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TL;DR:
For nearly two centuries, most Protestant churches did not develop sustained, large-scale organizations devoted to overseas missions. When William Carey and others formed missionary societies, organized Protestant missionary activity expanded rapidly. Such highly focused groups within a larger religious or social structure are sodalities. In the Church of the Nazarene, Nazarene Missions International (NMI) serves as a sodality that seeks to mobilize every church member to support world evangelism through intercessory prayer and sacrificial giving.
In the early 1500s, the Protestant Reformation burst onto the European scene. Preaching salvation by grace, Protestants stressed the authority of Scripture.
However, despite the Bible's repeated calls for world evangelism, nearly 200 years would pass before large-scale Protestant missionary organizations began to emerge. Why? How could most Protestants remain disengaged from sustained cross-cultural evangelism for so long? Missiologist Ralph Winter concluded that Protestantism's limited world mission activity stemmed partly from its lack of sodalities promoting and supporting world evangelism.
That word, "sodality," sounds strange to most Protestants. Indeed, it is seldom used outside of Roman Catholicism. It is simply a label for a group of people committed to one particular aspect or ministry of a larger organization, such as a church.
Over the years, Roman Catholic religious orders and other sodality-like organizations have carried on that church's world missions ministry. When the Protestant Reformers spurned monasticism, they did not ask, "Now, how do we Protestants reach 'every nation, tribe, people and language'?"
They should have asked that question. The Reformation produced few enduring organizations dedicated specifically to cross-cultural missionary outreach. In the absence of groups focused on promoting and supporting world evangelism, many faraway, unevangelized people groups received little attention from Protestants. Individual believers did not, by themselves, fulfill the Great Commission on their own. Sadly, as the proverbial saying goes: "What is everybody's business is nobody's business."
Eventually, Protestants like William Carey began organizing missionary societies, bands, or unions, as some were called, to promote world evangelism. The organization commonly called the Baptist Missionary Society, which Carey helped establish, was not composed of celibate monks. Still, it performed functions similar to those of religious orders like the Benedictines and Franciscans. Once Protestants started forming missions sodalities (a.k.a. missionary societies), their global outreach expanded rapidly.
"Okay," you may be saying, "that's interesting. How is it relevant to Nazarene missions today?"
That's a good question. I've never heard NMI (Nazarene Missions International) referred to as a sodality. However, NMI functions as a sodality in many respects. NMI participants are Nazarenes passionate about world evangelism who band together to publicize, mobilize, and support cross-cultural evangelism and church planting.
Sadly, sometimes NMI groups go dormant. Passion for world evangelism then tends to dissipate. People quit praying for the global harvest. Financial support for missionaries begins to feel like an onerous tax. People begin grumbling that sending people and money to evangelize the ends of the earth hurts local churches. They do not challenge children and youth to get involved in fulfilling the Great Commission or to listen for God's call to missionary service.
Some will assert that all the world would be reached if every believer would just evangelize his or her own neighborhood. A strategy focused exclusively on one's immediate neighborhood can leave cross-cultural and international evangelism neglected.
To truly obey the Great Commission, every Nazarene church needs an active NMI missions organization (which might begin with just one person!) promoting global outreach, calling the rest of the church to intercessory prayer, and recruiting and supporting global missionaries.
We do not necessarily need to remember that NMI is a sodality. The label does not matter. What does matter is that churches have a passionate small group strongly committed to getting other believers involved in world evangelism.
Note: Other Nazarene sodalities could include the youth organization (NYI), Nazarene Mission Teams (formerly called Work & Witness teams), Vacation Bible School workers, and even the Sunday school leadership group.
Sodality is a label for a group of highly committed individuals who band together within a larger institution or community to raise awareness of and support specific objectives or emphases. A shared passion or mission usually marks sodalities, whose members work collaboratively to achieve their common goals. One analogy of a sodality within a modality would be a local church. The entire congregation is the modality. The youth group workers are a sodality. Those working with children are another sodality.
Groups that function like sodalities have played a role in mobilizing and supporting believers to engage in global outreach.
Nazarene Missions International (NMI) (or at least the NMI leadership at local, district, and global levels) can be considered an example of a sodality for several reasons. Here are five of them:
Overall, Nazarene Missions International has the characteristics of a sodality within the context of the Church of the Nazarene. It is a group within Nazarene churches whose members are passionate about global missions efforts.
—Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
This blog post on sodalities is an article in the "Mission briefing" series published in Engage magazine.
“So that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith.” —Romans 16:26, 2011 NIV
World missions: How the local church goes global
Missiologist Ralph D. Winter was quoted as saying that a believer can go, send, or mobilize. He encouraged believers who had a choice to consider mobilization because mobilizing ten people to go may have a greater impact than going alone.
"I feel I'm being led to begin a weekly missions class for the children of our church. Your website has been so helpful! I'm trying to incorporate information on different countries and cultures for the kids, and I am also seeking info on missionaries for the kids to write, to make it personal." —Paula M., West Virginia, USA