I wasted way too much time today waiting. I had an appointment with a dermatologist in Eugene at 10:15 and with a cardiologist in Springfield at 1:15. It made no sense to come home - west 20 miles - to turn around and go further east, so I took stuff along so I could work on Tanzania preps. I got as much done as I could without my laptop and still had 45 minutes before appointment #2. Then I sat in their waiting room an hour past that time before getting called back.
The potential good news: the cardiologist gave me some information that *may* prevent more episodes while flying. I learned it's less about hydrating by drinking water than retaining that water by increasing my salt intake. (Pam and I have almost eliminated salt from our diet.) And they made another adjustment to my pacemaker that will make it respond more quickly to a drop in heart rate. I learned that my arrhythmia has nothing to do with what happens and that flexing my glutes and quads may help fight it off when I sense things headed downhill.
I'm more than happy to write off today if it prevents another experience like I had two weeks ago.
My brain is working overtime on the significance of my trips to CR and PR, and the upcoming trip to TZ. Some of it involves convictions I've held for a long time and the rest it comes from how these trips fit in with those convictions.
NOTE: what follows is the viewpoint of the author and not widely shared. If the author had any kind of a filter at all he'd write something about tonight's political developments and call it a day. But his family can testify he's never demonstrated that kind of wisdom, so it's no surprise he's stepping in it yet again.
Much (most?) of what the church calls missions isn't. The pattern was set by Paul in the Book of Acts. His goal was not building relationships, seeing people get saved, or even taking them from conversion to maturity. Paul's goal was establishing indigenous churches. He went into a city, preached the gospel, got the new believers together as a church, and then left that place to repeat the process in the next city. He revisited those new churches on later trips and wrote them letters to instruct and sort out issues as necessary.
The key: they were indigenous churches - self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. Paul would have rejected the notion of staying in one city for decades. Get in and get out. Maybe the people will make a mess of things, but it will be their mess, and with some guidance they'll figure it out.
This dynamic is more critical in a cross-cultural setting. The Latino church, or the Tanzanian church, or the Asian church, is either indigenous or it amounts to colonialism. It's either theirs or it's the White guy's church. And if it's the latter we should not be surprised when the national believers lack any sense of commitment and ownership.
If the end product of a missionary's work isn't an indigenous church it isn't missions. As good as they may be, coffee shops aren't missions. Youth ministries aren't missions. Radio stations aren't missions. Schools aren't missions. Paul's goal was, and ours must be, the establishment of indigenous churches.
"The good is the enemy of the best." - Adm. H. Rickover
Those other ministries may be a means to the end! My friend Fred went with his family to an isolated area of Congo and established a clinic (he's a PA) where they had no medical facility at all. He used that setting and the compassionate service he supplied to first show the love of God and then tell people about it. When Fred and Karen left 12 years later they left behind a legitimate hospital staffed by African doctors and (more significantly) three completely indigenous churches, churches that will self-propagate in that region of the country. Planting indigenous churches was his plan when he went in and the reality when he walked out.
In CR and in PR I saw a combination of both pseudo-missions and the result of biblical missions. What totally pleased me in both settings was seeing a strong local church led by a strong national pastor carrying on ministry consistent with their cultural setting. Complete indigenousness. The church in CR recently sent one of their own couples to Nicaragua to work among Muslim immigrants there. Self-propagating! The church in PR just assumed control of a camp that had been run by missionaries for...decades.
There's more, but that's enough for tonight.
And if this reads like I'm exercised about this, I am.
2 comments:
Paul's model wasn't exactly "to indigenous, get in and get out." Most areas started and continued with a mix of diaspora Jews. He spent over a year in some places and he left hand picked leaders like Titus, Timothy, Aquila, etc.
Paul's longest stay in any city was 3 years in Ephesus, but best we can tell that period also included the start of 6 other churches in Asia. Timothy traveled with Paul through the third journey and Titus was left on Crete, "to appoint elders," - consistent with the indigenous model. Priscilla and Aquilla were already in Corinth. I think the clear record of Acts is that Paul moved from city to city leaving behind a self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting church made of of locals. His goal was always to move on and preach the gospel where it had not been preached.
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