Memo from Hell

From: The Evil One
To: The Demonic Army
Subject: Strategy Report: Is Jesus Really The Only Way?

Good news, comrades! There are more non-Christians in the world today ever before. We have more than 4 billion people firmly in our demonic camp.

The bad news is that there are more people who call themselves Christians than ever before. Fortunately, the vast majority of these people are half-hearted, carnal Christians. Lukewarm Christians don’t hurt us too much. In fact, they might help us by embarrassing the King.

But we have to be careful. If Bible-believing churches really catch a world-wide passion for reaching the lost and for strengthening lukewarm Christians, we will be in serious trouble. Churches have way more power to change the world than they could ever dream.

Now, here is our strategy. Don’t challenge Christians directly. Be subtle. Remember our approach with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Don’t tell them that God is a liar. Just nudge them to doubt by asking questions. In a sincere tone of voice ask them, “Do you really think that Jesus is the only way to God?”

You have done a good job to spread a spirit of relativism. It really isn’t polite these days to claim that Jesus is the only way to God. This helps our cause enormously.

If Christians doubt that Jesus is the only way to God, their urgency for world missions will be seriously dulled. Doubting the uniqueness of Jesus as Savior is the delightful slippery slope that will lead to glorious victory for our evil armies.

If Christians doubt that Jesus is the only way to God, interest in world missions will be reduced to a fashionable activity with no passion. Churches will send missionary candidates who are merely looking for a cross-cultural adventure. There will be little sense of sacrifice in such missionaries. They will only volunteer for locations with a good climate and the best MK schools. They won’t go to countries where we have our greatest strongholds.

If churches begin to doubt that Jesus is the only way to God, they will go through the motions of missions but will spend more and more of their money on their own local programs. Prayer for missionaries will be dignified, but no one will weep for the lost.

Keep these churches away from crucial Bible verses, especially, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). If they do read verses like this, make sure they don’t connect them with a map of the world.

Be careful! If churches realize the importance of their task and how much power they have. . . if Christians realize their potential for Jesus to change the world, we will be doomed.

Revival, One Missionary At A Time, One Day At A Time

We often think of revival as an emotional experience in church, at a youth camp or a religious retreat. While I praise the Lord and pray for church-related revivals the ideal revival is the daily searching our souls for anything that would hinder our daily fellowship and apprenticeship with Jesus.

We can fool each other and we often fool ourselves about the state of our souls. But God is constantly searching our hearts and knows our thoughts. Our loving Father urges us to test our hearts and examine our motives.

More than 200 years ago members of the John Wesley’s Holy Club asked themselves these questions every day in their private devotions. Picture the potential world-wide impact if every Bible-believing missionary would daily re-attune our hearts to the living and loving Father? How can we be effective missionaries of the Gospel if our hearts are not right with God?

This is not a threatening activity, but a soothing exercise of the soul. I invite you to join me in daily prayer for the refreshing of our souls as we prayerfully search out hearts with these 21 questions.

Twenty One Questions
By John Wesley

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me every day?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. How do I spend my spare time?
17. Am I proud?
18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people?
19. Is there anyone I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so what am I doing about it?
20. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
21. Is Christ real to me?

The Quandary of Missionary Leadership

Missionaries are people who are not afraid to take bold risks. They often march to a different drummer, and have an entrepreneurial spirit. Missionaries are a delightful yet peculiar people. When it comes to leadership they face a quandary:

* Individualistic missionaries are often called to work under the direction of missionaries or nationals with widely different views of leadership.
* Missionaries may be called to lead multi-cultural teams of fellow missionaries and nationals who have radically different expectations of leadership.
* Missionaries teach in pastoral training institutions in cultures with dissimilar ideas about the leadership role of the pastor.
* The dominant worldwide assumption is that leaders have the responsibility and power to control people. The North American corporate CEO, the South American caudillo, the Asian Confucian elder brother, the Middle-Eastern paternalistic father-figure or the traditional African chief, all fit the model of leadership as power.
* Missionaries in a post-modern culture react against a domineering view of leadership, feeling called to “do their own thing.” They see leadership as a service function with little or no authority.

The Quandary

So here is the quandary. Many post-modern missionaries have a passive view of leadership, while the rest of the world assumes that leadership is power. Yet today’s missionaries are expected to work under leaders and to train leaders in cultures with different hidden assumptions of leadership.

A Possible Solution

Leadership is a spiritual gift mentioned in Romans 12:8, but footnotes show that the word might mean to “provide for others” or to “give aid.” The list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:28 uses the word “administration” in some translations, but in others it is translated “guidance” or “those who can get others to work together.” Here is a tentative definition: Good leadership is the spiritual gift of harmonizing, enhancing and focusing the spiritual gifts of others toward a common vision of the Kingdom of God. This definition assumes neither “leader as controller” or “leader as cheerleader.” The model takes the task of the Kingdom seriously and assumes that the leader will be proactive and take initiative, while also being an encourager and a developer of people.

I’m hopeful that this model of leadership will allow missionaries to be more effective in multi-cultural settings.
* It brings out the best of the controller and the encourager models while overcoming the weaknesses of both.
* It allows missionaries to be proactive, to take initiative and to keep focused on the vision, while working under people with diverse leadership styles.
* It has the potential of being a bridge between the dominant modern view of leadership as power and the post-modern passive view of leadership.
* It provides a starting point and a goal for developing leaders in other cultures.

Few things in life are more rewarding than working with missionaries and church leaders of other cultures. I pray that the Lord will continue to show us how to harmonize and enhance the spiritual gifts He has given believers in every culture so that we may be used to fulfill a vision of His worldwide Kingdom.