Book Review: The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions

Book Review: The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions

 McGavran, Donald A. 1955. The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions. New York: Distributed by Friendship Press.

Chapter 1

McGavern seeks to answer the crucial question for Christian missions, “How do peoples become Christian?” in his book The Bridges of God: A Study in the Strategy of Missions. Although many have tried to answer this imperative question, most answers have been erroneous. It is not only about how individuals become Christians but rather whole people groups.  It is paramount that the overall Church understands this.

Chapter 2

Western Christianity has a very individualistic process as a result of being more homogeneous with few sub-cultures unlike the majority world.  Because the missionary movement has been largely staffed by the west, independent decision-making has been modeled.  Therefore individual decisions made for Christ were encouraged and even held at a higher regard if the decision were against family opinion.  People were thought of as aggregates of individuals where each one made a decision for Christ and the social factor in the conversions of people groups.  McGavern argues that a people is not a collection of individuals but a group of people connected together by social practices, religious beliefs and common blood (p. 9).  Therefore conversion needs to happen in a people group within their own society, not pulling out individuals to another society. So many non-Christian nations are made up of sub-societies where individualism is shunned therefore missionally we need to take in to consideration the social factor and each society’s worldview.

Chapter 3

The first Christian people movement started with the Jewish people who were race prejudice and haughty as they considered themselves the true people of God.  The Christian church grew rapidly after Pentecost and caused a people movement that grew exponentially as conversions happened simultaneously with others that were kindred, leaders that people trusted to follow, familial ties, public integrity, and corporate worship that bound them together.  The New Testament shows that the movement started with a larger group and their families and spread within a short time.  Peoples become Christian fastest when it happens within a particular race or clan without much change to the group as a whole (p.23).  The first Gentile movement was unplanned much like movements today. Barnabas was sent to disciple after conversions took place. This should be a role played by missions (p.25).  Paul’s example of missions was connectedness through familial ties and relationships that developed from them.  He did not chose the fields of labor in which to work, he followed groups of people who had living relations in the people movement of Christ (p. 31).

Chapter 4

Down Through the Centuries. Two types of growth happened in the Jewish People Movement as the gospel spread to the Gentiles. Cosmopolitan areas where interracial marriages took place and therefore converts to Christ were no longer caste-conscious or exclusive.  Secondly, the people movements of the early church found bridges to endogamous peoples where the movement became a one-people church.  Growth through individual conversions as well as people groups was happening in in the first four centuries (p. 38). Northern Europe experienced growth in Christianity through people, socio-religious and politico-religious movements and such; Christendom was birthed The Reformation brought more religious change with opening the door to purified Christianity bringing whole communities into the Protestant fold (p. 38).    Leaders made the choice for the majority of the people as was the pattern in first seen in the New Testament.

Chapter 5

The characteristic pattern of the Great Century’s method of mission and expanding Christianity has colored the view of missions for the last 150 years.  The inevitable separateness of western missionaries carrying the gospel to the east was a gap to which there were practically no bridges.  Separated by many factors, this gap kept the western missionary isolated from the people that he came to proselytize.  A new method evolved that gathered people together in what was like a colony called the mission station. This drew people out of their culture into a foreign society therefore requiring converts to come out and be separate (p.46).  This worked for a while as the people movement approach gathered people of faith and provided a place to live and work, the mission station.  Mission stages as defined: Stage 1 – Exploratory Mission Approach – desolate plain with intention of taking to the hills, Stage 2 – Mission continues on the desolate plain, but decides it is impossible to reach the hill, the gathered colony approach, Stage 3 – Mission takes the road branching off to fertile hill, people movement approach (p.50).

Chapter 6

The mission station approach has yielded small quota, static mission station churches where as people movements are yielding large numbers of discipled people groups. There are mission stations blessed with People movements where all activity is focused on conversions through families (p. 75).  People Movements five advantages are permanent Christian indigenousness churches, independent of western missions, the spontaneous expansion of the church is natural, enormous internal and external possibilities of growth and provides a sound pattern of discipleship and growth as a Christian (p. 87-91).

Chapter 7

This chapter questions the gathered colony strategy missions’ approach, which is almost never questioned verses people movements (p. 100).  A study and deliberation of both need to be considered as not to discriminate one or the other.  The mission station approach can be considered a good way to spread the gospel where you have unreached peoples who are hostile to Christianity and need to gather converts in a colony, however this is the minority of cases (p.105). 

Chapter 8

Today’s strategy of mission should support the Christian People Movements verses mission station work (p. 109).  Reinforcement of the continually growing church and winning people groups to Christ should be our mission’s strategy today (p.125).

Chapter 9

Today’s missions’ strategy should include the current missions stations but hold them lightly (p.126). We can adopt the Pauline emphasis and be content to help establish churches and let them grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Some of the valuable elements of this are: rapid success of self-government, Holy Spirit dependence, discipline from within and social improvement develop from the church itself as a product of the fruit of the Spirit.

Chapter 10

Finances must shift from the expensive gathered colony approach to People Movements that are more self-supporting and self-propagating.  This approach is a higher investment value overall (p. 148-149).

Chapter 11

Church growth research is essential to the continuation of effective kingdom work. There needs to be a method or system to define the objectives and measure the goals (p. 150).

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 is a call to march together in this new era of missions through people movements in what McGavern advocates is a winning strategy of missions and a Greater Century of the Christian Churches (p. 158).