• Directories
    • Business Directory
    • Church Directory
    • Organization Directory
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Help
  • Log In
MENUMENU
  • Learning
        • Leader’s Edge
          • Author Interviews
          • Book Summaries
        • Book Reviews
          • Book Look
          • EMQ Book Reviews
        • Publications
          • Anthology
          • Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ)
          • Missiographics
        • Podcasts
          • The Mission MattersNew
          • Missio Nexus
          • People First HR
          • Members Only Feed
        • Blogs
          • Global Issues Updates
          • Member Highlights
          • Mission Advisors
        • Topics
          • COVID-19 ResourcesNew
          • Diaspora Missions
          • Mobilization
          • Muslim Missions
          • Support Raising
        • Media Library
          • Conferences
          • Global Issue Updates
          • On Mission
          • Thought Leader Briefings
          • Webinars
          • Workshop
          • View All
  • Programs
    • Accreditation
    • Alliance for Benefits
    • Bible CertificateNew
    • Church Missions CoachingNew
    • Cohorts
    • Cybersecurity
    • Emerging Leaders
    • Mission Jobs
    • OnBoard
    • RightNow Media
    • The Mission AppNew
    • Women’s Development
  • Events
          • Calendar
          • In-Person Events
          • Virtual Events
          • Event Recordings
          • Awards
        • Upcoming Events

          • Webinar: Through the Wall
            Thu Jan 28 2021, 02:00pm EST
          • Three Easy Ways to Drive Innovation
            Thu Feb 11 2021, 02:00pm EST
          • Three Steps to Kickstart Your Fund Development Program
            Tue Feb 16 2021, 03:00pm EST
        • View All Events
  • Research
          • Missiographics
          • Mission Handbook
          • Research Reports
        • Popular Research
          • Compensation Reports
          • COVID-19 ResourcesNew
          • Field Attrition Report
          • View All Reports
        • Contribute
          • Current Research Projects
          • Submit Data for Mission Handbook
          • Volunteer
  • About Us
        • Who We Are
          • Our Contribution
          • Meet the Team
          • Board Members
          • History (1917–present)
        • Our Beliefs
          • Statement of Faith
          • Community Standards
        • Awards
        • Partner with Us
          • Advertise
          • Donate
          • Sponsorships
          • Volunteer
        • Help
          • Contact Us
          • Advertising Specs
          • Branding Guidelines
  • Join
        • Learn
        • Learn what you cannot learn anywhere else.

        • Meet
        • Meet people you otherwise won’t meet.

        • Engage
        • Engage in a community like none other.

          • Benefits
          • Benefits for Churches
          • Pricing

Sponsored Content

Upcoming Events

  • Webinar: Through the Wall
    Thu Jan 28 2021, 02:00pm EST
  • Three Easy Ways to Drive Innovation
    Thu Feb 11 2021, 02:00pm EST
  • Three Steps to Kickstart Your Fund Development Program
    Tue Feb 16 2021, 03:00pm EST
  • Webinar: Innovating Theological Education: How BibleMesh can Prepare your Staff for Ministry
    Thu Feb 25 2021, 02:00pm EST
  • Association Leaders Gathering
    Tue Mar 2 2021, 08:30am EST

View all events »

Topics

author interview Canada CEO Church Church Missions Church Mission Team Church Planting Coaching Conference Proceedings COVID-19 Cross Cultural Skills Diaspora Evangelism Focus Future Globally Engaged Churches Islam Justin Long Leadership Management Missiology Missionaries Mission Finance and Administration MLC2019 MLC2020 Mobilization muslim Muslim Diaspora Networks Partnership Personal Productivity Podcast Presenter Research Security Short-Term Missions Spirituality support raising Training Trends Unengaged Unreached unreached people groups Weekly Roundup Women

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Editor’s Analysis: If We Don’t Shake off the Dust What Do We Do?

Posted on January 1, 1982 by January 1, 1982

by Jim Reapsome

One of the great risks missionaries take is to walk blindly into another culture, among Christians who for the most part are too charitable to tell us what we really are like.

"Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion."

I think Robert Burns, author of the oft-quoted wisdom, had the same thing in mind that Jesus did, when he said, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" It is terribly difficult to see that beam, to see ourselves as others see us.

One of the great risks missionaries take is to walk blindly into another culture, among Christians who for the most part are too charitable to tell us what we really are like. We also come as aliens to the vast populations of non-Christians, who with considerable reason think we are agents of imperialism of one kind or another.

The risk is intensified because we believe that we have something to offer that will make the churches and people in general better than they are at present. What we have may be technology or theology, but obviously it is better, or we would be wasting our time bringing it. The root idea of mission is to go and share something for a good purpose.

But people with a mission rarely are appreciated and understood. Do gooders stand to be rebuffed by the very people whom they are trying to help. With startling suddenness it seems that people all over the world are standing up and saying that they don’t want what we have to offer. Followers of ancient religions are saying that, and church elders and theologians are saying it, too.

Have we reached a turning point that affects the root concept of mission? Is it time to say, "Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you? "Before we answer an unequivocal yes, we must consider those who have not rejected us, as well as how we might adapt ourselves to those who wish we would depart their coasts.

For one thing, some people have not yet had the chance to say no to what we have to offer them. They need to hear about Christ and to decide for or against him. However, they may hear not because U.S. missionaries offer Jesus to them, but because some of their own countrymen do. In many places, the lines are still open for pioneer evangelism.

Quite apart from the needs of the unevangelized, we must recognize that there are millions of people who have had it with the West. They’ve had it with our foreign and economic policies and with our religion. They don’t care to sort out the good guys from the bad guys. What they see on television and at the movies convinces them that the Christian West is rotten. They may hanker for the fruits of Western technology in some places, but even on that score there are distant rumblings of discontent. The West’s technology at present isn’t desired in Iran, for example. Many people put technology, economics, politics and religion in the same bag, label it "West,” and not only reject it but hate it.

We must cope with and adjust to not only that attitude, but also the strong feelings of real independence surging through good evangelical. churches, schools and ministries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. What might the future hold for us?

It holds heightened insecurity. Terrorism is endemic; the world’s economy is fragile. Political upheaval seems the order of the day. Therefore, it might be time for Western missionaries to indigenize themselves in some new ways. For example, they could become citizens of the country in which they serve. They could become employees of a national corporation, church body, or local church. Missionaries can find creative ways to divest themselves of their Westernness, and of those things that make them suspect in the eyes of nationals.

Missionaries will have to prove on the firing line the transnational nature of God’s kingdom. ”And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God," Jesus declared. Missionaries can implement this truth first in the churches and give each nation its rightful control of its church life and its ministries. Missionaries can implement this truth in the spirit with which they take the gospel from the west and the north to the east and the south.

It is not the time to sound retreat, but it is the time to map out new strategies for the new realities that are engulfing the world.

—–

Copyright © 1982 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

GoToOlder PostNewer PostAll PostsArticlesEMQSectionVolume 18 - Issue 1

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Keep up to date with our community.

Menu

  • Join
  • Directories
  • Events
  • Donate

About

  • Who We Are
  • Statement of Faith
  • Awards
  • Resources

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Cookies Policy

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Google+

PO Box 398
Wheaton, IL 60187-0398

Phone: 770.457.6677
678.392.4577

© Missio Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

Membership website powered by MembershipWorks