Encouraging Missionary Movement in Asian Churches

Julie Andrews sings in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning. And a very good place to start.” We shall do just this as we consider the important subject of encouraging missionary movement in the churches of Asia. That “very beginning” and a good place to start is the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. In his final mandate to the Church, believers of all times are commissioned to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19, 20). Mark’s account has this mandate in the following terms: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). To make disciples and to preach the Gospel involves the central message of Christ’s death and resurrection, the need for repentance, and the glad news of forgiveness (Luke 24:47). In the account in the fourth Gospel Christ tells his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). Christians are to be Christ’s witnesses in their local surroundings and also to “the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:47). The gospel writers gave prominence to the Great Commission.

This commission is unchanging: The Lord has never rescinded his royal order for his Church to be engaged in worldwide evangelism; it is therefore binding on all Christians. Further, the Great Commission is not to be monopolized by a particular church or race or even a segment of the world. Christians from the West and from the East are called to be partners in obedience (to quote the phrase of the 1947 Whitby Conference).

Has this scriptural basis been worked out in the history of missions? The student of missions will soon discover a rather unbalanced picture. On one side, he observes extensive missionary activities and fervor from the churches of the West; on the other side, he finds the weak and negligible outreach of the Asian, African, and Latin American churches. The latter have often been called the receiving churches, and the former, the sending churches. Both the young churches and the older missionary churches must ask themselves the reasons for this sad state of affairs. We have to see our failures objectively and by the grace of God embark upon a new thrust in missionary outreach.

Faults Of The Asian Churches

A church is definitely influenced by the prevalent culture, trends, and outlook of the society in which it finds itself. In the Chinese churches, our greatest sin is our parochialism and chauvinism. We are concerned only with those of our own race; all our activities are geared to our own people. Recently I was talking to a senior Chinese pastor who had been conducting evangelistic campaigns among the Chinese people in Laos. When I asked him about the possibility of Asian missionaries preaching to Laotians, he immediately remarked, “The Laotians are useless, backward, lazy and unresponsive to the Gospel. Let’s form a mission to the Chinese in that country.” I was unhappy with what he said and felt that this suggestion was not in line with New Testament teaching. Paul, the greatest of all missionaries, never despised or looked down upon the Gentiles, whom his fellow Jews labeled “dogs.” He believed that Christ breaks down the dividing wall of races when people from different cultural backgrounds become Christians (Eph. 2:14). This spirit of chauvinism was also evident among the Chinese Christians in Thailand. It took me a long time to convince a group of dedicated Chinese Christian students that they had a responsibility to present their Lord to the Thai people. God forgive the Chinese churches for the grave sin of chauvinism. Unless we can by the Spirit of Christ die to our racial pride, the Chinese church will never be a missionary church.

No church is missionary-minded and obedient to the Great Commission if its members are not constantly witnessing to their generation and contemporaries. The main reason for the lack of missionary vision is our failure to witness.

Asians find it difficult to witness personally to their friends and relatives. In Asia, conformity is a great virtue. No Indian, Malay, Japanese, or Chinese wants to be a social, communal, or tribal outcast. To present Christ as the only Saviour and the Christian faith as unique is to imply that age-old religions like Buddhism and Confucianism (with their stress on ancestral worship) and Hinduism are inferior to Christianity. Besides, Christianity is usually regarded as a Western religion. So it is offensive to confront another Asian with the claims of Christ, especially when he has to make a clean break with his old religion. Asians fear to disrupt the ties of family, clan, brotherhood, and other communal units.

Western missionaries come from backgrounds that stress personal salvation and personal evangelism. In the West every man makes his own decision, but this is not so in the East. There the family or the clan has to be consulted.

Is there a solution to the problem of shy and reluctant Asian laymen and laywomen? I believe there is. It involves the tailoring of evangelistic approaches to suit the existing patterns of Asian life. Paul did this. To reach the Jews, he went to preach Christ in their synagogues (Acts 13:14, 15; 17:1, 2) and expounded the Old Testament Scriptures to them. At Athens, he directed his message to philosophers at their open forum on Mars Hill (Acts 17:16–34). In his ministry at Ephesus, Paul lectured daily in the hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9). If the ancient manuscripts are correct, he gave five hours of Christian lectures a week! At the same time, he evangelized and taught from house to house (Acts 20:20).

The solution is simply this: Asian Christians should be encouraged to witness in informal groups rather than person to person. On my last two visits to Japan, I visited the Great Sacred Hall of the fast-growing Buddhist lay movement, the Rissho Kosei Kai. On Sundays, thousands flock into that large and beautiful auditorium for their worship. But their most important arm of outreach is their hoza or circle discussion groups. Seated in traditional Japanese style on carpeted floors are groups of ten to fifteen people. A trained lay person leads the group. Members and non-members of the sect are asked to share their problems, and the group is asked to suggest answers. The leader will then quote from the Lotus Sutra. I was amazed at the openness of the participants. Each one spoke or asked questions. According to bulletins of the movement, many converts are won each week. These Buddhists have made admirable use of Japanese patterns of friendship and conversation to reach those who are outside their faith.

An interesting article on “Japanese Values and Christian Mission” appeared in the Fall, 1967, issue of the Japan Christian Quarterly. The author, J. Robertson McQuilkin, cites an example of group evangelism undertaken by Japanese Christians:

We will find that the “sweet potato-vine” evangelism as the Japanese call it—cultivating the family stalk—will prove more effective than our Western style mass-appeal to the individualistic ego. Bishop Murai of the Spirit of Jesus Church, Japan’s fastest growing and second largest Protestant church, tells me that he gave up evangelistic campaigns many years ago and that he now follows family lines in evangelistic outreach.”

Here we see the value of family evangelism. The whole unit is won for Christ rather than the individual. It reminds us of the family conversions of Cornelius and his household and the Philippian jailor and his family (Acts 10; 16:31–34).

What is vitally needed in the Asian church today is the formation of cell groups that are trained to evangelize together. At the Asia-South Pacific Congress on Evangelism held in Singapore last November, many Asian Christians were struck by the paper on cell-group evangelism. At the after-meeting, delegates from almost all the Asian nations represented asked to hear more about this approach.

Failures Of Western Missions

Part of the blame for a weak Asian church with hardly any missionary outreach must be put on the policies and philosophy of Western missions and missionaries. In the pioneer days, it was right for missionaries to have the main share of responsibilities in the building up of the local church. Their supporters in the home countries were behind them in their joys and struggles, and they fed back news of the conversion of “natives” and the formation of local congregations.

But now we see a problem. After a few years, when national pastors and elders are ready to step into positions of leadership, the glamour begins to wear off. Yet the supporters at home, conditioned by a romantic view of missions (pictures of semi-naked natives, descriptions of strange food and customs), still want to get their money’s worth! They have prayerfully backed the missionaries, and they feel the missionaries are still in the center of things. So, without realizing the problem they are creating, the missionaries maintain control of the policies and administration of the local congregation. The national Christians find it difficult to ask them to leave, for this would seem like base ingratitude. Tragic consequences follow. National Christians with independent minds and wills leave the church, and weak “yes” men, happy to depend on the missionaries, constitute the fellowship. When the time comes for the missionaries to go on furloughs, they find it difficult to leave, because they cannot trust the national Christians to oversee their work.

This policy is surely very short-sighted and wrong from the perspective of Scriptures as well as of missionary strategy. The Scriptures clearly teach that every church or group of believers, no matter how primitive and backward culturally and educationally (by Western standards!), is guided by the same Holy Spirit. Asian Christians can count on him to bestow the necessary gifts for the upbuilding of the Church (see First Corinthians 12). As we study the missionary methods of the Apostle Paul, we see his genius in allowing the local churches to develop their own patterns of government and outreach. The young churches in Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus, and Corinth grew and multiplied because they were not dependent on the dictates of the headquarters church at Jerusalem or the sending church of Antioch. Paul’s policy is a far cry from that of modern missions, which exercise control of national churches thousands of miles away.

From the viewpoint of missionary strategy, much harm results when churches do not multiply, that is, have a definite missionary program of outreach. There is still so much land to occupy. Many communities have not heard the Gospel. Unless missionaries train up faithful and able spiritual Asian leaders with strong initiative, their work, in my opinion, is barren and almost futile!

Another failure of missionaries is in not preaching the missionary call and mandate to the indigenous churches. Most of my missionary friends confess that they have never preached a single sermon on missions to the young churches. Why? When they are on furlough, they enthusiastically talk about the white harvest fields and the need for missionaries, and they reinforce their call by teaching the biblical basis of missions. Does this situation not imply that Asian Christians are not good enough to be missionaries? The same failure is evident in the Asian theological seminaries and Bible schools. I do not know of any school that includes courses on missions in its curriculum. No wonder Asian pastors trained in these seminaries are not missionary minded.

Perhaps the greatest fault and failure of most missions is their financial policy. Anxious to expand their work, aided by the affluence of Western societies, they employ national pastors and erect beautiful Western-style church buildings, and establish humanitarian projects like schools and hospitals. All the money is from the U.S. or Europe. No Asian Christian is moved to give sacrificially when he knows that the bulk of the support is from the West. Why should we Asians support our pastors and pay to maintain our buildings when a distant mission board will meet all our bills?

Financial dependence robs us of our dignity. It creates a spirit of dependence and weakens the sense of stewardship. Christians in Asia are not poor, and movements spearheaded by Asians who do not receive support from the West have grown in numbers and in spiritual depth. As we teach the privilege and responsibilities of Christian stewardship, the churches in Asia will become self-supporting. Great care therefore must be exercised in the channeling of foreign funds. There is certainly room to give grants for special projects like literature, seminaries, and scholarships to train key Asian Christians.

The New Testament churches were all self-supporting. In fact, many gave to the mother church at Jerusalem during times of famine and poverty. The great need is for missions and missionaries to return to scriptural teaching on church founding and the training of young Christians.

Toward A Missionary Movement In Asia

Now it is important that our brethren from the West should not teach or expect us to undertake the missionary mandate in the traditional Western way. Today missions have become institutions, with detailed policies relating to candidates’ selection and training, administration, deputation programs, furlough requirements, and numerous forms to fill out. If we try to copy this, we shall become completely overwhelmed by the mechanics and machinery of organization. We might even lose our missionary vision as we get entangled by administrative red tape! In this modern era, we should expect the Holy Spirit to guide Asian Christians to new patterns of missionary service.

What factors will lead us Asian churches and Christians to obey the great and unchanging missionary mandate of our Lord Jesus?

First, Asian Christians must become witnessing Christians. We should penetrate every level of our societies with the good news of Jesus Christ. As we considered earlier, perhaps the cell-group approach of collective evangelism might prove to be the breakthrough in the Asian situation. As lay men and women experience the joy of leading others to Christ and helping them grow through the fellowship of his Church, there will be a real concern for missions. The top priority of both missionaries and national workers therefore must be the training of our lay members to witness consistently.

Second, mission work must not be thought to require crossing oceans and seas. Sailing across salt water does not make one a missionary. When national Christians preach the Gospel to people from another social stratum, they can be classified as missionaries. The city dwellers who are prepared to work in remote hill tribes and villages with the sole aim of starting a center for Christian witness are in a very real sense missionaries. The Chinese diaspora who testify to the original inhabitants of countries in Southeast Asia are also fulfilling their missionary task and calling.

Third, the missionary call does not come in a vacuum. I am a firm believer in sending Asian Christians to see missionaries at work. Very often the mission outpost is only two or three hours away from the city church. When I was staff worker with the Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Singapore and Malaysia, I used to take teams of students away from the artificial life of their university campus to remote towns and villages in West Malaysia. At the invitation of local churches, we conducted short evangelistic missions or leadership-training seminars. In these contacts with local believers, students learned about the life-size problems that confront the rural churches. Recently, as I went through the lists of these students (now graduated), I rejoiced to note that three are in training for full-time service and the rest are active members and lay leaders of their local congregations. Several have started missionary departments in their churches. Practical assignment is invaluable for stimulating missionary commitment.

Fourth, missionary opportunities and needs should be relayed to members of local churches. As church people pray for missionaries and share in their struggles and victories, God might call some of them into the field. Missionary rallies, missionary speakers, and missions courses in the seminaries are other projects that will lead toward a greater missionary movement in our churches.

Fifth, local churches should be encouraged to send out and support their own missionaries. Three small independent churches in Japan support three missionaries in Indonesia. One large Korean Presbyterian church has sent out scores of missionaries to the country districts of Korea and a couple of members to Thailand. A local church, with the assistance of several Christian graduates, is backing a missionary-librarian serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators in New Guinea. The sending of Asian missionaries can best be done through smaller agencies and not through big and complicated mission organizations.

Sixth, we must not forget the chief Strategist of missions—the Holy Spirit himself. He is at work in our midst, wrestling with our reluctance, convicting us of our complacency, and leading us to fresh avenues of missionary service. Asian Christians are crossing national frontiers with the Gospel. Japanese Christians have sent over a hundred missionaries to different parts of the world. Three Filipino missonaries are working in Indonesia and South Thailand. Missionary conferences are attended by large numbers of young people in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and the Philippines. In November, 1967, I had the privilege of speaking at the Second National Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of the Philippines. There in the beautiful hill resort of Baguio more than two hundred students and graduates eagerly sought God’s will as to their place and part in the mission of his Church. May this movement continue to grow!

The prayer of Asian Christians is for boldness, wisdom, and strength to obey the royal order of our risen Lord, “Make disciples of all nations.”

the amazing good news

Not immediately, but as the months and years passed, increasingly, from experience and thought based on extensive reading, I found the Evangelical faith in which I had been reared confirmed and deepened. Increasingly I rejoiced in the Gospel—the amazing Good News—that the Creator of what to us human beings is this bewildering and unimaginably vast universe, so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Everlasting life, I came to see, is not just continued existence, but a growing knowledge—not merely intellectual but wondering through trust, love, and fellowship—of Him who alone is truly God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. I was confirmed in my conviction that when all the best scholarship is taken into account we can know Christ as He was in the days of His flesh. Although I became familiar with the contemporary and recent studies of honest, competent scholars who questioned them, I was convinced that the historical evidence confirms the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. Increasingly I believed that the nearest verbal approach that we human beings can come to the great mystery is to affirm that Christ is both fully man and fully God. Although now we see Him not, yet believing, we can “rejoice with joy unspeakable” in what the Triune God has done and is doing through Him. This Good News, so rich that it is stated in a variety of ways, but always consistently, in the New Testament, is what we always imperfect children, but children, are privileged—and commanded—to make known and to demonstrate to all mankind.—KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE, in his autobiography Beyond the Ranges. Copyright 1967 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. Used by permission.

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