In a recent column, Stan Guthrie addresses some of the myths he believes cause Westerners to wonder whether we still need to send missionaries at all. "Missionary Myths: Why the Great Commission Still Applies" (in the September 2008 issue of Christianity Today) identifies some views you might encounter as you dialogue with churches and individuals here in the U.S. They are, with a summary of his response to each:
1. "There are pressing needs right here." (Yes, there are, but by almost every measure, injustice is more stark in the rest of the world.)
2. Short-termers can do it." (This summer the U.S. sent an estimated 2 million young people on ST mission trips. Despite its well-documented problems, the ST phenomenon is here to stay. Meanwhile, the number of career missionaries--those who serve at least 4 years and learn the language and culture--has remained stagnant at best.)
3. "Let the nationals do it." (Indeed, the church has become truly global. But the commission hasn't been revoked for us, and there are many ways we can work with national partners to help them avoid some of the mistakes we have made.)
4. "The task has been completed." (While Christians are present in every nation, many ethnic groups--what many missiologists think Jesus was talking about--remain outside the reach of Christian witness. Two thousand years after the Great Commission was given, they are still unable to hear unless some goes and tells them.)
5. "Maybe there are other ways to God." (The Pew Forum reports that 7 in 10 Americans who follow a particular religion believe that many religions can lead to eternal life. Further, while 74% of Americans believe in heaven, only 59% believe in hell.)
6. "Missionaries have been poor witnesses of the gospel."  (Even if this distortion were true, so what? The same could be said for Christians in many endeavors. This is not an argument for no missionaries, but for better ones.)

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BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART | Matthew 5
The Beatitudes have always been a popular subject of study and a source of tremendous inspiration for those of us who follow Christ. These verses have been called the inaugural address of our Lord, the marching orders for the church, and the essentials of the faith. I believe they may be all these and more. These verses are very important for the follower of Christ to understand and meditate upon. From my personal study of these verses, I’d like to suggest that there may be one Beatitude that rises above the rest.

My son Josh is a computer programmer. When he started making college visits as a prospective student, he quickly discovered that math is essential for those interested in computer programming; not only essential, but mandatory. In fact, we visited some colleges where the computer science major was considered a math major. This past summer my family vacationed together on the Washington coast. During quiet times when my grandchildren were napping, we’d often each pull out a book to read. Josh pulled out a 400-page volume on algorithms—not your usual beach read!

Math is essential for computer programmers. Well, what is essential for followers of Christ? What might Jesus say is mandatory? I would like to say that purity of heart (Matthew 5:8) is a prime candidate for that position. It’s so important that Jesus says if you want to see God—now and then—purity of heart is absolutely essential.

What does Jesus mean by purity of heart? Matthew 23:25-28 gives us a clue about this issue of purity. It’s incredible what Jesus says here to the most profoundly religious people of his generation. He says, in effect, “I see purity in your life, but it is purity on the surface. I see purity in your robes, in your programs, in your doctrine, but I don’t see purity in your heart!” Jesus says that instead he sees hearts marked by filth and death. What is Christ teaching? He’s saying that what qualifies people to see God is purity, not on the outside but on the inside. Purity of heart!

There’s something about organized religion that causes a person’s faith to start out as something very internal and very spiritual, but left unchecked, allows it to slowly drift toward something external. We find that it’s easier, more visible, more measureable, more manageable to be pure on the surface. We like to practice surface religion, even while inside the heart becomes increasingly sinful. In this manner people are able to go year after year, participating in programs, listening to teaching, gathering knowledge and growing in spiritual prominence while they polish the surface and ignore the heart.

We must face it that our culture is constantly sending the message that what is on the outside is more important than what’s on the inside. For most people today, the heart is not considered essential. Instead, what this world deems essential is what can be seen on the surface. Christ tells us that this focus on what is seen keeps us from seeing God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

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"[Redemption] speaks of a dynamic rescue mission. It is the promise that the story is not yet over, there is more to be written, and the final word has not yet been spoken. Redemption picks up the broken threads and weaves them into the storyline with the grace and mercy that only our Redeemer could offer. At that moment, the whisperings said that my deepest longing was not for perfection but for redemption. I long to see, experience and know the dangerous beauty of authentic life. Dangerous because it goes beyond the realm of my control and rarely follows my script. Beautiful because it reflects the heart of our Creator. Authentic because it is broken, imperfect, and unhidden. Whereas the lure of perfection hid and stifled life–-beginning with my own–-God's promise of redemption beckons and invites me into life. I can begin to breathe."

- Amanda Bricker, in "Perfectly Redeemed,"
from the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of Women of the Harvest Magazine

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The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith by Andrew F. Walls 1996 Orbis Books | Reviewed by David Korb

This book was recommended to me by a mission pastor in my region who’s working on his Dr. of Missions at Fuller Seminary. It’s required reading for one of his courses, and after reading it I understand why. This is an important book for those of us committed to Great Commission ministry.

The author begins with a discussion of the “indigenizing” and “pilgrim” principles. Walls then runs with these themes as he takes the reader through various periods of history to show how our faith moved from one time and one culture to another.

Walls writes with regard to the indigenizing principle, “We are conditioned by a particular time and place, by our family and group and society, by ‘culture’ in fact. In Christ God accepts us together with our group relations; with that cultural conditioning that makes us feel at home in one part of human society and less at home in another. But if He takes us with our group relations, then surely it follows that He takes us with our ‘dis-relations’ also; those predispositions, prejudices, suspicions, and hostilities, whether justified or not, which mark the group to which we belong. He does not wait to tidy up our ideas any more than He waits to tidy up our behavior before He accepts us sinners into His family.”

He continues: “This fact has led to more than one crisis in Christian history, including the first and most important of all. When the elders at Jerusalem in the council in Acts 15 came to their decision that Gentiles could enter Israel without becoming Jew, had they any idea how close the time would be when most Christians would be Gentiles? …Did they realize that the future of Messiah’s proclamation now lay with people who were uncircumcised, defective in their knowledge of the Law and Prophets, still confused by hangovers from paganism, and able to eat pork without turning a hair?”

Describing the pilgrim principle, Walls writes, “Not only does God in Christ take people as they are: He takes them in order to transform them into what He wants them to be. Along with the indigenizing principle which makes his faith a place to feel at home, the Christian inherits the pilgrim principle, which whispers to him that he has no abiding city and warns him that to be faithful to Christ will put him out of step with his society; for that society never existed, in East or West, ancient time or modern, which could absorb the Word of Christ painlessly into its system.”

Walls then marches through the various historical periods with these two principles in hand, showing how faith was transmitted from one period and culture to another. Part II of the book deals with “Africa’s Place in Christian History,” followed by Part III which covers the “Missionary Movement.”

Andrew Walls has done a masterful job of presenting a general history of our faith while showing how Christianity’s message remained the same as it moved through different cultures and history with these two underlying principles always at work.

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