically the needs of its members and its neighbors. To that end, we will constantly be attentive to equipping and empowering Phayao Christians, with guidance from the Holy Spirit, to determine how the community lives out its call in this context.

• We will seek to be a people and form a people who follow Jesus’ call to be “for the least of these.” We will also seek to promote Jesus’ call for the radical inclusion of all people, without bias towards gender, socio-economic status, or ethnicity.

Areas of Focus for Year 2

Developing Contextual Evangelism

We will strive this year to develop and implement practices that herald the gospel of Jesus Christ among the people of Phayao. These practices can be divided into the following 3 types:

• Speaking – We recognize that ultimately it is the work of the Holy Spirit speaking through us that will call people to Jesus Christ. Thus, we trust God can use our testimonies, prayer, and other forms of verbal communication. However, we will seek to focus our initial efforts on sharing Biblical stories of Jesus as a way of introducing the gospel to our neighbors and asking them their reaction. This allows for dialogue, instead of monologue. It creates opportunity for our neighbors to  “self-theologize” from the outset, without reducing the meaning of the gospel to our own understanding. Also, storytelling is a non-threatening way to talk about faith. Finally, storytelling is easier to replicate than teaching principles and definitions.

• Activities – We will experiment with various activities and events that will create opportunity to enter into people’s lives, and for them to enter into ours. These might be as simple as regular meals with our neighbors or as elaborate as a blanket drive during the cold season. Our desire is to find activities that are “natural” and “intelligible” yet create space for the gospel to be manifest in their presence.

• Daily ethic – We will spend this year wrestling with how the Way of Jesus relates to cultural and social norms of Phayao, and how our lifestyle and daily choices can effectively point people towards kingdom living. Our research has presented many issues (i.e., conflict, status, marriage, alcohol, etc.) that call for careful discernment. We will endeavor to “welcome the stranger,” “turn the other cheek,” and “submit to one another” in concrete situations and circumstances in this context.

The People of God in Phayao

We will begin intentionally inviting our neighbors into Christian community. While Sunday gatherings are not designed for the purpose of introducing non-Christians to the gospel,[2] we do hope that our neighbors will join us as we worship, fellowship, and share the Lord’s meal weekly. Thus, we will seek to foster an atmosphere and worship style that is welcoming to guests. We will also continue to experiment with various ways of worshipping that connect with culturally appropriate symbols, practices and forms. Finally, our hope is to leave space for future Phayao Christians to imagine and determine new and relevant ways to worship our God in this place.

Discovering the Needs of the Suffering and Marginalized

We will focus our research and observation efforts on gaining a more complete and precise understanding of the nature of suffering and marginalization in Phayao. While our previous research has illustrated that poverty and economic hardship are major factors in the lives of Phayao citizens, we do not want to reduce people’s pain to financial matters. We will seek to discover the particular factors, both independent and systemic, that keep Phayao people in bondage to suffering and marginalization. We will then, with God’s leading, discern ways in which we can aid in alleviating the various forms of suffering and draw people from the margins into meaningful community.

Starting a Restaurant

One of the fundamental concerns within our vision is finding a way for these ideas and practices to be enacted in concrete ways. In other words, what does this vision look like “on the ground”? Our experience leads us to believe that “being missionaries” in Phayao will actually be a hindrance to reaching our goals. However, running a business could provide a concrete setting in which to pursue our overall vision. Thus, we have decided to pursue starting and operating a restaurant. Our first choice is to open a pizza restaurant, though other options are still available to pursue.

This decision is based on our schooling in missions and our experiences serving as apprentices in Chiang Mai. But, our primary rationale stems from our research and observation of Phayao culture during the past year. The following details that rationale:

• One of the most prominent features of Phayao life we discovered this past year is the strong cohesion of familial (though not necessarily blood family) networks of relationships. A strong factor for keeping people in Phayao is the bond they share within their respective webs of established relationships. These “communities” fulfill numerous needs, including emotional, economic, and social standing. Thus, outside factors[3] that disrupt this social dynamic are often resisted, or at least minimalized.

Therefore, as outsiders moving into Phayao, which is a collection of these relationship networks, we want to be attentive to how we interact with this dominant social dynamic. This becomes even more significant because we feel called to minister to long-term residents within the Phayao community. It might be easier to “target” people who are more transient (i.e., college students, etc.) because there are fewer barriers between them and the missionary, but the development of long-lasting communities of faith is dependent on impacting the existing networks of relationships within Phayao.

While family is a primary way in which these communities have formed in Phayao, networks of relationships do develop through various other avenues, with vocation being a clear example. Therefore, our team is seeking to connect to these existing networks through the “natural” connections that develop within business practices and structures.

• Due to our desire to be contextual and relevant, we want our presence in Phayao to “make sense.” Thus, since a person’s occupation is of utmost importance for their interactions in society, we want to have an occupation that allows us to “fit in” among Phayao people. Phayao society has no framework for the role of “missionary,” thus it would keep us distanced from our neighbors.[4] However, a group of foreigners owning a restaurant, especially a restaurant serving Western food, closes that gap.

• Owning and operating a restaurant will also provide a familiar lifestyle through which we can model kingdom living. If we demonstrate how to follow Jesus as full-time ministers, then encouraging new Christians to live fully as disciples while they work in the marketplace becomes more challenging. There could be a greater tendency to discount the radical ethic of Jesus because they cannot imagine how to live similarly within their respective circumstances in the workforce.

• Working within the structure of a business will give us an opportunity to demonstrate how following the Way of Jesus even alters how you function in the marketplace. Our goal is to conduct our business with, at least, the following principles: 1) Equal respect for all customers, co-workers, and employees, 2) Equal pay and privileges for all positions within the restaurant, 3) Appropriate pay and work schedule for employees that will not deny the ability to care for and spend time with family, and 4) Developing business practices that contribute to the care of creation and reduce the negative impact on the environment. “Being strange” in how we do business might create a desire in others to understand the impetus for our behavior, thus drawing them to closer to Jesus.

• Any net profit produced by the restaurant will be used for economic aid and development in Phayao and/or for funding ministry efforts intended to bless the people of Phayao.

• Owning a restaurant will also provide a venue in which we can explore creative ministries and activities. Possible examples include: 1) Inviting families facing tough times to join us for a free meal on the days the restaurant is closed, 2) Displaying the creative works of local artists and photographers in the restaurant, 3) Creating a family-friendly environment by having a play area for children or weekly family movie night, 4) Hosting conversations and educational sessions on social concerns, such as trafficking, sexual issues, parenting, etc.

In conclusion, we recognize this vision is far grander than anything we could actually attain. Yet, it is our vision because we choose to have a vision that demands the miraculous work of God’s Spirit for it to be possible. Anything less would not be the kingdom of God coming on earth.

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[1] William Abraham writes about evangelism in the early church, “The Christian movement was not initiated by a band of professional evangelists eager to sign up a public relations firm and get the show on the road. Rather the gospel spread and the church grew because the sovereign hand of God was in the midst of the community that found itself surrounded by people who were puzzled and intrigued by what they saw happening.”

[2] We feel that corporate worship is primarily for glorifying God and creating opportunity for God to form and shape the community of faith. It is not, fundamentally, an opportunity to “evangelize non-Christians.” However, our hope is that our corporate worship is welcoming and, by being in the presence of God, will call people to Jesus.

[3] This is referring to various findings from our research. A few are: 1) Economic hardship can be a disrupting factor, but people seek to minimalize it as a disrupting force by having just the father go away for work, or they take on a second job. 2) Conflict is disruptive, thus the various “avoidance” practices we observed become paramount. 3) Reciprocity is key to social harmony because it ties people together within a web of relationships. 4) Many wives remain with cheating husbands because too much is at stake in leaving the larger network of relationships that comes with the marriage.

[4] The fact that we would have to either use the English word “missionary” or an odd Thai title that doesn’t even actually mean missionary (i.e., “religious doctor,” “teacher,” etc.) is more evidence that “being a missionary” can easily become a distraction and a barrier.