New Missions--Friday, May 18th

I was reading a book before coming to Africa called "Revolution in World Missions." I had hoped it would help me to understand better my role in missions and the importance of my participation, but as I read more and more, I did not get that understanding. Largely, it was about how the work of evangelism is being placed more and more into the hands of the nationals so that Africans are preaching to Africans, Asians to Asians, etc. A bad feeling came over me as I began to feel that my only part in missions is to send money.

But now that I am here, I understand what the book was saying as I am seeing this new kind of Missions in action. The Coppedges and Rinehimers are not here in Africa to get more converts as is the impression given from "lifers" who stay to lead the church themselves. They are here to raise up pastors among the congregations to be trained in the developed theology of the universal church. If the church is all to be one body, it is essential for people like the Coppedges and Rinehimers and for short-term missions teams to keep the local churches all over the world on the same page. In this New kind of Missions, short-termers may very well have an even more vital role than before (I strongly encourage you to take the opportunity if you ever have one).

I thought about all this after our last time with the Bible school when the pastors thanked us for the time we invested in teaching the children and teaching them to teach the children themselves: "Children's ministry is unstable because it begins and it stops when we have materials and when we do not have them. But I see your methods of teaching and you do not use any materials and it makes me think 'that is how we should be teaching our children.' What you have done this week can continue without stopping because we can do this without materials."