WILL OUR MISSIONARIES CONVERT US?

Sometimes I present a lesson on The Conversion of Peter rather than the expected The Conversion of Cornelius, for the narrative in Acts 10 and 11 indicates that Cornelius converted Peter about as much as Peter converted Cornelius, though of course in a different way.

The same thing appears to be happening to many of our missionaries, for they are being influenced by their new environments in foreign fields as much as they are influencing those environments. This is good, for this makes for an adaptation that helps the missionary to incarnate himself in the people to whom he preaches. And it just may be that these missionaries will do their most important work in converting people when they get back home and begin teaching the Churches of Christ that sent them forth.

For a hundred years the Churches of Christ hardly had a missionary anywhere. True, as early as 1880 we had a missionary to the American Indians, R. W. Officer from Gainesville, Texas; and J. M. McCaleb went to Japan not long afterwards. But until recent years we had virtually no missionary-consciousness at all. Now we have upward of 250 families in foreign fields. I am speaking only of non-instrument Churches of Christ, not Disciples or Independents. And it is what is happening to these men that promises to be among our greatest blessings of tomorrow, for we can believe that they will come home to convert us to the deeper meanings of God’s grace and to the fulness of Christian fellowship.

These men and women in foreign fields are learning that the superficial externals of orthodoxy that are appealing to fear-ridden “Christians” will not work among pagans that are seeking the things that matter most. What works among our unenlightened brethren falls flat among the enlightened heathen! In his An Uncertain Sound Don Haymes publishes a letter from a missionary in Southeast Asia who explains that the preaching one hears “in a country church in Tennessee, complete with illustrations” kills any chance to reach the Buddhist culture. He tells of his desire to build churches “that would meet the demands of a Buddhist society” and that would be free of “the perversions that have developed in our church of Christ tradition.” But this has created an awkward situation for him since the older missionaries are of the old school. He describes one of them: “The natives do not like him or respect him. He gives them no spiritual food to grow on … All his sermons are on how everybody else is wrong and how we are right … He is a magnification of the missionaries who have taught him.”

The missionary goes on to explain that a number of the workers in this field become discouraged. He thinks he knows why: “Part of the problem comes from their own lack of deep understanding of the society they are in and their foolish assumption that a gospel of anti-denominationalism and of forced church attendance will revolutionize the lives of anyone, especially Buddhists.”

There are many such letters and articles from foreign fields that indicate that a lot of thinking and soulsearching is going on, for our men are learning that the ideas and methods that maintain the status quo in Nashville and Dallas fall flat in Hong Kong and Bangkok. They soon learn that their thinking must transcend the level of why we don’t use instrumental music or why missionary societies are wrong. They are beginning to find a fresh approach to the Old Story, like Paul did at Athens, thus adapting themselves and their message to the people. What a blessing for these fellows to get away from Texas and Tennessee! It will make a difference when these fellows start coming back to the churches in the States, while others take their foreign posts. We may get ourselves converted!

When that happens we’ll start hearing more about the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, for in these hard fields away from the insipid source of orthodoxy, these men drink more deeply of spiritual things. We will also see more cooperation with other churches, for the old fallacy of “the loyal church” loses its appeal 10,000 miles from home amidst people who cannot even appreciate the claim of Christ’s unique sonship. And there will be more contact with “denominational preachers,” for in the mission field the believers find it easier to bear with each other over doctrinal differences. They learn that fellowship does not imply agreement, and that they can work together for Christ in spite of their differences. Some may even come home and join the ministerial alliance in their community.

I am fully aware that some of the tragedy of our many divisions finds its way to mission points around the globe. A brother in Alabama writes of a visit to what is called an “anti” church. He noticed on the bulletin board a letter from a missionary in Africa, supported by the church he was visiting. The letter was informing the congregation that of the sixteen faithful workers who had been associated with the missionary that only four had remained faithful. The other twelve were adjudged no longer true to the gospel inasmuch as they had accepted the view that it is all right for the churches to support orphan homes.

And these are instances of missionaries who still cannot have anything to do with each other because of instrumental music or societies, even in pagan lands. But still I am encouraged by what I see on the whole. The missionary experience is a maturing one, and it cannot help but inspire our workers. I am especially pleased that many college students are being attracted to the various mission fields at home and abroad. It seems that the so-called “Exodus churches” are simply better churches, more spiritual and more intelligent. Out at Pepperdine College in Los Angeles that have a group of “Brazil Nuts” that are preparing to enter Brazil—something like 200 of them!

While I am gratified at the prospect of the good these people will do for Christianity in Brazil, I am especially happy over the prospect of what Brazil will do for them, and the good they in turn will do for us once they return home. If indeed Cornelius converted Peter, as well as Peter converted Cornelius, it may be that our missionaries whom we send out to convert the heathen will one day return home to convert us.