A major contribution to mission strategy is Donald A. McGavran’s 1955 classic book, The Bridges of God. In it he presents a concept still prevalent in today’s thinking: that of building bridges or relationships between believers and those without Christ.1
What exactly did McGavran mean by that? He observed that most mission strategies of his day raised barriers instead of utilizing the natural bridges of existing relationships that God provided. Missionaries isolated themselves in mission compounds and extracted the natives from their relational networks in an effort to transform them culturally as well as theologically. This cut them off from their families and peers resulting in converts that rarely went on to win their friends and family to Christ.
The Bridges of God caused missiologist to rethink their methodology, and bought a new understanding of the importance of cultural factors in the evangelization of a group of people. At the heart of this concept is the idea that people within a certain group should be won in such a way that they can reproduce and win others of their kind.
Consequently, when evaluating any evangelism strategy, attention must be given to the “reproducibility factor.” That is: does it produce “mules” or “horses”? Is it winning folks in such a way that leaves them free to win others in their “oikos” (bridge building) or isolating them with extra-biblical demands and expectations that leave them spiritually sterile (barrier building)?
The key to any cross-cultural evangelism, whether across the ocean or across town, is taking the gospel into the receiving culture and presenting it in a way to which they can relate, and just as important, which they can in turn relate to others within their circle of influence. It’s like fishing with a net instead of a single hook. There may be a lot of enjoyment in being an “angler,” catching one fish at a time, but serious commercial fishermen use nets to gather the largest catch possible. Likewise, for exponential evangelization to occur (lots of people getting saved very rapidly) converts must be won in such a way that they can naturally win others by reproducing the method we used to win them.
1Donald A. McGavran. Bridges of God (London: World Dominion Press, 1955), 23-42.
