It’s Monday morning in Chiang Mai so it’s time to watch
Sunday Night Football live from my den in Huntington Beach using Kristi’s Slingbox (Thanks, Mark Wold, for the
tip several years ago). It is hard to imagine
the days when missionaries packed all their belongings in a casket because they
were never coming back home. Being a
missionary is still incredibly challenging, stressful and draining.
It doesn’t surprise me that so many who begin as
missionaries do not continue for the long haul.
Not all of that is bad since sometimes God calls people into ministries
for a season. We all have a lifetime
call to be witnesses. As we are going we
are to make disciples our whole life through.
But not everyone should commit to a long season in another
location where the language, culture and environment is so different from their
own. Surviving those changes takes both
spiritual and emotional maturity that is not always present in every
believer. It takes a level of
flexibility, patience and personal emotional health that is not necessarily a
part of every believer’s life.
That may sound like heresy, but where stands it written that
all believers should cross all those barriers to bring the gospel. What is
clear from scripture is that all believers should bring the gospel to the place
where they are, whether at home or abroad.
Having said this, I also believe that more followers of
Jesus should consider leaving their own culture to take the good news to
another culture than actually do. I remember
in church hearing that there are go-ers and send-ers. While this may be the two broad categories,
(This sometimes ignores the fact that we are all go-ers according to the Great
Commission it’s just that some go further than others. Some go across the street, some go across the
world.) what is too often assumed is that the go-ers are all extroverted
preachers. Missions needs IT people,
baristas, preachers, bookkeepers, children’s workers, administrators… It is generally true that whatever you are
doing in your own context has its equivalent in the context of missions outside
your own culture.
And while you’re considering missions in another culture, see if you can hook up with someone
with a Slingbox. The new season of
Downton Abbey begins January 5 and the Super Bowl is February 2.
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