Christian Missions
To be a Christian is to be a missionary. When do you seriously think about your faith? When are you more aware of your spirituality than when you are giving it away? The Church has always grown stronger at its base when it was expanding its frontiers. The rector of a parish, whose building had burned, asked Phillips Brooks what he would do under these circumstances. He replied, “The first thing I would do would be to take up an offering for foreign missions.”
The study of Comparative Religions has helped us appreciate the religious aspirations of other people. On the other hand, it has led some Christians to think they should not impose our Gospel on people who already have a religion of their own. After all, that is what happens in Muslim nations where there is a state religion. We can all agree we should not “impose” our religion on others. That has never been the Christian message.
Our Lord came to establish a Kingdom for all men and He left instructions to extend His invitation – “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
We often hear that we have too much to do in our home communities – that we should Christianize our own people before we attempt to move out to others. If our forefathers had waited until all of Europe was converted, we in America would undoubtedly be pagan. If the Apostles had waited in Jerusalem until the entire city was converted, the few Christians holding on in Jerusalem would constitute the entire Christian Church. We cannot expect any nation to be entirely Christian until every nation understands and appreciates its message. Fortunately, the Apostles were obedient to our Lord’s command and set no limits to their missionary activities. They moved unto the ends of the world as it was known in their day. We should be doing the same today.
Three reasons can be cited for the necessity of Christian Missions. First, the world today is a unit. It cannot be separated into watertight compartments. Improved international travel combined with modern communication places each part of the world in a position to be affected by any other part. If a plague breaks out in Asia, health precautions will be implemented to keep it from spreading throughout the world. A crop failure in one part of the world often affects the worldwide food supply. If one country’s currency fails or weakens, the effect is felt in all the exchanges in the world. Even war cannot be localized. No major city in the world has been safe from the fighting in the Middle East.
Every year, we see more and more economic and social relationships between previously isolated parts of the world. With geographic restraints removed, how can religion be confined to “home consumption”? Every Christian nation has bee molded by its Christian inheritance. The acceptance of Christ’s Gospel means that Christian principles have been incorporated in the national tradition and have influenced national habits. Every time an individual commercial representative is sent to a foreign country, he carries some of that Christianity with him. It is part and parcel of his personality and character.
We lament the lost of our Christian heritage as it is removed little by little from the national character. There are two things to learn from that. One thing is that other religions are obviously bringing their message to America and diluting our influence at home. If we are not carrying our values to their countries, we are giving up without a fight.
The second thing is that we still carry the Christian heritage with us individually. As individuals, we still attempt to influence our government and have an opportunity to help it retain its Christian principles. If we attempt to export our western culture without exporting our Christian message, we are failing to provide a complete picture to other nations. Without the guidance of our Christian principles, our western civilization is unable to perpetuate itself in a new environment. We have tried and failed to export democracy without the Christian heritage.
The second reason cited for the necessity of Christian Missions is one of opportunity. We have no right to keep the Christian message to ourselves. We are trustees, not owners of Jesus’ teachings. We have enjoyed the benefits of the Christian faith because of the generosity of other Christians. We did not receive them because we inherently deserved them. The Gospel is not something to be hoarded – it is to be shared. If we clutch it so close we squeeze the life out of it, we have not only deprived others but we are spoiling what we are trying to protect. Selfishness is the supreme spiritual corrosive. Dam up the Church and it stagnates. History has shown this to be true over and over again.
The third reason cited for the necessity of Christian Missions is diversity. We have much to learn of our own Gospel by what other people can teach us about it. We can never know its full content until all races have revealed its variegated riches. Christianity means something different and better to us now than it did to those who lived it in the tenth century. Note, the Gospel did not change; only Christian experience has changed. In much the same manner, it means something different to different kinds of people today.
At the last parish lunch, Steve Talbot, Kingsley Mgbike and I were talking about what changes would be expected in our church if we were in communion with Rome. Concern was expressed that if Roman Catholics came to our service, they might change our practices to something we didn’t like. The first answer is that when Roman Catholics visit our church, they will accept our practices just as we accept theirs when we visit their facilities. Then I pointed out that there is less difference between Roman Catholic weddings and our weddings than there is between Anglican weddings in the U.S. and Anglican weddings in Nigeria.
Cultural experience will, of necessity, change the Christian expression. As long as it does not change the Gospel, it simply reveals more fully the richness of Christ’s message. In the early church, it was decided that you did not have to be a Jew before you could become a Christian. In the same vein, you do not have to become an American to become a Christian. We need the diversity of Chinese Christians, Japanese Christians, Indian Christians and African Christians. With that breadth, we will better understand God’s Will.
Today, when we speak of foreign or domestic missions, it is a division of organization and resources. It is not a division in the Christian message. It is appropriate to speak of the Church’s mission as being one and indivisible. In fact it is the essence of its life. Archbishop Ramsey of Canterbury expressed, “the Church that lives to itself will die by itself.” It would be a great coup for Christianity if all its expressions could be coordinated in their efforts to spread the word. As long as each denomination presses their particular expression above the Christian Gospel, we are limiting our possibilities.
We have a mission to our own community, to the people of urban areas, to farmers and ranchers and Indians, to the underprivileged poor and to the over-privileged rich. We express our sense of mission not only by the gifts that we give but by the way in which we live out our Christian convictions in home, school, office, and factory. Have you ever noticed a mistake in your favor on your grocery store receipt? Did you go back to the store and try to give them the difference? They will often refuse the money because it costs more to correct it than they lost with the original error. Nonetheless, you are illustrating your Christian convictions and influencing others with your beliefs.
We are increasingly learning to express the Church’s mission by our cooperation with indigenous Churches and ministries, by respecting their national customs and leadership, and by recognizing that we are fellow-seekers of the truth that God has revealed to all men.
The Church does not send out missionaries to patronize those of other traditions or to make them American Anglicans. They go to share with others, at home or abroad, what God has entrusted to all His people, and that we and they may approach somewhat nearer to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”