"What do have you against modern missions brother!?"

I was mission minded once.  I guess it is all up to definition of terms.  It all seems like a big machine now.  Good men are trapped in it.  They know it.  But who cares at this late hour in the game? It’s all about a having a good testimony now among the brethren.  Who cares if the games has changed? Right?

Missions in general has many flawed aspects to it from the modern perspective.  But one of the most flawed position in modern missionaries and fundamentalism is where men feel they have to have some similitude to men of other centuries.  Many do what they do today in missions because of “ol’ timers” like Hudson and Carey all though they aren’t actually doing anything like them.  It makes them feel justifiable in their own orthodoxy.   The world was largely different then it is today.  Many of these men did nothing like we do today.  I mean in some cases, not one single thing! And don’t give me your typical retort back saying “God is the same today yesterday and forever!”

The way God moved with men in the time of the 1700-1920’s was not so much a testament to the men, but to the movement of the Holy Spirt of God with the world! Those men were still men and we do not follow their examples or creeds.  We have our own authority. We have a book as they did, and many of those forefathers of flesh we love to revel in so much were off the on areas the same way we can be off on areas.

I am fully aware that Christian missions and missionaries for nearly 200 years have been the most redemptive force on the face of the earth.  But our overall attitude of going abroad, to far away lands often times has become a Westernized, over saturating, reforming, Kingdom building movement. Not a movement for the expressed purpose of winning souls to Christ and emphasizing growth for converts.  In this movement, our own American traditions travel with us to these far away lands, making real conversion much harder to convey to indigenous people.  

How Does it Help Again?

The osmosis that is the local church.  This is the magic show that many expect to happen.  Like being together with a group of people in a building is the solution to all of life's problems.  We are led to believe this! We live our lives in such manners. I am not against people going to church, far from it, just upset at what the church has actually become to most.  How does the modern church setting  actually help?  I look for a blessing like the next person, but sometimes I think we just lie to ourselves.  

You get the kids loaded into the car, probably late from kiddy circumstances, you rush to the church, get them out, one of you takes the little one to the nursery, the other takes the older kids to the special kids churches or Sunday schools.  And you, the adults go to the big peoples church.  You shake hands, see smiling faces, maybe even take part in some chit chat or banter.  The music director takes center stage, and you find your places.  You all begin to sing in unison.  

Are we reading the words, or thinking about the words? Do the hymns speak like they used to?  We have a few announcements after the singing, then it’s the offering time.  The deacons and ushers do their thing while some young person does a special, or we have special music played during.  

Then the message, while we stare at the back of others sitting in the pews in front of us, unless you are a good front row Christian.  The distractions, the teenagers talking, cell phones going off, visitors coming and going, one man talking, ushers getting the head count, ushers letting parents know about Nurseries to get the babies out of the Sanctuary.  Then the preaching, speaking, sharing or screaming, whichever man are found doing today. Then the altar call and the slow invitational music.  Next, the show of hands.  Then the closing in prayer, then the shaking of hands again on the way out.