The following post is from June of 2019:
The scene is a very modest meeting room with a long twelve or maybe fifteen foot wooden table....with simple and plain wooden chairs all around it. There's nothing else in the room....no coffee maker or wall hangings or anything. It was hot and there was no air conditioning in the room. The men sitting straight in those chairs seemed to be choosing their words carefully.....should they send missionaries out to this specific country or not?
They parsed over the 'pros' and 'cons' of sending missionaries. As for the 'pros'....'they speak the same language......and it's a very big country that surely does need to hear the gospel.' Then as for the 'cons'....'this country has never really had missionaries sent to it.....not for a few hundred years anyway....so how would the people react to a missionary coming in and telling them that they wanted to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ......and then teaching them how to proclaim this gospel from pulpits'.
This was to be the last of a number of meetings on this......the final decision had to be made this night. The men took turns praying in the sweltering heat. They determined an odd way to cast their final vote. Flowers were in a basket on one end of the table.....bright yellow flowers.....and rich red flowers.....all with long stems. The basket was passed around the table. If a man's decision was to send missionaries to this country he would take a yellow flower and place it in a wooden jar at the center of the table. If he thought that the Lord was not directing them to do this then would take a red flower and put it in the container.
The basket was passed around and returned to the man moderating the meeting. Bright white teeth on gleaming smiles shown on all the faces as the wooden vase in the center of the table was now holding a beautiful bouquet of yellow flowers. They would send their missionaries to the United States of America....to evangelize....yes....to preach the gospel but also to teach others by example how to preach the majesty of Jesus Christ....and the cross that paid for our sins....and the empty tomb that secured our mercies....and also by example....how one not only assents to the return of our Lord and Savior.....but desires that over His tarrying further.
I often add an addendum to a post such as this. There are wonderful missionary organizations here in America that do extraordinary work throughout the world....and this is an understatement....but it is also only half of this story....for on the whole we have let our own nation crumble....as our own congregations are malnourished....with faddish movements everywhere....from a doctrinally impotent conversational Christianity geared to the young....to a spiritual feminism directed at women. Cross-centered Christianity has been replaced by a bible study-centered Christianity....and it is past time to turn some of our attention to our own condition. The above post is not without evidence as I have on a number of occasions over a few decades either talked to or read about missionaries who made similar comments....with one pastor in an African country....recently....after seeing disastrous results from our exporting our faddish theologies over to them....expressing the exact thoughts in the above post.
The scene is a very modest meeting room with a long twelve or maybe fifteen foot wooden table....with simple and plain wooden chairs all around it. There's nothing else in the room....no coffee maker or wall hangings or anything. It was hot and there was no air conditioning in the room. The men sitting straight in those chairs seemed to be choosing their words carefully.....should they send missionaries out to this specific country or not?
They parsed over the 'pros' and 'cons' of sending missionaries. As for the 'pros'....'they speak the same language......and it's a very big country that surely does need to hear the gospel.' Then as for the 'cons'....'this country has never really had missionaries sent to it.....not for a few hundred years anyway....so how would the people react to a missionary coming in and telling them that they wanted to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ......and then teaching them how to proclaim this gospel from pulpits'.
This was to be the last of a number of meetings on this......the final decision had to be made this night. The men took turns praying in the sweltering heat. They determined an odd way to cast their final vote. Flowers were in a basket on one end of the table.....bright yellow flowers.....and rich red flowers.....all with long stems. The basket was passed around the table. If a man's decision was to send missionaries to this country he would take a yellow flower and place it in a wooden jar at the center of the table. If he thought that the Lord was not directing them to do this then would take a red flower and put it in the container.
The basket was passed around and returned to the man moderating the meeting. Bright white teeth on gleaming smiles shown on all the faces as the wooden vase in the center of the table was now holding a beautiful bouquet of yellow flowers. They would send their missionaries to the United States of America....to evangelize....yes....to preach the gospel but also to teach others by example how to preach the majesty of Jesus Christ....and the cross that paid for our sins....and the empty tomb that secured our mercies....and also by example....how one not only assents to the return of our Lord and Savior.....but desires that over His tarrying further.
I often add an addendum to a post such as this. There are wonderful missionary organizations here in America that do extraordinary work throughout the world....and this is an understatement....but it is also only half of this story....for on the whole we have let our own nation crumble....as our own congregations are malnourished....with faddish movements everywhere....from a doctrinally impotent conversational Christianity geared to the young....to a spiritual feminism directed at women. Cross-centered Christianity has been replaced by a bible study-centered Christianity....and it is past time to turn some of our attention to our own condition. The above post is not without evidence as I have on a number of occasions over a few decades either talked to or read about missionaries who made similar comments....with one pastor in an African country....recently....after seeing disastrous results from our exporting our faddish theologies over to them....expressing the exact thoughts in the above post.
