The purpose
         of this article is to create thoughtful discussion and development of new methods for creating churches (the Body of believers)
         and seeing evangelism with discipleship in cultural and national settings globally. My concern and heart is for the Russian-speaking
         world where I have worked for 15 years. Please understand that this article is ‘wet cement' and will need more input,
         perhaps from you, to make this thought into practical vision.

What does it take to truly transform a community
         for Christ? What is Jesus' vision for His church in this regard? Is such transformation practical and achievable in our present
         church and missionary format?

There are many questions in the area of transformation ministry. Increasingly there
         is the sense among many Christians that there must be an indigenous, spontaneous method to accomplish this in settings where
         ‘normal' institutional church and missionaries can not go. So, in this article we will begin a conversation to see if
         this is achievable.

Let's start with the Scriptures to consider what Jesus had in mind for his church to be involved
         in doing. Consider Luke 4:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon
         me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance
         to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable
         year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them
         that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in
         your ears.[1]

Please notice that Jesus is setting to tone and direction for His ministry. In this is also found
         the basics of His church - what we are to do as His church. When Jesus says ‘poor' does He mean financially or only
         spiritually poor? The word used is financially poor. Jesus is directing His comments to a group who need more than simply
         the gospel message - they need to receive a gospel of changing of a person's life.

Jesus set as His focus transforming
         communities in every way. He speaks of a movement through a community which turns that community's norms upside down making
         the community fertile soil for the gospel message. When people are hungry, or unemployed, the needs overcome the hearing of
         the gospel. Daily concerns impact so much that the gospel is limited in effectiveness.

A simple reading of the
         gospels shows us that Jesus' focus and ministry was pointed toward the marketplace. Marketplace ministry today is simply a
         return to the ministry of the first century church. Of the 133 public appearances of Jesus found in the gospels, 122 of those
         appearances are found in the marketplace. Of the 40 miracles in the book of Acts, 39 miracles are found in the marketplace.
         Think of the average person today and realize that 70% of their awake hours are spent in the marketplace. The church of Jesus
         Christ was founded to impact the marketplace ... something we have seemingly forgotten.

The day of sending a missionary
         into a country to start work in that place is slowly coming to a limited setting. Exchange rates on finances and the costs
         of training to send people are growing at a pace where in a few years such work will be the exception instead of the rule.
         It is time to come up with a method to accomplish this work that is different than the methods of the last few centuries.
         In fact, we may need to return to Jesus' words and readopt a forgotten format of missionary endeavor.

There are
         four primary approaches to development of a transformational method in missions:
Economic Growth - a structural approach with funding from outside the community.
Political Liberation - a structural approach with help coming from within
         the community.
Relief - a needs approach
         with funding and help coming from outside the community.
Community Development - a needs approach which comes from the community.
The only approach which I believe will have long-term significance is the
         community development approach. The other approaches either rely too much on outside support or are extremely political in
         nature. Only the community development model can be spontaneous and reproducible.

Transformational Development

Transformational
         development addresses poverty with a long view in a local way. In deeply impoverished areas in remote rural areas and, increasingly,
         in urban slums, the problems are usually quite complex. There may be a lack of infrastructure, such as passable roads or working
         vehicles, to bring crops to market or supplies to the community. Basic health care is often unavailable. A lack of a steady,
         clean water supply can devastate entire regions. Fuel is essential, but in very scant supply in some areas.

Approaching
         the complex of difficulties requires long-term local attention at the community level. Local people need to take leadership
         to bring about sustained changes. The work of Christian development workers is to facilitate change from within the society
         for an entire community or area. The core transformation is at the point of values and vision. 

• Concerning vision, people come to see that their community can be made different, that they are not
           locked in an unchangeable despair.

• Concerning values, people
           come to see afresh that they are valuable. Christians who labor at this kind of development have a clear advantage of working
           toward the values of the kingdom of God.

Principles of Holistic Christian Transformational Development

I see ten fundamental
         principles and values of holistic transformational development.
Each of them has a rich biblical foundation. Samuel J.
         Voorhies has for the past 18 years worked in international relief and development in nearly 30 countries. Voorhies has 10
         fundamentals of transformational ministry. Consider these:

• Recognize
           the value of people. Respect and value people in the context of their local culture.

• Understand and respect local culture. Yet discern that while each person is intrinsically valuable,
           every culture has both positive and negative aspects that may or may not be compatible with biblical teaching.

• Believe in the person's capacity to contribute and determine his/her future. Help people meet their
           basic needs with dignity and self-respect. No matter how poor, every community and every individual has something to contribute.
           Identifying and starting with local resources is a key to people's sense of ownership and self-dignity.

• Make people, rather than technology, the focal point. When local people are involved in making decisions
           they ultimately take responsibility for determining their future.

• Realize
           that poverty includes physical, material, spiritual and social dimensions. Involve the whole person-mind, body and spirit,
           in any development effort. Avoid segregating these and design programs that address the whole problem and the whole person.

• Approach development in a way that seeks to communicate Christ through word-communicating the gospel
           of Christ; deed-serving as Christ would, bringing healing and exemplifying righteousness; and sign-working with God's help
           so that Christ's kingdom life is demonstrated.

• Realize that all interventions
           into a group of people (social, technical, economic or educational) carry a message that must be understood and interpreted
           from the recipient's world view.

• Recognize that God is already
           at work in the community. Part of the external facilitator's tasks is to discover what God is doing and support what may already
           be happening as a bridge to how God wants to use the external resource and revelation.

• Believe that transformation in a person comes through a relationship with Christ. There is no substitute
           for such a living, growing faith.

• Recognize churches as foundational
           for sustained and abundant transformation. To strengthen existing churches, or to plant new ones where none exist, forms a
           powerful community of transformed lives empowered by God with hope and kingdom values.

The
         Church (the Body of believers) is the real agent of the Holy Spirit for cultural change in any society. The Church is the
         salt working through the whole dish. It is that part of the society which has a new relationship to God yet reacts in terms
         of the attitudes and presuppositions of that society. The Body of Christ understands intuitive, unanalyzed motives and meanings
         in a way the missionary cannot. The Church must make the decisions.

What I would like to see develop is a model
         of church development and community development that can be both spontaneous and indigenous. I am actively looking for like-minded
         individuals who see effective Christian missions needing a return to Jesus' model in a 21st century context. 

Bob Crowe
Blairsville, GA USA

[1]The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995