For the Glory of God Alone
Posted by Mark Stephan
I just published an article on the site Http://BiblicalMissiology.org
Check it out here: http://biblicalmissiology.org/2010/01/28/for-the-glory-of-god-alone/
Answering Christianity Today's Online Magazine Article
Posted by Mark Stephan
Please read this article: http://www.christianitytoday.com/globalconversation/december2009/index.html
Here is my answer to this article:
People get very emotionally charged on this issue, and we shouldn’t. We need to look at this the way we should, and that way alone. i.e. What does the Bible, and the Bible alone say about this issue. The problem with today’s missionaries, and I am one, is that we tend to be weak on our biblical theology, and even weaker on our biblical missiology. Our churches and organizations focus on numbers (not correct theology) send us out to ‘do’ without truly looking at the spiritual, thus theological ramifications of it. It does not matter to me if someone is on the field for decades, or never been. As my advice does not come from the wisdom of men, but from the Word of God. Sadly, we as men tend to trust academicians, social sciences, anthropology, and statistics more than we rely on God’s Word. We then use these social sciences and ‘strategies’ and force, beat, and warp the Word of God to agree with us. We say the numbers prove that the Holy Spirit is in it. If so, then the number 2 religion in the world, Islam, is truly divine and we might as well leave the Muslims to themselves. We say that C5/C4 ‘believers’ (I use this term loosely) believe in Jesus as Lord. But studies on the leadership of these movements show the opposite. The following statistics of 72 "Messianic Muslim" leaders shows the degree to which falsehood has been propagated within these communities. • 50% go to traditional Mosque on Friday. • 31% go more than once per day for Salat affirming prophethood of Muhammad. • 96% say there are 4 sacred books: Torah, Zabur, Injil, (all parts of the Christian Bible) and the Qur’an • 66% affirm the Qur’an as the greatest of these. • 45% don’t affirm God as Father/Son/Spirit. • 45% feel close to Allah when hearing the Qur’an read aloud. These numbers show that whatever the intent of western missionaries to propagate the C4/C5, its effect is devastating. Also, it should be known, that the C4/C5, Insider Movement is a movement created by the west and pushed by the west. This is not an indigenous movement. Thus we’re not pushing the western culture on these folks, but we are doing just as a bad thing and pushing their old idolistic culture on them. There are many indigenous Christians who came out of Islam who are extremely upset about this. Read this excellent article by one such believer being hurt by the Insider Movement/C4/C5. http://budurl.com/fm9w Ultimately this debate comes down to whether or not man’s culture is divine, and should be kept in lieu of the Kingdom Culture. If we value man’s culture as divine, then we will keep it intact at all costs, and it’s not culture that must change, but the Bible. If we see man’s culture effected by the fall, then we will leave it for the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven, and God’s gospel remains true and unchangeable. I wrote an article on that here: http://budurl.com/wla9 I contest it is man’s culture that must contextualize to the Gospel, not the Gospel that must be contextualized to man’s culture. The Corinthian church had the same problems of syncretism and idol worship. The "Messianic Jewish" church had the same problems with the Judaisers. The Jewish religion had the same problem with the Pharisees who worshiped the law more than they worshipped God. When we focus on earthly things more than the heavenly Kingdom of God, then we will always fall into idol worship. So why then, are we teaching these people to delve deeper into something that is a known lie? Let this not be so. I recommend reading: Titus 1:10-11,13- 16 If you follow twitter please follow the Biblical Missiology twitter feed: https://twitter.com/biblemissiology If you use Facebook please follow the Biblical Missiology Fan Page: http://budurl.com/2g3v Once we get Missiology back on the track of Theology, then we can discuss the attitude of how we as believers in the faith interact with one another out of love. But without the Biblical Word of God as our foundation, how do you expect this conversation to continue? If we do not rely solely on the Word of God, and not man’s wisdom, I predict that there will a greater schism and cults will come out of this debate. The church in the next 100 years depends greatly on this very issue. It is not to be taken lightly. You have only seen the beginning of this debate, and it will only grow. My question is, do these proponents of the C4/C5 Insider Movement want to be seen as the next Josiah Smith, or Muhammad? The Lord himself will judge your motives. As propagators of this fallacy, as supposed teachers of God’s word, you are held to a much higher standard. Matthew 23:15, "Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."
I have written a larger rebuttal to the insider Movement C4/C5 that will be posted on this site soon.
The Culture of God Vs. The Culture of Man
Posted by Mark Stephan
There’s a lot of hype going on about culture. I’ve been reading a lot of books, articles, been in conversations that try to understand biblical culture, and how that relates to us. On one side are people who say that God created cultures, and that it makes us unique and uniquely able to display his Glory. They often use the view of Revelation’s Heaven "Every tribe, nation and tongue" as an image that all the cultures will display their beauty in worship to God. On the other side is the view that human culture is not something to be lifted up, but rather is depraved, like our sinful selves and that the Bible relates to us a biblical heavenly culture that is given to us once we’ve been saved and redeemed, and that the acculturation to that culture is the process of sanctification.
While some may consider this as just an academic discussion, and not important to everyday life, I’d argue this is one of the most fundamental questions the church is facing, and the answer to it determines where Christianity will be one hundred years from now.
The Roots of the Culture of Man
It is important to know, and fundamental to the faith that God created man in his image. We were made in the image of God. We were made in a perfect state to live an existence of perfection. We were Holy, and thus in perfect alignment with God’s culture. Holiness and Righteousness is the culture of God and His Kingdom.
Then something happened. We broke the cultural standard of God, we did the taboo, and the result was sin entering the world, ourselves, and that corruption effected our holy culture dramatically leaving it marred and mutated beyond manly repair.
Humanity grew and so did its sinfulness. Humanity’s culture still remained rather homogenous, yet effected by the fall. We built a tower to reach the heavens, and in that attempt, God confused our language splintering us off and spreading us across the earth. As isolated groups of people, our identities and culture developed as isolated groups, becoming more and more unique and different from each others until today where we can look at every part of the earth and find diverse languages and cultures.
The question arises then, what are the ramifications of this people group focused culture on the long-term plan of God and His Kingdom. Does God cherish diverse culture and have a place for it in His fulfilled redeemed Kingdom, or does God have something new that he wants to create?
What the Bible Says
To find out what God has planned for the long-term, we need to look at the heavenly culture of God post-rapture to ad infinitum. While it is clear from the Bible that God is calling people from every Tribe, Tongue, People, and Nation what isn’t clear is what happens to them once the complete regeneration occurs i.e. the redeemed receives their new spiritual bodies.
The Bible Says:
- Our present body is only a "tent" which we will put aside. 2 Co 5:1-3, 2 Pet 1:13-14
- God, through Christ, will deliver us from this present "body of death" (which is the sinful nature). Rom 7:20-25
- God has prepared us for the purpose of being clothed with our heavenly body. 2 Cor 5:4-5
- Although we do not know exactly what our new bodies will be like, we know that they will be like Jesus. 1 John 3:2-3
- Our new bodies will be like Christ’s glorious body. Phil 3:20-21, Rom 8:28-30, Ps 17:15, Ro 6:5-8, 1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:17-18
- We will be changed instantaneously when we are raised. 1 Cor 15:51-53
- To gain our new body, our current body must die. 1 Cor 15:35-49 (See also Phil 1:21-23)
- Our new body will be incorruptible. Our current body is corruptible. 1 Cor 15:42-44, 1 Cor 15:52-54 (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new body will be glorified. Our current body is dishonorable. 1 Cor 15:42-44, (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new body will be powerful. Our current body is weak . 1 Cor 15:42-44, (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new body will be spiritual. Our current bodies natural. 1 Cor 15:42-44, (In context: 1 Cor 15:35-58)
- Our new bodies will be from God, eternal and in the heavens. 2 Co 5:1-5
- Like Moses and Elijah, our bodies will likely be able to converse with others. Lk 9:28-32, Mt 17:2-3
- People who currently have physical disabilities will not have them in their new bodies. Isaiah 35:3-5
- We will have no racial or cultural distinctions Col 3:9-11
No Culture in Heaven But the Heavenly Kingdom Culture
It is the last point that is of special interest to me. In heaven, with our spiritual and new, incorruptible bodies, there will be no racial or cultural distinction between us. While Revelation shows that people will be called from every tribe, tongue, people and nation it is clear they are called from them, but not called to it. What this means is that the usage of ‘from’ dictates that the Gospel is made for all. No one is left out. It does not necessarily mean that heaven is filled with various cultural expressions and languages. As the body is made anew, our culture and perhaps even language likewise is made to the image of God himself. In the vast picture of the multitudes of people in heaven never do we see any diverse expressions of the human cultural experience. They all worship in uniform praise and song singing out in praise of the one God. We are back to the origins of God’s creation. A holy and perfectly redeemed people worshipping the Lord. We are now completely acculturated to the culture and lifestyle of the Kingdom of Heaven.
So that’s what we will be, but what do we do now?
Our Acculturation to the Kingdom of Heaven
Once we are saved and redeemed, immediately our sinful nature is violently attacked and bombarded by the Holy Spirit of God. A transformation is initiated that will burn through our soul refining us and pulling us forcibly back into alignment to the Character and Holiness of God. We tend to fight this process as while it is for our benefit, it also forces us out of the world, leaving us rejected by the culture and world around us. We are now aliens to this world, having become official, blood-boughten citizens of heaven. It’s life a broth, and literally it is a rebirth. Although bloody, hideous and painful, it is the most amazing and glory filled moments in worldly our life.
This violent process should be embraced by believers world-wide. Yet, unfortunately, it is shunned, and the violence of it is often watered down so that it is not feared, and made bearable to our human comfort. In the hopes of leading more to the gospel many have watered down this gospel of violent transformation to the culture of Heaven, and instead have told people they can keep many if not all of their humanly developed culture intact as not to lose their social connections to the world around them. This however is not the gospel of the Bible. Whether you are an American, Westerner, Asian, Latino, Middle Easterner, African, Indiana, and so on and so forth, no matter what our cultural background is, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, etc.. we are all called to abandon these cultural identities and bring them into alignment to the culture of the Kingdom of God. We cannot tell the Muslim convert that they can keep their culture. God calls them out of it. We cannot tell the American they can keep their culture. God calls them out of it.
Often under the flag of reaching back to the community to reach others who are lost, people try to maintain their culture. However, biblically that is only possible once we have abandoned our culture, embraced the culture of Heaven, and through that new and redeemed life, reach out to the world around us from the position of our new Godly culture. We cannot reach a lost world from being part of a lost culture. We represent the culture we are in. If we are in a lost culture, we only lead people to more lostness. There is no culture on earth that isn’t lost. Only being transformed and being in the culture of Heaven are we truly found, and have a culture worth displaying and sharing.
If the heavenly culture is adhered to and followed, then missionaries will not go from the west to the east and spread ‘western’ christianity. Instead they will display the heavenly culture, and call others out from their past sinful and corrupt culture into the Heavenly culture, not into a western christian culture. At the same time, one cannot argue that their culture is redeemable or that they are required to live out their culture to reach others. There is no distinction of any human on earth. All must abandon their culture and embrace the culture of Heaven.
The following verses really wraps up the whole thought.
Colossians 3:1-17 (ESV)
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I could say it no clearer. Seek the culture of God above. Abandon our sinful corrupt culture of the world below, which lies in idolatry. Together in Christ we have no race or cultural distinctions, but rather we are one whole and united body in Christ that finds our pure identity, cultural or otherwise in Christ alone. We need to put on and acculturate to the identity of Jesus and adopt His culture and attitude of holy living, compassionate giving, and loving as he loved. In everything we do, every word or deed, Christ, His work, and His Holiness should be at the root of it, displaying all with a great thankfulness to God the Father through him.
Also see this excellent Blog Post on this same issue that I found while researching this issue: http://www.albatrus.org/english/living/kingdom/kingdom_god_vs_culture.htm
That By All Means I Might Win Some
Posted by Mark Stephan
Here is a great video sermon as a prelude as to what I’m writing about. It’s long, but don’t miss 1 second of it. Well worth it!
http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/video/That-By-All-Means-I-Might-Win-Some
Do what you're made to do.
Posted by Mark Stephan
If you’ve been reading my blogs, or know me, you probably know my back story. I was a Christian worker in Turkey for 7 years, returned to the US when the Lord called me back, and spent a year forcing myself to do ‘nothing’ because the Lord told me to just ‘be’, not plan to return to Turkey, not plan to stay, just be in Him and be satisfied in it.
It was hard doing this, as anyone who knows me, knows I’m not a ‘being’ type of person. I do things. But I did it, and after a year of just ‘being’ I was released from that period on August 3rd 2009. On that day I starting asking the Lord what does He have for me. I can say that if I thought the past year was hard in doing nothing, it is even harder now, because I feel released to do ministry, to answer his call, and yet, the roadblocks are there and it’s amazingly frustrating.
I try to be an honest guy, and let others know how I feel. I think this helps people realize Christians are not perfect. It also helps people understand how God works in my life, and thus the Lord can be glorified in the successes He puts in my life, the struggles He puts in my life, and the failures that I cause myself.
Since August I can frankly say I’ve been, and am still, in what I can only call a mucky depression. Previous to that time for a year every cell in my body yelled out to do nothing, and eventually my mind succumbed and I learned not to plan for tomorrow. But now, ever since August, when I have renewed my prayers to the Lord as to what is next, every cell in my body has been screaming ministry. Ministry in a way that is very different than what I’ve been doing in the past. In the past I ran a BAM (Business As Mission) company. While I don’t feel the call to end it completely, I do feel the call to not make it the main activity of my life, to make it less and to draw in closer to vocational ministry. Through BAM I served the Lord through business, but now the call is very different. The call is to serve the Lord in a tight-knit community of others drawing near to the Lord through vocational full-time service.
This is where the sense of lost fulfillment is. Every avenue of vocational ministry has been blocked. It’s frankly strange. The Lord is calling me to vocational ministry, even has driven me to apply to do stuff I wouldn’t had considered before, but I applied, and got denied. Wow, what does that mean? I’ve spent a couple of months just rolling that around in my head. I still cannot grasp it. In everything I feel called to pushed away and redirected to things I don’t feel one iota of calling to. The end result is a feeling of being torn, frustrations, and ultimately sadness. Sadness of not being able to do what I was made for.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not going around sulking. But frankly, I do feel it. To steal a quote from Tolkein in the Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo Baggins says he feels like butter that’s been spread over too much toast. I just feel dried up in what I’m doing, that the blessing, that is measurable only in the joy of the work, has dried up. I can do what I do, and do it well, but the joy is gone. It has been removed.
I have no solutions… I’m stagnant. I’ve not even been able to blog about it, tweet about it, nothing. I feel bottled up. For some reason today I was able to write this. Perhaps we’re at a turning point, perhaps not.
The good news is that God knows how I feel, and He cares! I don’t know the Lord’s timing, but I do know the plan. All of heaven is suspended like me in expectation of what will come, they groan for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promises to be.
Like heaven, I groan.
The Lord calls all of us to something. Perhaps we’re following, perhaps were not. If the grown of your heart aches, you are not alone. Know that all of Heaven’s hosts, and even the Lord’s heart groans as well, and awaits the timing of perfection for all things to come together for His ultimate purposes.
Redeeming Halloween
Posted by Mark Stephan
This Halloween, like last Halloween I threw a big Halloween party for International Students. Several Missional Communities joined in to really make the International Students have a good time, and feel loved.
Halloween is controversial in Christian circles, and rightly so. It’s a sketchy holiday that has some rather sinister roots. So the question is, what should be the Christian’s answer to Halloween?
I don’t mean to suggest I know everything, and what would Jesus do is sometimes an enigma, but the way I look at this is simple. In all things one does, display the love of Christ, and point to Him as the root of it.
So we don’t celebrate Halloween, we celebrate a reason to bring those together who don’t know Christ, build relationships with them, love on them, and show them that the world is a very spiritual place.
Ultimately, I think Halloween is a gift from God in that it is one of those times in the year when the spiritual world collides with ours. When we can talk about spiritual things and not seem out of place. While we did have a costume contest, pumpkin carving contest, bobbing for apples, and told Ghost stories, spiritual conversations abounded. The height of the night was the Ghost stories, where I told several stories all of which were absolutely true. I related several spiritual encounters I’ve had in this world with the spiritual world. How in Turkey demonic forces were clear and displayed in their violent war to take the lives of others. I spoke about possessions that I saw in Turkey, how prayed and the power of Jesus had expelled those forces, how good and evil vied and evil lost. The edges of the gospel were shared, and many opportunities to share the gospel for other believers in the crowd were given.
So at the end of the Halloween party, was Christ glorified? I’d like to say yes. Relationships were created, and I look forward to a Christmas party we are planning where the full message of Christ can be displayed.
More pictures can be seen on my facebook page.
Please be praying for this opportunity.
What to blog about....
Posted by Mark Stephan
Hello All,
I have several blog posts that I’m drafting, and I’m wondering which ones you’d like me to pursue writing.
Generally how I write is a thought grabs my interest, either something I came across during the day, or something I’ve been pondering for a long time. So I open a file and write some, and then close it, waiting until I have time to go back, write more, reflect on my thoughts, and publish it. But, as you can guess, far more remains in draft than ever gets published.
So I figured hey, blogging is supposed to be interactive, so I’ll ask the community what they would like me to expound on, and finish so they can see my thoughts. So here is a current list of things swimming around in my draft folder, mind, and what not. Let me know through the comments what You’d like to read, or simply put, none of it. It’s all boring.
Church / Theological Issues
- How to be a Sending Church
This is an article that really outlines how a church, no matter the size, can create a sending engine that mobilizes and and sends individuals, keeping itself in alignment with the Theology of the New Testament Church. Actually this is a summary of something much larger I’m writing. This article is basically a HOW TO Guide.
- Cross-Cultural Church Planting According to the New Testament Church aka Experiencing Biblically-based Church Planting Movements
This is an interesting article that goes into the Holy Spirit Driven Strategy of the New Testament Church, how it grew, spread, and met the diverse cultures around it. Examples will be taken solely from the Bible, and inferences will be extrapulated to see how such systems could be instituted today.
- Gossip, the Cancer of the Church
This subject is near to my heart, as I am guilty of it as well. It is so hard to be a believer and control the tongue. Yet, if we do not struggle to keep control of this, the whole body loses. Whether from out right gossiping, to the less obvious prayer-gossip, we all need to learn to control what we say, and to whom we say it.
- Biblical and Unbiblical Contextualization in Missions: Bringing Back Missions to the Heart of God
This is actually a blog post that probably should, and will, end up being a much larger article, if not a book. It takes a deeper look at what is the form of modern missions, and how it either aligns with Biblical missional principles, or how it diverges from it, and what should be done about that.
- Reformed Theology’s impact on Missions
This blog post is very similar to the one above it. How does Reformed Theology impact Missions today. While this article won’t delve into Reformed Theology itself, it will talk about how Reformed Theology effects Missions, and examples we can see today in the Modern Missions movement of this, and examples of divergence from it.
- The Unity of the Body of Christ: How to Keep Unity in the Midst of Theological Debate
This could be a very interesting post in that it’s something I’m always struggling with. How to have interesting discourse that spurs one another on to knowing truth, without creating discord. When one should be careful in creating discord, and when one should not. The fine line between allowing mutual disagreement, and allowing heresy.
Political
- How Political Banter Turns Personal: Racism and the Slander of the Individual.
This one is a bit personal. I got a message from someone saying, and I summarize, that people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Right Wingers, Conservatives, Born-Again Christians are all racist wasps. While I try to keep political discourse to the facts, statements like this really frustrate me because it shows a lack of decorum, and that they can’t have a real debate besides attacking people personally. While I do not agree completely with the aforesaid individuals, I do enough to see this as a personal attack against me. So I’d like to write an article to discuss those statements, and why such statements do not make a better world, but makes people more ignorant and creates human beings who believe dribble.
One Year in America
Posted by Mark Stephan
It has been a year since I’ve returned to America to carry out God’s mission for me here.
When I came back God made it clear to me, I am here to rest in Him. Not ‘rest’ as we may see it, but rather to be in Him, not looking forward and making plans, but to just ‘be’ in Him.
Let me be honest, that’s hard. In a society where everyone plans years in advance, I’ve made no plans. I wasn’t allowed to. I’ve not even asked the Lord about going back to Turkey, cause He said, don’t. For a year I’ve been in a strange limbo of being here in the USA, wanting to be active in ministry and doing so many things for Turkey, and yet, kept from it.
Grand visions of mobilizing for Turkey, building a team, helping others go, left in stasis. The Lord made it clear, do nothing but be in Him.
This was a year of decomposition. Digestion. Reflection. Healing.
It has been a year of awkwardness. Wanting to do ministry, wanting to do a lot of things, and yet, not allowing myself to do it. A year of people asking me a thousand questions about my future, and even more expectations about my future, left, unanswered, unaddressed.
A year of thinking about building a relationship, and then deciding, that I wasn’t supposed to, and then dropping it.
There has been reentry shock, reverse culture shock, expectation shock, and plain ‘ol shock. There have been times I felt at peace and times I’ve felt valueless in my input into society.
I have found myself fighting myself to gain control of this time, only to fend myself off of myself to keep myself in the rest. no goals, no plans, no long-term.
Rest in Him was His command, and I’ve spent a year trying to do just that.
Now the year is up. And it’s time again to seek and to find out what my marching orders are.
I’ll be praying now, seeking God’s discernment in my life for what’s next. Will I be going back to Turkey? Will I stay here? How long for either? In what capacity? What about work? Relationships? Situations? The questions I have held myself back from asking are so mountainous now, I don’t even know really where to begin, except the very simplest of questions…
"What do you want?"
This has been my very short, yet concise prayer since August 5th.
No answers yet, but I think it’s the start of something. I never expected on the anniversary of my return, Aug. 5th that I’d receive some lofty vision, letter, or Word from the Lord. Rather, The year of whirlwind thoughts is cumulating into the slow pin drop of a question we really all need to ask God for.
I have a nagging feeling I am not done with Turkey. But as of yet, it’s a feeling, and no clear directive from the Lord. I am still involved with ministry, still being a believer in a land of the Lost, even the land of Austin, Tx. I still do that of which the Bible directs. I share the message of Him who created me. I live in community and help others discern their role in the Kingdom of God, even as I discern my own. But a call from here to where ever, a clear call to leave my land, my family, the people I know, and to go to another is still silent. Until then, I will pray a simple prayer of "What do you want", until God gives me more information and more direction to better direct my prayers. I ask you to pray the same for me. Lord, please give guidance to Mark and speak to him as to what your desire for him is.
Missional Community Or Home Group?
Posted by Mark Stephan
I’ve been pondering for awhile now what is the difference between a small/home group and a missional community. I know that my group really isn’t a missional community, but was trying to figure out how to explain to those in my group what is the difference.
Here’s a good article that desribes it.
The Life of Missions after Ralph Winter
Posted by Mark Stephan
A great man died and went to see his glorious maker this past week. His name was Ralph Winter.
You can read his bio here:
There is a great article about his accomplishments written here:
He was a great man in that he was a man who understood the call of God to reach the nations. He motivated and created a world-wide movement that still moves today for the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, tongue and tribe.
But like most things in life, people have taken a strategy for a mission, and turned it into the goal, opposed to using it as a conduit towards the spirit of the mission itself.
Like all great movements started by great men, left unattended and unscrutinized, they can often go awry. So in the years after Ralph Winter, I think we have several things that we should consider.
For the past couple hundred of years people saw Christian missions as doing good deeds, helping people physically, economically, etc.. This is true, doing good deeds is in fact part of Christian missions. However, their purpose of doing good deeds to point towards Christ was over shadowed by the deeds, simply doing good deeds, and never credit given to the Lord. We can think of a lot of organizations that were started as sincere God breathed mission movements that today are simply forces of goodness, but no substance behind them.
Mr. Winter countered this movement by really stressing the gospel was the purpose of mission, and that the gospel can only be declared to reach every nation if it were indeed methodically made available to every tribe, ethnicity, and in their own mother languages. Ralph Winter’s message was one of strategizing the spreading of the word of the good news. However, this message became dogma in turn becoming a corner stone of modern missions that has become more of a ritualized strategy without heart in practice, than perhaps the spirit of the movement behind it. I am not saying that good willed people with godly passion aren’t using these strategies, but rather that they use them without considering the long-term ramification of believing in and propagating these strategies.
Modern Christian missions has become a movement based purely on statistics and crusades for ethnic groups, with the purpose of making them fall under a category of ‘reached’, rather than a heart felt Spirit led movement to reach every soul on earth with a message of Christ’s salvation that impacts them on a deep and personal level, invoking them to seek Christ in their personal everyday lives.
Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. - NASB
The previous verse has been grossly misused in this cause. The Bible declares that every ethnic group, every tribe, every language will be represented in heaven. So this verse and others like it have been held responsible for the modern mission’s movement to purposely fill heaven with every tribe, people, and tongue. The ultimate conclusion of this philosophy is that If the gospel has been preached and there is one believer, that tribe/people/language can be marked off the list. Ergo, the mission has been reached. The authenticity, deepness, sincerity, and reality of their faith is less important than the strategy to reach them. While many would disagree it has gone this far, all you need to do is look at mission organization marketing pamphlets, missional texts, and courses and you can find it.
Modern Missions has become a capitalistic business of propelling this message. This message isn’t the message of the gospel, but rather the message of the strategy. We have made our means of reaching God’s purpose our goal, not His actual purpose. If we actually had His purpose at heart, we would not focus on Tribes/nations/peoples and the statistics behind them, but rather we would focus on the hurt in every person’s soul in every tribe, nation, people, and regardless of every tribe nation people, we would focus on the gospels power to heal and transfix these broken hearts into healed hearts of passion that seek a transformation that no strategy can initiate. We would not see Turkman, Turk, Kurd, Tajik, Zaza, and other hundreds of thousands of other ethnicities, but rather we would see people, dearly loved by God who need their hearts touched by something nothing else on earth can replace. When the heart is reached, a passion that transcends tribe, tongue, culture, ethnicity, etc.. explodes and spreads like wildfire. This is revival, true revival. Instead we have tried to take an easy short cut and to manipulate the data and try to falsely create revival by trying to mimic a Spirit led revival with an anthropologically scientific man-created ‘revival’.
Ultimately Missions has become racist. We have indeed ignored races to share the gospel in the name of trying to ‘reach’ a particular race. We wrongly assume that since every tribe will be in heaven, that we should focus on the gospel within tribes. We assume that since anthropological studies show that the ‘gospel’ travels best within similar/same cultures, that we should present the gospel within singular cultures ignoring all other cultures, and in the process training the new ‘believers’ to do the same. We have used the data points of God’s work, to try to manufacture more data like it. However, for the past 2,000 years God has used the opposite of this strategy! He used Jews to share with Greeks! He used imperialists to reach Asia. He used Romans to share with Barbarians! He used gentiles to share with the Jews, and so on and so forth. Biblically and Historically we can see that the gospel has never been limited to tribes, but rather it is a trademark of Christ’s passion and power to remove people from their own tribes and send them to a people who are not theirs, a land that they do not know, and a culture that is counter intuitive to their own. God has called us to sacrifice and to use his wisdom, not our own. Not to use anthropological studies to carry out the gospel, but rather to ask Him and be led by His Spirit. Can people share within the same culture? Of course, I am not speaking against this. But all the more can the glory for Christ be, than if he calls you and me to reach out to those who are completely alien to us, and to make our common bond with them, the Love of Christ and his persona glorified!
Numbers are not our goal, the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord is our singular goal! Christ has shown again and again that when we seek HIS singular glory, that His glory infiltrates every heart and mind spreading within and outside every manmade barrier.
So, I beseech you the modern Church in this new age after Ralph Winter, to change and to get out of your mode of strategies to circumvent the hard work of the Lord, but rather focus on the souls of people with the singular purpose of seeing Christ glorified. Do not use statistics to motivate and propel, but instead use the glory of Christ and His love and His passion to motivate and propel. Once people are not objects of ministry or numbers, but rather dearly loved lost souls that Jesus bled and died for, then, and only then will every people, tribe, tongue, and nation be reached, and not only reached, but also with a deep spirit-filled conviction of heart, thrive and spread across the earth.
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