Thy Kingdom Go

"Most Christians glibly recite “Thy kingdom come,” but this means almost nothing until and unless they also say “My kingdom go.”

~ Richard Rohr

Mission Driving Skills

At 4:29 in the morning, i laughed out loud in recognition. Sorry Lynn Rayner

"The number one rule to remember on the roads here is as follows: there are no rules. Who has right of way? Answer: whoever has the courage to forge on and fill the gap before the other person gets a chance. Crazy, but kind of fun once you get used to it!"

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

God Gives Back To Missionaries

"People often say to me: “Rob, it’s such a sacrifice, what you do,” and in many ways it is. But that’s not to say that missions work isn’t also fascinating, enriching and – on many occasions – just great fun! What you give up back home before coming on the field, God gives back to you in so many different ways – and more."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture : Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Sadness On Earth.

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

When Christians Create Their Own Persecution

(Stephen W Hill)
"I pray for the day that I stop hearing stories like this one! A friend in the majority world invites a brother from the west to come and teach at a conference. This person claims to have ministered in 60 nations. During the ministry this man curses the dominant religion in the culture. He leaves on a plane the next day meanwhile the brother who invited him into this home and circle of influence flees at midnight with his wife and small children from their home and goes into hiding in order to avoid being murdered.

This man will boast to his circle of ministry partners about his boldness and faith but when gently told about the danger and poverty that he has just plunged his majority world friend into he says, "Sorry." but offers no help, no financial assistance, nothing."

How Muslim Christians Changed Me....

Your book is filled with insights about how Muslims view Jesus, Christianity, and the church. But how did your encounters with Muslims change you personally?

I've traveled to 100 countries over the years. The thing that changed me, as I look back on it, was finding that the living Christ has already been in these places.
I was hearing from Muslim-background believers that they had met Jesus. Sometimes we as Christians feel we take Jesus to people. What we forget sometimes is that we're attesting to a living Christ who continues to break into people's lives, into their dreams, into their visions, and into their prayers.
Jesus answers those prayers, and he meets with them, and it shakes them up. From West Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Indonesia, I met people whose lives had been shaken and rattled by their encounter with Christ. They were not persuaded by logical doctrine or a better civilization, but by that encounter with the living Son of God who changed their life and world. They can't go back to life as usual.
That changed me. I had my own faith renewed. We serve a living God, a living Christ, and a living Lord. (David Garrison)

Link to Article

Academic Missionaries.....

"I’ve come to discover that there is a whole world of professional Christians who live primarily in the church or the Christian academy, and who determine what is the so- called true and proper terminology or the correct biblical procedure for mission, but who never seem to embody the ideas that they describe."
(Michael Frost)

Logical Excuses For Doing Nothing

"Wise and prudent people that we are, we manufacture a thousand logical excuses for doing nothing.
(Brennan Manning. The Signature Of Jesus)

Life will Soon Be a Thick Gelatinous Stream of Comfortability And Ignorance

"Conservative historians describe any man with a passion for greatness as a megalomaniac. “Look at him,” they say to one another, “the idiot! Why doesn’t he settle down and establish himself in the community? Why is he forever restless, forever trying to get something beyond him? The man is crazy.” These conservatives are partly right. Play life safe and you will keep out of harm. Be careful, be cautious, don’t take risks and you will never die on Mount St. Helens. Your failure is measured by your aspirations. Aspire not, and you cannot fail. Columbus died in chains. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Let us all live snugly without risk, and life will soon be little more than a thick gelatinous stream of comfortability and ignorance."
(Myles Connolly, Mr. Blue (New York: Macmillan, 1928), 91.)

Politics For The Poor... A New Crook?

"The Ecuadorian government, a military junta, fell one day with riots, shooting, and mobs of determined students marching in the streets of the main towns. (The government fell because of these student demonstrations, and the students were furious because they weren’t allowed to run things.) That day I was helping Ramon and Ester split strips of bamboo for a new chicken house about a hundred feet from the ocean in the shade of a large ebony tree. Ramon had his radio outside, and we listened to the birth pangs of the new regime—the patriotic speeches and screeches, and the sound of martial music. But after a while he turned it off. It didn’t seem to have much do with Rio Verde. “Well,” Ramon said, “the old gang made its millions; now a new gang wants to rob us. You know, it will be the same for us whoever wins. We are completely forgotten here in Rio Verde.” (Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen)

An Untiring Missionary In Ecuador

Peace Corps workers in Ecuador speak about a missionary they got to know who had been serving faithfully for 27 years just five kilometers frim their town.  This was in 1962-1963

"Bill and Alice have an enthusiasm and love for mankind that has endured through more than a quarter of a century of disappointments and setbacks. They have seen countless Americans come and go with ideas and projects. Many of these projects have fizzled and patience has often run out. But Bill Boyes stands high, walks with purpose, has a firm grip on his fellowmen and an enduring faith in God. He is untiring."
(The Barrios Of Manta. Rhoda & Earle Brooks)

Women in Missions- Examples of Invaluable Contributions! Suck it up Men?

"Overall, probably two-thirds of the missions force has been, and currently is, female. Many mission executives agree that the more difficult and dangerous the work, the more likely women are to volunteer to do it! David Yonggi Cho concludes from his experience that women are the best choice for difficult, pioneering work. “We have found that in these situations, women will never give up. Men are good for building up the work, but women are best for persevering when men get discouraged” (p271)

(Example Illustration)

"After the last road ended, it was a two-day hike to where the Balangao people lived. The Balangao, a tribe of former headhunters, still sacrificed to powerful and demanding spirits who caused sickness, death and constant turmoil. Two single women missionaries, trained in Bible translation, were on their way to work among them.
When they arrived, they were greeted by men wearing G-strings and women wrapped in cloth from homemade looms. It is hard to say who was more amazed. The Balangao had asked for Americans to come live with them and write their language, but they never dreamed the Americans would be women!

An old man offered to be their father and was faithful in looking after them. Besides the work of translation, these women began giving medical assistance, learning about the spirit world, and answering questions about life and death. One of them, Jo Shetler, stayed for 20 years, winning her way into the hearts and lives of these people and completing the New Testament translation. Because of this dedication, thousands now know Jesus as Lord of the Balangao.
Jo Shetler, a shy farm girl with a dream, has stirred many with her story. However, stories remain unwritten of multitudes of women who likewise obeyed the call of God to serve Him on the far horizons. Many women do not realize how greatly God can use their giftedness and commitment in situations such as this.” (p 269)

("Women In Mission” , Marguerite Kraft & Meg Crossman. "Perspectives on the world Christian Movement", 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California . Pg 269, 271)

Western Church Discipleship Models Have Been Tested & Failed!

(I originally published this in 2009)The true success of our church discipleship is found in the litmus test of our very own born-and-raised" evangelical church kids. I'm not speaking about evangelism outside the church. I'm talking about our own glaring inability to transfer faith within the family unit. Consider the following:

"Every year, hundreds of thousands of American evangelical young people lose their faith while attending college: An estimated 65% (My Note: This is very conservative estimate. I have seen studies that suggest 75%). Here they are confronted with a secular humanist world view, often anti-Christian, which they have not been prepared to engage. Next year a new batch will be sent, and this spiritual holocaust will go right on with few people seeking to do anything about it.

Now why is that? And what is the real problem? Could it be that we are merely entertaining our young people in youth groups across the country instead of disciplining them? On the other side, why can almost all of our great Christian leaders point to someone in their life who mentored them in faith? Is there a connection here? Many missiologists believe so....

What kind of Christianity are we seeking to establish around the world? Is it a copy of our own- one in which we can't even keep our own young people who have been raised in Christian Homes"

(Discipling All Peoples: Today's Imperative and Vision of Tokyo 2010. David Taylor. Mission Frontiers, September-October 2009 vol. 31, No. 5. US Center For World Mission)
Interestingly, home-schooled kids have a 95% faith retention rate when they go off to college and university. We can not pass this off as merely "Sheltering", becuase once these kids are out of the nest, they are exposed to the same secular humanism and challenges in university and college.

So, if home-schooled kids are exposed to the same influences in university, why the amazing success? The difference is found in the type of discipleship the kids have received at home. They have not been brainwashed, but rather "mentored" in a very effective manner. Rather than sheltered, most have actually been exposed to the fallacies of secular arguments and ideologies, and been given adequate Christian answers and tools by which to measure the philosophies they encounter with a Christian World view.

The home-schoolers success rate in transmitting their faith to their children is so impressive, that non-homeschooling Christians best not criticize them. Their mentoring discipleship approach is working much better than the methodology the average christian family or church is using- or not using.

Effective discipleship involves more than just transmission of "information". But also requiring Relation, Conversation, and Assisted Application. Unfortunately, the only conversation most kids get about Jesus is, "Great ready for Sunday School or Youth Group". But little actual mentoring from many christian parents or church staff.

Plant Churches or Missionaries? Which Comes First?

Which comes first? The more people live the missional life, the more churches will be planted.

"The goal of our missional life is not to grow churches. The goal of the church is to grow missionaries."

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 168 2008, Jossey-Bass)

No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets - William Borden

William Whiting Borden - missionary to the Muslims of China, but died of spinal meningitis in Egypt during his training there at the age of 25. Samuel Zwemer conducted his funeral.

"In 1904 William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school. As heir to the Borden family fortune, he was already wealthy. For his high school graduation present, his parents gave 16-year-old Borden a trip around the world. As the young man traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for the world's hurting people. Finally, Bill Borden wrote home about his "desire to be a missionary."

One friend expressed disbelief that Bill was "throwing himself away as a missionary."In response, Borden wrote two words in the back of his Bible: "No reserves."

Yale University in 1905 One of them wrote: "He came to college far ahead, spiritually, of any of us. He had already given his heart in full surrender to Christ and had really done it. We who were his classmates learned to lean on him and find in him a strength that was solid as a rock, just because of this settled purpose and consecration.

During his college years, Bill Borden made an entry in his personal journal that defined what his classmates were seeing in him. That entry said simply: "Say 'no' to self and 'yes' to Jesus every time."

Borden's first disappointment at Yale came when the university president spoke in a convocation about the students' need of "having a fixed purpose." After that speech, Borden wrote: "He neglected to say what our purpose should be, and where we should get the ability to persevere and the strength to resist temptations."4 Surveying the Yale faculty and much of the student body, Borden lamented what he saw as the end result of an empty, humanistic philosophy: moral weakness and sin-ruined lives.

During his first semester at Yale, Borden started A scripture & Prayer meeting with himself and one other, it grew to three. By the end of his first year, 150 freshman were meeting weekly for Bible study and prayer. By the time Bill Borden was a senior, one thousand of Yale's 1,300 students were meeting in such groups. Borden's outreach ministry was not confined to the Yale campus. He cared about widows and orphans and the disabled. He rescued drunks from the streets of New Haven.

Borden's missionary call narrowed to the Muslim Kansu people in China. Once he fixed his eyes on that goal, Borden never wavered.

Upon graduation from Yale, Borden turned down some high-paying job offers. In his Bible, he wrote two more words: "No retreats."

William Borden went on to do graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. When he finished his studies at Princeton, he sailed for China. Because he was hoping to work with Muslims, he stopped first in Egypt to study Arabic. While there, he contracted spinal meningitis. Within a month, 25-year-old William Borden was dead.

Was Borden's untimely death a waste? Not in God's perspective. Prior to his death, Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words "No reserves" and "No retreats," he had written: "No regrets."

Link: http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/regret.htm

Testimony Steve Saint End of The Spear

Testimony Steve Saint End of The Spear (Get some tissue!)

Reasons for Global Mission Celebration...... Yet!

"As we come to the present day we have to be stunned by the magnitude of the movement to Christ. Never  before have so many people followed Christ. Never before has Christ been named in so many languages and obeyed faithfully in such a myriad of cultural styles. Never before has Christ been so viciously hated or His servants so widely persecuted. Yet never before has Christ been so openly worshiped."

(Perspectives on The World Christain Movement: Study Guide, Steven Hawthorne. William Carey Library, 2009, pg93)

"Sink" Yourself for God overseas? "Staying Power" ?

"Are we becoming short of missionary perseverance today? By all means let us acknowledge the value of short-term missionary assignments and see the divine purpose in many of them. But where are those who are ready to `sink' themselves for God overseas? Under the Lord's direction, let us look full in the face at such problems as missionary children's education and changing missionary strategy; but if men are to be won, believers truly nourished, and churches encouraged into the fullness of life in Christ, a great deal of `missionary staying power' of the right sort is going to be needed."

(Europe's Moravians. Colin Grant. Perspectives 4th edition, 2009, Ralph Winter, William Carey Library. pg293)

Becoming a Missionary Doesn't Make One a Hero -Just Obedient?

" A.C. Thompson, one of the main 19th century recorders of the early history of the Moravian missions, wrote:

• `So fully is the duty of evangelizing the heathen lodged in current thought that the fact of anyone entering personally upon that work never creates surprise...It is not regarded as a thing that calls for widespread heralding, as if something marvelous or even unusual were in hand.'

...Rev, Ignatius Latrobe, a former secretary of the Moravian missions in the United Kingdom during the 19th century, wrote:

• `We think it is a great mistake when, after their appointment, missionaries are held up to public notice and admiration and much praise is bestowed upon their devotedness to their Lord, presenting them to the congregations as martyrs and confessors before they have even entered upon their labours, We rather advise them quietly to set out, recommended to the fervent prayers of the congregation....'

No Clamor, no platform heroics, no publicity, but rather an ardent, unostentatious desire to make Christ known wherever his name had not been named."

(Europe's Moravians. Colin Grant. Perspectives 4th edition, 2009, Ralph Winter, William Carey Library. pg292

Mission is Trully "WORLD" Mission!

"Every human being who has a physical or spiritual need is a valid mission field for those who desire to incarnate the love of Jesus regardless of were they live."

(The State of the Gospel. Jason Mandryk. Perspectives 4thed 2009, Ralph D. Winter, William Carey Library, pg 366)