The Missionary of the 1970’s

by George W. Peters

For simplicity’s sake, permit me first to characterize the missionary of the seventies in a five-fold manner: (1) He must be rooted in Christ; (2) he must be anchored in the Word; (3) he must be filled with the Spirit; (4) he must be related to the church; (5) he must be geared to the times.

For simplicity’s sake, permit me first to characterize the missionary of the seventies in a five-fold manner: (1) He must be rooted in Christ; (2) he must be anchored in the Word; (3) he must be filled with the Spirit; (4) he must be related to the church; (5) he must be geared to the times.

Lest I be misinterpreted, I make the following observation. I am not thinking of a new breed of missionaries for the seventies. There is no thought in my mind of replacing the present missionaries with new recruits. Many of the present-day missionaries do undoubtedly qualify for the seventies, others can and will qualify if help and time are given to them. Some, of course, are unable or unwilling to make the necessary adjustments and should be invited to return home. Replacements will always be necessary.

With this in mind, what manner of men must the missionaries be to operate effectively in the seventies? From the above listing, I draw out seven characteristics of the missionaries of the seventies. They must be:

1. Men of sterling quality.
I believe that this is scriptural, practical and wise in the light of present-day feelings and situations. Omitting the scriptural and practical from our consideration at this moment, let me only indicate that the time is upon us when missions must diligently strive to operate with an absolute minimum of foreign staff in any mission field. This has always been wise and expedient. It cannot be proven historically that high efficiency in missions, evangelism and church growth has been proportionate to the strength and multiplication of the foreign mission staff. In past, the contrary is often the case. The pragmatic test, however, is not the most weighty test. Today another urgency is upon us. It is a fact that the "white face" is subtracting from "winning a hearing" for the gospel in many parts of the world. The presence of the "white man" reinforces in many cases the demonic prejudice that Christianity is a "foreign religion" or the "white man’s religion." This excuse and accusation must be minimized as much as possible. Key positions and responsibilities in churches and missions must be placed upon the shoulders of national brethren if the "foreignness" of the gospel is to be minimized. The church and not the mission must become the "face" of all Christian ministries. Yet, we cannot permit the present mind and situation to frustrate us in the discharge of our responsibilities to the world. Though quality is not always a substitute for quantity, in many ways it can make up for it. It is therefore wise to be careful to the degree of selectivity in the appointment of our missionary staff and constantly keep quality above quantity. Not the number of men and women, but the quality of men and women will assure the effectiveness of a mission in the field.

2. Men of ordered, purposive, dynamic function rather than fixed organization and programs. We are living in the "organization age." Programming flows within the bloodstream of the average American. The missionary is not exempt from this cultural and social heritage. In this he lives in his society and church. In this he is trained in his school, particularly Bible institutes and Bible colleges, until it becomes leis fixed mentality. Let it be said that this was the missionary’s strength in "the good old days," when the white man sat in the saddle (or car) and the mission was in control. But that world is gone. Fixed methods, patterns and programs are not our strength today. We are living in a dynamic society that is moving at a rapid pace. Not the organization and program of the sixties, but rapid movements of the seventies are needed. Culture is in convulsion and society in explosion. No organization and program of the sixties will suffice for the seventies. To function effectively in such circumstances is no small thing. Live imagination, original creativity, discerning adaptation, flexibility, and resourcefulness are demanded. No "home prescription" will suffice. Only dynamically functioning and well-integrated and purposive men will be able to function effectively and in an ordered manner in such a world and achieve worthy goals. These are men we must find, build and send out. Flexibility, creativity and dynamic function as well as determined purpose rather than organization, pattern and program must be built into them.

3. Men of sensitive relationships. Relationship is one of the broadest but also deepest concepts and experiences. It is central in Christianity. Only as I relate myself to Christ Jesus by faith do I become a child of God and do I receive eternal life; only as I relate myself in prayer and confidence to God as my Father in Christ Jesus do I find perfect peace and rest; only as I relate myself in submission and obedience to the Holy Spirit can I live a dynamic Christian life; only as I relate myself scripturally and fraternally to the church of Jesus Christ can I experience real spiritual fellowship to grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ; only as I relate myself properly to the world can I become an effective witness of Jesus Christ to the world.

Relationship is a key word in all of our dives. It is especially delicate in the life of a missionary. He often works not only cross-culturally but also cross-racially. No doubt the latter is charged today with deeper emotions than the former. The missionary most often does also operate cross-organizationally.

He is related to an autonomous missionary society and a church in the homeland. At the same time he must relate himself to an autonomous church in the area of his ministries. Unavoidably this involves the missionary in series of tensions with which he has to live if he is to maintain his dual relationships. To this come the relationships with his colleagues on the field. They may have been trained in different schools and in different theories of missions and with different church backgrounds. Tensions are bound to mount.

Looking into the seventies, we are faced by the fact that the unregulated and/or unresolved tensions between autonomous national churches and autonomous mission societies are developing into most frustrating situations in many fields. These tensions constitute one of the most serious obstacles in effective evangelism and church growth. They are rapidly growing into one of the most explosive situations evangelical churches and missions have experienced.

The missionary is caught in the cross-fires of this battlefield. He is conscious of the fact that he must preserve wholesome relationships in both directions if his life is to count for God. In case of a crisis which way will he relate himself? This is a "man-sized" question.

It must be recognized that spiritual relationship ties must supersede organizational relationship ties. Spiritual dynamics flow along relationship lines and not organizational lines. Relationship rather than structure must become our emphasis until it becomes a part of us as program end structure has in the past. Men of relationships are needed for the seventies.

4. Men of servanthood mentality. We need to note that one of the greatest Christological passages informs us that Christ took upon him the form of a servant. He is the great "suffering servant" of Isaiah. Paul, too, tells us, "We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake." Diakonia ("service") is a great New Testament word. It belongs to the nature of Christianity as it manifested itself in the life of Christ.

To render service and to be a servant is not natural to man. Neither is it natural to the missionary. Our recent emphases and training programs have not lessened this natural problem. We like to think of ourselves as advisers, counselors, administrators, leaders, experts, specialists, technicians, teachers, etc. Our workshops and special courses are geared towards this end.

Should this be otherwise? While at may be seriously debated whether the time is not upon us to transplant such training to the geographical areas of ministries and make it equally accessible to nationals and missionaries, a more serious problem lies elsewhere. Somehow with the training there develops a "mentality" of expertness, of leadership, etc. We begin to think of ourselves as such until we believe in ourselves as such. A mentality consciously or subconsciously possesses us which sooner or later proves detrimental to our relationships and defeats the very purpose for which the training was to equip us.

Servanthood mentality is a divine gift and must be carefully cultivated. Few missionary leaders, administrators, advisers, counselors, experts, specialists, technicians, teachers, etc. will survive the seventies and will be effective in the seventies. However, servants with these abilities and qualifications will be more in demand than ever. They will not only survive, they will blossom and their shortage will be deeply felt. There is a vast difference in being a leader and rendering leadership service. We must assist and enable the missionary of the seventies to go forth with a servanthood mentality and render service as demanded and needed. All the humility of service must possess us.

5. Men of performance in contrast to men of ambition and position. The latter characterizes the man of the world today. He is out to achieve. Ambitions and position dominate too many lives. We dare not permit such to possess us in the ministry of Christ. But neither dare we to be indifferent in our performance. We are called to excellency. Mediocrity has no place in the service of the King of kings. Here excellence of performance and triumphant service are demanded. While there always will be "ordinary" services to be rendered in missions and in the church, it is evident that more and more of the "ordinary" will pass over into the hands of the national church as administration and positions should be handed over to this body.

The "average" missionary, therefore, will be asked to enlist in the church and cooperatively perform the "ordinary" ministries in the community with the church. Others will be assigned by the church into pioneer ministries outside of the immediate community of the church. In addition, the church will eagerly search for men who can add to the church and perform ministries within and by the church which the church is not prepared or not able to render. These men of performance are not necessarily technicians or technical advisors. The most serious shortage is in the realm of Bible teaching and programmed evangelism. Bible exposition which reaches down to the roots of the local congregations is of paramount need. Institutions must pass over to the national church and positions will and must be filled by nationals. Ours must be the ministry on the deepest levels. Here the battles are won or lost. The new wave of programmed evangelism which is moving across the younger churches is most heartening. It is a great evangelistic awakening. Men well-informed in the different methods and patterns of evangelism are urgently needed and eagerly accepted by the younger evangelical churches. Here is a most significant ministry and a tremendous challenge. It is the ministry in the latter spheres which will become an ever increasing demand within the next decade or two, or at least until the church has shaped her self-image and established her selfhood.

Missionaries will need to realize that unless they have something vital to add to the enrichment of the life and ministry of the church, add depth and tempo to the church and her ministry, render essential and sought for services to the community and to the total Christian movement of the country, their need will not be deeply fell and their presence will be questioned. Performance in a genuine spiritual sense, and without seeking credit and position, will become the real test for the demand and effectiveness of the missionaries of the seventies. We need to take a realistic view of the situation and gear our deputation and recruitment accordingly.

6. Men of the church. Paul informs us that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Christ himself had assured his disciples that he would build his church. One of the central concerns in the New Testament is the church. This is an emphasis we need in our days when the church more than any other institution or organization is being bombarded with criticism. Whether justified or not, deserved or not, is not for me at present to examine. The fact, however, remains that the church is central in the New Testament, that the church is the church of God, that it is the temple and habitation of God; that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it; that Paul willingly and joyfully suffered for the church. We cannot lightly talk about the church without cutting deep wounds into the organism of the New Testament.

To this idealistic emphasis to which most people will pay at least lipservice must come the realistic emphasis of the local expression of the church of Jesus Christ. While it is true that Jesus Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, it is just as true that at present the glorified Son of God walks among the local congregations and speaks of them as golden candlebearers (Revelation 1:10-20). Most of us would have been quite ready to think of Ephesus, Smyrna, and Philadelphia in such terms. But to apply the same designation to Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis and Laodicea would have caused difficulties to many. Yet, Christ speaks of them in equal terms as candlebearers, though he knows them through and through. While there is no total approval, neither is there total rejection. The churches are his. He identifies himself with his churches and walks in their midst to minister to them.

Because of these biblical facts, no man or woman can fully qualify for spiritual and effective ministries without holding a high view of the church of Jesus Christ. This is particularly true of missionaries who are the apostles of the churches to perform the ministries of the churches in pioneer areas of the world. It is expected that churches will result from the ministries of the missionaries. Their attitude and relationship to the newly born church will be stamped indelibly upon the life of that body of believers. If the missionary is a man of the church as he is a man of God, a prosperous church can be expected. Neither paternalism or orphanism must become a part of the conscious or subconscious sentiments of the church.

More significant for the missionary of the seventies will be his appreciation, attitude and relationship to a relatively mature church in the field. The basic question will be whether the missionary is a man of the church in the area of his operation, or whether he is a man of a society thousands of miles away from the scene of operation. Are his affections, loyalties and interests vested in his mission society with its program and pursuits, or in the life and ministry of the church? It must not be assumed that these interests always dovetail and serve the same purpose.

Whatever our theory and ideals may be, the seventies will call for men of the church, men who love the church and who are willing to give themselves for it and joyfully suffer with and for it.

The criticisms of the church in the sixties must be superceded in the seventies by an aggressive, positive and effective building program. We cannot afford to continue in this costly, negative, perhaps inevitable self-judgment and criticism. We cannot continue to indulge in the present negativism and hope to triumph for God. The time has come to rise up and build. The seventies demand men who are for the church, men who love it, identify with it, labor for and in it, sacrifice and suffer for it, men who will involve themselves in a constructive building program with the church.

7. Men of the times. We need men who live in the present but also for the future. To remain Men of the time is not an easy matter in a dynamic society and in a world of cultural convulsion. This is true in particular in the world of the younger nations and younger churches. Continents are in commotion. There is no static culture. The very foundations of the ancient cultures of Asia tremble, while in Africa the foundations have been inundated and washed away. Latin America manifests an unprecedented dynamism, often undirected, nevertheless forceful.

Macmahon Ball describes nationalism on the East Asian scene as a revolution of three main forces. These forces as he sees them are:

(1) A revolt against foreign political control, against colonialism, against imperialism: a claim for self-determination, for full national independence. (2) An economic and social revolt by people with a keener sense of their poverty and misery, and heightened resentment against the gross inequalities of fortune. (3) A racial revolt, so-called for want of a better term. A revolt of the East against the West, a determination that the destinies of Asia shall be decided by Asians, not by Europeans, that the new nations of the East will be ends in themselves, not means to Western ends.

Such is the socio-economic and political world into which the missionary moves. The religious attitude is not much different. It is a world of ferment, of compressed history full of tensions, of crises, of violence, of death and destruction. It is a world of science and technology, a world of aspirations and demands, a world of strange and mysterious phenomena. It is a world of the young with disregard for authority, and of big cities with all this disruptions of relationships; a world of time and space where neither eternity nor spiritual values count. It is in this world that gulfs must be spanned, bridges must be built, contacts must be established, a hearing must be won and where the gospel must be made relevant. The task is overwhelming, and we cry out with Paul: "We are not sufficient of ourselves . . . but our sufficiency is of God."

We cannot afford to remain with our operations in the established patterns of the past decades. Time does outwear methods, programs, patterns of organization and operation, procedures and ways of ministrations. In a time of technology and mass communication, a shortage of missionary candidates need not be an indication of lack of missionary interest and motivation or an absence of spiritual vitality. It may be a divine indicator that our former methods and ways of operation are outmoded and an overhauling at the mission end is necessary. If radio and literature can reach the millions and television becomes the most influential medium of mass communication, do we not need a revamping of our techniques anal methods so we can invest our limited funds in a different manner? When the organization of one radio program can make the gospel available to eighty percent of the world’s population, we inevitably ask whether the foot soldier is the greatest need and the most effective method of operation in our times.

Such questions must not be construed as critical or intended to discourage recruitment of men and women for ministries abroad. But we need to read the signs of the time most intelligently and adjust our methodology and program most completely to the times in which we are living. In days when the cities are bulging and industries are thriving, must we not think in terms of big cities’? In times of big campaigns, and city penetration programs as effective approaches to a more rapid church building program – as demonstrated by the Southern Baptists, the Assemblies of God and other similar movements; in a time of national evangelism movements as sponsored by Evangelism-in-Depth, New Life for All and related and adapted programs, can we afford to stay with traditional methods and more or less small scale operations? In times of tremendous mobility, is it timely to think in terms of mission stations? I realize that situations exist where mission stations seem a necessity. But what in one age has been and in certain peripheral areas may be a necessity at present, may well be a luxury at other places. Again, in times when governments vie for the institutions of their countries, is it wise to think strongly in terms of elaborate institutions? Should we not more aggressively press forward wherever possible in direct evangelism and church planting?

Men of the times, men who discern the signs of the time, the possibilities of the time, the potentials of the time – as well as the seasons, movements and dangers of the times – become God’s prophets to his people and the world. Instead of being cast into the mold of history, they make history. Instead of being frustrated by the storms of the times, they ride the crest of the waves triumphantly for God and his cause. The times are God’s and we must redeem the time. Men of the times are urgently needed.

Such must be the missionaries of the seventies. While others may survive, these will triumph and lead the cause of Christ in the triumphs of our Lord. These are the men we must pray into the seventies.

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