Christ gave the great commission to go into the world and preach the gospel of redemption. Despite the fall, the created order is capable of restoration as man is redeemed and the kingdom is established. Our task in fulfilling the redemption commission is that we work enabled by God toward establishing this Kingdom. We need to establish new communities of believers where relationships in every area, including social, economic, and spiritual, are in the process of being redeemed. These local church communities are linked to churches in richer nations working to invest money, resources, and expertise in the world body of Christ.
Community involves using ideas of natives.
This ensures that the idea survives after the short-term sources leaves and avoids the pitfall of imposing foreign culture as the community tests Biblical concepts of development in its own culture. Where everything is done by outsiders to and for people, what is developed is dependency rather than self-sufficiency. Community involves consulting the local health specialists and using traditional medicine in conjunction with modern medicine whenever possible and when not in conflict with Christian values. Some anthropologists argue that modern short-term medicine often leaves people worse off in alienating them from their own cultural expertise and relationships with local healers, losing the local healer's friendship who refuses to treat them when the missionaries depart. Community involves developing new lay leadership, for example, training village health workers who will then become responsible for the health programs of the community after the missionaries leave.