Wait one second, do they really?
I have heard a fair amount of criticism from the unbelieving world that missionaries kill cultures. Christians go in to people who were fine on their own and destroy the culture those people have in their efforts to convert them. In some cases, I think the unbelieving world is right on this point. Some missionaries have gone in and stripped a people from every part of its culture in order to indoctrinate them on western christianity.
HOWEVER, not all missionaries do that! At Perspectives tonight we heard from a guy who spent some years in Mongolia with his family and a couple from Sweden, planting churches. Everything they did was for the purpose of changing hearts from cold and dead to alive in Christ. As Mongolians believed, they purposely taught Jesus' teachings in the most simple and direct way, making an effort to keep from teaching religious customs that came from their home churches and denominations. They knew that God didn't desire them to transplant a church identical to the one in California that they left, but rather that God desires worshippers from every tongue, people, nation. So, they taught 7 basic truths (repent and believe, be baptised, love God and love your neighbor in practical ways, celebrate the Lord's supper, pray daily, give generously, disciple others) and modeled leadership and teaching so that the Mongols could take over leading their own groups quickly. They purposely stayed away from teaching the new believers translated worship songs, so in time the Mongols wrote their own songs, in their own style, language, and understanding. The Mongol worshippers also introduced dance to the worship services, and they began to wear traditional ceremonial clothing. They developed dramas for teaching in each service, as dramatizations were a big part of the culture of the people of that area. So while maintaining truth as taught by Jesus, the Mongolian church was developed in a distinctly Mongolian way. The good parts of the Mongolian culture were affirmed and used, and the parts that promoted sin and death began to change as the Mongolian believers experienced change in their hearts. The missionaries didn't threaten the new believers, they didn't ask them to leave their culture and enter into a mission compound, they didn't try to make the Mongolians western mimics. Instead, they taught truth, and the Mongolians responded and developed the church as it is, directed by the Holy Spirit working in their hearts.
God made peoples and cultures different. He works in different ways in different places. Missionaries aren't out to make the beautiful places of the world into America or Europe clones. How incredible it is that He calls some from Every People to worship him in the style and tradition that he has created for them!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
funny story
I have a german exchange student (whom we will call Greta, not her real name) in one of my classes and the kids like to ask her about Germany and about how she likes (or doesn't) the US, etc. pretty often. Last week I was walking over to answer a question for a group working on the review to a test and overheard a student ask Greta whether she can speak German. No kidding, I overhear "so, do you speak German?" Greta just kinda stares at the kid who asked, I start cracking up, and some of the other kids around say "She's from GERMANY!" So the kid who asked says, "But you speak such good English." I reply something along the lines of "Americans are kinda behind the times as far as languages go. People in pretty much every other country speak at least 2, if not more, languages." Sue (what we're calling the kid who's asking the questions) says to Greta "But how do you know English so well?", to which Greta replies, "I've been taking English since 5th grade...and Latin and Italian and...."
Holy moly, asking a German exchange student whether she speaks German is almost as bad as the students I had last year who thought Africa was South America and who had no earthly idea where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were...(they were sophomores and juniors). I seem to be sensing a rather depressing lack of knowledge about the rest of the world. At least the German question was entertaining : ).
Holy moly, asking a German exchange student whether she speaks German is almost as bad as the students I had last year who thought Africa was South America and who had no earthly idea where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were...(they were sophomores and juniors). I seem to be sensing a rather depressing lack of knowledge about the rest of the world. At least the German question was entertaining : ).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)