Believe it or not, surveys of mission organizations and their publications show that the most vital link between a mission and Christians in the sending church is the individual missionary’s prayer letter.
A lot of Christians — missionaries and missions executives among them — are getting satellite fever, not from UFO’s but from globe-circling communications satellites that promise instant communication to any part of the world. What better way to fill the world with the gospel! But is it a better way?
Missionaries have long defined the indigenous church as one that is self-propagating, self-governing, and self-supporting. Envision the indigenous church as a three-legged stool, with the three “selfs” forming the legs.
The author claims “indigenous” is a bad word if it prevents Christians in one country from sharing with fellow believers in another country. Writing from the perspective of India, he says traditional self-support policies hurt and hinder the churches there.
Most missionaries are aware of the increasing array of communications media equipment available. They are in the business of communicating the gospel by any and all means available.
The investment of men and women to fulfill the church’s world-wide commission in the great university centers of Latin America remains one of her most crucial needs. An effective penetration of the university scene with the message of life in Jesus Christ has yet to be realized.
Many missionaries are on the field today because they have wanted to get into the battle for men’s souls.
The first-termer’s problems of adjustment are very real, but this article puts them in some perspective so the new missionary will not find himself tilting at windmills as Don Quixote did. In addition, the author’s experience helps him give sound practical advice about how to rise above first-term doldrums.
Faith mission boards’ traditional purpose of establishing autonomous churches may be self-defeating, says this author. He calls for new goals and methods in the light of national church development, so that the churches become the instruments of outreach.
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