I have not posted on this blog for a while, and so have now decided to merge it with my other, more established blog, which was known as homeward bound. The new merged blog is taking the going global name, and God’s global mission will become the emphasis there more so than it had been previously.
I am writing this from an internet cafe in Kosovo. We are on a short term mission trip this week where we are trying to assist a local church here in their work amongst families in the community. It is a good time and as I have been here I have been reminded of the importance of flexibility, and of respect for the local leadership. There are plans that we have made which changed on the run in to the week, and now are even changing during the week itself. On one level this could be frustrating to some, but on another level, it is important and necessary in order to fit in with the local believers and serve the ongoing vision of the church here.
As an organisation that believes that the local church is to be at the heart of mission, Radstock always want to emphasise the importance of working to serve not our agenda as those who are passing through, but serving and working alongside, and even taking a lead from those who live in the area 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Think for a moment how you would feel if someone arrived on your church’s doorstep telling you how they thought your work should be done and what you needed, and then offered to do it for a week before disapearing off til maybe another 12 months had passed. I think we would be underwhelmed by such an offer!
We need to respect the local believers and allow them to shape our activities as we spend time with them. We had a specific example of this when there was an event we had run last year which we were very keen to run again this year. As we put this idea on the table some weeks ago, we received a cool response and as we pursued it they kept suggesting something different. When we talked face to face when we got here, it became clear why they had reservations about the event, as it had some potentially unhelpful ramifications for their ongoing work. Its so important to respect the local leadership.
Of course sometimes those outside of a situation will have insights and wisdom to offer – all of us in church leadership have benefited from that at one time or another – but it is not good when we become presumptuous in telling another church what is best for it. Respect the local leadership.
I have talked with church leaders in other countries who have spoken of the frustration of overseas pastors coming in and presuming what is needed, without really consulting them for their opinions. On one occasion I remember sitting with a pastor who, along with other pastors in his country, had been offered a large amount of money from a western nation, offering to buy some land and build a conference centre that could be use by the churches for retreats and training etc. Very generous we might think. Well, maybe. The problem was that the pastors did not actually want a fancy new conference centre. And when they knew how much the people were spending to make this happen, they became even more frustrated, as that money could have funded numerous initiatives that the local pastors really did want to see happen.
In Mark Noll’s new book, ‘The New Shape of World Christianity’, he outlines some of the facts that demonstrate just how much things have changed. Here are a few:
This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called “Christian Europe.” Yet in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China; only in 1971 did the communist regime allow for one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Church to hold public worship services, and this was mostly a concession to visiting Europeans and African students from Tanzania and Zambia.
This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined–and the number of Anglicans in church in Nigeria was several times the umber in those other African countries.
This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland, and more were in congregations of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa than in the United States.
This past Sunday the churches with the largest attendance in England and France had mostly black congregations. About half of the churchgoers in London were African or African-Caribbean. Today, the largest Christian congregation in Europe is in Kiev, and it is pastored by a Nigerian of Pentecostal background.
This past week in Great Britain, at least fifteen thousand Christian foreign missionaries were hard at work evangelizing the locals. most of these missionaries are from Africa and Asia. [pp. 20-21]
This month’s photo banner is another shot from my trip to North India last month. There were many baptisms in the churches as mentioned in previous posts. This photo is of another baptism that took place in a river. We met together on the edge of the river after walking for about a mile in the baking heat, through fields and woods, until we came to a group gathered in a clearing. After a few introductions, and greetings with some I had met before, the group spent some time in prayer before those being baptised headed down into the river.
It was a privilege to meet one girl again, who after becoming a believer a few years back, told people in her local villages about Christ, and off the back of this, 3 churches were established. Now 2 more are in the offing, with the total numbering something like 300 people. At this baptism, her father and brother were being baptised.
It costs a lot to live for Jesus here. The leaders were very careful not to have a crowd follow them for fear of a stand-off. Yet there was great joy and celebration at the riverside as 23 new brothers and sisters joined ‘the family’.
“If God desires every knee to bow to Jesus and every tongue to confess Him, so should we. We should be ‘jealous’ for the honor of His name—troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed, and all the time anxious and determined that it shall be given the honor and glory which are due to it.
The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Only one imperialism is Christian, and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire or kingdom. Before this supreme goal of the Christian mission, all unworthy motives wither and die.”
This post appeared on the Radstock blog, from our Exec Director, Brian Jose.
I confess. I’m tired of people suggesting to me that I’m too committed to global mission. “What about local mission?” they ask me, as if this is some original thought. I like to say that ‘all mission is local — it merely depends upon where you are at the time’. Last month, though I was in the USA with two Albanian leaders and I was reminded again why all those “local heroes” (people who see global mission as some sort of enemy of local mission) really ought to get out more.
Arvid and Aget, my two Albanian friends were, of course, excited to visit San Francisco, undoubtedly one of the world’s most beautiful and influential cities. We rode the cable car from the bay to Market Street, San Francisco’s shopping heart, and a hive of street performers, beggars and homeless — all of whom seem to be experts at playing cat-and-mouse with San Francisco’s men (and women) in blue. I stood back and watched as Arvid and Aget, each of whom is well travelled in Europe and Asia, had their sensory circuits overloaded by this cultural melange of races and lifestyles. Arvid, an ex-Muslim coming from a nation where 0.5% are evangelical believers, had this verdict on “Christian America”: “These people really need God.” Who could argue, as you looked on at people sleeping in in doorways or clearly strung out on some substance, while uber-cool made their way past to the designer shops?
Then I saw him — David (pictured left), carrying his sign: “Jesus Christ Loves You”. I went over for a chat. David agrees with Arvid. These people really need God. He’d been “getting the message out” for about seven years, six days per week, about 8 hours per day on Market Street. David said he rarely talks to anyone, but he remains committed to his work.
I’m in awe at his faithfulness, and in despair at what appears to be a contextually inappropriate methodology. The uber-cool were as oblivious to him as they were to the junkies hanging out on the corner. The message was true. Jesus Christ really does love you and me. But it was missing the mark because of it was delivered in a culturally irrelevant manner to most, if not all, of the people walking within a few steps of David.
A UK newspaper survey a few years ago of those who had given up on church found that most people thought their local minister should get out of the pulpit and onto the street, serving people in need. It was a call to relevant mission. Ever since Hudson Taylor went to China in 1853, global mission workers have been thinking about gospel and culture. Local heroes need to listen and learn — and get out more themselves.
Today is the first day of Ramadan. One way of loving our Muslim friends and neighbours is to pray for them. See the 30 days of prayer website. The 30 days booklet is a resource to respectfully love and pray for the Muslim world. The month runs from 22 August to 20 September.
I have one or two further reflections and videos on India which I will post in the coming days. One of things I wanted to add was regarding the pastor in the video in the previous post. He had a sobering yet encouraging testimony where he became a believer in the early 80s. As a result of becoming a follower of Jesus, his own mother and brother tied him up to a tree and beat him. He refused to renounce Christ, but the pressure continued. His wife’s family told him that they would take her away if he dod not convert back to Hinduism, but he still refused.
One night he and his wife were having a big argument about it, with her insisting that if he did not give up following Christ, she would leave him the next day. Eventually they became so tired they fell asleep, and as she slept she had a dream. She dreamt that her husband was being lifted up into heaven, and that she was not going with him, but rather, dark forces were gathering around her. She woke with a start and told her husband that she did want to follow Christ.
Today the wider family all follow Jesus, including his mother, wife and her family too.
Sometimes people hear about the growth in places like North India, the claims of miracles and healings, and dismiss the growth as not true gospel growth. While there surely are those who come to Christ for the wrong reasons and later fall away (hasn’t this always been the case, for a variety of reasons) this Indian pastor, Pastor Gangaram, was fervent in his assertion that these believers, while often having been initially attracted to Christianity through events such as healings, have a deep understanding of what the gospel is and what has happened to them.
Watch this interview, out in one of the Indian villages I visited yesterday.
One of the ministries set up through Radstock, is something called Samaritan’s Well. Keith Mersh, a former pastor, is spearheading this, and has overseen the raising of funds from churches in the UK who want to partner with, encourage and bless local churches in the villages of North India.
Often when people in the villages become followers of Jesus Christ, they are persecuted for their new found faith, and one of the forms this takes is their being barred from using the local well. Since starting this project earlier this year, three wells with hand pumps have now been bored, and the believers are now excited to be able to have their own well. This is something that they can both use themselves, and something which can be an act of love to others in the village, as they share it.
See video clip below, interviewing one of the local church leaders, and the well-borer.
There's some sturm und drang these days about the role of mercy ministry in the life of the church. And I can totally understand why. Evangelicals keep flirting with the temptation to put gospel proclamation and social action on equal footing, as if we can do one and not the other. I think that's wrong. The gospel is the horse that pulls the cart o […]
This month’s photo banner is another shot from my trip to North India last month. There were many baptisms in the churches as mentioned in previous posts. This photo is of another baptism that took place in a river. We met together on the edge of the river after walking for about a mile in the baking heat, through fields and woods, until we came to a group gathered in a clearing. After a few introductions, and greetings with some I had met before, the group spent some time in prayer before those being baptised headed down into the river.
