Revolution in World Missions Part 2

In the last half of the book, the author discusses strategy. He begins by condemning the liberal "social gospel" that many people are into. He claims that the message is much more important than any social or physical help that we can give. And helping minister to physical needs is important and biblical - but, it must be done as a sidedish - the main course is the gospel. He claims that many Christians have a theological problem: a refusal to truly believe in hell. And even if they say they believe in the Bible and in hell, that their actions show that they don't really believe it. If they did, they would do more to rescue souls.
"Go to save souls. And go to the worst." That's a quote he gave from the founder of the salvation army.

He then explained why grassroots movements are more successful than the building of institutions. He used communist China as an example. A conversation happened between a Christian in China and a communist. The communist said, "What you have failed to do in 100 years with your buildings and institutions, we will do in 10 years through the printed word and word of mouth." And that became the reality. Within 10 years, the Christians were kicked out of China, and communism was prevelant.

Furthermore, he insists that indigenous missionaries will be more successful than western missionaries. This is due partly to racism, (people racist against Americans, and people who believe that Christianity is just a white religion), partly due to how inefficient western missionaries have become (many need 80k a year to live which is much more than indigenous missionaries. Indigenous missionaries can live comfortably on 1k-2k per year. Also, many leave the country without even 1 well-trained disciple to continue their work without them).

He is not calling for all western missionaries to pull out of all countries and simply become financial backers only. He specifically states that he doesn't want that. He simply wants people to be less prideful about their view on missions; and more willing to humbly get behind what the nationals are doing. And he feels that many people are dead wrong about their racist view of national missionaries - they have a feeling of superiority or distrust that isn't biblical.

When asked the question, "Is there any room for Western missionaries?" at the end of the book; he answers "yes". and gives 3 ways that western missionaries are needed on the field: 1. There are some completely unreached places that need to be infiltrated before there can be indigenous missionaries - places like morroco, afghanastan, and maldive islands. 2. missionaries need technical support and training from western missionaries. 3. short-term mission trips are important for raising awareness and burden.
To support a national missionary - go to www.gfa.org and pledge $30 per month

Revolution in World Missions by Yohannin

"The words echoed in my mind. This is His work, I told myself. Why am I making it mine? The burden is light. Why am I making it heavy? The work is a privilege. Why am I making it a chore?"




I began reading this missions book today. It actually brought tears to my eyes when he described indigenous missionaries and the way they live. I felt a lot of guilt and shame as he described what it was like for him to come to America and see the churches here. I'm not finished with it yet - so I'll have to come back later and give the final thoughts on the book. But, so far all I can say is: ouch! It's a real wake-up call. I usually feel skeptical of books that make me feel so shamed - but not this one. Not at all. We probably all deserve to feel some tension and true moral guilt about our excessive lifestyles and the suffering of Christian missionaries in the other 2/3 of the world. What bothers me isn't the guilt - it's just that the guilt will be forgotten and I'll go back into the matrix! Ug.

This book is free for anyone to read. Look it up! It's well worth the read so far. I am completely sucked in --- I'll probably finish it tonight.

It's part-biography, part-wake up call, and part-a call to viewing missions differently. He wants to promote the work of national indigenous missionaries and get us to realize that we are past the "2nd wave" colonial missions era and into the "3rd wave" native missionary era. I'm not sure about all the conclusions yet - so I have reserved judgment about the strategy portion so far; yet the story and the wake up call are certainly really speaking volumes to me! I'm halfway done now. He's advocating for national missionaries to receive financial and technical support from us Americans.

  "What's the bottom line? God is calling us as Christians to alter our lifestyles, to give up the nonessentials of our lives so we can better invest our wealth in the kingdom of God."

He makes a great point about racism; saying that Americans often begin asking subtly racist things about local missionaries like, "well, are they well-trained?" or "will money corrupt them?" They ask these things because deep-down they trust people who look like them more than people who look differently; when in actuality - people from a less oppulant culture are probably more likely to do well with money than we are.

His view of America is pretty harsh - we are rich, wasteful, proud, people who don't pray or practice the quiet spiritual arts enough, people who ignore sections of the Bible. However, he also thinks that the western church has the ability to help the native missionaries reach the world. And in giving financially, we will be a part of a great and important work.

So, more to come on this later....