Several years ago, well, quite a few years ago, I was acquainted, by way of the Internet, a gentleman that we will refer to as Sam.
Sam lived in New Zealand. Perhaps he still does, I’m not sure. We are not, as the old saying goes, corresponding any more.
Sam did not like Christians. He particularly did not like Christian missionaries, because they were the source of great problems in New Zealand. Christian missionaries, in his words and in his mind, had infiltrated the culture of NZ with a materialistic attitude that absolutely destroyed them due to their limited resources.
Or something along those lines. It’s been a few years and we never came to any peaceful settlement, really. Since I was a strong proponent of Christian evangelism, it was very difficult for Sam and I to be friends.
I attended Pensacola Christian College for my undergraduate degree. PCC is a great proponent of foreign missions, and many graduates wind up as missionaries. (The administration of PCC maintains that Calvinism threatens missions. I say that they know not whereof they speak, but that’s another post on perhaps another day.)
A fellow alumnus, Michael Freeze, with whom I never really associated extensively but was still acquainted with, is now a missionary to Cambodia. He and I “found” each other via Facebook, from whence I found his website at www.mfreeze.com. A brief exploration led me to a paper he has written regarding charity and the gospel, at this link.
To make a long story short, this paper, while I still may not agree with its entirety, helped me come to some resolution regarding the situation Sam found himself in. Indeed, it appears that many badly trained and misinformed Christian missionaries have indeed done a good deal of damage. That’s a shame, and it’s worth learning from.
I struggle with this. I firmly believe that Christians are called to help the poor, but I more firmly believe that we are called to spread the gospel. We are not, however, called to build churches. We are called to disciple believers. It is true that the best venue for discipling IS the church, so in a sense, we MUST build the church in order to disciple. But our purpose, in its truth, is on an individual level, not on a church level. Thus, when we evangelize a country, or a people, we should do it with the best interests of the INDIVIDUALS at heart, and that’s hard to resolve, for me.
I have longed to “sponsor” a child with WorldVision or Compassion International. To this point in life, we have not made the commitment to do so, and Michael has troubled my mind with regard to what is really best.
I have much. I struggle financially like many others, but compared to many, I have much. Is it wrong to give? Is it wrong to share? Is it hindering the effective spread of the gospel for me to give of my (relative) plenty? When I send money to “missions”, or when I make recommendations to my church as to how to support missions, I want the dollars to be well directed and effective.
I’m not, in case it’s not clear, always Southern Baptist in my “missions giving”. There are good things and bad things about the Cooperative Program, with the biggest one being that missions has become very “remote” to a lot of churches.
Would I always be wiser to support missionaries directly in their efforts, rather than directly giving money to the poor? Where is the balance? I know there is one, but I throw all this out for consideration and hopefully discussion. Y’all talk to me!
In a sideways note…. While I was at Pensacola, I developed a real hatred for the place and was delighted to finally leave. There were some intense and serious spiritual problems in my life at that time, but I have still never come to the point of agreeing with their approach. I may never. Regardless, in looking up the link to post above, for whatever reason, I actually FELT the atmosphere and somehow, 17+ years later, I actually missed it. Just for a moment. The insanity will hopefully fade quickly, but there was a part of me that was alive then that has never really quite existed in any other part of my life. Strange. I’m sure any college would be the same, but I can only speak of my own love-hate relationship.
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