What Price World Evangelization?

When I'm driving somewhere, I'll listen to any good messages I can get my hands on. What I mean by ‘good’ can probably be summed up with the word ‘applicable’—for if we are truly ‘delighting in the instructions/teaching (the Hebrew word is torah) of the Lord' (Ps. 1:2), and meditating in it, there is no question that it has to be practical. The fact that God’s word is often referred to as being ‘prophetic’--meaning not so much ‘foretelling’ as ‘forth-telling’--makes this plain.

Ravi Zacharias is one of my favorites (his radio program is called, ‘Let My People Think’).  Yesterday he was reminding his audience of some of the great mission workers of the past, including C. T. Studd, who

spent nearly the last two decades of his life in the Congo. During that time he saw his wife for a total of two weeks. (She was deemed too unfit to live in Africa, but supported the work from the UK.)

No one would recommend that sort of treatment of wife and family today, and it certainly cannot be supported biblically. But as Ravi Zacharias pointed out, the first question would-be mission inquirers often have today is one that the pioneers of a previous generation would probably never even thought of: ‘what are the benefits if I serve with your agency?’ 

I don’t want to idolize Studd or any of his generation, nor put down our current generation of workers; God knows that young people today have temptations and battles that previous generations would never have dreamed of facing.

But I can’t help but ask myself if we in the West (the term ‘Global North’ is becoming more generally used) today really understand what Jesus meant:

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

Taking up one’s cross not only takes place when a young man gives up a promising career at home in order to serve Jesus with his family in an increasingly volatile section of the world.  It also happens when we follow Jesus across the street—get out of our comfort zone.

Jesus also said something about doing this daily. I guess that can mean a lot of things, but I’m pretty sure it is not happening as often as it should.  It can’t be, when we have hundreds of thousands of Muslim students in this country who never see the inside of a Christian home. It makes me ask—what exactly are we doing with the time God has given us? Are we living every day the way He calls us to live?

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from his book, The Cost of Discipleship)

I’m not sure that’s how we look at ‘calling’ nowadays.