EMQ

How to establish the proper relation between church and society has been a dilemma that has for centuries troubled the Western world. Now a new dimension has been added to that problem. In Africa new states have sprung up, having a bright facade of Western constitutional government.

I am a student in an evangelical institution of higher learning. How can I serve God in this particular situation in His world mission?

When Christ spoke the words of the Great Commission and then sent His Spirit to empower the first missionary movement, there were no mechanical media by which His message could be transmitted to the uttermost part of the earth. The channel of communication of the good news was the personal witness of Spirit-filled believers who saw themselves as divine tools set apart for the specific purpose of communicating Christ’s message.

In 1954 Kenneth Strachan of the Latin America Mission advocated international partnership in all aspects of missionary endeavor. He wrote, “Whatever the way, it would seem that some way must be found to bring the national church and its leaders into partnership in the planning and execution of all missionary–not merely church–endeavor in each respective field.”

There is a Chinese proverb that says: “If you are planning for a year, plant rice; if you are planning for ten years, plant trees; if you are planning for a hundred years, plant men.”

Winds of change have affected the climate in which the missionary endeavor must be carried out.

The letter that follows is not a journalistic gimmick; it is an actual letter written by the author, a missionary under The Presbyterian Church U.S.A., in response to a request from his field leader in a Latin American country. .

Principles of missionary strategy and tactics remain unchanged from the days of the apostles. We do well to remind ourselves of these by diligent review of the Scriptures. Methods, however, have changed so vastly that the greater missionary advances are now being accomplished by larger organizations and societies, rather than by individuals and small groups.

The Apostle Paul told the Christians in Galatia: “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:29). Since he addressed them as individuals (“Ye”), he was referring to a unity of persons. Since he affirmed that they were “in Christ,” he was restricting this unity to a favored group, not to the world in general.

Douglas Webster, missions professor at Selly Oaks College, Birmingham, England, in his article, “Down With Heroes” (Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Summer, 1967), examines the current rash of missionary biography and recommends that missionaries be taken off their literary pedestal.