"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." - Matthew 28:19,20 (NIV) (emphasis mine)
Imagine you are a missionary in Western Africa and have been serving to a tribe in a village for several months, when during one conversation with the chief, he makes it known to you that he wants to become a Christian. You get very excited that your work is finally beginning to produce fruits such as this, but you are reminded of one thing, one obstacle. The chief has three wives and has had children with each of them. You think back to your lessons taught at church about polygamy being a sin and are frantic to make a decision as to what on earth you should do. So, what do you do?
The above scenario was one of the case studies given to us this week by our speaker, Graeme Hackworth, from Australia. Graeme's story is that after being a science teacher for several years, he took part in a DTS in his early 30's, went on an outreach to India, and simply didn't come back for 20 years. There he met his wife, has had 3 kids, and lives in Australia currently. With 20 years spent on the mission field, Graeme had lots of experiences, stories, knowledge, and wisdom to share with us regarding cross-cultural ministry and missions. One style of teaching Graeme had with us was giving us real-life case studies that missionaries had faced on the mission field and asked us what we would do in the scenario, along with what the missionaries did and why they did it. I'm not going to tell you in this blog what the missionary did in the scenario I gave you, it is just there for you to think and dwell on. Things to keep in mind is what controversies would you face in doing certain actions, and which controversies affect the salvation of the people of the tribe as well as their potential relationship's with God? Fruit for thought.
I greatly appreciated how Graeme's teaching style and material he presented to us this week, because although this week was about missions and cross-cultural ministry, I found it still very applicable to someone like myself who is not feeling called to the mission fields in foreign countries. The concepts he taught and informed us of were ones that are not only true for foreign countries, but for our culture as well. Examples would be styles of worship, styles of fellowship, styles of church services, and so on and so forth. A statement we heard many times regarding these various styles was that they were "different, not one of them is better than the other, they're just different." Which spoke volumes to me. Another key concept Graeme taught was one that was taught by a previous speaker, John Ray (who I was not able to hear this from because of my pneumonia, thankfully some fellow students filled me in a bit on his teaching), and that was the idea that Christianity is not meant to be viewed as a box to live in. By this I mean that Christianity cannot be thought of as a simple set of rules or a simple prayer prayed, and people cannot be determined as Christian or non-Christian on the basis of this "box." Christianity is to be viewed as what direction you are going in life; whether you are walking towards Jesus or not. Now with this new definition, it becomes much more difficult to judge people as to whether or not they are Christ followers, and frankly I find that to be a good thing. God has told us not to judge, not only because we have no right to judge, but because we are simply not capable whatsoever of such a serious and difficult job.
Other thoughts and teachings I got from Graeme this week:
- Should we keep on asking God for blessings? Have we not been blessed enough with the country we live in, the family we have, the freedom we have? Maybe it's about time we start blessing God by using these blessings he gave us to bless others.
- Take time to understand the history of countries you go to or are helping take the gospel to so that you understand more of how to serve and share those people. Especially if those people are hostile towards Christianity, it is crucial to discover why that is.
- You are the only one who knows who, what, and if you are worshiping. This ties in with the statement about judgment.
One more thing we learned this week from Graeme this week is one that is too important to be a mere bullet point. It is the concept of going on the mission field to disciple people into being true Christians rather than merely going to the mission field to get people to conform to your personal Christian culture or make them pray the "Sinner's Prayer." This goes along with Christians being those walking towards Jesus rather than those living in the "box." Now, I don't want you to think that I'm contradicting myself by saying that by making the people disciples is the same as fitting them into the "box," because it is not. The simplest illustration I can give towards the purpose of making disciples is the whole idea of "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of his life." Making disciples is how you show the people what being a Christian is all about and continuing their teaching. If you look at the verse I posted at the top, I emphasized on the words "make disciples." Jesus commanded in the Great Commission not to simply "save" the people, but to disciple them as well. Now, the truth of the matter is, you will see a far fewer amount of people "discipled" on your mission trip than you would see people "saved" if you focused on saving people rather than making them disciples, but the Great Commission still stands, and for a good reason too. In the course of making disciples, you also will teach them that they are to make disciples as well, and who better to make disciples in a foreign country than a native? That person would see much more success than you, a foreigner, quite honestly.
In other news, I've started my study of I Peter and am happy to announce I've been able to make it through the first five verses! Ever since Steve taught us last week on studying the Bible inductively, I've felt convicted to understand the entire context, specific words used, patterns, reason for particular emphasis, and whatever else there is to know about the passage I'm studying, and it can be exhaustive, but I know after the study I do have a much deeper understanding and a firmer foundation. Anyway, already from the get-go of studying I Peter I was faced with questions I had had for a long time, and felt I should really look more into them and find out what I could, so my studies have been filled with finding answers or at least learning lessons God has wanted me to learn from the questions He's presented me with. I've already gotten a bit frustrated and stressed with the questions as they seem unanswerable, but as the days go by of me searching for answers in the Bible with friends, a peace slowly but surely has come over me, and I know it's from God.
God also has a way of presenting many possible answers to me, and I find it very humbling knowing that I can not understand everything. An example of this is when I felt like watching a video I had watched in the past of a sermon given by Rob Bell called "Everything is Spiritual" (I highly recommend it, whatever your opinion of Rob Bell may be, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2rklwkm_dQ). Half-way through the message, Rob presented the following scenario: Say there is a 2-dimensional world, and in this world there is a circle and a rectangle. The circle could never in it's wildest dreams be a rectangle and vice versa. Now let us say a 3-dimensional cylinder comes along into this 2-dimensional world. The cylinder can be viewed as both a circle (if it is viewed from top) and a rectangle (if from the side). So in this 2-dimensional world, if you were to ask if this cylinder were a rectangle or a circle, the answer would simply be, "Yes." Now bring this idea to our world. Change the circle and the rectangle to two completely opposing ideas in Christian theology, say for example free will and predestination (we'll just jump into the deep end of this pool). What if God, being outside of the dimension we live in, when asked about free will or predestination could simply say, "Yes"? More fruit for thought.
I know my studies from this point on will be difficult and at times quite frustrating, but I also know that it is what God has for me, and that He will bring the peace to me even if I don't find the answer to the countless questions I will gather. I'm excited for what God has to teach me, and I pray that I remain willing to be an eager student.
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