Looking backwards, looking forwards

As the office door is closed for the last time in 2013 thoughts inevitably go to the year that has passed.  One aspect of the year that is always a highlight are the travels overseas.

March saw time in India.  Kolkata has now become a regular place to visit with its incessant bustle of life and multitude of colour and noise.  In the midst of all of this it is encouraging to see Christians seeking to make Christ known, often in the face of extreme poverty.  Mizoram in the north east of India, wedged between Bangladesh and Myanmar seemed a world away from Kolkata, with its steep forested hillsides and peaceful Christian people worshiping Jesus in their own unique way to the beat of a drum.  The community of Christ rightly takes many different forms and ways of expression, and yet is one body.

From the peace of Mizoram, I travelled next to the insecurity of central Asia, where living out the Christian faith looks very different.  Nevertheless, it is great to see how folk are trying to make Christ known in this very different context.  Just as Jesus took on a very particular cultural form in his incarnation, so folk here adapt to their context while still seeking to remain true to their Christian faith and to demonstrate his love, in acts of service and giving answer to the hope within when asked.

 

In the summer I visited first Chile and then Peru, two countries in a continent transformed by the Gospel over the past century.  Here it was great to meet the diverse BMS team working in places ranging from deep in the Amazon jungle to high in the Andes mountains.  The image of the church as the body of Christ comes to mind with such diversity combined with a unity of purpose and an interdependence of people. 

Lastly in November I travelled to the county of Chad on the edge of the Sahara desert to visit a Christian hospital in an area with a minimal Christian presence.  I was struck by the sacrificial service of many people sharing God’s love by using their medical skills and taking opportunity to pray together and with patients.  Sometimes we speak of ‘integral mission’ where words and works go seamlessly hand in hand, and here in Chad, in the middle of nowhere I found a fantastic example of this.

What a privilege it has been to see God at work in so many different ways and varied places.  As we remember the incarnation of Christ at Christmas, we see him incarnate by his Spirit today in the lives of ordinary people across the world.  I'm looking forwards to seeing much more next year!

Bribery and Corruption!

Did you know that a recent report indicated that an estimated $1 Trillion (that’s a big amount!) is lost in bribery, corruption and tax evasion by the developing world each year?  In Africa alone the cost of corruption represents about 25% of the continents GDP.  Putting it on a more personal level, the average woman in Africa will have to pay $22 in bribes for maternal services.

It would be wrong to simply point the finger at the developing world when it comes to financial misdealing, when we live in an age of fraudulent expense claims and corrupt banking practices.  Nevertheless it is often the poorest and the weakest who suffer the most from the impact of corruption.

In the light of this and in response to government legislation, as a mission agency we have just agreed a Bribery and Corruption Policy.  The nature of my working environment is often one in which policies are prepared and issued for action and this can lead to a certain degree of frustration – “Not another policy!”  And yet in this case the policy is not just a matter of semantics, but rather about the living out of Kingdom values.  The teaching of the Bible is that we are to live distinctive lives and this should impact how we face settings in which we encounter corrupt attitudes and behaviour.  More positively we are to be people who seek actively after a world that is just and fair.  Micah 6 vs.8 encapsulates this challenge with these words – “He has showed you O man what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6 goes on to talk about the injustice of dishonest scales and false weights. 

When we pray, “Your kingdom come”, we do so believing that this will challenge the way that we live in this world and impact our attitude and actions relating to finance and power.

Integral Mission in Chad

I have just returned from the country of Chad, where I have been incredibly impressed by an initiative that is best covered by the term ‘integral mission’.  In other words it is an expression of mission that encompasses both an active demonstration and a proclamation of the Gospel.

In terms of an active demonstration, the hospital is bringing healing to people from whom otherwise there would be no hope.  Help is being brought to combat preventable illnesses such as tetanus which are rife in the area leaving many dead or suffering from the consequences.  Other people are now able to be treated as never before, and women are assisted in child birth.  Chad is also significantly impacted by malnutrition that hits the youngest hardest, and the hospital is able to develop a programme to help the weakest.  All this is inspirational, but the hope offered is more than just physical, but also spiritual. 

The hospital is openly Christian, but this means so much more than just the identity.  A Chadian chaplain seeks to share his faith in gentle ways within the hospital and the staff meet regularly for prayer together and also to offer prayer to the patients.  Opportunities are taken to speak of the love of Jesus regularly. 

The example of the Chadian hospital brings a challenge to the practice of mission in all settings in terms of how we adopt an integral approach that involves both actions and words.

Faith and Society

The impression that I have often had of international development in terms of the UK is that mission agencies do their thing and quite separately government does its thing.  But should this division be accepted or are there ways in which meaningful partnership can be developed between the two groups?

I recently attended a meeting arranged by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation at Westminster under the title of ‘The Contribution of Faith Communities to Global Health’.  Several MPs were in attendance along with academics and development organisation and faith group leaders. I was encouraged by the wide recognition of the importance of government engaging with faith groups.  While accepting that the public profile of faith communities is often negative (indeed the meeting itself was held on the anniversary of 9/11), the story of both history and today is of faith communities often being at the forefront of community transformation for good.  The history of BMS itself is woven with stories of positive contribution to life across the world e.g. Carey leading a campaign to abolish the practice of widow-burning in India, and Knibb as a leading member of the campaign for the abolishment of slavery in Jamaica. 

Today people across the world are demonstrating God’s love in many society transforming ways.  Indeed often mission agencies such as BMS have a unique impact in terms of resources, staying power, the ability to change attitudes and the motivation of faith.  Mission agencies are able to view the ‘life in all its fullness’ that Jesus offers to give a more holistic response to need.  Western government can sometimes seek to separate faith from other issues in society, whereas in most of the developing world faith cannot be extricated from the whole of life like a segment an orange, but rather is like the juice that runs throughout.  An integrated response to human need across the world cannot ignore faith.

There are challenges in helping government see that we operate without ‘strings attached’ in terms of care being dependent on acceptance of the Gospel.  However my hope is that we can give a more effective voice to the voiceless, in government circles, as well as continuing to seek to demonstrate love in tangible ways to those in greatest need.

Reaching other cultures

‘Reaching other cultures’ - Each of the three words conveys something of significance.

Firstly, ‘Reaching’ implies that we need to actively move towards the other, rather than sitting where we are.  All mission involves us reaching from where we are to another.  We see such a movement throughout scripture as God reaches out again and again to his people.  We see it in the words of Jesus to “Go and make disciples…”.  We see it again in the early church as the Spirit pushed disciples out of the safety of a room to tell others about the transforming love of Christ.  We see it in the history of the church people such as William Carey and Hudson Taylor reaching out from their home lands to far off places.  Mission today involves a reach.  In the UK church there can be a tendency to operate on a solely attractional model of mission that simply invites people to come to us and our gatherings.  While this may still work for some, increasingly we need to be people who reach out; people who make the presence of Christ real in the places where we work and in the communities where we live.

Secondly, ‘other’ implies that those to whom we reach are different to us.  My own experience with BMS continues to stress to me the importance of understanding the ‘other’, the differences of those with whom we seek to share the gospel.  The way in which we present the Gospel to the Hindu villager in India, to the family by the Amazon in  Peru and to the Muslim in Central Asia needs to take this ‘other-ness’ into account. 

This idea of ‘other-ness ‘closely related to the third word, ‘cultures’.  I believe that all mission is cross-cultural.  You do not have to get in a plane and fly to some exotic location to engage in the missionary task.  The UK is as much a mission field as India or Peru.  This was impressed upon me sitting in an Alpha course in an urban setting where the leader tried to convince a young lady that she was a sinner needing to know forgiveness.  The young lady continued to retort that she considered herself to be a basically good person and so became increasingly offended by the group leader’s accusations.  She sadly left never to return.  My question is this – What is the Gospel to this young woman?  We need to stop to listen and try to understand the culture within which we are sharing the gospel in order to do so effectively.  We need to learn from those who engage in cross-cultural mission overseas and apply those lessons to our own context.

Recently, on a trip to Central Asia, I spent time talking with a young Muslim man about faith.  Our conversation could start with an assumption of God’s existence and we were able to share stories of creation.  A bridge was built and then we were able to move from creation to Jesus, with the saying about the birds of the air and lilies of the field.  From there we were able to move on to my own beliefs about Jesus.  Reaching other cultures is an exciting journey that calls for understanding, wisdom and action.  I am convinced that the church in the UK needs to learn form the ongoing story of the church and mission around the world, if we are to effectively engage in mission in our own context.

Peace in the face of conflict

How we relate to one another in a diverse world is one of the big questions facing us in the world today.  Modern travel and migration have added to the need to find good ways of relating to one another – ways of peace and not of conflict. 

Belfast Peace Line

There is something about our humanity that seems to seek to define ourselves against others.  My own upbringing in Northern Ireland was in the setting of the two tribes of Irish Republicanism and Ulster Loyalism, who defined themselves against one another and spent a bloody number of years in conflict.  I have a memory as a child of meeting up with a group from Catholic West Belfast who had never knowingly met with Protestants in their lives.  With such distance and separation came suspicion, fear and a lack of trust.  Religious issues were drawn into the conflict, in part to legitimise the conflict by claiming that God was on one side or another.  The two communities were divided by the ironically called ‘Peace Line’.

Recently at meetings of the Baptist World Alliance in Chile, I have had the privilege of meeting with a number of people who seek to follow the ‘Prince of Peace’ in situations of conflict.  Some of these people have come from the deeply divided land of Nigeria, where there has been a flare up of violence in recent days, directed against the Christian community.  It seems that the Gospel demands that we pursue peace in the world.  The picture presented of the heavenly community gathered together from every tribe and tongue is to be no mere heavenly dream, but something that we strive for here on earth.  This striving after peace is no easy pursuit, but rather is one that demands costly forgiveness and grace.  We need to see others first and foremost as created in the image of God and loved by him, rather than labelled as the enemy, whether by virtue of race, religion or some other criteria.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).  Peace-making necessitates the closing of the distance of separation, the growing in mutual understanding, and the commitment to love as Christ has loved us.  We all need to consider what this means for us personally – Where and with whom do we need to make peace?

Risky Business

Risk is defined as the exposure to the chance of hazard, harm, injury or loss.  Risk is something to which we all have differing responses.  On the one had some of us seek to avoid risk at all costs by taking extreme care, while on the other hand some actively seek it out. 

Recently, I have been confronted afresh by the nature of risk in mission, as I have travelled in central Asia.  Applying the two extreme views could lead to either a total avoidance of mission in countries where risks are perceived to be high, or on the other hand a reckless approach to walking in and courting death.  In the particular contexts various agencies and individuals have adopted differing approaches; some simply blacklisting the place and refusing to go and others committing themselves to working there and taking the consequences.  Even as I write this blog there is another story of aid workers being taken hostage in central Asia.

As I reflect upon scripture I see revealed an aspect of God’s character as being a risk-taker.  This is perhaps best expressed in the Incarnation, with the loving Father sending his Son, as a weak and vulnerable baby to be born in a hostile land, in an unclean stable and with a ‘Wanted’ label on his head from Herod.  This supreme step of mission was riddled with risk from start to finish.  Yet there was a time when Jesus walked away, through a crowd, from conflict (Luke 4:28-30).  When do we stand and face the risk and when do we run?

Then, if we turn our sights to the early church, we once again see risk at almost every turn.  A weak and vulnerable group of people commissioned to go and make disciples in that same hostile environment.  A group of people who faced persecution, exclusion, imprisonment and death.  The Apostle Paul wrote of his life with these words – “As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger…” (2 Cor 6:4-6).  Paul faced risk in his following of Christ and yet there were occasions when he ran away from it (Acts 9:23-24).  When do we stand and face the risk and when do we run?

Returning to the context of Central Asia, one approach has been not to court risk and persecution, or to run from it in search of personal well-being, but rather to be a wise witness - to walk through difficulty if it comes.  The New Testament letters were written to people in situations of risk and I find Peter’s first letter to be of particular help with the challenge to live good lives in hostile settings (1 Peter 2:12) and in doing so, to provoke questions (1 Peter 3:15).  Whether in Central Asia or in the UK a mission encounter in my view demands wise risk-taking.

Inspiration

In 1890, a young post office worker called J H Lorraine set sail for Kolkata in response to the call of God in his life.  He was joined by a recently qualified school teacher called F W Savidge.  They travelled on from Kolkata to a region in the far North East of India called Mizoram, partly on foot and partly in canoes, arriving in 1894.  Their story is an amazing one of perseverance and faith as they presented the gospel to this particular tribal grouping.  In March I travelled to Mizoram where today you will find about 90% of the population with a Christian commitment, a vitality of faith and love for God, and a heart for mission demonstrated with over 700 Mizos serving in cross-cultural mission.

There is a principle here of inspiration as we look back at the lives of ordinary people in the hands of an extraordinary God - ordinary people through whom God chooses to do extraordinary things.  Inspiration from the past seems to be of particular significance when we are facing struggles and challenges in the present.  When Lorraine and Savidge first encountered the Mizo people, they were in genuine fear for their lives in the face of this fierce tribal group.  They faced fears and struggles, but we have the benefit of looking back at their story and the stories of those who followed them to Mizoram.  Perhaps as they faced their struggles they looked back to the likes of William Carey and others who had gone before them.

More recently I have travelled to a country in Central Asia where the church number perhaps a two or three thousand in total.  As I met with the ordinary folk serving in that land in the face of struggles and opposition, I drew hope by looking back to Mizoram and holding on to the belief that God is the same today as he was then and that he continues to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.