Follow this mythical dialogue between Joe Missionary and his Guru.
Guru: Young man, if God wants to mature an indigenous church, he'll do it without your help or mine. You must get on with the task of being a true missionary. Repent of your truncated church development syndrome. Missions is world evangelization, not national church development.
Joe: Sir, I know the local church in our area of Africa is self- governing, self-supporting, and growing rapidly. But the pastor is begging me to show him how he can disciple the elders in his church. Many parts of Africa are heavily churched, but spiritual maturity is often shallow.
Guru: Your attitude is very much out of date. You're showing advanced signs of the disease of ethnocentrism. First, it appears that you don't trust the national to be able to read his Bible and contextualize it for his own culture. You seem to be saying that if these believers don't follow the American pattern and don't use Western tunes in church, that they aren't growing Christians. Second, you don't trust the Holy Spirit. So you think that the Holy Spirit can only work through Americans?
Joe: Sir, you've made two points that I need to be careful about. I don't want to encourage the church to follow Western patterns, and I must trust the Holy Spirit. But am I not a part of the Body of Christ? Or does each homogeneous unit form its own Body? The Apostle Paul seemed to have a deep concern for the maturation process in the churches he planted. Paul spent most of his missionary career nurturing churches. Are you saying the apostle shouldn't have wasted his time or repeated visits and letter writing to the early churches once they become self-governing? One could use the argument of ethnocentrism against your concern in evangelism and church planting. Don't you trust the nationals to do this? Do you think the Holy Spirit can only use Americans to do cross-cultural evangelism?
Guru: Don't you believe in evangelism? In reaching the least reached?
Joe: Yes, I surely do. I understand the urgency to reach the unreached 2.5 billion. We both need to learn to work more closely with national Christians, and trust the Holy Spirit. But even if we would evangelize the whole world, our job is not finished.
Guru: Son, I can see that you don't know the history of missions. Traditional missionaries settled on a compound, started a dispensary, a school and sometimes a church. Then they spent their time building and administering institutions, while ignoring the thousands of nearby villages.
Joe: Yes, we missionaries have made mistakes. Yet with such a large church in our country, the missionaries must have done a few things right. To say that traditional missionaries did not evangelize is most inaccurate. But we also need to seek new approaches for encouraging the maturation of the church.
Guru: Joe, I know you're a dedicated missionary with a great academic future. But don't you realize that with your present attitudes you're out of step with the whole field of missiology? How can you measure spiritual maturity? We are most interested in quantifiable results. Your interest isn't academic. Son, if you want to get ahead in the field of missiology, get a degree or two with us, write a few articles, and get invited to a couple of world congresses. Soon, they'll be asking you to lead workshops. Forget about the maturation of the indigenous church. It's a dead-end-street, academically.
Joe: Well, sir, I surely appreciate your personal concern. I'm encouraged with the interest on reaching the unreached. But I sense that something's missing from the field of missiology. I look around me in Africa and see hundreds and thousands of churches, yet there are so few well-taught believers. The major emphasis of the New Testament writers seems to be the encouragement of believers toward maturity in Christ. Yet when I search in the field of missiology I see little of this New Testament emphasis.
I'm deeply concerned for the billions who are unreached. But if "being evangelized" results in thousands of weak and dying churches, then something is wrong somewhere. When I compare the church in Ephesis that Paul encouraged with the same church that John criticized in Revelation, I shudder to think of what could easily happen in Africa. The urgent need in the spiritual battle for Africa is to facilitate growth toward biblical maturity in the local churches. But when has anyone suggested a world congress on building up the body of Christ? Church revitalization must be the starting point for world evangelization. A large carnal church must be an embarrassment to the name of the Lord, but a vital maturing church will not only grow but will please the Lord. A vibrant national church will also have a passion for sending missionaries to the unreached.
Guru: Son, this discussion has been stimulating. But I'm sure you'll realize why we can't reserve a place for you in our school. We need students who are less dogmatic and more open to new ideas.
Should Missionaries Evangelize or Nurture Churches? Yes.
Adapted from the article by Jim Plueddemann “Church Maturity: Old Hat?” Evangelical Missions Quarterly, 1980, 19, 139-141.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Seven Missionary Lessons from my Dad
My Dad (Edwin P. Plueddemann) was a research scientist who had 100 patented inventions before he went to heaven. His discoveries are being used today in computer circuit boards, the space program and medical technology. While he was famous in the field of adhesives, his most powerful influence on me was through his life. Here are some of the most important missionary lessons I learned from my Dad.
1. Don’t complain when life is difficult. Dad grew up during the depression as one of nine children in the home of a poorly paid preacher. But in telling about his childhood, he only reminisced about the fun they had. Contentment characterized his whole life. When the doctor told him there was nothing more they could do to treat his cancer, he never complained. Rather than mope, he worked on improving his golf game and kept experimenting in the lab. What a lesson for missionaries!
2. Enjoy life to the fullest. Dad had a wonderful enthusiasm for life. When I was a child the children in our neighborhood often came to our door asking if Jimmy’s Dad could come out and play. Dad was constantly amazed that his company would give him a free chemistry set and pay him to play with chemicals all day.
3. Be curious about everything. As a scientist, Dad was curious about molecules, but he was also curious about the stock market, astronomy, world history, theology and politics. He taught himself German, Russian and Greek so he didn’t have to depend on others for translations. He never quit learning and even had a chemistry experiment going in the lab the night he died.
4. See all of life as Christian service. Dad felt that God had given him 24 hours a day. Ideally, he wanted to work for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours, and be involved in Christian service for 8 hours. While he was a research scientist he also pastored a small church for a salary of $1.00 a year. In the lab he assumed God was peering over his shoulder to see if he could discover how the Creator had constructed molecules.
5. Debate ideas, not people. I learned as a child that people could disagree about ideas and still be good friends. If a conversation became dull, my Dad would stimulate debate by taking the opposite opinion. If he convinced folks with his ideas, he would switch sides again. I chuckled inside as I watched my Dad spice up the conversation with wild ideas.
6. Study the Bible with excitement. Nothing was more enjoyable for my Dad than Bible study. He spent many evenings in his easy chair reading the Bible and commentaries. He was known to stay up until 2:00 in the morning discussing the Bible with a small study group. Sermon preparation was one of the delights of his life.
7. Live for the next world. As cancer spread throughout his body and heart attacks destroyed his heart, the elders of the church came to pray for him. When they asked Dad how he would like them to pray, he replied, “Well I don’t expect to live much longer in this body, and I’ve lived longer than I thought I would. Just pray that I’ll keep rejoicing in the Lord.” As we sat around him with tears in our eyes, Dad talked about the questions he would soon ask Jesus, and he began to design heavenly three-dimensional golf courses. He knew he was leaving the world of the dying and going to the land of the living. Dad exuberantly enjoyed life, but longed for the place Jesus was preparing for him.
A joyful, creative, curious attitude is not something easily taught in College or Seminary. Dad’s missionary training helped me face many challenges in cross-cultural work.
I hope I’ll always keep an excitement both for this world and for the world that is coming.
1. Don’t complain when life is difficult. Dad grew up during the depression as one of nine children in the home of a poorly paid preacher. But in telling about his childhood, he only reminisced about the fun they had. Contentment characterized his whole life. When the doctor told him there was nothing more they could do to treat his cancer, he never complained. Rather than mope, he worked on improving his golf game and kept experimenting in the lab. What a lesson for missionaries!
2. Enjoy life to the fullest. Dad had a wonderful enthusiasm for life. When I was a child the children in our neighborhood often came to our door asking if Jimmy’s Dad could come out and play. Dad was constantly amazed that his company would give him a free chemistry set and pay him to play with chemicals all day.
3. Be curious about everything. As a scientist, Dad was curious about molecules, but he was also curious about the stock market, astronomy, world history, theology and politics. He taught himself German, Russian and Greek so he didn’t have to depend on others for translations. He never quit learning and even had a chemistry experiment going in the lab the night he died.
4. See all of life as Christian service. Dad felt that God had given him 24 hours a day. Ideally, he wanted to work for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours, and be involved in Christian service for 8 hours. While he was a research scientist he also pastored a small church for a salary of $1.00 a year. In the lab he assumed God was peering over his shoulder to see if he could discover how the Creator had constructed molecules.
5. Debate ideas, not people. I learned as a child that people could disagree about ideas and still be good friends. If a conversation became dull, my Dad would stimulate debate by taking the opposite opinion. If he convinced folks with his ideas, he would switch sides again. I chuckled inside as I watched my Dad spice up the conversation with wild ideas.
6. Study the Bible with excitement. Nothing was more enjoyable for my Dad than Bible study. He spent many evenings in his easy chair reading the Bible and commentaries. He was known to stay up until 2:00 in the morning discussing the Bible with a small study group. Sermon preparation was one of the delights of his life.
7. Live for the next world. As cancer spread throughout his body and heart attacks destroyed his heart, the elders of the church came to pray for him. When they asked Dad how he would like them to pray, he replied, “Well I don’t expect to live much longer in this body, and I’ve lived longer than I thought I would. Just pray that I’ll keep rejoicing in the Lord.” As we sat around him with tears in our eyes, Dad talked about the questions he would soon ask Jesus, and he began to design heavenly three-dimensional golf courses. He knew he was leaving the world of the dying and going to the land of the living. Dad exuberantly enjoyed life, but longed for the place Jesus was preparing for him.
A joyful, creative, curious attitude is not something easily taught in College or Seminary. Dad’s missionary training helped me face many challenges in cross-cultural work.
I hope I’ll always keep an excitement both for this world and for the world that is coming.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Appropriate Sacrifice
Carol Plueddemann
About twelve years ago, the publishing company I (Carol) worked for gave me an assignment: Read several dozen missionary biographies and prepare an anthology of quotations from those books. The result was World Shapers: A Treasury of Quotes from Great Missionaries.
Was there any common theme in the 40 books I read? Yes—sacrifice. Almost every significant cross-cultural endeavor has been birthed in sacrifice as lives were laid down for the sake of taking the Gospel to unreached places.
To the Golden Shore* is the story of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma. The book includes this letter Judson wrote to the father of Nancy Hazeltine when he was asking for her hand in marriage:
I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; …to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God?
The author continues, It was a letter that must have made John Hasseltine’s eyes pop nearly out of his head. With many misgivings, he left it to Nancy to make up her own mind. Whatever her choice, she had his blessing. Nancy wrote, “I have come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his providence, shall see fit to place me.”
Judson’s letter turned out to be prophetic. Nancy Hazeltine Judson died in Burma, as did three of her children. Judson re-married, and his second wife Sarah also died. Two of her children died as well. Judson lost two wives and five children. What a huge cost! He wrote, “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.”
In today’s world, the Judsons’ experience would never be tolerated. If any mission agency allowed this scenario, it would probably be black-listed by various organizations and periodicals. Maybe rightly so. But what is appropriate sacrifice? (Is the term appropriate sacrifice an oxymoron?)
Seminars on risk assessment and risk management are a necessary part of missions today. But Phil Parshall, (SIM, Philippines) rightly raises concerns about this emphasis. “It seems the spirit of courage and daring has been somewhat replaced by a conservative attitude that keeps missionaries packed up, ready to evacuate to a ‘safe haven’ at the first sign of upheaval.”
The emphasis in missions today is sometimes more on member care than on vision. Of course member care is crucial and can be an integral part of Kingdom vision. But member care is not the reason mission agencies exist! The joyful task of missions is to plant, strengthen, and partner with churches around the world.
What will it take to continue the work of missions in the spirit of our pioneers? Increasingly, our world is fragmenting and becoming more and more unsafe. There are fresh martyrs’ graves as well as old ones. Will today’s missionaries and future recruits be willing to serve in hard places? Will mission committees allow them to be assigned in high-risk areas?
In our travels to many different countries, we have been very moved by the willingness of many to serve in difficult places. Armed robbery, dangerous roads, and tropical illnesses are eminent dangers in many areas. Financial limitations, loneliness, and cultural alienation are assumed sacrifices for those who serve cross-culturally. And who can count the cost of those who leave grown children and grandchildren in their homelands to answer God’s call? God gives grace for these sacrifices just as He gives grace for the ultimate sacrifice.
Jesus didn’t say “Go into all the safe places of the world…” But along with the command to go into to all the world, He gave the promise of His power and His presence.
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
------------------
1.To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, by Courtney Anderson. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1956.
About twelve years ago, the publishing company I (Carol) worked for gave me an assignment: Read several dozen missionary biographies and prepare an anthology of quotations from those books. The result was World Shapers: A Treasury of Quotes from Great Missionaries.
Was there any common theme in the 40 books I read? Yes—sacrifice. Almost every significant cross-cultural endeavor has been birthed in sacrifice as lives were laid down for the sake of taking the Gospel to unreached places.
To the Golden Shore* is the story of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma. The book includes this letter Judson wrote to the father of Nancy Hazeltine when he was asking for her hand in marriage:
I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; …to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God?
The author continues, It was a letter that must have made John Hasseltine’s eyes pop nearly out of his head. With many misgivings, he left it to Nancy to make up her own mind. Whatever her choice, she had his blessing. Nancy wrote, “I have come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his providence, shall see fit to place me.”
Judson’s letter turned out to be prophetic. Nancy Hazeltine Judson died in Burma, as did three of her children. Judson re-married, and his second wife Sarah also died. Two of her children died as well. Judson lost two wives and five children. What a huge cost! He wrote, “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.”
In today’s world, the Judsons’ experience would never be tolerated. If any mission agency allowed this scenario, it would probably be black-listed by various organizations and periodicals. Maybe rightly so. But what is appropriate sacrifice? (Is the term appropriate sacrifice an oxymoron?)
Seminars on risk assessment and risk management are a necessary part of missions today. But Phil Parshall, (SIM, Philippines) rightly raises concerns about this emphasis. “It seems the spirit of courage and daring has been somewhat replaced by a conservative attitude that keeps missionaries packed up, ready to evacuate to a ‘safe haven’ at the first sign of upheaval.”
The emphasis in missions today is sometimes more on member care than on vision. Of course member care is crucial and can be an integral part of Kingdom vision. But member care is not the reason mission agencies exist! The joyful task of missions is to plant, strengthen, and partner with churches around the world.
What will it take to continue the work of missions in the spirit of our pioneers? Increasingly, our world is fragmenting and becoming more and more unsafe. There are fresh martyrs’ graves as well as old ones. Will today’s missionaries and future recruits be willing to serve in hard places? Will mission committees allow them to be assigned in high-risk areas?
In our travels to many different countries, we have been very moved by the willingness of many to serve in difficult places. Armed robbery, dangerous roads, and tropical illnesses are eminent dangers in many areas. Financial limitations, loneliness, and cultural alienation are assumed sacrifices for those who serve cross-culturally. And who can count the cost of those who leave grown children and grandchildren in their homelands to answer God’s call? God gives grace for these sacrifices just as He gives grace for the ultimate sacrifice.
Jesus didn’t say “Go into all the safe places of the world…” But along with the command to go into to all the world, He gave the promise of His power and His presence.
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
------------------
1.To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, by Courtney Anderson. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1956.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)