Notes by: Lana
What is a Pioneer?
· Dictionary definition: Someone who does
something that hasn’t been done before
· An ordinary person with flaws who is a
product of his/ her time, who dedicates himself / herself to God’s purposes,
who learns to endure critism, who can see ahead what others ignore, resist or
refuse to see, who act upon their conviction, and who then in obedience go to a
place few or none have gone before. God then uses this person to help break us
out of old paradigms & ways of doing things and opens the door to new
generation who follow behind them, with trail blazed & the ground prepared
for others to come build upon their foundation & reap the harvest of those
who went before them
· Mission work is like building a “European
Cathedral” – which takes about 100-300 years to build it. The 1st
generation would sent people off to cut stones – setting the foundation &
maybe during the time, they will be able to see the cathedral rising up for
about 10 feet, the next generation – another 15 feet etc, it usually take 4-5
generations to finish building the cathedral. Missionaries sometimes die
without seeing any fruits – one missionary wrote a letter back to his home
office in 1928 “There are more graves of missionary children than more converts
of Muslims in North Africa”
Paul the Pioneer Apostle
· Romans 15:20 – It has always been my ambition
to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be
building on someone else’s foundation
Pioneers in North Africa
· George Pierce
· Edward Glenny
· Helen Moriss
· Patricia St John
· Hughina Tulloch
· Dr TG Churcher
· Dr Bill Campbell
· Holly Campbell
· Charles Marsh
· Daisy Marsh
· Dr Farnham St John
· Lilias Trotter
· John Anderson
· Cuthbert Nairn
· David Cooper
· Harold Stalley
· Bernard Collison
Changing Paradigms of Missions
(A) Territorial Christendom
· Reformation period
· 3 protestant branches of the reformation:
a) Anglican / Epicospal church
b) Reformed Church
c) Lutheran Church
· All of these chose to establish territorial
national churches closely tied to political structures
· They were thinking of the Great Commission
doctrinally, but not missiologically (focused on the trinity, geographical
locations etc) but they were not mission minded
· Pioneer missionaries to India – Germans
(Anabaptist)
· The missionary impulse did not develop out of
the 3 Protestant reformation churches but from the margins of the church /
radicals (eg. Anabaptist)
· When the spirit of God is moving, He becomes
the center
· Lesson learned: Never despise a small
beginning
Danish Halle Mission & Pietism
· Pietism – believe in devotion time &
personal conversion. They emphasize on house church & call their ministers
“Pastors”, singing of hymns & distributing scriptures (like modern-day
Gideons)
Anabaptist
· Disagreed with infant baptism & that the
church should not be aligned with the state
· Got marginalized because of that
(B) Beachhead Missions
· 1792-1910
· William Carey – he broke the 200 years old
paradigm of thinking (The degree of difficulty is proportional to the years of
how long the church has been practicing it); translated the Bible into Bengali
· The recovery of the theology of mission had
to occur before the practice of Protestant missions could develop
Matthew 28 – only
one imperative = MAKE DISCIPLES (not converts) – the church should be
characterized by obeying, baptizing & teaching
(C) Frontier Missions
· 1865-1974
· Robert Morrison – 1st missionary
to China
· Guslav – allowed the nationals to evangelize
& distribute Bibles
· Hudson Taylor – believed in “getting off the
course, get into the interiors”; adapted himself to the Chinese culture;
Committed to contextualize the gospel to the Chinese
· China Inland Mission – today known as OMF
(D) Unreached People Missions
· 1934 - today
· Cam Townsend, Donald McGavran, Ralph Winter
Ralph Winter
· Born in LA in 1924
· Studied engineering @ Caltech
· Served in the Navy
· PhD from Cornell & degree in theology
from Princeton
· 10 years in Guatemala – he saw the need to
train the national pastors – providing theological training by extension
(despite not having any education)
· Professor at Fuller Seminary
· 1976 – founded US Center for World Mission –
asked people from churches all over US & Canada – send one time cheque -
$15.95/ person
· Founded William Carrey University
· Lausanne 1974
- Alerted us to the fact that the “hidden peoples” were still going to be unreached unless we started doing E3 evangelism
- Those beyond the reach of E1 & E2 evangelism would remain unreached unless the sending churches around the world began to change deployment strategies
Results of the Great Protestant Century of Missions
· % of Muslims, Christians, &
Un-evangelized Peoples – E3 & P3 people groups
· 1800’s – 85%
· 1900’s – 55%
· 2000’s – 29%
Nothing that we do
for the Lord is free from the sin nature – the sin nature touches every aspect
of our lives, even our motivation! Eg. doing missions because of selfishness.
We must be ready to be misunderstood / betrayed / not appreciated. God will
appreciate us one day, but he does not promise us this now on earth.
We still need
pioneers today. As pioneers, we may not get to see the fruits of labor, but His
Kingdom will reign, His Kingdom will expand & His Name will be glorified.
Hebrew 11:32-40
And what more shall I say? For
time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and
Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty
in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by
resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they
might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging,
and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two; they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep
and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not
worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the
earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive
what was promised, since God had provided something better
for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
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