A missions mobilization best practice is to ask God to help you identify a person of peace and then work to serve and resource that person. As an insider, the person of peace may be the key to helping mobilize the larger community.
At times we might feel overwhelmed when working to mobilize an entire community into greater levels of engagement with World Missions. So there is so much wisdom in applying the Community Development Principle that talks about working through the “man of peace” or “person of peace”.
A person of peace is a gatekeeper into that community and usually has significant influence to help other community members to embrace new ideas. A missions mobilization best practice is to ask God to help you identify a person of peace and then work to serve and resource that person. As an insider, the person of peace may be the key to helping mobilize the larger community.
In Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” The Hobbits seem to be unsuccessful at mobilizing the Ents or “tree shepherds” to join the battle against the forces of evil. But then they find a way to help one tree shepherd to see the situation “with his own eyes”. Of course, the tree shepherd is horrified by the destruction of the forest and mobilize the rest of the tree shepherds to come and join the war. So let’s identify persons of peace and whenever possible help them to see the realities of the unfinished task “with their own eyes”. As insiders, they might be more effective in moving their community towards greater missions awareness and engagement
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