Saturday, December 09, 2006
A divided people
I use this blog to rant way too much. I apologize, but it probably won't stop.Anyway one thing that highly upsets me is when people take scriptures out of context to prove a point. The other day in class a guest speaker used Acts 17:24-25 to support not using instruments or any other "mechanical" devices in church (i.e videos, power point). I read it and reread it and each time have come to the conclusion that this is very much out of context and has nothing to do with instrumental worship. Taking scripture out of context like that is wrong and potential dangerous to new Christians. And this man was a missionary.This incident made me think back on a conversation I had with one of my friends here a few days ago. We were talking about classes and I was encouraging him to take a missions class that I had really liked. His response honestly shook me. He said that he tries to avoid missions classes as much as he can because the more and more he's around the "missions people" the more he doesn't want to have anything to do with them. He was ashamed of the representation of Christ that he saw. The day before another friend told me that she doesn't like most of the missions people because they always seem to be in their own little world and don't care about what's going on right here. And I can't tell you the number of people who are sick of hearing about missions in Africa.Am I guilty of these things? I don't know. I hope not. I try not to be. I have a lot of friends in the "missions group" and I love them dearly. I've never quite clicked as well with them as I would have liked, but I think they are great people. I know they are trying to live for God. So what are we doing wrong? Something else I've been pondering is, Can you be too spiritual? I'd venture to say that I'm not spiritual enough. I often don't enjoy going to church and to be honest the idea of spending all night outside in the cold praying just makes me cringe. I may be a horrible person for that, but it is the truth. I think maybe that's the problem here. There is this great divide between the super spiritual and the not so spiritual. I don't see a lot of in between. The "super spiritual" seem so caught up in being spiritual that they forget to look around. I think sometimes that we become proud of the fact that we are "so spiritual." On the other hand the "not so spiritual" feel like they are second class citizens because they didn't major in Bible and they become disillusioned with those who are at times completly forsaking any kind of organized worship service because they don't want to be associated with people who they see as hypocrites.Neither attitude is right. We're all wrong. We're all screwed up. Going to Africa or teaching Sunday school or attending all night prayer vigils doesn't make you a better person. And attending art openings or performing in plays or being part of political rallies doesn't make you a better person either. We've all got our blind spots, our places where we need to work more on. I see just in my own little life this divide between people and i don't like it. We shouldn't be complaining about each other or look down on each others chosen professions or trying to one up each other. This isn't a competition to see who can dunk the most people. This is about saving lives and we should be using every means we have to do so. We are supposed to be working together to find ways for each of us to use our gifts for the glory of God. At a supposedly Christian school why are we so divided? We've done something very wrong here. I know it sounds so cheesy to ask "why can't we all just get along?" But honestly if we can't even be united in our efforts within the body of Christ how in the world can we expect others to want to join us.The specifics that I mentioned are obviously about here at HU, but I think it really applies everywhere in the "Christian Community." Instead of placing those who are paid to do "church work" up on a pedestal, let's look around and see and use the many many talents that are being ignored. There are artists, writers, musicians, actors, scientists, carpenters, mathematicians, filmmakers and dozens of others who are looking for a way to use their talents for God. We need to help them find it.
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6 comments:
I think there is a lot of "missions" work that is really a waste of time and money. The amount of money that the average westerner spends to go on a "mission trip" would be better spent supporting indiginous Christians. A lot of the places that we go to for missions work already has an indiginous Christian population. Rather than us going "over there" I think we should send more financial support to those Christians who are already trying to reach their own people. It is very expensive to send and support western workers in a foreign environment. Indiginous workers can spread the word at a fraction of the cost. I think we also tend to not trust native workers or the Holy Spirit to adequately spread the gospel. We fear that their church won't look like ours so we need to go over there and make sure they do it right. We should stop wasting resources in areas that are already "reached" and spend more time and money in areas that have no gospel witness at all. Please let me add that I don't intend to demean or disrespect anyone or their service. I just think we need to rethink or approach to world missions and our place within that movement.
Thanks Lauren and Tommy! You both made some great points.
As far as missions goes I think there is still definitly a need for people to go, but often places become saturated with missionaries from different denominations. I have a huge issue with this because in some cases the denominations are seeming to compete with one another rather than work together. We also have to be very very very careful not to become paternalistic when we go into a new culture. We need to help local Christians to mature and help them to make it their own faith and their own church rather than our faith and our church.
I think you have to very careful about giving lots of financial support to indigenous christians. It's not because I don't think that we should help, but my experiences in Ghana with the Christians who were dependent upon Western money was extremely negative. Now maybe it has worked well in other cases, but my experience in this case was that the indigenous evangelist lived far above the means of the rest of the community and was completely dependent upon Western funds to continue his work. They had bought him a van so he could drive to different villages that were too far away, Instead of building up the people right in his own community (there is a whole different debate on missions in that statement alone, but that's for a differnt time.)
We talk about sustainable development in the developing world, well Christianity is the same in some ways. When missionaries go somewhere they need to leave behind a sustainable church. A church that can make it's own decisions without the missionaries help, who can financially support themselves without the missionaries help, can reach out into the community without the missionaries help, and who can look into the scripture and seek answers to theological questions without the missionaries help.
Not really ready to climb down off soap box, but have so much more to say that it should probably become it's own post at some point.
Actually, I think that Acts 17:24-25 means we shouldn't build buildings. Therefore all church services should be held outdoors.
But seriously, Harding (and other christian schools for that matter) do a good job of providing chances to take part in service projects and missions. However, they fail to get the message across that all christians are missionaries the moment they step outside their house.
We are missionaries many times not because of what we say to people we meet, but often because of how we conduct ourselves. I was never prepared for the worldliness I would encounter when I got my first real job. It's there, in the mundane, real world, that the mission field is.
I agree with you about giving a lot of financial support to indiginous Christians. It is easy to get them hooked on the cash flow. Your Ghana example sounds to me like cash with strings of control attached. We give you the money, but you use it in the way that way prescribe. Maybe it was that way, maybe it wasn't, but I wonder if the van purchase was just another instance of Americans from far away solving an African problem in an American way.
I totally agree that a lot of the time Americans can't let go of the control, even when it is just sending money (maybe especially when it's money). It may very well have been that the van purchase was as you said an American solution to an African solution.
missionaries are overrated. let's spend more money on Christmas parties, and big buildings. (insert sarcasm here)
Don't you know that all missionaries must posses a M.A. in Bible from an accredited CoC college. Apparently y'all didn't get the memo.
"mission" work is a fancy word for... overseas preacher. Different ballfield... same game.
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