Soloman Islanders Cut Down Trees By Yelling at Them! A missionary "conduct" moment!

In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific some villagers practice a unique form of logging, If a tree is too large to be felled with an axe, the natives cut it down by yelling at it. (Can’t lay my hands on the article, but I swear I read it.) Woodsmen with special powers creep up on a tree just at dawn and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. They continue this for thirty days. The free dies and falls over. The theory is that the hollering kills the spirit of the tree. According to the villagers, it always works.

Ah, those poor naive innocents. Such quaintly charming habits of the jungle. Screaming at trees, indeed. How primitive. Too bad they don’t have the advantage of modem technology and scientific mind.

Me? I yell at my wife. And yell at the telephone and the lawn mower. And yell at the TV and the newspaper and my children. I’ve even been known to shake my fist and yell at the sky at times.

Man next door yells at his car a lot. And this summer I heard him yelling at a stepladder for most of an afternoon. We modem, urban, educated folks yell at traffic and umpires and bills and banks and machines - especially machines. Machines and relatives get most of the yelling.

Don’t know what good it does. Machines and things just sit there. Even kicking doesn’t always help. As for people, well, the Solomon Islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts....”

(Robert Fulghum - “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” sorry I don't have the page number and the book is.....?)

How to Handle Attention From Locals on the Mission Field

This was an interesting insight about how we should handle all that uncomfortable attention we receive at arrival in a mission town or new village. How should we respond?

"Rather than despise the attention brought to us by our nationality, we should embrace it. God is positioning us where we can have the most impact....

1. Learn why the culture views you as superior. This will allow you to neutralize misconceptions that might cause divisions in your relationships. For example, if you are revered for your American education, those you reach out to might feel inferior because they are unable to read and write.

2. Aim for strategic humility. If you are honored, receive it warmly. Then look for opportunities to exercise radical humility that will challenge worldly views of status. If you are considered wealthy and often invited to dine with social elites, eat your lunches on the street corner with orphans, or commit to menial tasks.

3. I you are given a platform, point to Jesus. If for whatever reason your voice is valued above others, steer conversations toward the one who is truly worthy of attention. Make the most of every relationship. Seize divine opportunities to offer the testimony of Christ’s life, death and resurrection."

("Revered for All the Wrong Reasons." Tyler Emler. EMQ January 2008 Vol 44, No. p11)

Specific Geographic Calling & General Calling - Is there a difference?

This is an interesting observation.

"...people who have a specific geographic call to, say, China, the Syempire people of Mali or the l’unisian Arabs of North Africa also have interests that lead them to do evangelism and church planting. People who do not have a specific geographic call have interests that lead them to discipleship, teaching and leadership training. Although I have not done a scientific study, as a World-Venture mobilizer and as WorldVenture Africa director, I have talked with thousands of young adults. Except for two, everyone who had a call to a specific geographic area was interested in evangelism and those without the specific geographic interest were
more interested in training....

Because this pattern is so consistent, I use it as a diagnostic tool. Someone whose call seems to be geographic specific will also be interested in church planting. The person without a geographic specific call at the stage when he or she is talking to mission mobilizers will invariably be on the training, teaching and mentoring side of ministry...

The prospective missionary knows so many other prospective missionaries with geographic calls that he or she tends to question the genuineness of his or her call. When I explain that about half of the people I listen to do not have a geographic specific call and that in inevitably those are the people gifted/interested in training, I always see relief spread over their faces. For them, then, the lack of a geographic specific call is no longer a deficit in thinking and call but rather it becomes a confirmation of God’s guidance and their interests and gifting.

(EMQ Janaury 2008 Vol 44, No1, pg5 Glenn Kendall, Africa Director, WordVenture. Letters to the Editor)

This just about says it all!

"It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others, and so we never give up. We do not try to trick people into believing—we are not interested in fooling anyone. We never try to get anyone to believe that the Bible teaches what it doesn’t. All such shameful methods we forego.... We don’t go around preaching about ourselves, but about Christ Jesus as Lord. All we say of ourselves is that we are your slaves because of what Jesus has done for us.

2 Corinthians 4:1-2,5 (LB)

Western Ideas Taken into Pioneer Missions!

"In some aspects, westernized Christianity has captivated the gospel in Western culture for centuries. Examples of this include:

1. A church needing full-time clergy who have graduated from a Bible college or seminary.

2. A church meeting once a week on Sunday morning around 10 or 11 a. m.

3. A church needing a building.

4. A church needing a three-point sermon.

5.Church planting needing lots of funding.

(A Critical Evaluation of the Westernization of the Gospel, By Daniel Kim. Lausanne world pulse, March 2008)

Mission as Works of Love?

"The truly effective and productive missionary is the one whose precious and godly work of love survives into eternity"

These observations, along with several others, have led me to question the way we often do missionary work today. We have blended modern management theory with the urgency of the Great Commission to create an addictive and compulsive “productivity treadmill” that is emotionally, mentally, and spiritually exhausting. The presence of spiritual qualities such as love, joy, and peace has been replaced by Excel spreadsheets and the need for an increased number of indicated decisions for Christ per donor dollar. As a direct consequence the Church is being deprived of deeply spiritual missions exemplars that can inspire future generations.

(The Productivity Myth, By John Edmiston Lausanne world pulse, March 2008. John Edmiston is chairman and CEO of the Asian Internet Bible Institute)

2 New Denominations Per Day

Fragmentation. The Church is more diverse today and more fragmented then it has ever been in its history. As of January 2008, there are over thirty-nine thousand denominations in the world.² Moreover, the number of denominations is growing at the rate of two new ones per day, while the number of believers and their respective contexts continues to increase in both number and complexity.

("Doing Strategy as the Whole Church", By Sandra S. K. Lee. Lausanne World Pulse, March 2008) Lee sites her information as 2 Barrett, David B., Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing, 2008.“Missiometrics 2008 Reality Checks for Christian World Communions,”International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 32(1): 28-30.

Charismatic Appeal in Africa!

The Uniqueness of the Charismatic Movement
The Charismatic renewal experienced across Africa should be celebrated and theologically guided. There may be questions about the Pentecostal resurgence regarding practice and doctrine, but it should never be discarded. I recall an African proverb which states that “a mother does not throw away the dirty water and the baby inside after the bath.” Reflecting along this thought line, Rev. Nalwamba added,

I think we need to consider trends in the Renewal/Charismatic movement and its relationship to the African traditional worldview/religion. One reason why the Charismatic movement has had such a growing appeal is that it takes seriously the spiritual world and spiritual phenomenon which mainstream Christianity tends to sideline. A theologically sound and balanced approach to these phenomenon would contribute to the deepening of faith and mission on the continent.

Lausanne World Pulse - LAUSANNE REPORTS - Theological Trends in Africa: Implications for Missions and Evangelism. By Gideon Para-Mallam, March 2008 Gideon Para-Mallam is associate regional secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in West Africa.He is also Lausanne international deputy director for Anglophone Africa.)

African Mission Challanages - Nigerian Examples!

"One in every four Africans is Nigerian. One in every five black people in the world is Nigerian. With a population of nearly 150 million, there is no doubt the Nigerian Church and nation are bound to have a significant impact on the African continent. The general perception of Nigeria is its failure to set a good example for the rest of Africa. Recently, I read a screaming headline in one of the Nigerian daily newspapers: “Nigeria Still Sinful Despite Many Churches.” This calls for sober reflection, genuine repentance, and a reorientation on the part of the Church. Here are several issues the Nigerian Church isfacing:

• The creation of megastars. The “Man of God” syndrome is aptly described in the book Preachers of a Different Gospel, by Rev. Femi Adeleye. “Men of God” have become “stars and celebrities.” Preaching has become a skilful marketing art. Jesus is
  relegated to the background. Where is the humility of John the Baptist, who declared, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:34)?
  
  
• The existence of doctrinal distortions, pulpit abuse, falsehood, and the commercialization of the gospel. “Cash for Christ” is sometimes found in churches—the more cash you pay,the greater your chances of seeing a bigger miracle take place.
  
  
• The commonness of the prosperity gospel. Nigerian churches have exported this to the rest of Africa. Today, this gospel of greed is a disturbing trend with appealing momentum.Capitalist desperados are masquerading as church planters. In his book Foxes in the Vineyard, Insights into the Nigerian Pentecostal Revival, Sean Akinrele quotes Bishop Mike Okonkwo, former president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN):

This has degenerated to the extent that people now come to church primarily to get rich outside the richness in their souls. Pastors, too, have cashed in on the gullibility of unsuspecting members as symbolism in oil, mantle, honey, palm-leaves, sprinkling of blood, andother mediums are now evolved to build the faith of the people unto materialism.

The PFN leadership has discovered that money has sadly become the yardstick for success in the Church,especially the Pentecostals…. Prosperity messages have therefore taken centre stage of most preaching at the expense of full gospel messages.

• The prominence of bossy leadership. In Christ, we learn a new and liberating model of leadership: servant leadership. The African continent, caught in the throes of conflict arising from tussles for power and resources, are desperate for this biblical leadership model. The current posture of spiritual grand-standing depreciates the gains of the Charismatic renewal movement across Africa and makes the tasks of evangelization less convincing in its genuine appeal.
  
  
• The lack of making the cross central. Where is the cross in the way we live as Christ’s followers? Today,popular theology inspired by the prosperity gospel exponents, “He go butter my bread and sugar my tea. Me, I no go suffer.” This needs to be reviewed if we are to be faithful to the teaching of the one who hung
  on the cross for the redemption of humankind. In The Chosen One—a Ghanaian home movie—a prostitute made an observation that resonates with the African Church: “Nowadays, pastors want to be like Jesus, but they are not ready to suffer like Jesus.”

Lausanne World Pulse - LAUSANNE REPORTS - Theological Trends in Africa:Implications for Missions and Evangelism. By Gideon Para-Mallam, March 2008(Gideon Para-Mallam is associate regional secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in West Africa. He is also Lausanne international deputy director for Anglophone Africa.)

Lack of Intergrity in Much African Leadership!

The Rev. Billy Graham once observed, “If you lose your health you have lost something, but you have not lost everything. If you lose your wealth you have lost nothing. If you lose your character you have lost everything.” The Church in Africa will do well to heed this word of wisdom. The absence of Christian integrity is a key trend that marks church growth and activity on the continent....

Since 1988, there has been a growth of mass conversions and a resurgence of church planting in my native country of Nigeria. Because of this, I began asking myself questions concerning the character of the emerging Nigerian Church (which includes churches with strong neo-Pentecostal roots). Some of these Charismatic churches boast having some of the largest church attendances in Africa; one congregation in Lagos records a weekly attendance of fifty thousand people. Prayer meetings attract up to two million attendees.

Yet the impact of the gospel on society is diminished by the disjuncture of belief and practice. During the Langham Nigeria Preaching Seminar ’08, Rt. Rev. Dr. Cyril Okorocha, Anglican Bishop of Owerri Diocese, observed that Nigerians are tired of hearing ministers preach about Jesus. They want to see Jesus lived out by preachers through lives of personal integrity.

One major result of the disjuncture between belief and practice is the lack of depth found in many Christians. Religiosity is widespread; however, godliness is scarce. People from all walks of life profess faith in God; however, this is not displayed in everyday life practices. Is it any wonder that Christians going into government are unprepared to withstand temptations of the office? They fail to be true ambassadors of Christ in government. Many have instead brought shame to Christ’s name.

Lausanne World Pulse - LAUSANNE REPORTS - Theological Trends in Africa: Implications for Missions and Evangelism. By Gideon Para-Mallam, March 2008(Gideon Para-Mallam is associate regional secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in West Africa. He is also Lausanne international deputy director for Anglophone Africa.)

Challenge in Mission to Buddhists

"This chapter has sought to engage in an honest dialogue with Buddhists concerning the nature of ultimate reality and how it compares or contrasts with the Christian understanding of the Triune God of Scripture. The dialogue began with an honest admission that many observers have noted that the Christian God and the Buddhas seem to “function in their own separate universes.” This testimony is not far off the mark, for although Buddhism may be functionally theistic, even at times functionally monotheistic, at its deepest level it is clearly nontheistic. Popular Buddhist worship and experience may give the appearance of some continuity with Christianity, but the actual gap between emptiness or mind and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed great. Only the naive join in the common refrain that declares all religions are basically the same. In fact, while Buddhism and Christianity both claim the ardent allegiance of millions around the world, we must candidly admit that these two religions are fundamentally different. To use religious language to mask this difference is to be unfaithful to both the history of Buddhist thought and the integrity of Christian revelation."

(Timothy C. Tennent, Christianity at the Religious Roundtable: Evangelicalism in Conversation with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. (GrandRapids:Backer Academic, 2002), p.113)

Difficulty of Dialogue Between Buddhists & Christains

“Engaging in genuine dialogue with Buddhists concerning the nature
of God or ultimate reality is not an easy task. Roger Corless has correctly observed
that “the Buddhas and the Christain God function in their own universes and it
is not clear weather these universes relate to each other at all, if they do,
in what way or ways.” Debate concerning the nature of ultimate reality is
central to the entire history of Buddhist thought, and that discussion has influenced
every strand of Buddhism in one way or another. Despite the obstacles, we do
not have the luxury of avoiding this central question when Christians and
Buddhists sit down at the table of dialogue.”

(Timothy C. Tennent, Christianity at the Religious Roundtable:Evangelicalism in Conversation with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. (GrandRapids:Backer Academic, 2002), p.89)