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gospel. Nor will a clearly-defined missiology get the job done. The need for a map, fuel, and a vehicle was brought home to me on a return trip from La Moskitia in Honduras. At 7:00 a.m., Valerie and I, with a short-term missions team, boarded Missionair’s DC-3 on the gravel runway in Puerto Lempira, Honduras. Our take-off in this 1941 antiquity was uneventful, except for the steady stream of oil pouring out of the starboard engine. As we neared San Pedro Sula, I noticed that our flight attendant, wife of one of the pilots, was beginning to look a little nervous. Finally, she leaned over and said, “We need to pray!” When it was all over, we were informed that there had been a tropical storm over San Pedro Sula, and the pilots had been unable to fly by instrumentation alone. Being unable to fly over the weather, they tried to fly under it. Because of the weather and because we did not have a detailed map of the mountain altitudes, we were flying blind and very low. At one point, as I looked out the window, we cleared the trees on a ridge by what appeared to be no more than ten 6 feet. Finally, we were forced to turn out to sea and head for La Ceiba, another airport on the Honduran north coast. When we communicated with the tower, they denied permission to land because of the storm. Our emergency ration of fuel was quickly being consumed. Praying that the weather would clear, we requested an emergency landing on the island of Roatan. We almost missed it, but the clouds cleared. After what seemed to be a vertical drop, we landed safely. Upon disembarking, we discovered that fuel was not available. In an old hangar we found some empty fifty-five gallon oil drums. We put five of them in the back of an old pickup truck, whose owner drove me into town to a local gas station where I bought 260 gallons of “super” gasoline. When we returned, members of the airport personnel helped us fuel the plane. After opening the tank, one of the men asked us, “Were you on this plane?” We said, “Yes, why do you ask?” He said, “Because there is no fuel in this tank.” Apostolic praxis requires that the Church exercise right thinking and right doing. This interrelationship is illustrated in the following diagram:
Apostolic Praxis: Driven by the Wind and the Waves? The remainder of this lecture, utilizing the metaphor of the boat, the ability to row, and the wind and the waves, will address various contemporary missiological issues through the lens of a Spirit-driven missiology, the missiology of the indigenous church. Will the Church fulfill the apostolic mandate in apostolic power, or will it be seduced by the wind and the waves—the seductive powers of a donor-driven, market-driven, ministrydriven, personality-driven, program-driven, or missionary-driven missiology? What follows is a non-comprehensive list of potential “drivers” of missions that may not be Spirit-dependent with initial non-binding recommendations. I offer it in the same spirit of Melvin Hodges who stated in the preface of the first edition of The Indigenous Church, “The pattern presented in this volume is suggestive rather than mandatory, The Church in Apostolic Praxis 7 and its purpose is to aid the missionary to proceed along right lines and avoid crippling errors.” 12 The Boat: A Reliance on Material Resources On occasion, missionaries act as if all that is needed to get to the other side is a “really good boat” (i.e., material resources, money, organizational structures, strategies, programs, ministries and donors). If you can just raise enough money, buy that new satellite or building, promote the project, write the book, develop the curriculum, grow the largest organization or ministry, devise the most effective strategy, then the job of global evangelization will be accomplished. The related but nonverbalized assumption is that if I have the money or the resources, I have the power; but if not, then apostolic praxis is impossible. In order to gain access to the resources, missionary action is driven by the wants and vision of the donor (the
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Page 15 and 16: 10 pastoral ministry could ad
Page 17 and 18: Huntington, S. P. The Clash o
Page 19 and 20: 8 “Pentecostalism’s Rise,”
Page 23 and 24: The Apostolic Mandate 2 Gospel Chu
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Page 29 and 30: ministry, and provide for their own
Page 31 and 32: a connection to the broader body of
Page 33 and 34: SOURCES CITED Anderson, Ray S., ed.
Page 37 and 38: In the years to follow, Alta began
Page 39 and 40: First and foremost, Washburn was wi
Page 41 and 42: Historically, Native Americans have
Page 43 and 44: missionaries from Arizona, Washingt
Page 45 and 46: 35 Having myself served for fourtee
Page 47 and 48: them 8 because women were not educa
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Page 51 and 52: methods Christ exemplified remain c
Page 53 and 54: 1 Susan C. Hyatt, In the Spirit We
Page 55 and 56: 40 Ibid. 41 Hyatt, 30. 42 Brown, 15
Page 59 and 60: motivated to work even more so they
Page 61 and 62: earth, the sea, and all that is in
Page 63 and 64: order to counter the cultural tempt
Page 65 and 66: 2000), 25. 264. 6 Schor, 11. 7 Ibid
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Page 71 and 72: Bibliography Amjad-Ali, Charles W.,
Page 73 and 74: Wolterstorff , Nicholas. “Forewor
Page 75 and 76: 16 Ibid., 238. 17 The task is unden
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39 Ibid., 152. 40 This section admi
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Peter Bolt notes the allusion to Ps
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ole in the action of bringing all G
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23 Moltmann, The Trinity and the Ki
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Prayerful Pilgrims Although convers
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The only promise of God not conting
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Abraham‟s heart. God had to dethr
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ecause only with trust in Him can w
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Chad told me of his days as a succe
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3 Epistles, Paul evidences al
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In his article, “Why Has the Chur
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segments of the population lived in
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lessing in her lowly state (v. 48),
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poor results in the eschatological
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encouraging the rich to give alms t
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the community, “this actually hap
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5. Human rights are the minimum con
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challenged with the need to struggl
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expression of our love for God is i
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Pilgrim, Walter E. Good News to the
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24 C. McCown, “Palestine, Geograp
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73 I. Howard Marshall and David Pet
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122 Pilgrim, 124. 123 Ibid. 122. 12
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In his final chapter, Alexander tur
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credence to internal evidence. Less
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On a practical side, the book inclu
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thought. Surely Jesus will physical
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promises. I agree with her about an
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The understanding of the cross, the
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