Welcoming the Voice of Rebuke
I’ve just returned from teaching Thursday evening classes here in Germany, where I’m finishing up the book of Genesis. One man in my class is named Isaiah. He’s a pastor in rural Kenya, and has 59 people in his congregation. The realities of crime, poverty, AIDS, and crop failures are always present, in varying degrees. There’s another man here who works with university students in the far eastern territory of Russia, near the Chinese border. Others have ministries in Eastern Europe.
Though they don’t do so intentionally, the voices of these individuals rebuke me. They’re not even aware of the effect they’re having on me, but the effect is there nonetheless. As I was preaching through the story of Joseph’s life this evening, I invited the students to ponder with me the differential between Joseph receiving a vision from God (that he would be some sort of ruler) and the fulfillment of that vision, which took nearly 30 years. In the interim, instead of going to seminary, he was sold into slavery, framed for rape, and forgotten in the bowels of a prison due to the self-centeredness of a man he’d helped. Yet through all this, he never forgot God, who was His ever-present companion, His shelter, His source of strength, and the One for whom Joseph would continue to wait faithfully - until God’s purposes would be accomplished for him. These trials gave Joseph a different kind of education than the one available for $20,000 a year in the USA.
Yet the story of suffering, patient endurance, and overcoming trials isn’t just Joseph’s story. It’s the story in Kenya, and Russia, and Eastern Europe, China, and Southeast Asia today. Those of us who live in luxury need to open our eyes and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches through likes of our ‘uneducated’ brothers and sisters in the developing world. Every time I come here, I end up repenting of my arrogance, my addictions to creature comforts, my quickness to turn from the hard deed, my complacency, and my eagerness for all that is easy.
These students from the developing world have a love for God, a fire for His glory, and hearts for justice. Being here causes me to pray that we will learn from those who have neither the time nor the inclination to ponder what it means to be ‘emergent’ or ‘relevant’, neither the education nor the luxury of arguing about whether there’s meaning in the text, and whether positivism is a positive influence on hermeneutic. They’re not wondering about how to start satellite churches where the superstar pastor is replicated on video so that the hard work of leadership development is bypassed and the personality cults so destructive to the western church remain intact. Instead, they’re busy preaching Christ, buying women out of sexual slavery, and then empowering them through education and training. They’re putting wells in villages so there will be fewer deaths from unclean water and food in times of drought.
When I return to my room and read the most popular ‘ministry’ magazine available to pastors in America, I get this sickening feeling that we really don’t get it. And so I pray for us - that we’ll have the humility to learn from those who do get it, because as in the days of Jesus, the ones who ‘get it’ today are, to our western way of thinking, the unlikely ones. We’re in grave danger of becoming entirely self-referential and overlooking those who have the most to say to us. Lacking the privileges of wealth, democracy, public health, or higher education, church leaders of the developing world are ministering Christ with a power rarely seen among we who are ‘better off’. This, of course, causes me to wonder what ‘better off’ really means.
Posted on April 2, 2007 12:00 AM
Comments
Amen and Amen
Posted by: James | April 2, 2007 7:43 AM
I was on the mission field for several years and am currently working in Chicago. I frequently wonder about the nature of ministry here- that is, my part in sharing Christ. It is true that as Westerners, most of us do not face hunger, oppression, and acquiring basic survival needs. When I was in third world countries people were open to the truth in a way I've never seen here in the USA. I recently read an article by Gospel For Asia in which Bible students sold juice oranges for a profit to put on a three day conference to teach the Bible and lead people to Christ. My first instinct was to feel guilt. My next thought, though, is that while the needs are basically the same (salvation in Christ, healing and wholeness for brokenness and the effects of sin in our lives), the means by which we approach our fellow Westerner will need to be different.
I agree, I need to get on my knees and repent and allow God to produce in me a new longing for what's on his heart & in his mind- and at the same time involve myself in the things which will help Westerners find Christ in our padded society.
Posted by: Stephanie | April 2, 2007 9:06 AM
"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy [stuff] we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." ~ Fight Club
Replace the words "Advertising" and "television" with "The Church," and you're not far off. Raised on sermons based off of "Prayer of Jabez" and "The Secret," we expect that God will and should give us everything we demand. In comparison to most people, we have a lot more than what we need to live off of. "The realities of crime, poverty, AIDS, and crop failures are always present" aren't as prevalent here as in Kenya, but we still face threats like designer drugs, eating disorders (arorexia, bulemia, obesity), and suicide ("Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24." www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm) because there is STILL something lacking in our lives. "Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." We need to stop spending our money on state-of-the-art technology (powerpoint presentations, sound system, etc.) and "cool" Christian concerts, and start truly caring for each other.
Posted by: Stephanie Nikolopoulos | April 3, 2007 11:29 AM
Thank you so much. You have hit on a great point, "those who have neither the time nor the inclination to ponder what it means to be 'emergent' or 'relevant'..." I find myself in the middle of the 'emerging/traditional' dialog all too often. This is nothing more than a tool that we have created in our infinite lust for drama and conflict. It is yet another wall that we have so quietly designed to separate and divide the body of Christ. Why have we been so blind?
Richard, your thoughts go deeper than poverty, hunger and those who live in the third world. We have to look past those physical ailments and look into our souls. If we were able to view a persons heart like we view a persons face then it may turn out that we are not the ones who are so well off. Our physical, tangible needs have been met and exceeded, there is no immediate need for Christ. Our sickness is not obvious to us. If our blindness was stripped away and our souls stood naked before each other we would see that those who consider themselves better off are the ones in desperate need of a savior.
I don't mean to rant, I apologize. It is my goal to continue this life as a follower of Christ. I am neither baptist, methodist, four square, charismatic, emerging, traditional, relevant or any of these. I pray that I won't let any blockades come between me, my Savior and His body.
Thanks for the terrific article.
Posted by: Silent John | April 3, 2007 3:01 PM
in the words of our friend james in response to this article "Amen and Amen"
Posted by: matthew flores | April 4, 2007 10:21 PM