This Week in Mission – Oct. 1, 2008

 

Friends,

 

From time to time I do free “Wednesday Seminars” in behalf of Net Results, adding them onto my travel plans. We had a remarkable 153 people in Columbus last week … rather large for a “seminar” and certainly enthusiastic.

 

One of the most interesting exchanges occurred with an Indian couple currently serving a church in the Columbus area (she is the pastor). We had been talking about mission targeting worship and credible leadership … and her question was about the respect and authority “ethnic” pastors are given by both congregation and denomination to lead change. (”Ethnic” is her term, referring to any leader clearly not “American”).

 

She also made the telling observation that one of the shocks she was overcoming was that she came from a truly “truly Christian state” in South India … expecting to find basic Christian behavior in America … only to discover how “un-Christian” American culture really is. They were also shocked at the lack of Christian spirituality and discipline among church people.

 

I think it is hard for them, and other church leaders “from beyond”, because their enormous maturity in Christian life hits against the insidious racism of both culture and church here. Capable of extraordinary leadership, they tend to be patronized by denominational leaders and ignored by congregational members. So now they are beginning to shift their own attitudes … they came expecting to be pastors in a Christian environment, and now they are repositioning themselves to be missionaries in a pagan country.

 

Being a “missionary” brings a whole new set of risks and expectations …

 

Tom Bandy

Currently en route Milwaukee

 

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