Living faithful, fruitful and fulfilled on the mission field
Pass the baton. You know this principle. 2 Timothy 2:2 says it so clearly. Paul discipled Timothy, Timothy entrusted the teaching to faithful men. They passed it on to others also. Leaders who hold on to authority may grow powerful. The scope of their ministry …
When you see a Muslim woman, dressed in her hijab, many Christians feel afraid. They avoid talking to people of other cultures. One of my relatives recently befriended a woman from another faith background. It’s been interesting to watch her reach out. As far as …
“I’m not finding anyone who is open to the gospel,” he told me in a call. I asked further questions. “Who are you wanting to reach?” He described his vision to reach high caste Hindus in his area. As we talked further, I asked him how he went about sharing the gospel. “I tell them they shouldn’t worship gods made from hands but should worship The One who created everything instead.”
A true statement, but not the best place to start with devoted Hindus. At some point, you need to speak the truth in love to those who follow other gods, or ways of approaching God. Jesus is indeed the only way to the Father. He said of himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father, except by me.”
Attacking another person’s religion and cultural values is neither wise nor fruitful. It is distasteful, unkind, and creates huge barriers for them to “hear” the gospel you are trying to share. At the same time, we live in a day and age where being tolerant has become a more important virtue than loving people enough to share the truth. We need to learn to boldly and relationally share the reality of who Jesus is for us and who He can be for them as well.
When we first went to Nepal, our first several years were devoted to language and culture learning. Our hearts longed to share the gospel with the unreached around us, but we faced a huge language barrier. In some ways, this was good. It slowed us down and forced us to take time to learn more about the Nepali Hindu worldview.
At first our learning was on the surface. We noticed things like food, clothing, how their houses were built, how they greeted one another. Slowly our language ability increased. We began to learn about deeper worldview issues. Things like what they believed about how the world began, the caste system, and reincarnation. This understanding would inform our witness.
Being foreigners, when we visited a Nepali home, we were welcomed warmly. Nepalis are generous and hospitable people. We’d sit on the floor, drink delicious cups of sweet chai, chit-chatting about their family, the weather, and other things.
Almost always, sometime within the first ten minutes of conversation, a question would surface. “Do you eat cows?” This question particularly came up, if we mentioned any kind of spiritual topic.
Most Hindus in Nepal (at the time we were there), had never heard about Jesus. They had little idea of who He was, why He came to earth, or what He did when here. His life, death, resurrection, and the reason for those things, was new information for them.
What they had heard though, was that Christians eat beef.
Hindus worship the goddess Laxmi who is represented by a cow. The cow is sacred for Hindus. In Nepal, it was against the law to kill a cow. At the time we lived there, the punishment for this was as great as the punishment for killing a person. It was a very big deal to them that Christians ate beef, a major barrier preventing their coming to faith.
If this obstacle didn’t come down, it was hard for them to listen to our message.
Soon after we moved to Nepal, my husband and I made a decision. We would stop eating beef as long as we were focused on reaching Hindus. It was not easy to do. Before this, hamburger had been a staple part of our diet.
Reading 1 Corinthians 8, we knew that food was not what was important. It could indeed be a stumbling block. We stopped eating beef completely.
After that when people would ask us, “Do you eat cow?” We had an answer ready. One that removed the barrier. “No, we don’t. We know that the cow is a sacred animal for Hindus. We want to respect your culture so we don’t eat beef.”
We then could move beyond that barrier into further relationship and begin sharing the gospel message. As we continued to learn, we identified other important barriers and bridges. This informed how we presented the gospel in that context.
“But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful however that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
1 Cor. 8:8-9 NIV.
In this article, I will share the first three of eight points. Next week, I’ll add five more.
When approaching someone from another culture or religion, be respectful. Don’t attack their culture or beliefs. Typically, Western cultures place little value on tradition. Youth around the world, tend to disdain the traditions of their ancestors and enjoy exploring new things (be it drugs, sex or a new religion or cult). That does not mean their interest will stick as they age, mature, and marry, nor is it a good pathway to reaching their entire family.
Instead of attacking their beliefs, show value for them. They are “God-fearers.” If they pray five times a day, that shows a certain hunger for God. You can affirm that. If they fast, or go to the temple, or have certain important rituals, be curious. Ask what those things mean to them. Be respectful of their devotion. This is a great place to begin.
Within other religions, as with Christianity, there is a wide range of people. Some are radically devoted, others are nominal. Most have some level of allegiance to their religion that is greater than most “cultural Christians” have. This is because religion is strongly tied to community and identity. You can’t underestimate the degree of loyalty they will have to a religion they don’t actually practice much nor understand well. It’s there, under the surface, even with the most nominal or rebellious teen.
Get curious and ask open questions. As you do this, be careful that your questions are to learn and understand, and aren’t perceived as a hidden attack.
For example, you might ask a Muslim friend something like, “I’ve noticed that many Muslim men have beards. I’m super curious…what is the reason men in your culture don’t shave?” Listen well and repeat back to them what you hear to make sure you’ve understood their perspective.
When talking with someone from another culture and/or another faith, stay away from my God/your god language. You want to build bridges, not walls (more about that in the next article). Don’t compare using these kinds of words. They divide and separate you from them. Instead, recognize their desire for spiritual things, spirituality, etc. Are they a seeker of God? Do they respect and honor God in some way, even if they don’t yet know Him as you do?
In Acts 17, Paul was in Athens. He began his conversation with the Athenians by talking about one of their altars. It had the inscription “to an unknown god.” He didn’t condemn them for making this altar or say, “We don’t make altars like that in our religion.” Instead, he used that as a bridge to help them understand who the God they were worshipping is!
Do you have people of another faith and culture around you? Maybe they work in your office, or their kids go to your kid’s school, or you meet them at the market. Begin relationship with them by showing respect, interest, and being curious about their beliefs.
Who will you start a learning conversation with this week?
I would love to hear how these conversations go in the comments below or on the Missionary Life Facebook page.
Two billion people on our planet are born, live and die without even once hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! That’s an injustice that doesn’t end with death. Many Christ-followers want to help right this wrong. Why not personally share the good news …
Frontier missionaries are usually risk-takers. Courageous and bold, we go where others wouldn’t. We stay when others leave. Deep commitment to the task of reaching the lost motivates us to a life of sacrifice. What risks are unwise to take? Does missionary safety matter? If …
Some contemplatives live in a monastery cloistered far away from a broken world. Others engage with it believing that God’s transformation is not only for us but for many. Rich Villodas and his co-author Peter Scazzero live into this tension well. The Deeply Formed Life: 5 Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus was the winner of the Christianity Today Book Award last year. Reading it, one can see why. The breadth and depth of this book make it one I’ll not read once, but be planning to re-read every few years.
Villodas writes on page 173, “Our most effective strategy in reaching a world for Christ is grounded in the kind of people we are being formed into.” I agree. We cannot apply good ministry and disciple-making strategies and hope for good fruit. Our very lives must reflect the Jesus we work so hard to share.
This means we must be willing to take a journey of spiritual formation that involves our whole person-our sexuality, racial prejudices, mental health, areas of anxiety, relationships, and more. Villodas’ book speaks boldly to them all showing a breadth of understanding of spiritual formation I’ve not seen elsewhere.
Our spirituality, as Villodas says, is often “shallowly shaped” rather than deeply formed (p. 27). This causes us to be unaware of places where we need His transforming power and life to flow.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
– Romans 12:2 NLT
My takeaways follow three main categories.
I wish I could say I’ve conquered busyness and learned well how to slow down. It isn’t as if I don’t know of its importance. Yet this remains a constant challenge where if I am not vigilant, I find myself too busy and with too few margins in my life once again. The result is always less connection with the One who gives me life. The great danger is that if I am not deeply connected to Jesus, I’ll begin to strive in the flesh. I will work hard to produce, and doing will overwhelm being.
Villodas says, “the problem before us is not just the frenetic pace we live at but what gets pushed out from our lives as a result; that is, life with God” (p. 5). He goes on to say, “As long as we remain enslaved to a culture of speed, superficiality, and distraction, we will not be the people God longs for us to be.”
He then describes his own ways of slowing down to be with God in silence, solitude, and Sabbath. To live a fruitful life, we must learn not only to do this once in a while but to build it into our spiritual rhythm and practice of life. Apart from it, we are apart from God. And apart from God, we can do nothing (John 15:5).
Villodas writes, “Racial justice and reconciliation remain two of the most urgent matters of faith and public witness.” When the Church doesn’t get this matter right, the way the world sees us as Christians is greatly affected. At first, I was surprised to find a chapter on racial reconciliation included in a book on spiritual formation. That would not have been my first thought.
The author goes on to say, “Sadly, there is often a hyperspiritual perspective held by many Christians who see racial justice and reconciliation as optional or ancillary to the gospel.” The more I read the two chapters included in the book on this topic, the more I agreed. It is indeed part of our formation as Jesus followers that we deal with personal prejudices and issues of the heart. We must also, however, be willing to engage with this issue in our world.
When working in North-east India, I remember teaching in a Discipleship Training School for YWAM. I taught the Jonah story and called them toward mission engagement with the plains Indians that were so unreached. As I taught, hatred and racism against the rest of India surfaced. Dark-skinned Indians were not honored or liked by light-skinned North Indians. Tribals were often looked down on and thus looked down on others. There was deep pain and a need for reconciliation between the varied people groups around us.
“At the core of racism is the lie that some people are superior or inferior to others. This happens across all different people groups” (p. 56.) All of us must be willing to consider where our history and upbringing have sown seeds of racist thought in our individual hearts. But it can’t stop there. As Villodas writes on page 56, “Individual racial prejudice is about how we negatively and often violently perceive others, but institutional racism is about how power is used.” Examining how we use power in our Christian institutions is not easy. Yet it is vital to our witness and formation. It takes great courage and humility to be willing to examine and evaluate this. Many are not willing to go there and resist defensively. Instead, let’s be open to the Holy Spirit’s work in us and our ministries too.
Chapters Seven and Eight address issues of sexuality with wisdom, vulnerability, and transparency. There is much here to learn from. He writes, “When sex is reduced to the moment, our lives with each other become transactional and potentially objectifying. When it is seen as simply an act, our spouses’ bodies become means to an end and we are in danger of having marriages shaped by using and not communion.”
Earlier in the chapter, it says, “lovemaking takes practice, and it begins outside the bedroom.” The book also addresses issues of sexual abuse, trauma, and singleness. These chapters give the reader, whether married or single, much to consider and prayerfully apply.
I recognize that many of my readers do not have the ability to buy the books I review. If you do, this is one I’d definitely encourage you to grab a copy. If the book is not available where you live, or you don’t have the means to get one, I trust this short review will give you food for thought.
Spiritual formation is vital to our lives as Jesus’ followers. It must not be ignored or shoved in a corner while we pursue ministry goals. This is true for me, and it’s true for you.
Have you been paying enough attention to your inner life with God? Are you distracted by ministry pressures and priorities? If that is the trajectory you are on, don’t wait to make a course correction. Make time for your own transformation into greater Christ-likeness.
Take a Sabbath. Begin a journaling habit. Go on a retreat where you don’t think or pray about ministry stuff. Instead, you simply enjoy Jesus and allow Him to speak to you about who you are and who you are becoming.
Villodas calls our inner life, interiority. I’ll close with this quote. “A life with God for the sake of interiority requires time.” Let’s make time to let Christ be formed in us, to be, not only do.
Borders closing. Food shelves bare. Churches unable to meet. Never in history have we encountered anything quite like what our world is facing. How we respond as Jesus followers says a lot about who we are. As missionaries, will we seize this opportunity to share …
One of my friends has a coffee mug that says, “I don’t like morning people- or mornings- or people.” It brings a smile to my face. Yep. I’ve felt that way before! Some people are terribly difficult to deal with. This can be especially true …
“Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Have you ever read Matt. 5:48 and thought, “Does God really expect me to be perfect?” He does have a high standard of holiness. Our Father wants us to become like Him. This can feel heavy and impossible. That’s not like our Papa God. How do you know the difference between a desire for excellence (which is healthy), and an unhealthy perfectionism? What does God actually ask of us in this area?
In missions, we often err in two extremes. Some are legalistic and demanding. They expect an unreasonably high time commitment of themselves and others. On the other extreme, some Christian workers are lazy. They become lax in their work ethic. The quality they expect of themselves is far lower than would be expected in a secular job. Neither of these extremes pleases the Lord.
God wants to teach us to walk in excellence. We give Him our very best effort. He is worthy of that. Our love for Him compels us to do an even better job, than if we were working for a company or human institution. At the same time, we live in the understanding of His great love for us. He is not demanding and freely forgives us when we make mistakes. We too must learn to be gracious with ourselves and others.
My heart was sad as I listened to her share. She described a missionary training center where those living there rarely worked. A quality person, she was passionate about the vision the center professed as their purpose.
The work ethic had gotten lax, however. People received outside support with no accountability. It wasn’t a lot, but their basic needs were met. Days were spent doing routine activities. They maintained the training center- cooking food, cleaning the property, watching their children.
What frustrated my friend was how infrequently they went out to “do ministry.” They only went out once or twice a week for a few hours. No company in the world would stand for this low level of work output. Especially from employees who were having their food and housing provided for them!
Another conversation revealed the opposite. My friend said he woke early for prayer. He ate, showered and left the house. Then, he didn’t return until 11 pm at night. All-day long he was out meeting people, making disciples, visiting the sick, praying for new believers. His busy schedule concerned me. When I asked him about taking a sabbath, it seemed a foreign idea. He and his wife had been in ministry for more than ten years, but had never taken a real vacation.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…
Colossians 3:23 NIV.
He gave His very life for us, how could we not do our best for Him? When we take this verse to heart, our work quality and efforts should improve. Be sure that the reason you work so hard or long is because of your love for Jesus. It must not be because you feel God will only love you if you work hard! His love is not earned by your performance. You are already His beloved son or daughter!
Sometimes I struggle with this. My passion overtakes common sense. We are created in His image, but we live in human bodies. They get tired and need rest. Our spirits need time to connect with God as well. When we are too busy or working too hard, our intimacy with God dries up. We become fleshy in our thinking instead of being in tune with His Spirit.
Taking a weekly sabbath and setting boundaries for when you will work (even in ministry) is critical. There are emergencies and special seasons when we work more or harder. Those times can’t go on forever though or you will not be able to finish your ministry race well.
If you were raised in a family with demanding authority figures, you could be struggling with performance orientation. Do you struggle to finish tasks? Feel they have to be perfect before you can move on? This is another indicator. Learn about these perfectionist tendencies. Seek counsel and healing.
Striving for excellence is different. You do your best, but realize that mistakes get made and it’s okay. God covers a multitude of our mistakes with His great love. Forgive yourself and others when things don’t go perfectly.
Most companies around the world expect their employees to work forty hours a week. They expect you to show up on time and be diligent when “on the job.” If you are only going out for ministry a few hours a day, maybe it’s good to re-evaluate.
Would you turn in an assignment to a teacher without editing it first? Why send emails, or create tracts with spelling errors? It’s easy to download free software called Grammarly to help you with making corrections when you write.
Whatever we do in ministry, we represent our Savior. Let’s represent Him with excellence in all we do!
Some years ago I read an excellent book by Philip Yancey called, “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”
I recommend it! If performance and perfectionism are a struggle, intentionally study grace this year. Read books about it, do a word study on it, take note of the word grace as you read the Bible. Ask God to teach you what His grace is all about.
As we pursue a deeper walk with Jesus, His excellence rubs off on us. We become like Him and He is perfect! The verse I started this article with can become a reality. His perfection, not ours. His holiness expressed through us.
How does this tension (excellence vs. perfectionism) look in your life and ministry? Share in the comments below or on the Missionary Life FB group.
Peace be yours as you strive for excellence in all you do!
“I’ve told him how I feel so many times. It’s like I am talking to a brick wall. Nothing I say sinks in!” These thoughts circled through my mind, making me feel miserable. My husband and I were talking, but definitely not communicating. It was …