“God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.”
Most of us have sung that song by William Cowper and have pondered the way our Lord works behind the scenes to bring about his will. Most of us have experienced his behind the scenes and unexpected means of working on us.
On Wednesday April 15, I had no idea that God was about to speak to me. I was joining the Great Lakes Bible College chapel (online, of course). The speaker (also online) would be Leslie Williams. Leslie had served as a missionary to Papua New Guinea for eleven years. He now lives in Regina, Saskatchewan. He had recently made a return visit to Papua New Guinea, and his chapel talk was basically a report on what he saw during the visit.
The insightful moment for me came when Leslie spoke of a certain anomaly of mission work. It is one many have experienced, yet few can explain.
Why is it that the healthiest churches in Papua New Guinea are those that had limited contact with missionaries? Why is it that those who had missionaries working with them long-term have failed to develop local leadership?
Leslie mentioned that he had read of the same phenomena occurring in the Philippines. Now he was seeing it also in Papua New Guinea.
As soon as he said that, I thought of Roland Allen’s book Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Roland Allen observed the same situation in China over 100 years ago. He pointed out that modern missionaries unconsciously make local people dependent on them – thus killing their ability to develop leadership skills. He pointed out that Paul never stayed with a single congregation for long. Three years was the apostle’s longest tenure in one place. I also thought of Robert Coleman’s book The Master Plan of Evangelism. Coleman pointed out that Jesus did not seek to convert the masses. For three years Jesus concentrated on twelve men who would convert the masses.
My primary role in Africa has been to teach potential leaders and to develop better study material for those who may become leaders. Our visit to Zambia reminded us that our greatest influence has been through others. We have dozens of former students serving in at least five different African countries. We spent no more than three years with any of these (and with many of them it was only two). Then they went out to serve. Some former students failed to translate what they learned into action. But others have done amazing work.
But lately I have allowed myself to become too attached to one congregation. We have been with the Timbutini Church almost every Sunday for nearly five years now. I have preached many of those Sundays. Whenever there is a financial need in the church, it has been assumed that we will help with it, if not meet the entire need. This has allowed too many of the members to become passive.
We are thinking that it may be time for us to either move on to another congregation or at least spread our time between congregations so that the Timbutini church does not grow into a state of dependency. We greatly prefer to stick with the same church Sunday after Sunday. That is better for us. But sometimes, for the good of others, we must modify that plan. Pray with us about this decision.
Current projects
We have told you before that The Climax of God’s Mission, Vol 2 was nearly complete. Then something has always come up to delay its publication. But this time, I believe, we are very near the end. With the help of Benjamin Mhango, we have added several new narratives. The only things left are the addition of some discussion questions and then the final proofreading. Then it will be ready for use.
One thing we have not told you before is that Chery has become an author as well. She is developing a series of children’s stories that teach scripture. Tonight, we intend to meet with an artist to get locally appropriate illustrations for the book. The book will mainly be used by children’s Bible class teachers, who currently have no appropriate class material. This work is just getting started. But I can tell already that my proofreader is going to be an excellent author in her own right.
African Textbook Ministry, %Church of Christ, 5130 Flanders Road, Toledo, OH 43623