In the world of the university, where InterVarsity makes it's home, "missions" and "missionaries" are bad words. Anthropologists, sociologists, historians and international political science folks all line-up to take pinata-like swings at the history of Christian missionaries around the world, especially in Africa and South America. In bringing Christianity, they also often brought Western culture--sometimes with dire consequences for the indigenous people group.
This student generation has been exposed to this history and has also been thoroughly indoctrinated with the values of pluralism and tolerance. As a result they are often conflicted about missions and missionaries in a religious sense. They are very excited about serving, justice, and helping people's physical needs. They are much less sure that Jesus is the hope of the whole world.
One of the reasons why I like InterVarsity is that we value thinking seriously about difficult issues. As an organizational culture, we are uneasy with quick and simplistic answers. This means that we take the historical damage done by Christian missionaries seriously. It also means that we take people's culture as well as their physical needs seriously.
But as an organization that also takes the Great Commission seriously, "missions" in a religious sense cannot be a bad word.
So throughout the conference there was this tension. We acknowledged regularly that there has been an arrogance associated with Western Christian missionaries in terms of how they approached people and cultures. And yet at the same time we celebrated the very real good done by missionaries throughout history--almost everywhere Christian missionaries went they cleaned up drinking water, built hospitals, established schools, improved the conditions for women, and of course, brought the good news of Jesus Christ. Missionaries weren't all bad, they just make for compelling pinatas.
And if we take what the Scriptures say seriously AND how the disciples live their lives in the aftermath of the Jesus resurrection event, we have to conclude that the way the Christian story was initially founded, believed, and lived out, was that it was vital that everyone possible hear about Jesus. It was not just another nice idea to be thrown into the religious tossed salad of ideas. It was God-come-to-get-us. It was determinative for the whole world.
I think that speaking about the good, confessing the bad, and establishing the essential nature of mission is crucial for any credibility both for those within the faith who struggle with the idea of missions and for those who watch us from the outside.
2 comments:
I did sense some of that tension-- just the in some ways while we acknowledged that history, we didn't dig deep enough into it to understand exactly how to think about various missionary efforts and if they were mostly good, bad, or some of both, and how that should effect us today.
At the same time, as far as Jesus being the hope of the world, I personally became much MORE convinced through Urbana. I obviously knew/believed it before, but think I was often too ashamed of how certain christians "do" missions, evangelism, etc. to answer with a whole-hearted "YES!"
Eph's emphasis on being over these principalities and powers and the unity we have only in christ, while still maintaining an emphasis on the life/redemption we have in him was huge for me in understanding these things as truly important to God-- not just peripheral interests of more "progressive" evangelicals-- and the implications that has for just how good the good news (ALL of these parts of it!) is for me and the world.
Great thoughts, Ashleigh! Yeah, I think Ephesians really does speak to this tension that we feel about the goodness of Jesus for the whole world. And it also does address the wholistic nature of the gospel. Not just spiritual needs. Not just physical needs. The marrying of both being met in the work of Christ and the work of those who would follow him.
RE: the need for more digging into the history of missions, that could be the whole conference if we let it! I think the most powerful thing for me was to have several Asian speakers from the platform say how thankful they were that Western missionaries came to their countries and introduced their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents to the good news of Jesus. What a powerful testimony to the good that has been done through missionaries!
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