The 7 Year Itch: Faithfulness or Success?

Faithfulness in mission can sometimes be threatened by our pragmatic views of success. Mission agencies, local churches — even missionaries themselves — get overly focused on success.

How many converts? How many church plants? How can I go on if I’m not seeing fruit from my work?

This problem only intensifies when one speaks of missions in the hardest corners of the world. Whereas many of the works being started among unreached people groups today, especially in remote regions like Central Asia, or Amazonian type jungles, are pioneering ventures, still these criticisms hound missionaries and mission organizations alike. It’s not worth it to spend time on such unprosperous ventures!

Let me challenge us to think of this difficulty in terms of “the seven year itch”. Here’s what I mean: in the pioneering mission ventures of the early 1800s, it often took 7 years before the first converts were seen.

William Carey, one of the first missionaries to India, often heralded as “the Father of Modern Missions”, arrived in Calcutta in November of 1793. By the end of 1800 (7 years later), he had his first convert.

Robert Morrison, the first protestant missionary to China, arrived in Macau, China in September 1807. He baptized his first convert nearly 7 years later on May 14, 1814.

Adoniram Judson, the first Baptist missionary from America, and one of the pioneer missionaries in Burma, arrived in India in June of 1812, and finally reached Burma in July of 1813. His first convert wasn’t baptized until 1819 (seven years after arriving in Asia, six years after beginning work in Burma).

I would hope we would all clamor for faithfulness before success. In the eyes of many in their day, the efforts of Carey, Morrison and Judson were futile. Converts were slow to come and much money was “wasted” in a vain effort to convert the savages. Today we would laugh at that assessment, yet we turn around and frown on the pioneering efforts of our own day. Let’s remember the “seven year itch”, and purpose to wholeheartedly support, and even to jump out in faith and attempt, bold pioneering ventures marked by faithfulness to Christ and his commission!

~~posted by Bob

Doing Your Work as to the Lord, For the Sake of the Unreached (part 2)

continued from part 1

3. Redeem the time by educating yourself about the world.

William Carey was a humble shoemaker before he launched the modern missions movement. While his hands were engaged in constructing footware, his mind was engaged as a student of geography, peoples and movements. He kept a large map in his shop, with information pieced together from his readings. He poured over accounts of Captain Cook’s sea voyages, learning about the globe and dreaming of days when the Kingdom of God would follow the same routes. In the course of the day, he talked often with customers and friends about the world. Today, there are a wide variety of tools available for gaining knowledge about the continents and the movements of God upon them. Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World, and the Global Prayer Digest put out by the U.S. Center for World Mission are two such examples, as well as a growing number of online tools such as the Joshua Project. Utilize idle moments of the work day to pray, think, read and meditate about the work of the Great Commission. Employ and befriend internationals to gain their perspectives on the world.

4. With your professional skills, create platforms for the spread of the gospel.

A huge percentage of the remaining unreached peoples live in areas of the world that cannot be accessed through traditional means. In many of these same parts of the world, doctors, teachers, computer programmers, etc., are in high demand. There is a need for creative thinking about new ways to get Kingdom workers where the harvest is ripe. Christian professionals can train field workers in viable skills. In a globalizing economy, they may be able to use their travels around the world to forge relationships and open up connections for Christian workers. They can make short term trips to places where churches are being established to offer job training or provide credibility. They can be an important part of the Great Commandment which rightly accompanies the Great Commission, seeking to love God and others by meeting the needs of the poor, establishing justice, and improving life in Jesus’ name wherever disciples are being made.

5. Engage in business soberly, with a view to eternity.

Let there be a flavor about the way you do your work which makes it apparent that the stuff of the world which you are dealing with, while good and God-ordained, is fading, and unlike the souls of the unreached, will not last forever. Knowledge of this should create a marked difference between you and the unbelieving. It should not cause you to be insincere or half-hearted, but should give you reason to demonstrate with your speech and action that you are not defined by the temporal things of this world. Hear Paul: “This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let… those who buy [live] as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away” (I Cor. 7:29-31).

6. Be an advocate for missionaries in your church.

Adopt one or more missionaries so that they are not just faces on a bulletin board in the foyer. Write to them. Make their needs known before the assembly. Care for them while they are home through debriefing counseling, resources and hospitality. Show that the brothers and sisters who sent them out for the sake of the Name have a vested interest as co-laborers in their work, because insomuch as they are laboring to see Christ’s name established where He is not known, they are doing the business of the whole Church.

7. Pray, Pray, Pray!

Hold the ropes of those who go and fight against the devil’s schemes by daily, earnest intercession. Pray over world maps for the gospel to run in places where it has never been and land upon receptive hearts, quickened by the Holy Spirit. This may be the most significant work in which senders and goers alike engage: Praying the Lord of the Harvest, the God of the nations, to establish His sovereign Kingdom in every place where Christ is not yet named, for the realization of the inheritance of the nations which has been given to Jesus Christ. May He finish His glorious work and quickly come!

~~posted by Ambassador

Doing Your Work as to the Lord, For the Sake of the Unreached (part 1)

I believe it is Christ’s intention for the task of the Great Commission to be the task of His entire body. There are no exemptions to the call to “make disciples of every nation.” Every true follower of Christ is to follow Him in His mission to gather worship for the Father out of all of the peoples over which He has dominion. But it is also a sensible and biblical expectation that the majority will live out their callings in the normal spheres of business and community, redeeming their various sectors by doing their work to the glory of Christ. The normal Christian life, is, for Paul, to “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you” (1 Thess. 4:11).

I by no means wish to suggest that what is commonly called “secular” work, when engaged in as to the Lord, is unworthy or second-class, or that it is only valuable insofar as it contributes to world missions. Instead, all arenas of occupation are under the Lordship of Christ and are worthwhile and honoring to Him. But I believe that every Christian workman should have a consciousness of the effect of his specific vocation on the work of God to call out a people from every tribe and tongue, this being so central to the mission of the church and the final command with which Christ left us. I also don’t think it is adequate for believers to find fulfillment of Great Commission living solely in the important work of evangelism in their own neighborhoods. The pervasive idea that everyone is a missionary is misleading and confusing. For the purpose of clarity in the church’s understanding of its mission, I think it’s important to draw some distinctions between evangelism within a reached people group, and the apostolic spread of the gospel to places where it has never been. I want to say that Christian believers should see themselves as having a level of involvement in both. The suggestion that the church is comprised of “senders” and “goers” in Great Commission living is more helpful, having no category for uninvolvement, but still leaves the need for an unpacking of what it means to meaningfully participate as a sender. So how can Christian business men, grocers, mechanics and housewives do their work in the name of Christ, to the glory of God, and for the sake of the least reached around the world? Each member of Christ’s body will have to work that out, in sensitivity to the Spirit, in his or her own sphere, but what follows are some beginning ideas:

1. Don’t stockpile. Be a channel for flowing funds to Great Commission causes.

Jesus spoke some hard words to the capitalistic farmer who wanted to build bigger barns for more grain so that he could cushion himself in godless self-dependence and consume on his own lusts. “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20-21). When a nation is at war, its citizens tighten the belt and streamline in order to free up dollars for the cause. Where the church is engaged in the mission of Christ, everyone contributes. Right now, a pitifully small amount of money goes toward the spread of the gospel among those who have never heard (only about 5% of Christian giving goes to overseas missions, and of these funds, less than two percent is focused on planting churches among the unreached). Oh, for more business savvy Christian men and women who are more shrewd than the money-handlers of this world, because they do their buying and selling with a view toward increasing the flow of dollars into sending preachers to the unreached! I’ve heard recently of two small enterprises which have been started by Christian believers, the proceeds of which are going entirely to world missions. Could that be a worthy personal or family project for you to establish by faith? In your occupations, labor not to be rich. Labor to be rich toward God by making Christ your treasure and storing up riches in heaven in part by releasing funds for the advance of His Kingdom among the unreached.

2. Make it easy for believing employees to go.

How many Christian business and parents have, even inadvertently, prevented those whom God has called from going because they challenge them toward climbing up company ranks, but never to consider leaving it all behind for the sake of the gospel? Or how many employers have made it too difficult for employees to take vision trips, reduce hours for pre-field work, etc? Have an atmosphere around your office, store or workshop which says to believing employees and prospective employees: “If the call of God is upon you, it would be a joy to see some of you go to work among the least reached. It is a noble calling which I would support and facilitate in whatever ways I can.”

To be continued in tomorrow’s post.

~~posted by Ambassador

Online Missions Networking

Today I want to highlight a great new missions resource tool I’ve found. IAM (International Association for Missions) has recently created an interactive site for members. The site is designed to facilitate online networking and cooperation toward reaching the world for Christ.

The site provides forums, personal websites and a blog. Members can contribute articles and comment on other articles. There are news items and lots of resources, including widgets for websites and blogs.

I haven’t had a chance to check it all out yet, but it looks like a great site for missions. We here at Kingdom Surge will likely join and try to post some of the content we publish here, over there as well. That will help spread the kingdom and serve our goal.

If you have some time, check out IAM’s site, plug in and join the online missions movement. As IAM says, “What we can do individually may be small, but together we can help reach the world.”

~~posted by Bob

Sowers of the Gospel as Rich Men or Starving

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to read a book I wish to soon reread, Roland Allen’s Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? (Wm. B Eerdmans Pub Co., 1962). Writing in the middle of last century, Allen, an Anglican missionary to North China, spoke ahead of his time on issues of control and indigenization. He calls his readers to abandon paternalistic snobbishness in the missionary movement for a deeper faith in the ability of the Spirit of God to build His Church and indwell national leaders to successfully own the work entrusted to them. It’s a worthy read. One particularly rich statement in the book has stuck with me. Allen writes:

We have not understood that the members of the Body of Christ are scattered in all lands, and that we, without them, are not made perfect. We have thought of the Temple of the Lord as complete in us, of the Body of Christ as consisting of us, and we have thought of the conversion of the heathen as the extension of the body of which we are members. Consequently, we have preached the Gospel from the point of view of the wealthy man who casts a mite into the lap of a beggar, rather than from the point of view of the husbandman who casts his seed into the earth, knowing that his own life and the lives of all connected with him depend upon the crop which will result from his labour (142-3).

Is Allen exaggerating here? Do our lives really depend on the gathering in of more sons and daughters of God in Christ from the far corners of the earth? If one considers that there is a fuller insight gained on the creative and all-encompassing wisdom of God with each new tribe and tongue redeemed, and that the final redemption of the people of God will not transpire until the last of the elect enter the Kingdom, Allen’s striking and bold vocabulary is worthy, I believe. May there be in us an increase of godly “selfishness” in the work of calling out a people for God from East, West, North and South, because without them we are not complete!

~~posted by Ambassador

The Christian Mission: An Overview (part 3)

continued from part 2

These problems, and many others like them, pose no little difficulty to the completion of the great commission. It is the burden of this article that they may be overcome, in God’s grace, only by an intentional and widespread examination of the entire biblical corpus as it pertains to the great mission of the Church. If we would begin to see the winds of change beginning to stir up another great missionary thrust into the final bastions of Satan in this world which must ultimately be brought before the throne of Christ, then let us labor to undergird our efforts with the foundations derived from a rigorous biblical-theological perspective on the world mission movement. And let us seek these foundational principles in true humility and fervent prayer. In order to lay the groundwork for such a monumental quest, I have compiled for consideration the following five underlying biblical principles, which I believe should motivate our shared goal of world-evangelization.

1. The accomplishment of redemption is the focal point of world-history.

As we begin to look for the single biblical principle which gives a proper perspective to all of history, we can find no more all-encompassing truth than the following: everything that God does, he does for his own glory. This is true both of his initial creation (Revelation 4:11, Isaiah 43:7), and of his ongoing governance of history (Isaiah 46:9-13). Because God is by his very nature glorious, we may reshape this principle into the following: everything God does, he does to display who he is (for example, see the oft-repeated purpose statement of Ezekiel, following an innumerable array of God’s proposed acts, namely, “then you shall know that I am the Lord” [Ezekiel 6:7,10,13,14; 7:4,9,27,etc.]). Now, it is equally clear that the greatest display of who God is occurred in the incarnation of Christ, and his subsequent accomplishment of redemption (Hebrews 1:1-3; John 1:18; John 12:27). If all of history is designed to display who God is; and if Christ’s work of redemption is the ultimate display of who God is; then the work of redemption must be the focal point and pinnacle of all history. It must be that for which all of history was designed, and co-terminus with the glorification of God.

2. The work of redemption was powerful enough to secure all of its intended effects.

We have already determined that world history is defined by the accomplishment of the work of redemption. Now, we must make the corollary point that Christ’s work of redemption was powerful enough to secure all of its intended effects. There is no room for potentiality in the reality of a blood-bought throng of worshipers from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation as a consequent to the reality of Christ’s completed redemption. Redemption in all of its intended effects is a certain thing from the foundation of the world, and as sure as the immutable word of God: those whom he foreknew, he unfailingly predestinated, called, justified, and glorified (Romans 8:28-31). This consideration has the effect of assuring us that all of history is indeed the divinely planned and unassailable movement toward the perfect accomplishment and application of redemption. History is not an often-frustrated attempt to prepare for, accomplish, and spread the great work of redemption; on the contrary, it is the actual progression, in every detail, of that mighty unfolding plan. Hence, even evil, in all of its ugly manifestations, is perfectly within the will of God, and is used by him to achieve a greater glory for his name, in the person of Jesus Christ. Of which truth, the most striking reality is that God’s plan to accomplish redemption was carried out by the humans means of wicked hands and motives (Acts 2:22-24; 4:26-28). So then, all of history is in very fact the divinely planned advance of the work of redemption, from the stage of preparation and foreshadowing, on to the actual accomplishment, and then on to the final securing of its every intended effect. It is vital that we keep this in mind: for when we understand this, we are able to make sense of all the obstacles and seeming failures in the Christian mission movement. Every setback is in fact working for a greater victory than could have been won without it. Indeed, it is impossible to understand any event of history, whether biblical or that which is commonly perceived to be secular, without relating it to its function in the advance of the work of redemption.

3. Christian Mission has as its goal the actual realization of the full effects of Christ’s great work of redemption.

When Christ left us on the earth, it was with the explicit task of carrying the message of his accomplished redemption to every nation on earth (Matthew 28:18-20). As we have just seen, the accomplishment of this task is the purpose of God in history. Therefore, we are laboring to accomplish what God is in certain actuality accomplishing through us. This means that, in our pursuit of missions, we are actually pursuing, first, God’s glory, or the worldwide display of who he is; and second, man’s good, or the fulfillment of his divinely intended purpose of enjoying everlasting fellowship with him. Christian mission, therefore, is the attempt to actualize the original purpose of man, as stated in the Westminster Catechism: to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This gives us a perspective on mission which is universal and fundamental to all of reality.

4. Christian mission is the all-encompassing task of believers on the earth.

It is instructive that Christ left us with the command, not merely to evangelize the nations, but to disciple them. The purpose of the church is to display the glory of God by reflecting his own holiness and the image of his Son (I Peter 1:15-16; 2:9; II Corinthians 3:18); and also, to gather together all the elect throughout the world, so that they too might display his glory. The Christian mission, then, involves, not only the calling of the nations to repentance, but also working towards a greater Christlikeness both in them and in us. Hence, every Christian discipline is rooted in Christian mission: evangelization has as its goal the ingathering of a multitude who will reflect his worth and sing his praises, and is thus in pursuit of the realization of the necessary effects of redemption. But furthermore, the laboring for doctrinal precision and practical purity is also in pursuit of the realization of the effects of redemption, and may therefore be subsumed under the general heading of mission. In other words, the Christian mission is one and the same thing as the pursuit of the blood-bought effects of redemption, and is an all-encompassing task. This has clear implications for how we go about the task of spreading the gospel: edification is as fundamental an aspect of mission as evangelization.

5. The Christian mission must ultimately be successful.

This final principle is very clearly derived from those which precede it. But as obvious as it is, it is easy to lose sight of; and a failure to keep it in the forefront of one’s mind has been the occasion of much discouragement and despair. As we prepare to labor for the task of Christian missions, we must ever be mindful of the fact that it is the work which God has determined to accomplish, and that its ultimate success is grounded in his purpose and not our own efforts. This should afford the greatest consolation to those who are laboring in difficult and resistant fields. No matter how grim the battle may at times appear, the outcome is certain. Even by means of apparent failures – martyrdoms, apostasies, political oppositions, and so on – God is working a great and irreversible triumph. As God exhorted the apostle Paul, let us take courage: for he certainly has many sheep in the very difficult and hostile unreached peoples among whom we labor (Acts 18:9-10). We may not see them in this lifetime, but we will surely meet them some day, and learn how our seemingly wasted labors were being used to accomplish a great in-breaking of the eternal Kingdom of Christ.

~~posted by Zioneer

The Christian Mission: An Overview (part 2)

continued from part 1

The second problem, a narrowness of perspective, may be viewed from two different angles: historical and geographical. With respect to the first, it is easy to lose the clarity of vision that may be gained by perceiving our era of mission as the culmination and continuation of a history-long movement which defines and gives impetus to our current task. When we are diligent to keep in mind the history of the gospel’s spread from the days of the apostles to our own, we are better equipped to sort out the greatest remaining needs; to see how the historical mission movement has gone forward, and how we might derive impetus from the inertial forces which are currently at play; and finally, to be instructed as to what basic approaches and ideals are likely to be successfully employed by the enabling grace of God. But even beyond this two-thousand year perspective, we must be able to place the post-ascension missionary effort in a broader context of the movement of redemptive history from the first gospel promise of Genesis 3:15. A fundamental presupposition that should instruct our efforts is that all of history is a unified and divinely-planned movement towards the final realization of the full effects of Christ’s great work of redemption, which was prepared for and foreshadowed from earliest times. When we have this world-history-encompassing perspective, we are enabled to deal more intelligently with the purposes and approaches peculiar to this era; and furthermore, we have a philosophical license to be instructed in our mission efforts by the Old Testament examples of Israel, whose history in many ways foreshadowed the history of spiritual Israel in this age, and by the examples of whom we, “upon whom the end of the ages has come,” are able to be admonished (I Corinthians 10:11).

The second area in which we may be benefited by a broadened perspective is that of geography, and the forces at play in the worldwide Church. If a missionary feels that he is called to reach out to a certain people, but is ignorant of the vision and work of the Church in other places, he may be cutting himself off needlessly from much helpful collaboration and synergy. For example, suppose an American Christian desires to evangelize an unreached people of Central Asia. If he is pursuing a worldwide perspective of the movements of the Church in other geographical venues, he may learn of the “Back to Jerusalem” vision of the persecuted Chinese Church, and, upon consideration, may find it a more valuable strategy for him to partner with this Chinese Church, bringing to them logistical assistance and theological training, and otherwise facilitating them to reach out to this particular people with whom they might have more cultural and linguistic affinity. Hence, he might be better able to labor for the spread of the gospel in Central Asia by working in China than by going to the target people on his own. Or even if he decided to go to the target people, he would at least be familiar with a different geographical sector of the Church which is also targeting this people, and be able to start thinking about how they could support and sustain each other on their common field of service. When every isolated segment of Christianity is pursuing a task with respect to its vision alone, much helpful co-operation might be lost; hence, a worldwide geographical perspective may prove invaluable for shaping how we go about the particular task that the Lord has laid upon our hearts.

Our final problem is closely related to the former: and that is, the essential fragmentation of the universal Church as she pursues her mission. If, as Christ proclaimed, the unity and loving inter-relationship of all Christians is a non-negotiable apologetic and testimony to the world of Christ (John 13:34-35), then the myopic point of view which chooses to interact only with other Christians of the same denomination and philosophical orientation is a tragic obstacle to the completion of the great commission. Denominationalism and fragmentation are among the great evils plaguing the Church in this day. This is a problem which holds forth immense difficulties; for many professing Christians are false teachers, spreading doctrines of the devil (I Timothy 4:1), and many are insincere professors, holding to an orthodox formulation of the faith in lip-service only (I John 2:19). Furthermore, many genuine believers are plagued by doctrinal errors of such import that evangelistic co-operation may prove more detrimental than anything else. However, as we pursue our Church-wide task, it is imperative that we seek to overcome this hurdle by humbly confessing the sin which is the cause of our division; by seeking great discernment in knowing who to condemn as false prophets and who to admonish as weaker brothers; and by laboring to partner together with true believers in spite of secondary doctrinal differences, attempting to teach those who have doctrinal errors and humbly submitting to be taught by those who have been enabled to see the doctrinal errors which we ourselves retain. If all humble, evangelical believers, even in this country alone, were motivated to work strategically together, instead of each particular group operating within the confines of its own little kingdom, I am convinced that God would be pleased to multiply our fruits exponentially.

to be concluded Monday

~~posted by Zioneer

The Christian Mission: An Overview (part 1)

part 1 of 3

As we approach the point which marks a two-thousand year lapse of time since our Savior left us on earth with a great task to accomplish, namely, the evangelism of the nations, it is imperative that we pause to consider what precisely we are striving to accomplish; how far we have advanced on our goal; and what strategies we have in place for the continuation and ultimate completion of our mission. Is it possible that, in all our zeal for the work of the Kingdom, we are hindered at points by a lack of essential clarity on exactly what that work entails, and how we might best go about it? It would seem, simply by the fact of the overwhelming diversity of ways in which various Christian churches and organizations would answer these questions that the answer must at least in some cases be yes. If this lack of unity and vision in the worldwide Church poses certain obstacles to the accomplishment of the great commission, then how might we take a definite step towards overcoming those obstacles, and equipping the Church to pour out her energies in a united effort to reach the world? I would propose that we must first acknowledge the problems which inhere in our current situation, and then construct a full-orbed biblical theology of Christian mission; by which we may hope to address those problems which we have already recognized to be detrimental to our evangelistic efforts. This series of posts does not presume to be that biblical theology of mission; but it is my desire that they may at least serve to highlight a need for more extensive work in that area, as well as provide a few rough ideas for a direction to pursue toward that end.

In pursuance of our first proposed step, what may we adduce as more specific examples of the doctrinal or practical errors in the modern conception of mission? Of many possible answers, I will highlight three that seem to me more pervasive and damaging than most of the other problems we might bring up. These are, first, a man-centered view of evangelization; second, a narrowness of perspective in the evangelistic task; and third, an essential and practical fragmentation of the worldwide Church, as she pursues her global mission. In the remainder of this article, I will address in a little more detail what these problems involve, and lay out five foundational principles that should govern our attempts to seek a biblical-theological solution to the errors which confront us.

Under the heading “man-centeredness”, I intend to include two basic errors: the first is the tendency to make the good of man the supreme motivational force for our pursuit of evangelism. It is certainly true that, apart from the gospel, man is utterly wretched, and hopeless of any lasting good. Furthermore, it is true that, in the example of Christ, we are constrained to love our fellow men, and seek their good over our own. As the love of Christ fills our hearts, it must necessarily work itself out in a selfless pursuit of laboring for the salvation of the world of men who are in desperate straits, pitiably scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd (Matthew 9:35-38). But if this motivation, as commendable as it is, is not grounded in a more foundational motivation to make much of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, it will prove inadequate to prepare us for the vast sacrifices which a life of abandonment to the ministry of reconciliation involves. If our only reason for evangelism is that men are in need, we will surely buckle under the immense pressures of the task, when the Serpent hurls his venom at us. But if our love for fellow-men derives from a deeper love of Christ, and if our most foundational motivation is the recognition that the Lamb who purchased us with his own blood, so that we might show forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (I Peter 2:9), is worthy of worshipers from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation (Revelation 5:9-14); then the greatness of our vision and the God-centeredness of our motivation will be an immovable rock in the face of innumerable difficulties.

The second, more fundamental, aspect of the problem of man-centeredness is this: in effect, it places the worth and value of man on a higher plane than the glory of God – which is basically idolatry. If the need of man is of more practical concern than the glory of God – if man’s salvation is not rather one great means to magnify the glory of God’s free love and sovereign grace – then we have failed to recognize the biblical truth that redemption is ultimately designed for the universal display of God’s kindness toward us in the person of Christ (Romans 9:23-24; Ephesians 2:7), under whom he has purposed to bring all creatures, and in whom he has purposed to sum up all things (Ephesians 1:9-12, 20-23). If our evangelism is motivated by a subtle idolatry, how can we expect God to bless and empower our efforts?

—to be continued

~~posted by Zioneer

The Validity of Crossing Cultures in the Work of the Great Commission

The missionary advance of the gospel can no longer be mistaken as a Western enterprise alone. More and more nations from the two-thirds world are sending their own workers, and, not surprisingly, without American passports and unaccustomed to Western comforts, they are getting into some of the most difficult and limited access regions of the world. Believing nationals from within under-evangelized countries are mobilizing for the spread of the church among their own and neighboring peoples. In many regards, a new day has dawned in the epic of the great ingathering, and some of the rules have changed. They have changed so drastically, in fact, that some argue there is little or no place for traditional Western missionaries to do the long-term task of planting churches among the unreached. The expense and trouble involved in transplanting an American or Western European family overseas makes it, according to some, unwise, unstrategic, and a poor stewardship of resources when six or more national pastors can be funded for the same price. Perhaps the traditional model has run its course. Is the role of the Western Church now only to fund nationals, operate training hubs, and perform short-term services?

The church should most definitely give consideration to these things. National believers are, in many regards, the best equipped to carry on the work of church-planting in their own contexts. In too many cases, expatriate workers have over-stayed themselves. Their lack of a clear exit strategy and/or distrust of national believers has done damage to the health and mission of the national church. But I do not believe it is true that there is no longer a place for long-term goers who do the hard work of leaving home and learning a new language and culture with the goal of establishing the church in new contexts. The following is a beginning defense of why:

First, there are still places in the world where there is no national church capable of reaching its own without outside help. In these places, the call of Christ must involve someone crossing cultural and linguistic barriers – it is inherent in the task (Rom. 10:14-15; Matt. 28:18-20). I suggest that it would be in keeping with the thrust of the New Testament for the sending Church to focus on these least-reached areas in the commissioning of workers (Rom. 15:20-21). There are no doubt places where, indeed, the best thing foreign workers can do is pack their bags and leave in a timely fashion to enable the Church of Christ to come to maturity in its own context and shoulder the burden of mission to neighboring tribes and peoples. But this is not the case everywhere. As long as there are peoples with no witness for Christ, as long as there are places where no foundation has been laid, there will be the need for some to do the costly, difficult, Jesus-ordained work of going.

Second, supporting national pastors long term with Western dollars is not an ideal scenario. Of course, there is biblical precedent for the church in one place giving to the church in another. The account of the church in Antioch taking up a collection for the church in Jerusalem in Acts 11:27-30 would be one familiar instance. But this is an example of a one-time gift to relieve a crisis, which is far from parallel to indefinitely underwriting the salaries of foreign pastors and church-planters. Where the goal is indigenous communities of worshipers, the subsidizing of national elders leaves an unmistakable foreign influence. It may work to mark benefiting pastors as belonging to a separate class, it may make them vulnerable to attacks of greed (Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 5:2), and it may discourage the national church from supporting her own Christian workers and having a sense of ownership and autonomy. As long as Western donors hold the purse-strings, they are going to want to exercise some form of control over the recipients of their gifts, which in the long-run almost necessarily hampers indigenization. On the other hand, where Western dollars are behind Western missionaries, as messy and expensive as that can be, the dollars will leave with the missionaries. Both are temporary. The dollars along with the expatriate say: “something is not right here. Christ’s church is not living here. We must live among you for a time, to bless you with the Word of the Cross, and then we will go.”

Third, I don’t believe it would ever be suitable for the Western Church’s only form of “partnership” with the Church in the East to be financial support and training institutions. Might God be pleased by a fuller partnership and interdependence between us? For an affluent society such as our own, writing checks is one level of commitment to the commission of Christ and our brothers and sisters in the two thirds world. Sending our sons and daughters is another. God has allowed the Western Church (mainly owing to lack of persecution) to progress far in the development of doctrine and resources – something we should not disregard or conceal. While we must encourage new church plants toward mission to surrounding peoples, we should not assume that in every case infant churches will be ready to fulfill the Great Commission in their own countries without partnership. The task is still pretty gigantic, and we will not necessarily be robbing opportunities from churches in least-reached regions by continuing to do our own sending, especially when in partnership and consultation with any local believers that may exist. Of course, partnership is a two way street, and we need our brothers and sisters in the East as greatly or more so than they need us. Let us pose the question: who might have the most effective voice for revival in America? In spite of all our resources, heritage and education, might it not be a Chinese house church elder who has suffered for Christ and has come over to learn our language and give us a message from God? There is a rich effect when not everyone “blooms where they are planted.”

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, there is something about the message of the cross that is validated, sweetened, illustrated and adorned when it is delivered at the hands of those who have sacrificed status, economy and comfort to bring it. The widely-used term “incarnational ministry” maybe not be the most appropriate, since Christ’s taking on of human flesh was a once-for-all redemptive action in a class by itself. But He who is not ashamed to call us brothers does call us follow Him in laying aside comfort, familiarity and ease to publish the message of His incarnatory work to all the nations. In the wisdom of God, the means are appropriate to the message. The Savior has come a long distance to ransom a people for Himself. In fact, He has gone so far as to die to make our salvation a reality. He asks us, as ambassadors for the ingathering of that people for whom He died, to also condescend, identify, and if necessary die to see this message take root in the ends of the earth.

~~posted by Ambassador

Let the Nations Be Glad!

Let the Nations be Glad! is the book which we here at Kingdom Surge believe encompasses a truly Biblical view of missions. John Piper shows how our desire for God to be glorified and treasured is what should fuel all efforts to take the gospel to the lost.

If you have not heard of this book, please consider the following endorsements:

The most important book on missions for this generation. John Piper places missions where it belongs: at the heart of God’s desire to be glorified among the nations. — R. Albert Mohler Jr. (president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)

If I had to choose only one book on missions, Let the Nations be Glad! would be it. — Duane Litfin (president, Wheaton College)

This book has glorified God and helped to bring missions from the periphery to the center of the worldview of many Christians, and it is faithful to the Scriptures. — Patrick Johnstone (author of Operation World)

An invaluable resource. Missionaries, pastors, teachers, and laypeople with a thirst for God’s passion for himself and the peoples of the world will be challenged and encouraged. I offer it my highest recommendation. — A. Scott Moreau (editor, Evangelical Missions Quarterly)

The best biblical study there is on the nature of missions — Ajith Fernando (national director, Youth for Christ/Sri Lanka)

Densely packed, richly theological, faithfully biblical, thrillingly courageous, impressively thorough—Let the Nations be Glad! is the best book on missions I have ever read. — Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. (First Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA)

I give the above recommendations to spur you toward getting and reading this book. And I want you to please go read an excellent review of the book just published by Alex Chediak. His review covers the entire book and walks through each part of it. It is an excellent summary which should whet your appetite for more. Oh, and you can read the table of contents and first chapter online for free.

~~posted by Bob

Book Review: Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, by Kostenberger and O’Brien

Synopsis: In light of the overwhelming abundance of materials on the practical aspects and New Testament examples of Christian mission, the relative scarcity of works intending to set forth the foundational principles of mission from the entire gamut of scriptural witness is conspicuous. This self-styled “biblical theology of mission” admirably fulfills a much-needed role in the pursuit of a rigorously biblical and redemptive-historically comprehensive framework for modern mission.

If the history of the world, and special revelation in particular, is indeed the unified account of God’s working out his eternal plan for the accomplishment of the universal mission of his Son, namely, the gathering together of a redeemed people from every nation, who will worship him forever; then an adequate vision of the purpose and significance of Christian mission, which is carried out by authorization of the Son, and in extension of his foundational mission, must begin, not with the great commission, but rather with the beginning account of God’s creation. The recognition of this vital principle is what motivated Andreas J. Kostenberger and Peter T. O’Brien to undertake their weighty endeavor. And the results could scarcely have been attended with greater success.

From the original intent of creation, the significance of Abraham’s call, the purpose of Israel as a nation of priests, the monumental covenant made with David, the grand and sweeping eschatological visions of the writing prophets; to the predominantly Jewish ministry of Christ on earth, his forecast of universal expansion following his death, and the actual outworking of that forecast in Christian history, as his disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, began to turn the world upside down for the sake of the Name – in short, from beginning to end of divine revelation, a thrilling picture of worldwide, salvific import begins to emerge, with a unity and complexity that is as staggering as it is beautiful. Salvation to the Ends of the Earth traces that gloriously unfolding design with a carefulness and intentionality that it makes it both a substantial contribution to modern scholarship and a rich feast for any believer. The final summary alone, entitled “Some concluding observations and implications” (pp. 262-268), is the best brief synopsis of Christian mission that one is ever likely to encounter, and worth the price of the book.

Kostenberger and O’Brien are up-to-date and thorough in their interactions with related contemporary writings. They are also well enough grounded in the universality and vastness of the theme to avoid mere novelty and speculation in their treatments. Informed throughout by a broad vision of redemptive history, and rigorously subjected to the scruples of a careful exegesis, this biblical theology of mission will undoubtedly prove to be fully adequate for a thorough grounding in the purpose and movement of Christian mission – from creation to new creation.

~~posted by Zioneer

Muhammed & Mother Teresa: Affirming the Oneness of False Religions

Paper dolls, anyone? You remember those things. One piece of paper, folded over many times, cut into the shape of a doll. Then, Voila! You spread out the paper doll figurine to reveal not one, but many dolls. Well, sort of. It’s still one piece of paper. At the end of the day, whatever minute differences or blemishes show up among them, each doll shares remarkably identical features. Separate but inseparable. Branches of the same tree.

Roman Catholicism and Radical Islam. Animism and Atheism. Daoism and Dr. Phil. What all religions apart from Christ crucified have in common far outweighs any drastic differences between them. There stands a fundamental threshold of reality at the foot of the Cross which divides all religions and philosophies—all possible views of the world. Truth or error (1 John 4:6). Wisdom or foolishness (1 Corinthians 3:18). Blessing or cursing (Galatians 1:8).

“You are of your father, the devil…” (John 8:44). And so Jesus unmasks even the Bible-wielding religion of the Pharisees, and necessarily lumps them into the same category of Satanic deception and perversion that marks the nature of human religion since the Fall.

A theologian’s theologian, Paul himself displays an almost unnerving simplicity despite his admittedly stalwart and sophisticated education. Speaking of the digression of mankind, both Jew and Gentile, he makes simple, sweeping statements: “[T]hey became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God…” (Romans 1:21-23).

Following suit, the greatest thinkers of church history reveal patterns of thought humbly submitted to the Biblical deposit. For instance, in the Fourth Century, St. Augustine summed up all of humanity into one of two cities: the City of God or the City of Man. Over a thousand years later, Martin Luther fervently reduced all ethics and all religions into one of two theologies: the Theology of the Cross or the Theology of (human) Glory.

For us post-Enlightenment moderns living in a culturally pluralistic and educationally specialized age—with nuanced courses in Comparative Religions—this can be a hard pill to swallow. Speaking in such definitive and simplifying terms almost smacks of naivety.

Yet, I submit that it is fear of the uncouth nature of Truth, shame of Its absoluteness and utter superiority—not intellectual maturity—that inhibits many Evangelicals from espousing such biblical and historical reductionism. What all world religions share in their rejection of the cardinal doctrines of the One Faith—e.g., salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—remains infinitely more significant and defining and consequential than any surface contrasts of culture, history, methodology, etc. At the most crucial points, they unite to expose the essential thread of Satanic origin and intent.

So I close with four points of application for today’s missionary efforts around the world. Can you think of other applications? Please record them in the comments below.

Expect to Encounter Much Confusion. Despite the “unity” of all false religions—precisely because of it—the aspiring missionary can expect to meet the most bewildering combinations and contradictions of beliefs among the people he hopes to evangelize. Since they share a common foundation and essential substance, it is possible for the most bizarre of connections to take place among false religions. For instance, did you know Rick Love estimates that 75% of all Muslims are “Folk Muslims” who consistently practice various forms of animism in addition to—and in open defiance of—Koranic teaching? Or, did you ever notice the obvious superstitious similarity of amulets in Africa, evil eyes in Central Asia, and crucifix’s in Massachusetts? There’s a reason that the first time I saw Muslim prayer beads in Turkey, I immediately thought of the Rosary.

Prioritize Christian Theology in Your Missionary Preparation. Comparative Religions does have a value, but it is a limited and relative value. Knowing the particulars of Hinduism can be extremely helpful, perhaps vital, to an effective ministry in India. And yet, without belittling such religion-specific instruction, utmost primacy must be placed on grasping the fundamental truths of Scripture and the Way of Christ. This is 90% of your educational challenge. Knowing what true religion is, intimately and positively, will become your greatest defense and offense against any false religion. You can afford to be somewhat ignorant about the nuances of Buddhism or Islam or Animism. But you must know the Bible well! It is a disastrous and incalculable tragedy that modern missions so de-emphasizes and so demeans thorough theological preparation. In foolish contrast, many missions would be so giddy over a certificate one might have earned in a course on Islam, while totally ignoring the question of basic doctrinal fitness.

Rebuke the Essential Evil of Every False Religion. Rebuking error—not just proclaiming truth—is an essential, apostolic command for authentic Christian ministry and mission (2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:9). And since every religion apart from Christ crucified is indeed a false religion, we must labor not to coddle any such demonic device. In other words, to heck with all this contemporary gobbledygook about Islam being a “cousin” to Christianity, all these attempts to “build bridges” and downplay essential differences for the sake of greater ministry effectiveness. The Judaism of the Pharisees was light years “closer” than Islam; but that didn’t change Jesus’ diagnosis. Aspiring missionary to the Muslim world: there is a way to love Muslims, but hate Islam. Find it!

Be Encouraged: God is Able to Grant Faith and Repentance to Anyone. Remember to marvel at your own conversion! That such a stubborn and self-reliant materialist in America could come to faith is as much a miracle of divine grace as the many cannibals who were saved in the 19th Century South Pacific. Bondage and blindness are but the common denominator of all false religions—indeed, of all humanity in all places and all generations apart from Jesus. Therefore, what incredible hope awaits your pioneer missionary efforts among the Pashtun! All authority belongs to the Christ; and He has devoted all His being, all His power to exercising it among every people under heaven!

~~posted by Jack