Review of a book by Byang Kato Biblical Christianity in Africa, published by Africa Christian Press, 1985. Reviewed by Jim Plueddemann.
"The spiritual battle for Africa during this decade will be fought...on theological grounds." Though Kato tragically died 30 years ago, his reprinted articles are as timely today as they were at his death. Kato had a vision for the church in the whole continent of Africa, a vision that stimulated mission and African leaders to see the continent in a new light.
First Kato saw that the struggle for biblical Christianity was not isolated to one tribe or country-his vision covered the whole of Africa.
Second, Kato's vision for biblical Christianity included the whole of the spiritual maturation process.
At a time when most were debating the relationships between evangelism and social action, Kato was warning of a more subtle and dangerous threat-the threat of theological anemia in Africa. He warned of syncretism, universalism, black theology, African theology, and ecumenical theology, while at the same time crying out for biblical, contextualized Christianity in Africa. He argued that Christianity was historically and theologically a truly African religion. While rejecting a moratorium for missionaries, he advocated more self-reliance for the national church. He pleaded that the church "evangelize or perish." He urged prayer for revival.
In reading through the five reprinted articles, one gets the impression of a modern day prophet crying our to God for Africa. His vision was for the church to be truly Christian and at the same time truly African. He loved Africa and the rapidly growing struggling church. He was troubled by theological indifference and lukewarmness.
Kato shared his vision in the first chapter, "Theological Anemia in Africa." Some of his vision is being fulfilled. Top priorities on his agenda were for more seminary-level theological schools, for graduate training, for scholarship programs for theological education, for theological publications, and for an evangelical theological society. The Lord has blessed this vision.
In the second chapter, "The Theology of Eternal Salvation," Kato expressed fear that biblical Christianity was being sacrificed on the altar of syncretism and universalism in the name of contextualization. He warned that a wrong theology of sin blinds us to the true human condition. If human problems are defined merely as physical suffering, material deprivation, and political domination, then there will be a shallow understanding of salvation. "Every inch of the African continent may be liberated from foreign domination, every family may have two cars in the garage, but that still will not save the African from his fundamental dilemma" (p. 16). He saw the fundamental dilemma as alienation from God, and that general revelation was not sufficient to bring salvation. "If Biblical Christianity is to survive and flourish in Africa, we must hold fast the truth that the fundamental problem of the human race is sin against God, and that salvation is only through Jesus Christ" (p. 22). Such a plea is urgently needed in Africa today.
In chapter three, Kato discusses the importance of contextualizing the gospel for Africa, but warns of religious syncretism and relativism. "The African loves to get along with everybody. He is, therefore, not inclined to offend his neighbor by letting him know what the Bible says about non-Christian religions. That is why liberal ecumenism is thriving in Africa." (p. 26). Kato saw syncretism as a growing influence in the Third World, and believed that Christians may have to face persecution for their Bible-based Christianity. But, "The final challenge for the African Christian is to make Christianity culturally relevant while holding fast to its ever-abiding message" (p. 31).
In the fourth chapter Kato makes a strong argument that Christianity is truly an African religion. Historically, Christianity has closer ties with Africa than with Europe. He urges his readers to "live up to the claims we make as Christians in Africa, and promote the Christian message for Africa in all areas of life and everywhere possible as true ambassadors of Christ" (p. 37).
Finally, Kato warns of syncretism, relativism, and humanism in African theology, ecumenical theology, and black theology. While affirming the dignity of the individual and condemning injustice, he pleads that we find answers in the absolute Word of God, not merely in human experience.
In the last 30 years since Kato's death there have been healthy trends in overcoming theological anemia in African church life, but in many ways the message is more urgently needed today than it was 30 years ago. The book should be required reading for every pastor and Bible school student in Africa, as well as for every foreign missionary in Africa. But the problem of theological anemia is not isolated to Africa. Perhaps anyone interested in growing healthy churches anywhere in the world should read the book.
On a personal note. As a new SIM missionary in Africa in 1967, Byang Kato was my first boss. I was proud to report to a Nigerian who became one of my best friends. Kato's vision for the development of theological education in Africa has profoundly influenced my vision. I thank the Lord that much of his specific vision has been fuflilled. Yet the vision to overcome theological anemia must be rekindled in each generation.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
Revival & John Wesley
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 we missionaries would daily re-attune our hearts to the living and loving Father? 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 pray through 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?
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 we missionaries would daily re-attune our hearts to the living and loving Father? 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 pray through 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?
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Blanchard Hall At Wheaton College
Adapted from Homecoming Chapel At the rededication of Blanchard Hall at Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
Alumni coming back for the rededication of Blanchard Hall hope that the new Blanchard will continue some of the old traditions. We are concerned that Wheaton College not lose the vision for developing students. The trend in many famous liberal arts colleges is to downplay interactions between teachers and students. Recently Harvard was judged to be the best liberal arts college in the country. Harvard was chosen because of its world-class faculty, cutting-edge research and stringent admission standards. None of these criteria “of excellence” include the need for caring teacher/student relationships or a vision for the Kingdom of God. Most faculty at Harvard and other liberal arts colleges have a single-minded obsession with research. Students pay the price with large classes, inaccessible professors, and a heavy use of teaching assistants. Students are sacrificed on the altar of academic excellence. We pray that Wheaton College will never try to be a miniature Harvard or University of Chicago. The standards of excellence for these schools provide dangerous models.
Blanchard Hall as a Factory
• Last night I had a bad dream, a nightmare. I dreamed that there had been a mix-up of architectural plans and that Blanchard Hall had been remodeled by mistake into a factory. But nobody seemed to notice the difference.
The primary interests of a factory are efficiency, predictability and measurability. Numbers are the best indicators of success. In my dream, students were recruited primarily by their SAT or ACT scores. Depending on their SAT and CLEP scores, students were placed on a conveyor belt at the lower east end of Blanchard, and came out from the top west end four years later. Students entered as passive raw material and left as passive finished products. (Remember this was only a dream.)
• The mission of this new Blanchard Hall was to fill empty minds of students with important bodies of knowledge in the most effective, cost-effective way.
• In my dream faculty members sat in offices on the first or second floor with huge funnels on their desks. Each funnel was connected to hoses going into the ears of each student in the class. When the bell rang, professors would pour pearls of wisdom into the funnel. From time to time they would peer into the head of each student and count how many pearls actually got inside. It was the “tell-um-and-test-um” method of education.
• Since the motto was “Excellence Through Efficiency,” students were treated as children by faculty and staff. The staff had to get mean with students because they never filled out forms properly or on time. (Factories would collapse without lots of forms.) Teachers complained that students were always asking dumb questions. Since teachers knew it was inefficient to get sidetracked by trivial questions they learned they could pour in more pearls if they didn’t waste time by asking students what they thought.
• I dreamed that all the staff followed procedures of management by objectives. Staff from student accounts, the work order department, student development, financial aid, the counseling center, and the health center, could save time and money by being impersonal with students. Quality was defined solely by the numbers. Secretaries received wage increases if they consistently answered the phone before two rings. After all, the most efficient way for trustees, administrators, staff, and faculty to run a school is to treat students and each other as impersonal objects.
• In my dream, the conveyor belt propelled students past remedial funnels and divided into two directions. The scholarly students took the conveyor belt up to the second floor where they studied great books, great music, great art, and great ideas from the past. Anything as long as it was old. The less scholarly students stayed on the ground floor and studied the more professional subjects like education, business, computers, and social work.
• The debate in many faculty meetings was over the “canon” of knowledge to be injected into passive students. The second-floor faculty argued for a canon of the classics, the Great Books of the Western World. The first-floor faculty accused the “Great Books Cult” of being racist, bigoted, and sexist. They objected to limiting the curriculum to the writings of dead, European, white, upper-class, males. The first-floor faculty poured practical pearls through field trips and internship funnels.
• The “canonites” on the second floor accused the “vocationalists” of being relativists, positivists, and post-structuralists.
• In this factory there was very little dialogue. Second-floor faculty accused the first-floor faculty of being unscholarly and not true to the factory’s historic liberal arts position. The first-floor faculty accused the second-floor faculty of being like artificial intelligence computers -- highly rational but lacking a passion for the needs of people.
• Occasionally speakers would come to the factory challenging people to evaluate their ultimate purpose. One speaker said we had two tasks. The first task was evangelism, and all the bottom-floor faculty said “amen” (bottom-floor faculty talk like that). Then he said the second task was to redeem the academic disciplines, and the second-floor faculty nodded their heads in wise, condescending agreement. But the speaker didn’t stimulate much dialogue. A second speaker argued that factories have two kinds of purposes. Some are oriented toward service and others toward scholarship. He said our factory should emphasize scholarship and Bible Colleges should emphasize service. The second-floor faculty loved the lecture. Faculty in my dream would argue and talk behind backs, but seldom listen to each other.
• Chapel speakers called the factory students the “cream of the crop” and challenged them to excel. “Be a success! Be rich and famous! Anything done with excellence is Christian!” In the back corner of the chapel a few rebellious students could be heard mumbling, “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control.” And then something about “another brick in the wall.”
• The thing that woke me up was a factory meeting where teachers, students and administrators were shouting at each other over questions about general education requirements about the pledge. (Or maybe I just had to go to the bathroom.)
Blanchard Hall as Interpreter’s House
The nightmare wore me out so much that I got back to sleep right away. In my sleep this time I dreamed that the revitalized Blanchard Hall was Interpreter’s House from Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress.
• All the people, from the president, to the most senior professor, to the most junior janitor, were pilgrims. The pilgrims treated each other with love as wounded but maturing people, not as cogs in a machine. They came to a safe retreat at Wheaton College for a short while to reflect on where they had been, where they were going, and move on better equipped to face the next leg of the journey.
What would Wheaton College look like if my second dream were true?
• The admissions criteria would still consider the SAT, but the primary criteria for admissions would not be test scores but leadership potential in helping other pilgrims.
• The schizophrenic dilemma of the two conveyor belts would be solved. The course titles would not be much different from those of the factory model. But the teaching methods would be radically different. Instead of students getting writer’s cramp in every class, the teacher would present a few important ideas and students would be compelled to wrestle with these ideas. Real knowledge is never poured into the heads of students. The kind of knowledge that leads to wisdom must be “owned” and accepted by active, thinking, students who are struggling for themselves. Teachers in this school would know that real learning only takes place when students are changed on the inside. Test scores have very little to do with measuring real learning.
• Pilgrims in Interpreter’s House would catch a vision for being scholars of the Map -- the Map of God’s truth. But they would also realize that knowledge of the Map is a means and never an end. They would know that there is nothing as practical as a deep understanding of God’s truth. Ideas without action make an idol out of scholarship. But action without scholarship often leads to faddish heresy. Practical skills would never be taught without philosophical and biblical foundations. Theoretical ideas would never be presented without challenging students to wrestle with implications for the problems of the present and future. Students would be more serious about scholarship. In the factory, learning was a game of trivial pursuit. At Interpreter’s House pilgrims would have a passion to understand God’s truth because they love God and are anxious to know and serve him. Pilgrims would be motivated to study because they know they all will face the Slough of Despond and the Hill of Difficulty. Pilgrims would not be ridiculed while struggling in Doubting Castle.
• In a community of pilgrim scholars people would be anxious to help each other. Cooperation rather than competition for grades would be the mode. (They wouldn’t hide key books in the library on order to “excel” over other students.) Pilgrim scholars would help each other with assignments, be more relaxed, more joyful, more hopeful.
• The purpose of Interpreter’s House would be to equip students for full-time Pilgrim service. Pilgrim missionaries, evangelists, pastors. Pilgrim lawyers, teachers, business persons, parents and professors. But also pilgrim truck drivers, pilgrim factory workers and pilgrim carpenters. However pilgrims make a living, their orientation is to be full-time pilgrims.
• In my factory dream, professors argued about integrating faith and learning. At Interpreter’s House, faculty and students think and weep with each other about how to integrate faith and living.
• The community of pilgrim scholars looks forward eagerly to the return of the King. Pilgrims know they are marching through Immanuel’s land, but they also know that this world is not their real home. They know they have a responsibility as servants to influence political and social structures. They fight for justice and care for the poor. They have a passion for the 3 billion people who live in the City of Destruction and have never heard the Good News. But they also realize that the only hope for utopia is the return of the King.
• As the class of 1965, we come back home as weary pilgrims needing to be reminded of our roots. Few of us match the mythical “Wheaton image” of success. Many of us have struggled in the prison of Doubting Castle. We are pilgrims in progress. We need to come back to our Interpreter’s House and compare notes about the journey and renew friendships. Pilgrims desperately need other pilgrims. But we also come back to remember good times and good friends. Even though the road the last 25 years has been rough, and the road ahead is unpredictable, we continue on with deeper joy and stronger hope because of our time at Wheaton College.
• As pilgrim alumni we are concerned that the remodeled Blanchard not become a factory. We plead for a renewed sense of direction guided by eternal values -- a vision that will permeate our attitudes toward people, programs and our ultimate purpose. May God build the new Blanchard Hall into a loving community of scholars who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
Alumni coming back for the rededication of Blanchard Hall hope that the new Blanchard will continue some of the old traditions. We are concerned that Wheaton College not lose the vision for developing students. The trend in many famous liberal arts colleges is to downplay interactions between teachers and students. Recently Harvard was judged to be the best liberal arts college in the country. Harvard was chosen because of its world-class faculty, cutting-edge research and stringent admission standards. None of these criteria “of excellence” include the need for caring teacher/student relationships or a vision for the Kingdom of God. Most faculty at Harvard and other liberal arts colleges have a single-minded obsession with research. Students pay the price with large classes, inaccessible professors, and a heavy use of teaching assistants. Students are sacrificed on the altar of academic excellence. We pray that Wheaton College will never try to be a miniature Harvard or University of Chicago. The standards of excellence for these schools provide dangerous models.
Blanchard Hall as a Factory
• Last night I had a bad dream, a nightmare. I dreamed that there had been a mix-up of architectural plans and that Blanchard Hall had been remodeled by mistake into a factory. But nobody seemed to notice the difference.
The primary interests of a factory are efficiency, predictability and measurability. Numbers are the best indicators of success. In my dream, students were recruited primarily by their SAT or ACT scores. Depending on their SAT and CLEP scores, students were placed on a conveyor belt at the lower east end of Blanchard, and came out from the top west end four years later. Students entered as passive raw material and left as passive finished products. (Remember this was only a dream.)
• The mission of this new Blanchard Hall was to fill empty minds of students with important bodies of knowledge in the most effective, cost-effective way.
• In my dream faculty members sat in offices on the first or second floor with huge funnels on their desks. Each funnel was connected to hoses going into the ears of each student in the class. When the bell rang, professors would pour pearls of wisdom into the funnel. From time to time they would peer into the head of each student and count how many pearls actually got inside. It was the “tell-um-and-test-um” method of education.
• Since the motto was “Excellence Through Efficiency,” students were treated as children by faculty and staff. The staff had to get mean with students because they never filled out forms properly or on time. (Factories would collapse without lots of forms.) Teachers complained that students were always asking dumb questions. Since teachers knew it was inefficient to get sidetracked by trivial questions they learned they could pour in more pearls if they didn’t waste time by asking students what they thought.
• I dreamed that all the staff followed procedures of management by objectives. Staff from student accounts, the work order department, student development, financial aid, the counseling center, and the health center, could save time and money by being impersonal with students. Quality was defined solely by the numbers. Secretaries received wage increases if they consistently answered the phone before two rings. After all, the most efficient way for trustees, administrators, staff, and faculty to run a school is to treat students and each other as impersonal objects.
• In my dream, the conveyor belt propelled students past remedial funnels and divided into two directions. The scholarly students took the conveyor belt up to the second floor where they studied great books, great music, great art, and great ideas from the past. Anything as long as it was old. The less scholarly students stayed on the ground floor and studied the more professional subjects like education, business, computers, and social work.
• The debate in many faculty meetings was over the “canon” of knowledge to be injected into passive students. The second-floor faculty argued for a canon of the classics, the Great Books of the Western World. The first-floor faculty accused the “Great Books Cult” of being racist, bigoted, and sexist. They objected to limiting the curriculum to the writings of dead, European, white, upper-class, males. The first-floor faculty poured practical pearls through field trips and internship funnels.
• The “canonites” on the second floor accused the “vocationalists” of being relativists, positivists, and post-structuralists.
• In this factory there was very little dialogue. Second-floor faculty accused the first-floor faculty of being unscholarly and not true to the factory’s historic liberal arts position. The first-floor faculty accused the second-floor faculty of being like artificial intelligence computers -- highly rational but lacking a passion for the needs of people.
• Occasionally speakers would come to the factory challenging people to evaluate their ultimate purpose. One speaker said we had two tasks. The first task was evangelism, and all the bottom-floor faculty said “amen” (bottom-floor faculty talk like that). Then he said the second task was to redeem the academic disciplines, and the second-floor faculty nodded their heads in wise, condescending agreement. But the speaker didn’t stimulate much dialogue. A second speaker argued that factories have two kinds of purposes. Some are oriented toward service and others toward scholarship. He said our factory should emphasize scholarship and Bible Colleges should emphasize service. The second-floor faculty loved the lecture. Faculty in my dream would argue and talk behind backs, but seldom listen to each other.
• Chapel speakers called the factory students the “cream of the crop” and challenged them to excel. “Be a success! Be rich and famous! Anything done with excellence is Christian!” In the back corner of the chapel a few rebellious students could be heard mumbling, “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control.” And then something about “another brick in the wall.”
• The thing that woke me up was a factory meeting where teachers, students and administrators were shouting at each other over questions about general education requirements about the pledge. (Or maybe I just had to go to the bathroom.)
Blanchard Hall as Interpreter’s House
The nightmare wore me out so much that I got back to sleep right away. In my sleep this time I dreamed that the revitalized Blanchard Hall was Interpreter’s House from Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress.
• All the people, from the president, to the most senior professor, to the most junior janitor, were pilgrims. The pilgrims treated each other with love as wounded but maturing people, not as cogs in a machine. They came to a safe retreat at Wheaton College for a short while to reflect on where they had been, where they were going, and move on better equipped to face the next leg of the journey.
What would Wheaton College look like if my second dream were true?
• The admissions criteria would still consider the SAT, but the primary criteria for admissions would not be test scores but leadership potential in helping other pilgrims.
• The schizophrenic dilemma of the two conveyor belts would be solved. The course titles would not be much different from those of the factory model. But the teaching methods would be radically different. Instead of students getting writer’s cramp in every class, the teacher would present a few important ideas and students would be compelled to wrestle with these ideas. Real knowledge is never poured into the heads of students. The kind of knowledge that leads to wisdom must be “owned” and accepted by active, thinking, students who are struggling for themselves. Teachers in this school would know that real learning only takes place when students are changed on the inside. Test scores have very little to do with measuring real learning.
• Pilgrims in Interpreter’s House would catch a vision for being scholars of the Map -- the Map of God’s truth. But they would also realize that knowledge of the Map is a means and never an end. They would know that there is nothing as practical as a deep understanding of God’s truth. Ideas without action make an idol out of scholarship. But action without scholarship often leads to faddish heresy. Practical skills would never be taught without philosophical and biblical foundations. Theoretical ideas would never be presented without challenging students to wrestle with implications for the problems of the present and future. Students would be more serious about scholarship. In the factory, learning was a game of trivial pursuit. At Interpreter’s House pilgrims would have a passion to understand God’s truth because they love God and are anxious to know and serve him. Pilgrims would be motivated to study because they know they all will face the Slough of Despond and the Hill of Difficulty. Pilgrims would not be ridiculed while struggling in Doubting Castle.
• In a community of pilgrim scholars people would be anxious to help each other. Cooperation rather than competition for grades would be the mode. (They wouldn’t hide key books in the library on order to “excel” over other students.) Pilgrim scholars would help each other with assignments, be more relaxed, more joyful, more hopeful.
• The purpose of Interpreter’s House would be to equip students for full-time Pilgrim service. Pilgrim missionaries, evangelists, pastors. Pilgrim lawyers, teachers, business persons, parents and professors. But also pilgrim truck drivers, pilgrim factory workers and pilgrim carpenters. However pilgrims make a living, their orientation is to be full-time pilgrims.
• In my factory dream, professors argued about integrating faith and learning. At Interpreter’s House, faculty and students think and weep with each other about how to integrate faith and living.
• The community of pilgrim scholars looks forward eagerly to the return of the King. Pilgrims know they are marching through Immanuel’s land, but they also know that this world is not their real home. They know they have a responsibility as servants to influence political and social structures. They fight for justice and care for the poor. They have a passion for the 3 billion people who live in the City of Destruction and have never heard the Good News. But they also realize that the only hope for utopia is the return of the King.
• As the class of 1965, we come back home as weary pilgrims needing to be reminded of our roots. Few of us match the mythical “Wheaton image” of success. Many of us have struggled in the prison of Doubting Castle. We are pilgrims in progress. We need to come back to our Interpreter’s House and compare notes about the journey and renew friendships. Pilgrims desperately need other pilgrims. But we also come back to remember good times and good friends. Even though the road the last 25 years has been rough, and the road ahead is unpredictable, we continue on with deeper joy and stronger hope because of our time at Wheaton College.
• As pilgrim alumni we are concerned that the remodeled Blanchard not become a factory. We plead for a renewed sense of direction guided by eternal values -- a vision that will permeate our attitudes toward people, programs and our ultimate purpose. May God build the new Blanchard Hall into a loving community of scholars who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
In Search of the Real Jesus
Letter to the Editor
U.S. News and World Report
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Re: In Search of the Real Jesus
Jesus bashing again! Why does U.S. News and World Report so predictably assault orthodox Christianity at Christmas and Easter? Out of the tens of thousands of theologians from around the world, you select a half dozen from the fringe who were condemned by the Apostle Paul as hollow and deceptive (Colossians 2:8). Gnosticism was most profoundly debunked, not by Athanasius but by the Apostle Paul.
Your cover story is analogous to writing a story entitled, “In Search of the Real Holocaust” while primarily interviewing Iranian clerics.
At Christmas, why not write about the vibrant growth of global orthodox Christianity?
Letter to the Editor
Jim Plueddemann
US News and World Report
letters@usnews.com
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
I get tired of the annual Easter Jesus bashing by second-rate scholars who can’t tell the difference between a novel and history. I too have a PhD and teach at reputable Divinity School. If I were to write an article on a theory that Jesus was made out of green cheese, I suspect that I would make your cover next year. Why do you report on pipedream theories of scholars who represent less than 1% of global Christianity? Surely you can do a better job of reporting on a person who has won the hearts of two billion people.
U.S. News and World Report
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Re: In Search of the Real Jesus
Jesus bashing again! Why does U.S. News and World Report so predictably assault orthodox Christianity at Christmas and Easter? Out of the tens of thousands of theologians from around the world, you select a half dozen from the fringe who were condemned by the Apostle Paul as hollow and deceptive (Colossians 2:8). Gnosticism was most profoundly debunked, not by Athanasius but by the Apostle Paul.
Your cover story is analogous to writing a story entitled, “In Search of the Real Holocaust” while primarily interviewing Iranian clerics.
At Christmas, why not write about the vibrant growth of global orthodox Christianity?
Letter to the Editor
Jim Plueddemann
US News and World Report
letters@usnews.com
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
I get tired of the annual Easter Jesus bashing by second-rate scholars who can’t tell the difference between a novel and history. I too have a PhD and teach at reputable Divinity School. If I were to write an article on a theory that Jesus was made out of green cheese, I suspect that I would make your cover next year. Why do you report on pipedream theories of scholars who represent less than 1% of global Christianity? Surely you can do a better job of reporting on a person who has won the hearts of two billion people.
New Element Discovered - Administradium
My Dad was a research chemist. He is now with the Lord, but I have heard that Edwin P. Plueddemann continues his research from heaven. There is a heavenly rumor that he has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element know this far to science. The element, tentatively named Administradium, was discovered by Ed in heaven. It has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic number of zero. However, it does have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons, and 111 assistant vice neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together in the nucleus by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called morons.
Since it has no electrons, Administradium is inert. However, it can be detected chemically as it impedes every reaction with which it comes in contact. According to the discoverers, a tiny amount of Administradium caused one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally occur in less than 1 second.
Administradium has a normal half-life of approximately 3 years. At this time it doesn't actually decay but instead undergoes reorganization in which assistant neutrons, vice neutrons, and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. Some studies have shown that the atomic mass actually increases after each reorganization.
Researchers in other laboratories have indicated that Administradium occurs naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate in certain places such as universities, government agencies, large corporations, and school systems. The element is usually found only in the newest, best appointed and best-maintained buildings.
Scientists point out that Administradium is known to be toxic at any level of concentration and can destroy any productive reactions where it is allowed to accumulate. Attempts are being made to determine how Administradium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but results are not promising.
Adapted from: http://www.crummy.com/warren/files/06/admin.txt
Since it has no electrons, Administradium is inert. However, it can be detected chemically as it impedes every reaction with which it comes in contact. According to the discoverers, a tiny amount of Administradium caused one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally occur in less than 1 second.
Administradium has a normal half-life of approximately 3 years. At this time it doesn't actually decay but instead undergoes reorganization in which assistant neutrons, vice neutrons, and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. Some studies have shown that the atomic mass actually increases after each reorganization.
Researchers in other laboratories have indicated that Administradium occurs naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate in certain places such as universities, government agencies, large corporations, and school systems. The element is usually found only in the newest, best appointed and best-maintained buildings.
Scientists point out that Administradium is known to be toxic at any level of concentration and can destroy any productive reactions where it is allowed to accumulate. Attempts are being made to determine how Administradium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but results are not promising.
Adapted from: http://www.crummy.com/warren/files/06/admin.txt
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Children: Great Need—Great Potential
By Carol and Jim Plueddemann
In recent years many have awakened to the horrible realities of suffering children around the world. We weep for the abuse and exploitation millions of children face in today’s sick world of slavery, child labor, child soldiers, street children and prostitution rings.
In this reality, the story of Naaman and the young slave girl in 2 Kings 5 takes on new meaning. Imagine the horror this child survived when bands from Aram raided Israel and took children as slaves. She ended up in the house of Naaman, commander of Aram’s army. Who knows what life was like for this young girl snatched away from her family and living in a strange country? No doubt she was treated as a piece of property, abused and dehumanized.
But look what God did in this dark situation: the child slave pointed Commander Naaman to God Almighty! “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel,” Naaman confessed. The slave girl became one of the most influential missionaries in the Old Testament.
Children today represent both great need and great potential. We must cry out against the atrocities they face, but we can take comfort in our God, the Redeemer. He can change the most awful evil into good. A child can be a mighty asset in breaking open an entire culture to hear God’s voice.
Who knows how God might use the child slaves from southern Sudan who have been taken from their Christian families and sold into Islamic nations? God may penetrate dark cultures with his light, and perhaps children will be the key.
A young man at a missions conference told us, “I’d like to serve in missions, but I don’t have a lot of skills. I just work with children.” Just? Nothing is more important—or more demanding. It’s a huge challenge to learn how children develop and learn in order to help them understand spiritual truths in a life-changing way. Children’s ministries call for the best we can offer.
Here are three big reasons why missions should renew emphasis on children’s ministries:
1. Children are most often victims during times of turmoil. The needs of hurting children are greater than ever.
2. Children are often sensitive to Jesus’ tug on their lives and seem to see with unusual eyes of faith. A high percentage of believers decided to follow Christ as children.
3. As the story of Naaman shows, children make wonderful missionaries.
Let’s pray faithfully for children who are in perilous situations. Ask God to protect them and deliver them. Pray for those who are working to change unjust practices.
Pray, too, that children will be a means of blessing to the adults around them. Often children are more open to the gospel and then become the means of bringing adults to Christ.
Pray for missionaries who reach out to children through camping programs, street children’s ministries, feeding centers and Bible clubs. Encourage and support these efforts. Make sure that children’s ministries are honored for the important and strategic part they play in world missions.
Those who minister to children often lack the status of those working with adults. May God call and prepare many to minister to the world’s children. It is a high calling that demands the finest minds and most creative energies to reach these who have great needs and great potential.
In recent years many have awakened to the horrible realities of suffering children around the world. We weep for the abuse and exploitation millions of children face in today’s sick world of slavery, child labor, child soldiers, street children and prostitution rings.
In this reality, the story of Naaman and the young slave girl in 2 Kings 5 takes on new meaning. Imagine the horror this child survived when bands from Aram raided Israel and took children as slaves. She ended up in the house of Naaman, commander of Aram’s army. Who knows what life was like for this young girl snatched away from her family and living in a strange country? No doubt she was treated as a piece of property, abused and dehumanized.
But look what God did in this dark situation: the child slave pointed Commander Naaman to God Almighty! “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel,” Naaman confessed. The slave girl became one of the most influential missionaries in the Old Testament.
Children today represent both great need and great potential. We must cry out against the atrocities they face, but we can take comfort in our God, the Redeemer. He can change the most awful evil into good. A child can be a mighty asset in breaking open an entire culture to hear God’s voice.
Who knows how God might use the child slaves from southern Sudan who have been taken from their Christian families and sold into Islamic nations? God may penetrate dark cultures with his light, and perhaps children will be the key.
A young man at a missions conference told us, “I’d like to serve in missions, but I don’t have a lot of skills. I just work with children.” Just? Nothing is more important—or more demanding. It’s a huge challenge to learn how children develop and learn in order to help them understand spiritual truths in a life-changing way. Children’s ministries call for the best we can offer.
Here are three big reasons why missions should renew emphasis on children’s ministries:
1. Children are most often victims during times of turmoil. The needs of hurting children are greater than ever.
2. Children are often sensitive to Jesus’ tug on their lives and seem to see with unusual eyes of faith. A high percentage of believers decided to follow Christ as children.
3. As the story of Naaman shows, children make wonderful missionaries.
Let’s pray faithfully for children who are in perilous situations. Ask God to protect them and deliver them. Pray for those who are working to change unjust practices.
Pray, too, that children will be a means of blessing to the adults around them. Often children are more open to the gospel and then become the means of bringing adults to Christ.
Pray for missionaries who reach out to children through camping programs, street children’s ministries, feeding centers and Bible clubs. Encourage and support these efforts. Make sure that children’s ministries are honored for the important and strategic part they play in world missions.
Those who minister to children often lack the status of those working with adults. May God call and prepare many to minister to the world’s children. It is a high calling that demands the finest minds and most creative energies to reach these who have great needs and great potential.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Why Missionaries Care About The Unreached
Some people think that missionary-minded Christians are bigoted, narrow-minded and intolerant when we loudly sing, “Everybody Ought To Know Jesus.” Don’t the Bengali, Fulani and Quechua have their own religions? Why do they need to know Jesus? Yet missionaries have a passion to reach everyone with the wonderful good news about Jesus. If such thinking seems impolite in a “politically correct” environment, why do missionaries have a desire to reach the lost? Why do missionaries and supporting churches sacrifice much to reach out to unreached people groups in distant corners of the world? Here are a few reasons.
1. The God who created every bone and every cell in the Somali of East Africa, the Baluchi of Pakistan and the Guarani of Paraguay loves them, died for them and wants them to know and love Him.
2. The God of all creation commanded people who know and love Him to go and tell this good news with the whole world. Jesus commanded us to share the good news of how human beings can be fully human, how they can know God and get rid of hopeless futility caused by sin.
3. We have wonderful news that God wants to adopt us as His children from every tribe, language and nation The good news of Jesus is like a miracle medicine. He cures all the sadness and sickness of the world. The gospel medicine is free and there are no side-effects. Even if missionaries are misunderstood we must not withhold such wonderful good news.
We must not go with an attitude of superiority attempting to force a Western religion down the throats of unwilling people. We go as a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. We sadly confess that at times missionaries have gone with an attitude of superiority.
What do we mean by the unreached? A person is unreached when he or she has never had a chance to hear the wonderful good news that Jesus died for our sins. Some people have heard the good news many times, but cultural or communication problems might make it difficult for them to understand and accept such wonderful news. Other people may think they are Christians but they believe in a false unbiblical kind of Christianity. We have a great desire to reach these individuals with the true answer to their deepest needs. The key question is not, “are the people unreached?” but do the people truly know and follow the Jesus of the Bible?
Another popular phrase these days is “unreached people group.” We define an unreached people as an ethno-linguistic or affinity group which does not have a viable, accessible witnessing church among them. We want to reach out to people so that they can come to Jesus and become a part of a community – a local church of their own. In addition, daughter churches are also reaching out to many other groups. Without our witness, some of these people have almost no chance of hearing of a God who loves them, who died for them, and wants them to live with Him forever. Our hearts go out in a special way to those who have never clearly heard.
When people are reached with the good news and they accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they are like babies in their spiritual growth. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment include much more than reaching the unreached. We are commanded to make disciples in all nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Discipleship must take place in a community of believers.
Missionaries have a great desire to reach those who are totally unreached with a message of hope and joy, to plead with those who have heard but have not accepted the message of forgiveness and love, and to nurture healthy churches for those who have accepted the message of abundant life.
Join us as we reach the Yao of Malawi, the Mapuche of Chile and the Hui of China with a new song of joy. Help us reach the world with an exuberant, fulfilling message of hope! Help us teach the world to sing a new song.
1. The God who created every bone and every cell in the Somali of East Africa, the Baluchi of Pakistan and the Guarani of Paraguay loves them, died for them and wants them to know and love Him.
2. The God of all creation commanded people who know and love Him to go and tell this good news with the whole world. Jesus commanded us to share the good news of how human beings can be fully human, how they can know God and get rid of hopeless futility caused by sin.
3. We have wonderful news that God wants to adopt us as His children from every tribe, language and nation The good news of Jesus is like a miracle medicine. He cures all the sadness and sickness of the world. The gospel medicine is free and there are no side-effects. Even if missionaries are misunderstood we must not withhold such wonderful good news.
We must not go with an attitude of superiority attempting to force a Western religion down the throats of unwilling people. We go as a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. We sadly confess that at times missionaries have gone with an attitude of superiority.
What do we mean by the unreached? A person is unreached when he or she has never had a chance to hear the wonderful good news that Jesus died for our sins. Some people have heard the good news many times, but cultural or communication problems might make it difficult for them to understand and accept such wonderful news. Other people may think they are Christians but they believe in a false unbiblical kind of Christianity. We have a great desire to reach these individuals with the true answer to their deepest needs. The key question is not, “are the people unreached?” but do the people truly know and follow the Jesus of the Bible?
Another popular phrase these days is “unreached people group.” We define an unreached people as an ethno-linguistic or affinity group which does not have a viable, accessible witnessing church among them. We want to reach out to people so that they can come to Jesus and become a part of a community – a local church of their own. In addition, daughter churches are also reaching out to many other groups. Without our witness, some of these people have almost no chance of hearing of a God who loves them, who died for them, and wants them to live with Him forever. Our hearts go out in a special way to those who have never clearly heard.
When people are reached with the good news and they accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they are like babies in their spiritual growth. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment include much more than reaching the unreached. We are commanded to make disciples in all nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Discipleship must take place in a community of believers.
Missionaries have a great desire to reach those who are totally unreached with a message of hope and joy, to plead with those who have heard but have not accepted the message of forgiveness and love, and to nurture healthy churches for those who have accepted the message of abundant life.
Join us as we reach the Yao of Malawi, the Mapuche of Chile and the Hui of China with a new song of joy. Help us reach the world with an exuberant, fulfilling message of hope! Help us teach the world to sing a new song.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Should Missionaries Evangelize or Nurture Churches?
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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1.To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, by Courtney Anderson. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1956.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Meekness & Missions
We live in a world that worships power. People flock to assertiveness training sessions where they can learn to get ahead. But when was the last time you heard about a workshop on meekness? Books like Looking Out for No. 1 and Winning Through Intimidation are best-sellers in the cut-throat business world.
But missionaries are different, right? Missionaries have given up all rights to themselves. They should be experts on meekness. Well, if you are like me, we still have a lot to learn about Jesus’ radical call to meekness. In fact, I think missionaries suffer from two diseases that can be cured by meekness.
The first is the disease of superiority. Our missionary status symbols may be more subtle, but we still have them. For some, a 4-wheel-drive Toyota and a healthy ministry account might send a message of being exceptional missionaries. For others, working 16-hour days in a hospital or office may give a sense of superiority. A few may take pride in the fact that they have no indoor toilets or have exceptional ability to thrive in another language and culture, looking down on people who seem less competent. A sense of superiority often leads to the disease of racism, poisoning relationships with coworkers and the people to whom we minister.
The other sickness disease of inferiority. Missionaries with this disease become discouraged by a sense of incompetence, especially when they measure themselves against others who seem more capable. Some who have this disease come down with a variation of the illness called the “imposter syndrome.” Those with this syndrome do everything they can to hide their lack of ability and often worry that eventually their supporters and fellow missionaries will recognize their incompetence and reject them. For them, any kind of evaluation is a major threat. This disease leads to profound discouragement and interpersonal friction.
The best medicine for both of these diseases is a strong dose of biblical meekness. Meekness? Who wants to be meek? In many people’s minds, meekness and weakness are synonymous—they even rhyme! We tend to think of a meek missionary as a wimp who allows everyone to push him or her around. Yes, even missionaries live in a competitive world that worships influence, efficiency and competence.
Actually, true meekness requires unusual strength. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that “meekness is essentially a true view of oneself…The person who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and others can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.” Because those who are meek have a biblical view of themselves, they treat others with gentleness, humility, and patience.
Dear missionary, meekness is a quality of God’s kingdom people. Once we understand how radical Jesus’ call to meekness is, we may be tempted to dismiss it as impossible. But we have supernatural resources and strong examples to follow, including Jesus Himself. And the rewards are eternal! Hang in there!
But missionaries are different, right? Missionaries have given up all rights to themselves. They should be experts on meekness. Well, if you are like me, we still have a lot to learn about Jesus’ radical call to meekness. In fact, I think missionaries suffer from two diseases that can be cured by meekness.
The first is the disease of superiority. Our missionary status symbols may be more subtle, but we still have them. For some, a 4-wheel-drive Toyota and a healthy ministry account might send a message of being exceptional missionaries. For others, working 16-hour days in a hospital or office may give a sense of superiority. A few may take pride in the fact that they have no indoor toilets or have exceptional ability to thrive in another language and culture, looking down on people who seem less competent. A sense of superiority often leads to the disease of racism, poisoning relationships with coworkers and the people to whom we minister.
The other sickness disease of inferiority. Missionaries with this disease become discouraged by a sense of incompetence, especially when they measure themselves against others who seem more capable. Some who have this disease come down with a variation of the illness called the “imposter syndrome.” Those with this syndrome do everything they can to hide their lack of ability and often worry that eventually their supporters and fellow missionaries will recognize their incompetence and reject them. For them, any kind of evaluation is a major threat. This disease leads to profound discouragement and interpersonal friction.
The best medicine for both of these diseases is a strong dose of biblical meekness. Meekness? Who wants to be meek? In many people’s minds, meekness and weakness are synonymous—they even rhyme! We tend to think of a meek missionary as a wimp who allows everyone to push him or her around. Yes, even missionaries live in a competitive world that worships influence, efficiency and competence.
Actually, true meekness requires unusual strength. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that “meekness is essentially a true view of oneself…The person who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and others can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.” Because those who are meek have a biblical view of themselves, they treat others with gentleness, humility, and patience.
Dear missionary, meekness is a quality of God’s kingdom people. Once we understand how radical Jesus’ call to meekness is, we may be tempted to dismiss it as impossible. But we have supernatural resources and strong examples to follow, including Jesus Himself. And the rewards are eternal! Hang in there!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Are Missionaries Really World Christians?
Missionaries would seem to be the epitome of world Christians. But are we really? Even though many of us work far from home, I suspect that most of us limit our horizons to our present ministry. Do our prayers reflect a passion for the whole world? Do missionaries in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, Bolivia and India pray merely for local needs? Do our Sending Offices limit their prayers to missionaries sent out by their office?
I was deeply moved when missionaries in one of our most challenging Asian countries spent half a day praying for missionaries in South America.
Here are a few suggestions on how we can be more global in our vision:
* Pray through the world news. Are you depressed as you listen to BBC, VOA or as you read news magazines? Take world events to the Lord in prayer.
* Request prayer letters from missionaries in different parts of the world. Intentionally keep up with friends you met in candidate school, consultations or home-assignment seminars. And stay in touch with missionaries from other missions, too!
* Pray through Operation World. It is a powerful tool for seeing the world from God’s perspective.
We have another motivation to be world Christians. We are a church-planting mission with a passion for evangelism and discipleship. But our goal includes equipping churches to fulfill Christ’s Commission, so we are also a mission-board planting mission. How can we challenge and equip national churches to be world Christians if we ourselves are not missionary-minded? We teach more by our example than anything else. Missionaries in South America with a passion for the lost in China teach churches more than they know.
I would be interested to hear other suggestions. Feel free to comment. I may add your suggestions to the next blog. :)
Lord Jesus, help us to be fervent world-Christians, and then make us role-models, helping the Body of Christ to fulfill Your Commission.
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