EMQ

Up to 1924 the outlook with regard to treating leprosy was nearly hopeless. Our understanding was limited, and treatment seemed only temporarily to halt the progress of the disease and its relentless course toward mutilation, deformity, blindness, and death.

The Latin America Mission in Colombia has been privileged to witness an outpouring of the Spirit of God in recent years that has resulted in a rapid spread of the Gospel. Often this has been entirely apart from missionaries or national pastors, proving that it is a spontaneous work of the Spirit through laymen who have faithfully witnessed to Christ. The undeniable fruits of the Spirit plus the fruits of the preaching of the Gospel have been so evident as to leave no doubt that this has been a movement initiated and blessed by God.

There is a new dimension in missionary recruitment today. Although traditional missionary methods remain valid and cannot be displaced, consideration reveals hopeful new concepts hitherto not possible. The potential usefulness of almost any qualified Christian today in the mission fields of the world brings the question of personal involvement in Christ’s great commission, “Go ye into all the world,” before every Christian.

The preparation of the missionary must be in keeping with the task assigned him. We are compelled, therefore, to define the missionary task from a twofold point of view.

In a previous article in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly (Spring 1965) I attempted to document the nature and extent of cooperation among evangelical missions around the world. That article was concerned exclusively with mission societies, and said nothing of the national churches brought into existence by these missions. What about cooperation among them?

Give a secular newsman the choice of interviewing a pastor, evangelist, theologian, Gospel musician, Christian teacher, church historian, or missionary, and chances are he will pick the missionary.

Missionary bodies working overseas have enjoyed a greater measure of cooperation than exists among church groups at home. The nature and extent of this cooperation, however, is not always fully realized.

Three quarters of a century separate us from the first, brash student volunteers who planned “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” Mott, Donald Fraser, Temple Gairdner and many more—there are still some in the Scottish Church who can remember the great names and the spirit of their times.

In my early childhood my father once told me the story of a man and boy who were traveling through the countryside leading a donkey. As they passed through the first town, they overheard protests: “What a stupid man! At least he ought to put the boy on the burro.” The father heeded their complaints and set the child on the beast.

Back in 1929 Owen D. Young, chairman of the board of the General Electric Company, said what he thought of his responsibilities: “My conception is this: There are three groups of people who are interested in this institution.