Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

missions,"
Missionary Number
LESSON HELPS FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 22, 1955
THE FIELD IS THE WORLD, TW 5/rtO (S THE WORD Of- GOD
VOLUME LTV WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1955 NUMBER 18
Facts Every
Christian Know
Secretary, Christian Missionary Fellowship
O. D. JOHNSON
In "United Evangelical Action," Used by Permission
The Mission Field is a term which conjures up
different pictures in people's minds. Sabbath School
children, women's society members, and church offi
cers all see their own mental images when they hear
these words.
pictures"
Since few such "mind are based on
first hand knowledge, probably most of them are
vague and inaccurate. Just what do we mean when
we talk about missions
In a word, missions means evangelism. Thus de
fined, it is easy to see that missions is the whole
program of the church, not merely a department.
In ordinary usage, of course, the meaning is restrict
ed to church work outside of and beyond the inte
grated circle of the congregation. Though many
churches have "home the mission fields
are usually thought of as lying in distant and back
ward lands.
We would all be much straighter if we would
stop thinking in terms of countries. Christ died for
people, not for places. Missionaries are not sent to
India, Ethiopia, and Brazil, but to the people who
live there. Mission work is a personal thing,
with
the emphasis on personality, not on geography. How
ever different their culture and their standards of
whom the
living and morality, the people among
missionaries labor are men and women, boys and
girls who are basically the same as we. The point
is that they need Christ, whatever their social status
may be.
The Aim of Missions
The missionary enterprise really has but one
aim the establishment of the church of Christ a-
mong all people in every place. The great tragedy
of modern missions has been the failure to keep this
aim clearly and constantly before every Christian.
This basic goal encompasses more than giving a
brief exposition of John 3:16 to the most people in
the shortest time. It does not stop with indirect ap
proaches that sow gospel seed which may or may
not result in definite conversions. It means the estab
lishment of a self-propagating, self-governing, and
self-supporting native church.
To recognize this goal
the building of indigen
ous Christian churches throughtout the world is
the first step to an understanding of missions..
Christians can be confident that if the missions
they support are true to the task of building an in
digenous church, then that church can faithfully
survive even if the orthodoxy of the parent mission
should diminish,
even if an external force like Com
munism should force the mission to close.
Training of National Workers
The training of church workers from among the
nationals of the country shoud be a No. 1 operation
of every mission. Yet great care must be taken that
the training methods do not defeat the purpose of
this training. There is a place in the mission field
for Bible schools, institutes, some colleges and
seminaries, but there is a much greater place for
a non-academic program of training leadership. The
natural leaders among village converts need to be
given enough training to enable them to teach and
lead others. This training needs to be given with
them to influences that would make
out exposing
them dissatisfied to remain in the little world of
their nativity and to serve there on the meager
salaries provided by the tithes of their brethren.
Because of this, American Christians who sup
port mission field training schools do wrong to in
sist upon much, if any, direct contact with nationcontinued
on page 279)