Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Perspectives, 241 Assignment
Please read and respond to the article, "The History of Mission Strategy," by R. Pierce Beaver, beginning on page 241 in your Perspectives on the World Christian Movement book. You will be required to respond to at least one other student's comments to successfully complete this assignment. Please ensure that you put your name in parenthesis if you post anonymously.
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10 comments:
I must say his history of the strategy of missions was really detailed. The author has done his research. I particularly liked how he broke out the colonial expansion between the different countries involved. It is important to see the difference between each country when one stopped and another began, and the motivations and differing strategies between each. Awesome job.
The only question I would raise is with the Spanish endeavor at missions. The author says, “There was usually a small garrison of soldiers to protect both missionaries and Christian Indians.” Although one major part of the Spanish push was missions, I thought the garrison was there to protect all the settlers not only the missionaries. Later this was expanded to include protecting the Indians against over zealous settlers. Perhaps he is going back farther than I am aware of.
I think we could learn a lot from the attitude of the Moravian missionaries. Realizing that different things work in different places and with different peoples their approach of being alert and recognizing the God-given distinctive traits, characteristics and strong points of each people seems like an ideal method to reach many more people. In contrast though our missionaries are forbidden from accepting salaries from their host countries, I think it is something about taking jobs from local people, so our foreign missionaries cannot be employed in the host nation. They must be self-supporting; they must depend on the generosity and love offerings of our churches. Maybe our local class missionary can better explain it than I can. But the concept of coming into intimate contact with the people they minister is great. We must do that in order to better witness. To a certain extent, obviously we should not become a drug addict to witness to drug addicts. Accepting the weakness I think their attitude in application is great.
Mark A.
Wow, that was long and at points put me to sleep, but the imformation of the past missions strategies was very insightful and deep. I liked how he showed progression in the strategies from century to century. As we look at the strategies we see that what worked one century did not always work the next. I believe that we need to keep that in our minds today, always evaluating our methods. The detail on the different places and methods was very infromative. Very helpful for me as I prepare for missions. (John Hyman)
Mark, I liked your observation on the article, it was very thoughtful. Great work. I would say more, but you pointed out details that I thought were accurate and great. Pray that we would always be aware of what methods work and methods don't work. (John Hyman)
Mission Strategy has sure come a long way. I truly felt sorry for the converts under the early efforts of missions. They were forced to become civilized as part of their Christianity. The way the Spanish treated the Indians was very sad. They had to lose their families and their natural ways of life when they became Christians. The French went about it a bit differently in Canada and I think they had greater success. Things didn’t get much better with the Indians in America. The fact that they took the children to further their education was hurtful to their endeavors at best. The missionaries were doing what they though best, but they were alienating the kids from their people and limiting the spread of the gospel. I think the one that seemed to understand missions was Christian Fredrick Schwartz. He was said to have adapted to the culture and was available to all the people. Mission work has come far and yet we have a long way to go yet. We must be careful in our endeavors to convert people to Christ we do not try to make them Americans. The key is to reach people in their culture and God will change them into His image.
(Meisha Deane)
Mark you did a good job of explaining the self-supporting missionary. Yes it is true that missionaries should not get jobs in country. This can cause hostility from nationals because we are taking thier jobs away from them. This should in no way hinder a missionary from being able to have intimate contact with the people. I personally believe that it allows the missionary to do the actual work that God has called them to do. Some might say that the missionary should have a job, but if a missionary is doing the work, I can assure you it is a full time job and then some.
I also liked the point that John made about our needing to continuoulsy examine our methods and efforts so as not to make the same mistakes of the past. We must keep up with the times in our methods and meet the people in thier culture.
(Meisha Deane)
(Thayer Lawson) The author put much details in the mission strategy. I'm somewhat hesitant concerning mission in hostile countries, especially considering there's a breakdown with the communication barrier; no matter how much a person attempts to learn another language there will still be a barrier that will prevent them from having a complete understanding of one another. The Arabic language have a real twist to it and that makes it difficult to understand.
(Thayer) John you must have been reading the same one I was reading, either I'm extra tired or that was long. But I agree with you the mission strategy have progressed, My take is that communication will always be a barrier. There is always a "way when there's a will".
I would say that this article was a lot like Extra’s spearmint gum; it was long-lasting and kind of redundant. I would also like to add that it did have a lot of great information in regards to Mission Methods and how they have evolved throughout the ages. The author also pointed some very controversial issues within the Mission spectrum; female missionaries and implementing medicine and education within Missions. You could tell that the author was history professor. Again, just giving my two cents.
(Trey Hyman)
Hey Thayer, I think it something very important to consider concerning the communication barrier. I think ultimately we have to depend on the Holy Spirit for intervention. It’s amazing that the God that we love, serve, and worship is the same God that Christian Asians love, serve, and worship. The message is getting there somehow. It’s hard to fathom and believe that sometimes, but it’s very real and true. Courteously giving criticism.
(Trey Hyman)
Thanks everyone. I must have said something better than I thought when someone agrees with me. Thanks for the help Meisha.
Mark
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