A reflection on the end times

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  - Acts 1:6-8

 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. -Matthew 24:14

The Book of Acts is a missionary book from beginning to the end. 

The apostles were interested in politics and the end times. They wanted to know when Jesus would restore political independence to Israel. But Jesus told them that it is not for them to know the times or dates." (Acts 1:6)

Here as elsewhere, Jesus discouraged believers to speculate about the end times. Much more to get involved in politics. Instead, He commanded us to focus our energies on evangelizing the world. *

When will the end come? We don't know. But God allowed us to be his partners about His plan for this world. He wants us to work with Him for the end to come sooner. Every believer must get involve in proclamation of His kingdom to all people groups. 

When we have shared the gospel of the kingdom to all the peoples of the world, then every eye will see His coming again. We don't know when, but we know the ultimate sign--when the gospel reaches all the nations the end will come.

Lord, I pray that I can do my part for the sharing your gospel to all nations. May it be as a sender, mobilizer, or goer. Amen.

*IMB, Explore Mission

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Responsibility of the Sending Body to its Missionaries

I found this article written by someone named Dr. Isaac T. Saoshiro and this was presented at the Global Congress on Church Ministry and Missions some time October 2001. This article is about the Sending Body’s responsibility to their missionary. Organizations who wants to send missionaries should read this article. I will present his main points and will give my comments. The article is divided into four responsibilities of sending body to their missionaries namely: (1) Its responsibility to the missionaries in the field; (2)Responsibility to the missionaries during furlough; (3) responsibility to missionary kids and parents; and (4) Responsibility to the supporting churches.

Responsibility to the missionaries in the field

First, the Sending Body (SB) needs to give clear guidance to the missionaries regarding their duties to the home office, expectations in the field, their relationship with other bodies, and their goals. SB should give the missionaries a clear job description.

Second, the SB should have regular correspondence. It is essential for the SB to communicate regularly with the missionaries. Missionaries are required to submit regular ministry reports as well as financial reports. Because of the internet, this correspondence can be done in the most convenient way. SB can know the situation of the missionaries on the field in real time and there is no way to prevent them from extending assistance. Urgent prayer requests can also be communicated in no time at all.

Third, the SB has the responsibility to visit the field. Email communication can limit the understanding of the real situation of the missionaries. The SB should be responsible to visit the field and get a first-hand information and listen to the missionaries about their difficulties, problems, victories and future plans.

Fourth, the SB should provide pastoral care to missionaries. SB should assigned a person most likely an experienced Pastor who can provide spiritual counseling and prayers. The person does not necessarily need to report what transpired in this pastoral sessions. This will help the missionaries to have a healthy outlet concerning their struggles. Moreover, the SB needs to give pastoral care for missionaries by sending movies, audio, missions magazines and books as a way to encourage them spiritually.

Finally, SB should provide physical and psychological care to the missionaries. They must provide a good health care system for missionaries such as periodical health check. SB should provide professional counseling, medical insurance, and health care information through medical books and magazines.

Responsibility to missionaries during furlough

First, SB must provide housing for missionaries during furlough. Usually, when missionaries left their country, they sold everything they possessed. Missionaries do not have a house and have to live with their family and relatives. The SB should provide a rented house, a guest house or a mission house ideally near the airport where the missionaries could stay while they are on furlough.

Second, the SB has the responsibility to receive and send off missionaries. When missionaries come back from their mission fields, they experience an enormous culture shock. They face many adjustments and challenges in the seemingly new lifestyles. Cities do change a lot and missionaries who have gone for a long time may get lost in the city. The SB should extend all the assistance that the missionaries might need when they return to their own country.

Thirdly, the SB should plan for the missionaries deputation schedule. The SB should arranged for the missionaries schedule to speak in churches, conferences and other requesting organizations. Arrange the time and location wisely so that the missionaries do not have to make unnecessary travel. They could arrange also that part of the furlough could be spent on studies related to the missionaries ministries. It is good for the SB to arrange for their missionaries to have rest and retreats.

Responsibility to missionary kids

Schooling for the missionary kids is not an easy matter. This is the greatest concerns of the parents. There are very few schools in the mission fields that can provide good education. International schools are expensive and the SB should do everything they can to extend assistance. Some SB provides tuition fees for the missionary kids until they finish high school and partial scholarship when the kids are in college.

The SB should also take special care for the missionary kids who are returning home from the mission fields for education or work. Their family and relatives may take a big role in this area, however, the SB must provide any assistance needed in the areas such as missionary kids’ residence, job hunting and introduce fellowship groups that would encourage MK to adjust to the culture smoothly.

Responsibility to supporting churches

The SB needs to communicate with supporters and supporting churches effectively by newsletters. The SB should have regular and proper financial reports to the supporters. It also needs to organize mission services and missions’ day of prayer to educate the church about the missions and the missionary they are supporting. SB should be active in raising funds for mission works and continually raise supporters’ interest for mission.

In our situation, we are not send by any sending body (in the real sense of the word). Although, we have been approached by few sending bodies about the possibilities of working with them, we really did not make any steps to be part of any sending body. We have been in the mission field for almost six years and the Lord never failed to provide for our needs. We are totally dependent on God and we are enjoying our independence. Apparently, the SB has huge responsibility to the missionary they are sending, otherwise missionary should reciprocate that responsibility. Any SB should not claim any missionaries as their own if they are not committed to do their responsibilities.

A truly biblical church

I will going to speak this coming March in a Pastor's retreat from Myanmar about missions. I'm looking for materials I can use. Browsing some books in my shelf, I found this one.

Patrick Johnstone says this about what it means to be a truly biblical church.

Scripture, theology, the Church, and even Christians would not exist without mission. Therefore, a theology without mission is not a biblical theology, a Church without mission is not longer truly the Church and a Christian without mission is no true disciple. For Christians, mission is not an optional extra for the fanatical few or for the specially anointed, it is a fundamental definitive of who we are in Christ and why we are in Christ.

And Johnstone quotes David Bosch in his book Transforming Mission

Mission... is seen as a movement from God to the world; the Church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a church because there is mission, not vice versa.

Johnstone then challenges the Christians for not understanding this concept and not seeing this vision. He says that it is a failure...

.. they miss God's purpose, God's intimacy and God's blessing. Living for the fulfillment of this vision of the Father is the most noble, most enriching, most meaningful purpose can have in life.

How can any child of God claim to be following Jesus if they have no concern for the lostness and need of the peoples in this world? HOw can they expect the promise of his abiding presence with them, 'I will be with you always,' if they have not been willing to obey the command '...go and make disciples of all peoples...'

Then he goes on to say that any church should not claim to be biblical and a Christian cannot be a true Christian if they do not place at the heart of their ministry agenda--God's heart for a lost world.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is defined by mission--for it is composed of those who were won to salvation by mission, and how have the awesome responsibility to win others as their mission. If it is not missionary in its theology, daily life, and commitment, it no longer has the right to claim to be the Church. The viability and health of the the Church and of ourselves, as children of God, cannot be separated from the task of world evangelization.

Nominalism

Nominalism, a curse in which people claim to be Christian but fail to act like it, has plagued much of the worldwide church. While the evangelical growth around the world could be characterized as a mile wide, too often it is no more than an inch deep.

Stanley Guthrie, Missions in the Third Millennium.

Apologetic Mission in Asian Context (4)

The Collapse of the Christendom

The church was the center of the community as long as it was supportive to the moral integrity, social security, and spiritual welfare in the Christendom. Once the church ailed to support these factors, it lost its position as the center of the community. The decline of the Papacy and the emergence of nationalism in the late Medieval period was the result of the failure of the church to maintain its responsibility as the protector of its subjects. As the church became the tool of exploitation under the rule of the immoral priest, many seek to break from Rome. Reformation brought these sentiments to action which finally gave rise to the collapse of the Latin Christendom.

Though the church became the imperial tool in a different form in Western countries, individualism and personal perception of religion became widespread. Industrial revolution and urbanization heightened individualism and diversity became common in Christianity. The attempt to reunite the Christians under the Christendom or the imperial church caused a great conflict and fighting between the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans and the Reformed churches. The separatists also suffered a severe persecution under the imperial church. The apologetic mission during the patristic period was to express Christianity as a universal faith. The main task of the Church Fathers was to condemn diversity a'id universalize the church. However, such a model of Apologetic mission was no longer relevant to the European context after the Reformation because any effort to universalize the faith ended with quarrel and division.

The Reformation and post-Reformation world convinced the church to defend its unity in a different way. In such a world it was no longer possible to condemn diversity and demand for uniformity. The religious division in Europe, at that time, could not be settled by forcing the churches to unite undr: a single hierarchy with a single confession. The only way to heal the division was to practice toleration, accept diversity, and co-operate for a common mission. The ecumenical movement that came into being in the early twentieth century can be considered as another guise of apologetic mission. It objective was to defend the unity of the church. However, its concern was unity in service rather than unity in belief.

Apologetic Mission in Asian Context (3)

This is a continuation of a paper written bay Augurlion taken from Missio Dei, a journal of missions and evangelism of Myanmar Institute of Theology (MIT).

Effect of the Apologetic Mission

The defense of the church against the internal threats such as Gnosticism,Docetism, Marcionism, Montanism and other heretical teachings resulted in the formulation of Creed, the canonization of the Bible, and the emergence of the church's hierarchical order. These things were the causes for Christian unity that surpassed the pagan religions and sects in the Roman Empire. Through the works of the apologists the church became a hierarchical system that ruled with the Creed as its faith and the Scripture as the source for morality, and so it became the imperial tool for unity under the rule of Constantine. For some reasons, the adoption of the Church as the imperial religion cannot be regarded as the gain of Christianity. As the church became the political tool, there came corruption and worldliness in the church. However, the approval of the Emperor and the growing number of converts certified that the Church became influential and beneficial for the well being of the society both institutionally and theologically.

Through out the Medieval ages Christianity, though filled with corruption and worldliness, was central both in the West and in the East for the wellbeing of the society. The church was the saving factor among the destruction and casualty during the barbarian invasion in the West. Even after the collapse of the central power Latin Church became the leading figure in the governance of the society in the West. The monasteries played an important role in education and spiritual training. Priests and bishops were important leaders along with the kings. Evangelical preaching was a major cause of individual conversion into Christianity. However, some conversions were communal and it took place not by personal experience of Christ but by the following after the regional rulers who accepted Christianity as a useful teaching and ruling system. Such a communal conversion took place both in the Western and Eastern Mission fields. The conversion of Clovis (Prankish king) and his subjects, and the conversion of Russians are the examples of the communal conversions.

The use of the church for the political ploy was ridiculous or unpleasant to many (Donatists, non-Chalcedonian churches, Spiritual groups), but from a different perspective it is the success
of the church because through it Christianity became influential and beneficial for the society. In other words, the success of the church was not because it became the imperial church but because its teaching and hierarchical system became beneficial for the society and the social order of that time. All these successes owe to the apologists who, through their defense of Christianity, worked for the development of the Creed, the Bible, and the hierarchical order that built up Christianity as a significant religion or institution for the society.

Apologetic Mission in Asian Context

The Mission Training School started this Monday, and it is keeping me busy for a while. I am also working on the our library which in my opinion has good books in it courteousy of our Chin Pastor who studied at Myanmar Institute of Christian Theology. I would say his collection maybe small, but there are impressive titles in it. I also added some of the books given to me by a friend who moved out from here 4 years ago mostly books on pastoral care and counseling and very old, may I add.

As I was trying to record the books and catalog them, I noticed the initial issue of journal on missions and evangelism with a title Missio Dei published by Myanmar Institute of Theology. There are lots of good articles on it, and I may post some of it here.

One of the papers is written by Augurlion. He is a lecturer of Church History at Myanmar Institute of Theology. With the coming of many missionary agencies trying to win people to Christianity here in the Mekong Region, and I would say up to this point the missionary movements have not been very successful, his article makes us think to go back to the old method of evangelism and that is what he called Apologetic Mission.

I will post his paper here little by little, because people have a tendency to skip long post. So in the next days, I will be posting from this journal hoping to get some reactions and conversations. Here is the first part:

A number of mission strategies and mission models have developed in the course of Christian history as Christianity encounters the changing contexts of the world. However, no matter whatever strategy is used the objective is to win converts or to Christianize. This objective comes from the understanding that evangelism is to make converts for Christianity. Evangelism or Christianization was successful in the West, especially, before the rise of secularism. However, its success was and is very limited in . Moreover, Christianity has faced with the counter-acts of the non-Christians in . There are theological and moral attacks on Christianity from other religions. Therefore, in such a pluralistic , Christianity should think of its mission in defensive terms rather than aggressive terms.

One of the traditional aspects of Christian mission is "proclamation" or "to make known". In fact, it was an important task of the Church in pre-modern period because in that period the names, "Jesus" and "Christianity," were foreign to many parts of the world. But they are no longer foreign to the world in post­modern period. Also in post-modern , Christianity and Jesus are no longer the new names to be proclaimed. Most Asian people have become familiar with what Christianity is. The problem for Christianity in Asia today is not "it is the unknown," but "it is misconceived or attacked." Therefore, there are more for the Asian churches to defend than to claim or conquer. To response to this challenge Apologetic mission may be a suitable model of the churches in Asia.

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[1] ' The word "Evangelism" is misleading. It was and is often identified as the verbal proclamation of the gospej. But it is also defined as consisting of both preaching and social action. See John R. W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World (Illinois, Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1975), 15-28, for the definition of "Evangelism" and its relationship to social action.

Mission Partners

My friend Steve Hayes over at his blog Notes From the Underground writes a very insightful post about mission partnership and I think this is true. I know that Western missionaries are doing their best not to force their culture to the host country where they are serving. But I am witnessing it happening all the time.

But what is really mission partnership? A more verbose expression but nonetheless clearer phrase: Mutual responsibility and interdependence in the Body of Christ. Steve quotes his friend John Davies clearly give us a good description of what it is all about.

Missionary work is essentially two-way; Christ said, `Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them' (Matthew 7:12). If we took this seriously, we should probably have to pack in half the missionary work of the Church that we are used to, if it meant that blacks would start teaching whites , and doing good to them, and expecting them to be grateful. Our mission is not, in a one-way traffic, to extol the greatness of our religion: it is to hear and know the living God - and just as between God and man, so also between Christian and non-Christian, all real living is meeting. If this is not our way, we misrepresent the God who has sent us out, whose very nature as trinity is one of reciprocal relations.

The Danger of Materialism

As career missionary, my wife and I made a commitment to our Lord Jesus to work in the field fulltime. It doesn’t mean sharing the gospel all the time to all people we meet. This kind of aggressiveness in witnessing though sounds great is actually counter productive, rather than attracting people, it actually turn off people away from the gospel. Of course, there are unavoidable times of inactivity and for missionaries this is the most difficult stage. We learn to wait on God. Working full-time means we will not to look for jobs to support ourselves because “secular” job takes the time we need to work for the kingdom.

We defend on our supporters for our financial provisions. God had been faithful in providing our needs. He uses people. However, there are times when supports are not coming and we have to write a touching email to let them know the situation we are going through. There are times when we really have nothing even to pay for our bills. But God never fails and he always sees us through difficult times.

I mention this because one of our friends believes that materialism is one of the main reasons that people are not willing to give to the mission works or to the missionaries. She says “that I am just very sorry that we have not been consistent in our support. Financially, it has been difficult to move people to give these days. It may be the materialistic atmosphere in our world today.” And I agree with her because of the lure of this world to gain more, even Christians are not totally free from the temptation. Filipino Christians spend thousand of pesos for their cell phone (which I think is a piece of an overkill gadget we can live without) but give so little to mission. It’s sad. This quote below expresses this truth.

Riches (material possessions) tend to create conceit of power, independence and security. It also tends to make insensitive to the need of others in less fortunate circumstance. In addition to the injustice and suffering caused by the production and uneven distribution of wealth in the world at large, wealth also binds people to this world and makes them forget about the coming world.

It is worth noting that the New Testament, including Jesus’ own teaching, contains far more warnings against the danger of riches and the service of Mammon than against any other god or religion. While modern Western Christians sometimes are very worried about syncretism in other cultures and religions, they largely ignore Jesus’ words about the danger of wealth and affluence.

To be credible the church has to confront the lifestyle of affluent western society. Only a simple lifestyle will do. Radical as it may seem, I believe that a real spiritual renewal of the church in rich societies and an effective missionary outreach to modern people only will be possible when the Spirit of God has convicted God’s people of the sin of materialism. Jesus’ words, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you as well are spoken to people who worried about material things.

Tormod Engelsviken, “Modernity and Eschatology,” in Faith and Modernity, pp. 178-79.

Karl Barth on motive for missions

The motive for missions is the concern for telling others that God has shown the grace to all. Take the example of St. Paul. He had to witness for he saw a world of people who had not heard the "good news." The church knows that God does not fail to show His grace. The church must proclaim... A true missionary can never believe that those who refuse the Gospel can really refuse. He does not know on what ground the seed falls. Only then can a missionary be really free. He is only an ambassador, not the king.

John D. Godsey,Karl Barth's Table Talk, p. 40.

Ben Myers on Mission

Ben Myers' series on Theology for Beginners is now on the topic about the mission of the church and it is definitely a worthwhile reading. Check it out for your self. He is able to present concepts in a very creative way. Because of my interest in missions and theology, I find this post sets forth what missionaries should learn and unlearn. I highlight here what for me are important points and I include some quotes. I have no comments and I have nothing to add.

1. Mission is a community endeavor. It can never be a work of an individual. Mission belongs to the very essence of Christian Community.

2. Mission is a work of the triune God.

...the Father sends the Son into our history; the Son accepts his mission from the Father and follows the path of that mission even to the point of death; and proceeding from the Father through the Son, the Spirit raises the dead Jesus into new life and empowers the Christian community to gather around the risen Jesus in freedom and thanksgiving. God’s own triunity, then, takes place as an unceasing movement of sending-and-being-sent, a movement of mission that breaks into history from the future in order to draw all history forwards into the life of God’s coming kingdom.

3. Mission is neither establishing nor advancing of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has already been established and advanced by God himself.

But precisely here, our own task becomes clear: not to establish God’s kingdom, but to announce it; not to bring the kingdom near, but to enact its nearness; not to advance the kingdom by expanding the institutions of Christendom, but to use these institutions to witness to the kingdom; not, then, to identify our own work with the kingdom, but simply to stand before the reality of God’s future and to summon all creation towards that reality.

4.The task of mission is to announce its message: that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, in other words to proclaim that “Jesus is Lord!”

Jesus is Lord – he is the Lord in whom God has acted, and he is the Lord in whom God is coming!” As well as announcing this message, the community must enact the message in visible and suggestive signs and parables. The Lordship of Jesus is enacted in social and political acts of justice and peace, in artistic works of beauty and meaning, in personal acts of grace and forgiveness. As the community enacts the Lordship of Jesus in such ways, the world here and now catches an anticipatory glimpse of God’s coming kingdom. The world here and now glimpses the context of meaning from which everything else – all history, all creation, every human story – receives its meaning.

5. Mission is not identical with evangelization although it is definitely part of it. Here Ben enumerates some activities that we mistakenly thought are the thrusts of mission.

There are no simple rules that can prescribe the way the community must carry out this mission. At times, the mission will involve evangelism – but the mission of the community (that is, the mission of God) is by no means identical with evangelisation. At times, it will involve expanding Christendom in its institutional forms – but the mission itself is never identical with or dependent on such expansion. At times, it will involve establishing new ecclesial forms and structures – but the mission itself is never identical with such strategies. At times, it will involve social and political action in the cause of justice and peace – but the mission itself can never be identified with such action.

6. The role of Christians is to participate in the unceasing event of God’s own mission.

This means that our lives and our Christian institutions must be empowered by the Spirit and directed towards the future of the risen Jesus. It means that in all we do, we hasten towards the destiny of creation – but in this hastening, we also wait. We wait for the power of the Spirit. We wait for the missional movement of God’s own life...We announce and enact the Lordship of Jesus.

Theology in Culture

Missionary works have always been criticized of colonizing in the guise of bringing the gospel to a non-Christian country. This is rightly so because when one will study history, almost always the coming in of religion often results in radical changes in the culture. This is the reason why many Asian countries are so apprehensive of Christian missionaries especially those who come from the west for they know that almost always their culture will be dominated with Western ideas.

This is where Filipino and other Asian missionaries have advantage over western missionaries. Asian people don’t see us as a threat. However, it does not eliminate the idea that Christianity is a threat to nationalism. Usually, affiliation with the predominant religion is important part to national identity. A person who changed his religion is always seen as a traitor to his own country. Although nowadays, on the surface this seems acceptable, deep inside everybody knows that it is not so. This was true, in the Philippines a decade ago, when one become an evangelical Christian or protestant; the people close to you think that something very wrong had happened to you. To be a Filipino is to be a Catholic. However because of enormous growth and sophistication in evangelical Christianity today it is now largely accepted. This is not true in many South East Asian countries like Thailand, here being a Thai is being a Buddhist.

Filipino missionaries may not be guilty of ethnocentrism and may not be accused of cultural colonization, however, we sometimes are guilty of spiritual pride and religious superiority complex. I feel uncomfortable when fellow missionaries rebuke the spirits upon seeing a Buddhist temple and would condemn every act of worship in native religion as evil or demonic. When we as missionaries perceive that every religious and cultural practices are to be judged according to our presuppositions of what Christianity or spirituality should be then I could not imagine how could we effectively communicate to them the Christ of the gospel. We should learn to hold our judgment and take time to listen and learn.

The present challenge for missionaries is dialogue. It is the art of listening to what other religions are saying. It is to learn that other religions have something good to say and they have some kind of truth. They have something to contribute for the good of humanity. All religions have an equal right to be heard. Only through “dialogue” that we will understand their worldview and we can learn how to present the gospel that is acceptable to their culture. Only when we keep this in mind that we can teach the biblical truth that makes sense to them. Having an open mind and open heart is necessary for missionary work.

I may be biased here but theological knowledge plays a critical role in recognizing this interplay between theology and culture, between Christianity and other religions. It may take a lot of efforts and may receive unjustified criticisms of being “compromiser” from other more conservative Christian missionaries, but missionaries should be theologians in the sense that we need to find ways how to preach Christ that is not foreign to their culture perhaps to the extent that we need to use functional equivalents, parallels in culture, spiritual concepts, rituals, religious ideas and practices. Missionaries should consider these cultural elements as vehicle in expressing Christian beliefs and teachings.