• 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 Matters
          • Members Only Feed
          • Missions Podcast DirectoryNew
        • Topics
          • COVID-19 Resources
          • Diaspora Missions
          • Global Issues Updates
          • Member Highlights
          • Mobilization
          • Muslim Missions
          • Support Raising
          • UkraineNew
        • Media Library
          • Conferences
          • Global Issue Updates
          • On Mission
          • Thought Leader Briefings
          • Webinars
          • Workshop
          • View All
  • Programs
    • Accreditation
    • Bible Certificate
    • Church Missions Coaching
    • Cohorts
    • Cybersecurity
    • ImproveNew
    • Mission Jobs
    • Missions DataNew
    • Publish
    • RightNow Media
    • The Mission App
    • Women’s Development
  • Events
          • Calendar
          • In-Person Events
          • Virtual Events
          • Event Recordings
          • Awards
        • Premier Events
          • Mission Leaders Conference
          • On Mission
        • Upcoming Events

          • Pocket Guide to Being a Missions Pastor: 5 Things Every Missions Pastor Needs to Know
            Wed Jun 1 2022, 01:00pm EDT
          • From Harlem to the World - the Local Church Mobilized for Global Missions
            Wed Aug 3 2022, 01:00pm EDT
          • Innovation Leaders Discussion
            Mon Aug 8 2022, 01:00pm EDT
        • View All Events
  • Research
          • Missions DataNew
          • Missiographics
          • Research Reports
        • Popular Research
          • Compensation Reports
          • COVID-19 Resources
          • Field Attrition Report
          • View All Reports
        • Contribute
          • Current Research Projects
          • 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

  • Pocket Guide to Being a Missions Pastor: 5 Things Every Missions Pastor Needs to Know
    Wed Jun 1 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • From Harlem to the World - the Local Church Mobilized for Global Missions
    Wed Aug 3 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • Innovation Leaders Discussion
    Mon Aug 8 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • Peer 2 Peer for Communications and Marketing Staff: Communications and the Mission of God: Aligning organizational communications with God's purposes
    Thu Aug 18 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • Women's Development Weeks
    Thu Sep 8 2022

View all events »

Topics

author interview CEO Church Church Missions Church Mission Team Church Planting COVID-19 Cross Cultural Skills Diaspora Disciple Making Discipleship Focus Future Innovation Islam Justin Long Leadership Management Member Care Missiology Missionaries Mission Finance and Administration MLC2019 MLC2020 MLC2021 Mobilization muslim Muslim Diaspora Networks Partnership Podcast Presenter Pursuing Partnerships Series Research Risk Short-Term Missions Spirituality support raising Training Trends Unengaged Unreached Weekly Roundup Women Women in Leadership

Meta

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

Rich, Poor and Missions

Posted on October 1, 1984 by Ted EslerOctober 1, 1984

by Jon Bonk

The above topic is my nomination for a course constituting a part of the academic frontier in missiology. Let me proceed to describe the course as it has been carried on here in Winnipeg.

The above topic is my nomination for a course constituting a part of the academic frontier in missiology. Let me proceed to describe the course as it has been carried on here in Winnipeg.

The course consists of a survey and application of biblical teaching on the stewardship of money and possessions, with special reference to the historically unprecedented disparity between wealthy countries of the North and poor countries of the South. We look at the ramifications of this for missionaries going from the North to the South.

The course has three objectives:

1. To Inform. Our personal life styles as missionaries from the North are examined and evaluated in the context of global distributions of wealth and resources. We attempt to achieve some understanding of historical and contemporary factors (social, cultural, ideological, political, etc) contributing to this growing disparity. We do a critical self-analysis because many Christian workers seem to operate on the assumption that life consists in the abundance of material possessions,

2. To challenge. Biblical teachings on the stewardship of money and possessions is then surveyed and applied in light of the fact that missionaries from the North must number themselves among the rich of this world.

3. To change. With a knowledge of at least some of the more obvious data as a background to biblical teaching on the relationships that should appertain between rich Christians and the poor, each participant is encouraged to discover and implement practical answers to the question, "How should I then live?"

This course emerged as a result of many factors: my 10 formative years of life in Ethiopia as the son of Canadian missionaries; my experience as a missionary in Ethiopia during the mid-1970s revolution; a growing conviction that we have often not considered carefully the impact of our affluence upon our effectiveness as mediums of the message that "Christ for our sakes became poor,, that we through his poverty might be rich"; extensive reading on the subject over the past five years; and doctoral research that created a heightened awareness of the struggle of 19th century missionaries from the North in this regard.

An excerpt from a letter written by a 19th century Welsh missionary poignantly illustrates the need for this course. After two years of labor in Central Africa, David Picton Jones discovered that his employees from Zanzibar were winning converts to Islam while he himself was barren. As he lamented to the LMS Secretary:

…, it is a remarkable fact that these Zanzibar men have had far more influence over the natives than we have ever had-in many little things they imitate them, they follow their customs, adopt their ideas, imitate their dress, sing their songs, and…speak their language. I can only account for this by the fact that the (Muslims) live amongst them in a simple manner like themselves, inter-marry with them, and to some extent partake of their notions. Our life, on the other hand…is {^r above them, and we are surrounded by things entirely beyond their reach. The consequence is, that they despair of trying to follow us, – indeed they cannot follow us , . , I have found by experience that they are exceedingly ready to imitate anything within their power…and! feel sure in my own mind, if we were to bring ourselves nearer their own level … we would gradually raise them to a higher standard…As it is they have nothing to lay hold of, they despair of ever becoming like us, they regard us as being of another order, and they believe that our religion, however well adapted to us, is to them altogether unsuitable. When I talk to them of (God), and that we are His children, they will answer coolly, pointing to the wonderful things in and about our house – you are His children indeed, (Jones to Thompson, December 2, 1884, Council for World Mission Archives, SOAS, London),

Lectures, assigned reading, class discussion, research projects, audio-visual presentations, and the preparation by students of special reports are among the means utilized to insure the achievement of course objectives. Students are provided with a rather extensive bibliography of materials relating to the subject, and are required to read from a broad range of sources-Christian and non-Christian. Among the required sources are:

—Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
—David Chilton, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators
—Miriam Adeney, God’s Foreign Policy
—Harvie Conn, Bible Study on World Evangelization and the Simple Lifestyle
—Piero Gheddo, Why is the Third World Poor?
—William Byron (ed.), The Causes of World Hunger
—P, T, Bauer, Equality, The Third World and Economic Delusion
—Paul Harrison, Inside the Third World
—Jules Henry, Culture Against Man
—Stewart and Newen, Channels of Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American Consciousness

The lives and the writings of missionaries from the North who have grappled in a significant way with the problem of their affluence in the context of the South are also studied. Among them are Roberto De Nobili, James Gilmour, Daniel Johnson Fleming, Mother Teresa, and Bruce Olson. Films and other audio-visual presentations are readily available here in Canada through government sources and mission agencies such as the Mennonite Central Committee.

I would be very interested in corresponding with any who have similar concerns.

—–

Copyright © 1984 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 20 - Issue 4

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Keep up to date with our community.

Menu

  • Home
  • Directories
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Join

  • Join
  • Benefits
  • Learn
  • Meet
  • Engage

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Cookies Policy

About Us

  • Who We Are
  • Statement of Faith
  • Awards
  • Resources
Missio Nexus Logo

© Missio Nexus. All rights reserved.
As an Amazon Associate Missio Nexus earns from qualifying purchases.


PO Box 398
Wheaton, IL 60187-0398

Phone: 770.457.6677
678.392.4577

Annual Sponsors

ECFA Logo Brotherhood Mutual Logo

Subscribe to our Mailing List

Membership website powered by MembershipWorks