Where the devil is not white

A friend from Togo wrote to me today, "we sincerely need you to pray along with us that God will establish and lay a solid and firm foundation for the work in Togo". We first met last November when I was in northern Nigeria. This determined and brave single Nigerian lady has been a missionary for some years. When she first went to Togo she was horrified to discover that in the north of the country local folklore taught that albino children were possessed by evil spirits. Many were killed, often by their own families. My friend offered to care for these children instead of letting them die and began to teach the people that an albino child, like any child, is a gift from God. This care for albino children was the trigger that began to release whole communities from their captivity to fear and superstition.

Christian churches are growing rapidly in many parts of this west African country. Amazingly some local land owners are offering to give land so a church can be built - in fact they are pleading with the Nigerian missionaries to build a church. They see the real benefits that faith in Jesus is bringing to their local communities.

Join me, if you will, in prayer for Togo and its people - and thank God for his albino children.

Why on earth?

I must have read Mark 1:16 hundreds of times, but this week it just struck me how ridiculous it is! I mean the invitation to Simon, Andrew and the rest to become "fishers of men", to have a role in the mission of God. And that realisation has implications for all our mission.

Let me explain. This call makes no sense at all when you read it in context. In the first few verses of what Mark describes as "the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ" we see the full reality and power of the Trinity. God the Son is found fully present on earth in the person of Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth. The Spirit of God descends and takes full control of the situation driving Jesus first into the wilderness and then into ministry in Galilee. God the Father speaks - giving his full approval to this amazing expression of the Missio Dei, the outreaching of God in creation. The full relational life of the Trinity is powerfully described in these few verses and the focus of that God-life is made clear - the redemption of all creation, beginning with us.

So why is the call of Simon and his mates so ridiculous? Because it is so unnecessary, it adds nothing at all to the action. Son of God, empowered by the Spirit and approved by the Father needs no assistants! But the amazing thing is that He actually chooses to invite our participation.

If you really grasp the truth of that verse you will never again dare even to think you are doing God a favour by participation in His mission.

Rebirthing a nation

What a joy it was today to receive a surprise visit from Bishop Andre who leads the 'missionary diocese' of Angola. I first met Bishop Andre a few years ago and we have kept in touch on a number of matters but today he just rolled into the office unannounced - wonderful. Such a humble man, not totally at ease in English (his third language) but listening with a wise ear and measuring his words in reply.

For years the very word 'Angola' cunjured up a deep sense of despair - a civil war raging out of control and a popilation reduced to abject poverty. It was one of those nations you were tempted to write off as without hope. Listening to Andre today, however, I heard a very different story. Angola, a land of sunshine and fertile lands, a place of diamonds, oil, and rich mineral deposits, a country blessed with energetic and hopeful people determined to bless other nations and end any sense of dependence. A bishop, proud of his nation, told me that they have the capacity to feed a third of Africa and to provide the world with all the diamonds we could hope for. But more significantly he spoke of spiritual hope.

The Anglican church in Angola is very small - but growing fast. Desperately short of resorces and with only twenty clergy on salaries, the church is in expansion mode. Most of the leaders, clergy and lay, have full time employment as teachers, farmers, and civil servants, but that does not stop them leading vibrant communities and planting new churches. There are whole provinces of the country with no Anglican churches today - but tomorrow will be a different story I was told! The great challenge is training the leaders, but as Bishop Andre made his farewells I felt a strong sense of optimism - it is a challenge he is up to! Perhaps our small part in Faith2Share will be to provide links with Portuguese speaking (Angola's trade language) mission movements in Brazil and India and so see what they can do together. Angola is very definitely reborn.

Short change?

Only twenty years ago the mission agency I worked for sent out 'Short-term' missionaries to do 2 - 4 years service. Some extended to six years but they were still 'short-termers'. That was then. In contrast, back in June I had a conversation with an American church leader who was very excited about the dozens of members in her church who offer for 'short-term' mission. I'm not stupid so I asked her what she meant by 'short-term'. "Oh, its normally a two week trip but some do three weeks or even a month." she continued enthusiastically. We were standing in the lunch queue at Edinburgh University and I wished she had been in the session that afternoon when my friend Darrell Whiteman had voiced his concerns.

Darrell shared with us the following statistics for short-term missionaries in the US

1965 under 10,000

1989 120,000

1994 200,000

2005 1,600,000

That's some growth and my first reaction was to rejoice that so many people are offering for mission service. But then Darrell started asking his questions! If most of these 1.6 million Christians are abroad for just 2-4 weeks can they really be effective in mission? What do they understand about their host culture? How do they build deep relationships? Is this more about enriching the experience to US Christians (no bad thing!) rather than mission in Bolivia or wherever? Should we not be honest and call this "cross-cultural exposure" not "mission"?

Just as I was coming to terms with these questions, wrestling with the concept of 'ecclesiastical tourism', Darrell went on to ask even harder questions ...... If 1.6 million short-termers contribute 192 million hours of free labour to local projects across the world is that not a good thing? But what effect does that have on the local economy? How does this help to build partnership rather than dependancy? If 1.6 million Americans had stayed at home instead and sent the US$4.8 billion that they would otherwise have spent (on air fares, accommodation, food, etc.) to the local church what might that have purchased in the local economy?

There are no easy answers but it does make me wonder whether Christians have bought into the 'short-termism' of our contemporary culture and whether anyone will ever again want to do anything long-term.

Making Room

Carol service tonight, and the church was heaving. I'm not sure what happened to the fire regulations but we had stacking chairs everywhere and a fairly challenging mix of candles, carol sheets and excited kids! But how can you turn people away from a Carol Service when its minus three outside? I was the inn keeper - or rather I read a highly adapted version of Luke's gospel in the voice of the inn keeper. That too was about 'no room at the inn' and then 'making room'.

Walking home later, under a wonderfully clear star filled sky which was allowing even those minus degrees to escape, I reflected further on 'making room'. Not so much the rather prosaic 'making room for Jesus in your heart' - mine's full of valves and sinues - but rather God making room for me. It strikes me that there was no reason at all why Father, Son and Holy Spirit could not have gone on enjoying each others fellowship throughout eternity, without all these risks of creation. The risk of creating a world that we so easily mess up, and women and men who forget their place and try to be God. But that's just the beauty of it all - with no compulsion at all, God made room for us. That's what creation is all about - God made room for us. It's like eternity was full (complete) with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet God created a space for us, for me. Wow!

If mission is 'in the pattern of God's dealings with us' then mission is also about making space. Even when life is full the love of God calls us to make space for the child who is hungry, the alcoholic who smells, and the angry young man with too much money and too little sense. Years ago Michel Quoist wrote a prayer called Before you Lord in which he talks very powerfully about this 'making room' for others in our lives - as God has made room for us. Use the link and pray the prayer - I dare you.

On the move - 190 million

Doing some research for a short presentation I am giving later this week I discovered an interesting, and challenging, fact. I bet you didn't know either. Apparently more than 3% of the world's population lives in a country different from the one in which they were born - that's 190 million people! Given that most people, even those living in situations made difficult through poverty or insecurity, prefer to stay put, it is quite staggering that three out of every hundred human beings is a migrant

Statistics are interesting but what I find really fascinating are the personal stories behind the statistics, and here we have a veritable gold mine of 190,000,000 stories! Some are real success stories, the African lad who loved football and now plays for Arsenal, the Russian entrepreneur living in a rather nice pad in Chelsea, and the nurse from Malawi who works in Sweden and sends home half her salary to support the family. Other stories need to be rated triple X, the Bangadeshi girl wobbling in high healed shoes and too much make-up on the streets of Mombay waiting for her next male customer, the illegal farm labourer hiding in a barn in Lincolnshire, and the political activist who had to seek asylum far from home

The statistic I have still not found, however, is how many of those 190 million women, men and children are Christians. How many million 'unintentional' missionaries do we have in the world? And, whatever number there are - and there are millions - who is supporting them, training them, praying for them? Will they ever feature in the historoes of mission? Some of those personal stories are great - the Ethiopian girl who reads Bible stories to her employer's children in Saudi Arabia, the Chinese student who became a Christian in Canada and now leads a church in China, and the Ghanian nurse who prays (as long as the law allows!) with her patients in Bristol

Living in a strange place is never easy - but those who do enrich our communities, deserve our friendship and must be protected when the world turns nasty.

Georgian Archbishops and Burundi

Do Baptists have bishops? Yes, most certainly, and in Georgia - an Archbishop! Archbishop Malkhaz Songulashvili (right) has been a good friend of mine for ten years or more now and leads a very interesting church in the former soviet republic. He was my dinner guest last Friday and presented me with a beautiful poster from the Baptist icon paining school in Tiblisi - surely that must be a first!

As we enjoyed coffee together after the meal, and having exchanged tales of mutual friends in Georgia, and news of last year's war with Russia, Malkhaz told me of his visit to Burundi. Yes, Burundi in central Arica. As a jaundiced Westerner I am used to people from Georgia, and Russia for that matter, frequenting the networks of donors in Germany, Britain and the US, but why Burundi? Malkhaz explained that despite the poverty of his own people, and the recent suffering brought by conflict with big brother Russia, they wanted to reach out to sisters and brothers in greater need in Africa. Now a formal link has been inaugurated between Baptist churches in Georgia and churches in Burundi and a regular flow of prayer, people and assistance has begun.

One more hopeful sign of joined up mission in God's amazing world.

When Youthwork means youth work

Great news from Church Army Africa - a Faith2Share movement - this week. More Kenyan youth now find themselves with employment and hope following the establishment of dozens of new micro-enterprises around the country.

Church youth work is always a challenge - who will do it? - what shall we do? - what do young people want anyway? - what relevance does faith have for the socially engaged teenager or the depressed 20 something? Young people in Kenya represent 75% of the population and many of them face a host of social and economic challenges including unemployment, crime, corruption, tribalism and HIV/AIDS, not to mention their youthful struggle with identity. Working with CMS Africa, Church Army Africa recently started a Youth for Work programme which recognises that when you are young in Kenya gospel = work, a opportunity to contribute to society, to be valued, to have dignity and to know yourself as a daughter or son of the creative God. Sounds like a great mission venture to me. Well done Church Army Africa.

Crusading Koreans?

I spent this evening reflecting with mission colleagues on the significance of the Korean mission movement. A Pentecostal Korean missiologist, Julie Ma, had raised a few challenging questions in her opening lecture at the Asian Mission Consultation at Redcliffe College and that got us going. With Korea now sending more cross-cultural missionaries than any other country outside the US (so Julie claimed) their missiology and methodology must be significant. I was struck by how many times Julie spoke of the Korean mindset as 'crusading' - ouch!! - but she's right in many respects. Another colleague later talked of Korean missionaries as being 'modern' (rational, linear, success oriented, goal setting) and therefore finding it difficult to address pre- and post-modern mission contexts.

My question was what distinctive contributions Koreans bring to global mission. The 'birth ground' of their faith is in many ways unique - suffering, struggle, Shamanism overlaid by Buddhism, and rapid church growth. That must give them something unique. The answers we began to get were in terms of an acute awareness of spiritual realities, a deeply prayerful ministry, dogged determination, and generosity. But Korean missions need to relate to the rest of us and we need them - if only we can overcome substantial language and cultural barriers. The future looks good.

Kimchi Mission

"A couple of years ago a leader of a British mission agency asked me, 'What can we do to help Korean mission movements?' and I told him, 'Nothing!' He looked rather shocked but it was a truthful answer - he came 50 years to late." KeungChul Jeong was in my office today and that was his frank comment on the attitude of western mission movements towards Koreans. KeungChul, who leads the work of Interserve in Korea, was, of course, right in most respects but I still wished we had a little longer to talk - he had to rush for a train or something. He was correct in that a lot of us from the West underestimate Korean missionary maturity. He also saw that we have a difficulty in receiving, we prefer to give. He was also rightly reflecting the self-understanding of Korea as a nation which now sends more cross-cultural missionaries than any other except India and the USA. But then he might just (if I may be allowed to suggest it) be making the same mistake as the British. Collaboration, partnership, sharing (call it what you like) is important for the strong as well as the weak - Koreans need Africans, Indians and Peruvians as partners in mission, just as much as do we Brits.

Well, I'm in Seoul in October so perhaps we can talk some more then. We discovered we have a mutual friend there - Henry, a Korean mission leader from whom I learnt much in Southern Russia ten years ago. Perhaps we can enjoy Kimchi together and discover some new recipies for partnership.

Kenyan insight into Genesis

Gerald Mwangi, a colleague from Mission Together Africa, based in Nairobi, staying at my house this week, joined us for tonight's home group meeting. We had lined up a study of Genesis 1 and frankly I was not anticipating any revolutionary new thoughts. ('Oh man of little faith'?) We were a smaller group today (you know, that 'buying a wife and marrying a cow' stuff) but we had a great discussion. The highlight for me however was Gerald's thoughts on 'Why did God rest on the seventh day?'

Kenyan synthetic thinking drew a fascinating parallel between God's resting on the seventh day of creation, after He had seen that everything He had created was 'very good', and Jesus 'resting' on the cross after he uttered those powerful words, 'it is finished, complete'. Both creation and salvation are, for God, complete and also 'very good' - even if they do still take some working out by us mere mortals. But there's more! Just before God rests in Genesis he commissions human beings to care for creation, to manage it, to bring it to completion. In a very similar way, just before salvation is completed on the cross, Jesus commissions his disciples (us!) for mission - to share in God's salvific as well as His creative work. Good thinking, Gerald - thanks!

Dodging Charlie

It seems I have been almost meeting Charlie for fifteen years and more but never seen him until he sat in my living room this evening. You know what it's like ... "Oh, you know X?", "Yes I worked with him in Russia in '92," "That was about the time we started supporting BLTC", "BLTC in Krasnodar? - I was on its Board!", "and I don't suppose you ever knew Y", "Of course I did, he's right here in Oxford now you know." etc. etc. I turns out we might have met last year in Hungary except Charlie was sick and didn't make it to the conference. Anyway, after 15 years of 'near misses' we had a great evening tonight discovering that we have actually beeen in the same ministry, supporting the same people, learning the same lessons, and trying to be obedient to the same Father all these years. Charlie is American and Baptist (I can just about forgive him that!) but shares the same passion for Europe becoming a place where people of so many different backgrounds can discover that becoming a disciple of Jesus is one 'heaven' of an adventure.

When Charlie eventually went to bed I found myself sitting and wondsering how many other unseen Charlies there were out there - employed by the same Lord, in the same ministry, in many of the same places as me, but totally unknown. I wonder. ... I wonder which one will I bump into next?

Pilgrim principle

I constantly go back to Andrew Walls - thank's Andrew - and get new inspiration for real mission. In a world full of culture-attuned mission methodology ('Purpose driven', 'Seeker friendly', and 'People Group' focused) it's good to be reminded that faith can also be counter-cultural. Walls writes,

Not only does God in Christ take people as they are: He takes them in order to transform them into what He wants them to be. Along with the indigenising principle which makes his faith a place to feel at home, the Christian inherits the pilgrim principle, which whispers to him that he has no abiding city and warns him that to be faithful to Christ will put him out of step with his society; for that society never existed, in East or West, ancient time or modern, which could absorb the word of Christ painlessly into its system. (Andrew Walls Missionary Movement in Christian History Pg. 8)

Differently together

Today I heard from two friends (one an ex-girl friend I haven't heard from for 30 years!), sat in the sun and read a book, and then scanned some scary emails from Pakistan. Strangely they all linked together - is it a plot? A mission director friend wrote from Malaysia to say he had just finished his sabbatical and had been working on a 'theology of ethnicity'. Marion wrote "We Judge!!... but whom do we stand next too ??.. God knows!!.. oh yes he does!!!!... I shared a hymn sheet with a street cleaner, he was black from head to toe!! he held out his sheet to share with me... and began to sing.. i was humbled!!... ashamed!! A voice of an angel!!!! he sang every word with passion!!! and then he carried on cleaning the streets". My book (the sun was great) provided a resounding renunciation of McGavran's 'homogeneous people group' approach to mission and rekindled in me the excitement of the multi-ethnic, multi-everything church. And Pakistan? Well do I have to say anything? ... ethnicity rules! What I really want to know is how we can actually enhance ethnicity, as a contribution to the enrichment of humanity rather than as a rejection of 'the other'. Paul you really do need to write up your sabbatical study. If Christians could really crack this 'difference is what holds us together' stuff then we really would be on to something - perhaps even in the Swat Valley (Pakistan).

Oh, the book I was reading was Eckhard Schnabel's Paul the Missionary - and its not all as good at this afternoon's few pages!

Leadership and power - Nigeria and Britain

I connected with two great guys yesterday who I used to work with in the '80s. Ken is now Bishop on the Niger (Nigeria) where he has a couple of years left to serve before retirement. He is also chair of the Church of Nigeria Missionary Society (part of Faith2Share) so we had business to do. The more interesting part of the conversation however was about leadership in a Nigerian culture. Ken has a great vision for the real potential of lay leadership in the church in Nigeria, but (outside his own diocese where he is 'king') constantly comes up against rampant clericalism. He as a Nigerian and I as a Brit. were trying to analyse how much of that style of leadership - bishop/knight/chief - is cultural (and perhaps even appropriate) and how much is simply human power games. No answers but a good discussion.

Then in the evening Bob rang. He was Dean (big boss) of a cathedral in the UK and at Christmas decided to step down from all that and find a humbler way to serve. Risky - he doesn't have a job yet - but a great witness to those who see promotion and titles as the ultimate objective!

Missionary Diocese?

Tonight I took the risk of cooking Indian food for an Indian! - it seemed to work. My dinner guest was Revd Moses Jayakumar the General Secretary of the Church of South India (CSI). Quite a breath of fresh air after the last holder of that post (let the reader understand!). After we had survived the Anglo-Indian curry I was quizing Moses (what a great name!) about how members of CSI churches join mission agencies in India. Two of them are members of our Faith2Share network - hence my interest. What took me completely by surprise was his reply that whilst many do join agencies like Friends Missionary Prayer Band and Indian Evangelical Mission many Indian dioceses send out their own missionaries. I knew that, but what I didn't know was that several send over 400 or more each! Apparently South Kerala and Tirunelveli dioceses have missionaries in almost every state of India and beyond. Wake up Wakefield (the Church of England's so-called 'Missionary Diocese') - that's what you call 'mission shaped diocese'!

Vulnerability in Mission

With a very interesting group of people from around the world, I'm currently working on some research that might see the light of day next year - at the Edinburgh 2010 Mission Conference. The idea is to look at how people get motivated for and caught up in Christian mission - how they go about it. One of the issues we were talking (well, virtual talking) through yesterday was vulnerability in mission. Jesus was quite vulnerable at times (how else did he get crucified?) and Paul has quite a lot to say about vulnerability, and yet Christians often go about mission in quite powerful ways - linked in with colonialisation, globalising materialism, or 'power evangelism'. I had a quite challenging/difficult meeting last week with a Brit. who is absolutely committed to vulnerable mission - living simply, using local resources, speaking the local language, having no more power than any local person - in western Kenya. Jim really works hard at this 'being vulnerable' but its not easy. His skin colour alone manks him out as one who has access to those with financial resources and power even if he does not have them himself. I also found out about him on the internet and met him in Wantage, UK. No one else from his village in Kenya has a web presence or flies to the UK! So what does 'vulnerability' mean in terms of mission? I'm still wrestling with that one.

EAT Lunch

I wasn't expecting such a good lunch today at EAT in Baker Street. Well, the food was actually not that good - overpriced and somewhat bland - but the conversation was great. A colleague asked me to meet a student from London School of Theology who wanted to talk with someone about partnerships in mission and as I was in London destined for another meeting - which is another story! - I agreed to meet Lanri. I must admit I was expecting just another student looking for a quick way to get someone else to write their asignment, I've had plenty of those meetings, but I was wrong. It turned out that Lanri is a mature student, hails from Lagos, Nigeria, and is really passionate about partnerships in mission. I can't believe it, but he tells me he is one of only two students at LST majoring in mission - what has become of LST? We had a great hour or so sharing passions and now Faith2Share is destined to become the case study in Lanri's disertation. That's good, but better still, I was encouraged to find another African brother who really believes we can build kingdom partnerships. Perhaps it was worth the £3.95 sandwich after all!