“Missionary work must be either the relation of the Church to the world, or a fad of a few.”
-Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, p. 98.
Fad of a Few
by mikestroope | September 17th, 2008 | Church, Mission, Roland Allen | 1 CommentCome be My Light
by mikestroope | September 15th, 2008 | Mission, People | 6 CommentsMother Teresa witnessed the power of God’s Light shining in darkness. Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the ‘Saint of Calcutta’ (Doubleday, 2007) exposes the inner life of Mother Teresa and gives fresh explanation for what motivated her. She recounts that on September 10, 1946, while traveling by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, she encountered Christ. He simply said to her, “I thirst.” She took this to mean that Christ was the diseased and dying of India and that she was to give water to them, and thus to Him. And then she said that Christ invited her to join him as “a victim of India.” She was to take to herself the suffering and death of those abandoned, left to die. And then toward the end of this encounter, she heard the words, “Come be My Light.”
Her years of service in Calcutta were not a call to become a saint or a Noble Laureate. Her call was to suffer and to be light in and through that suffering. Her victimization led her to embrace the diseased and dying and to stand in solidarity with the poor. She did not stand at a distance to offer consolation and pity, but shone as light from within the prison house of death and darkness. Her letters and diary entries repeat over and over that the darkness is real, brutal, painful, lonely, difficult – it is dark! Her calling was to be God’s light in its midst.
Boldness and confidence in ministry and proclamation arise from weakness. While God uses our sharpened skills and trained minds, in the end it is by his grace and mercy that any of us are used, and it is through his power that our words have effect. The problem is that too often an acknowledgement of my honed skills and my mind turns into a triumphalism that lauds my abilities to accomplish much for God. Or I rely on my gadgets, technologies, and technique to bring in the kingdom of God. Or I elevate my national or cultural achievements above the ways of God. In the end, I turn the mission of God into my mission.
Worst of all, in this triumphalism, I fear the darkness. I am unable to confidently confess Christ because I am afraid of becoming victim to others who might inconvenience me, use me, or trample me. I have to fear the darkness because it might engulf me, and I become unknown and pass into obscurity. Triumphal mission and ministry cannot go to prison, will not embrace those dying, and must not suffer as a victim. Because the darkness scares us to death, we run from it and thus as well from the power and purpose of the Spirit.
The witness of Mother Teresa and many others is that we can trust the Spirit’s power and purposes. In fact, in this kind of trust there is great freedom to believe God and to witness God’s power. The good news is that the mission of God does not rise or fall on my skill or mind. The good news is that God meets us in the dark and difficult, uses our weakness, and thereby, shines his light.
Recalibration of the Mind
by mikestroope | September 7th, 2008 | Change, Formation | 6 CommentsWhen I was a young person, I would have run wild if not for an innate fear of my parents. As a child, I was afraid of getting caught and then being punished. Later I feared that I would disappoint them or not meet their expectations. As an adult, I am still prone and certainly capable of being selfish, running wild, and even destroying the good around me. Since I no longer fear my parents, what is it that keeps me from running amuck?
Dissonance
by mikestroope | September 1st, 2008 | Formation | 2 Commentsn. 1. inharmonious or harsh sound; discord; cacophony. 2. an unresolved, discordant musical cord or interval. 3. lack of harmony or agreement; incongruity.
All of us live with a level of dissonance in our jobs, relationships, church lives, etc. What we hold as convictions or values are not in exact accord with what we hear or what we must do, say, and represent. Dissonance can be as basic as who we are as a person not matching the personality or ethos of a family member, group, or organization. We will not agree with everyone on everything all the time, so dissonance is part of life. We learn to cope with or adapt to it.
Questions
by mikestroope | August 23rd, 2008 | Formation | 3 CommentsAlong with pictures of friends, former students, grandchildren, and other bits of papers, the following words are taped to the wall over my desk.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart …
try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms
and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer.
Stretching Every Nerve
by mikestroope | August 17th, 2008 | Church, Formation, Mission | 3 CommentsIn 1792 William Carey wrote a short pamphlet entitled An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. In just a few pages, he highlights the state of the world, reasons with his Baptist brethren about their obligation to obey Christ’s commission, and issues a call for them to take radical steps in order to “spread the knowledge of [the Lord's] name.”
During this past week I was in a workshop on the training of church members to give cross-cultural witness to Christ. I noticed that the lady sitting next to me was reading Carey’s Enquiry. After some time of reading, she turned to me and pointed out a passage toward the end of the pamphlet. It reads …
We must not be contented however with praying, without exerting ourselves in the use of means for the obtaining of those things we pray for. Were the children of light but as wise in their generation as the children of this world they would stretch every nerve to gain so glorious a prize, nor ever imagine that it was to be obtained in any other way.
Heather is ready to go
by mikestroope | August 10th, 2008 | Mission | No Comments
I have a friend – Heather Herschap. She is truly one of the most remarkable people I have had the privilege of knowing. I am so fortunate to know her and call her my friend.
Since graduating from Truett Seminary one year ago, Heather has been trying to get to India to work with those who are physically challenged. She has already worked in India, and so this is not just a wish or something she wants to try; it is her life commitment. She has found an agency to send her, gone through their training, and raised the necessary funds. She is ready to go … but can’t leave. Read more…
Re-telling the story
by mikestroope | August 7th, 2008 | History, Mission | 4 CommentsI eagerly await Dana Robert’s forthcoming book on the history of the Christiam mission. Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (Wiley-Blackwell) will be released in March 2009. My hope is that in Robert’s book we have a replacement for Stephen Neill’s A History of Christian Missions. It is time for a fresh re-telling of the story of the expansion of the Christian faith. The story needs to be retold in a way that a broader audience can read and appreciate. Previews indicate that in Part I, Robert chronicles “The Making of a World Religion,” and in Part II, she deals with “Themes in Mission History.” Dana Robert is the Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and the History of Missions at Boston University. She has authored numerous works on the history of Christian missions and non-Western Christianity.
Like Hope for Chocolate
by mikestroope | August 5th, 2008 | Formation, Hope | 6 CommentsThere was a time I blissfully munched on Snickers and Almond Joys. I thought these bars of sugar, nugget, coconut, and cocoa were quite a treat. A good friend once referred to me as an ‘inhaler’ of common, run-of-the-mill chocolate sweets. But, hey, this was all I knew. Then one day I wandered into Wiseman House Chocolates, a place Texas Highways calls ‘Chocolate Heaven’, and now I am ruined. I cannot go back to the other stuff. Oh … I could, but I don’t want to. The Gran Saman truffle is quite an experience, and once you have had this experience and are blessed with this knowledge, a brightly wrapped, convenience store chocolate bar holds little appeal. I still occasionally go into the local gas station mini-mart, walk around looking for something sweet and chocolate, but walk out the door with nothing. Why? Because I know and recall the experience of something far better.
Newbigin.net
by mikestroope | August 3rd, 2008 | Mission, Resources | No CommentsJ. E. Lesslie Newbigin (1909-98) stands as one of the towering figures of the 20th century. As missionary, theologian, ecumenist, and churchman, he uniquely addresses the trinitarian nature of mission, the gospel in culture, and the church’s role in God’s mission. Ten years after his death, he is read more than ever.