There was a raging debates over at Bill Kinnon's blog about a short term missions venture.
Bill and some folks kinda went at it -- both on his blog and the originator of the YouTube vids -- and as per usual, I made a comment.
So I'm probably in trouble with some folks. But hey! I was a "missionary" before it was cool to be "missional."
And I'm concerned about how we do missions! Desperately concerned! Missional people - thinkers and practitioners - have to think about "missions" - where we cross cultures as well as latitudes and longitudes - in a different way. Even good missional people do "foreign missions" in a goofy way! There I said it. Out loud!
Abraham Lincoln said something like this, "It is better to keep silent and be thought a fool, that to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Well, there you go...
Abe who???
ReplyDeleteI think the line that best applies to me is, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
That being said, all missions ministry is cross-cultural. I think of the anger Hudson Taylor produced in Western missions supporters when he "went Chinese" in his dress, language and culinary habits whilst in China. We somehow believe that our culture is just as important to the sharing of the Gospel, as the Gospel itself. Didn't Paul react rather strongly to the Galatian church that was doing just that?