Pioneer thoughts

The development of strategies for world evangelization calls for imaginative pioneering methods. Under God, the result will be the rise of churches deeply rooted in Christ and closely related to their culture. Culture must always be tested and judged by Scripture. Because men and women are God's creatures, some of their culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because they are fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and insists on moral absolutes in every culture. Missions have all too frequently exported with the gospel an alien culture and churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to Scripture. Christ's evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others, and churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory of God.  Lausanne Covenant

(Mark 7:8,9,13; Gen. 4:21,22; I Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; II Cor. 4:5)

 Hudson Taylor was a man that went to China 200 years ago to be a missionary, and, as any good British man, he had the ruffles and the long jackets and the knickers and everything. He tried and tried to show these people God's love, but he couldn't get them to understand it because he couldn't get them to understand him. So you know what he did? He took off his jacket, he took off his knickers, he took off all of his ruffles and his weird hair, and he grew his hair long and shaved his head bald except for a long ponytail, and he put on the native dress of the Chinese. As soon as the people understood him, they were also able to understand his message.

When Hudson went back to his mission organization meeting, he walked in dressed like a native Chinese, and a bunch of the British people almost fell off their chairs. They said, "You've come here and you're acting like one of them!" But to Hudson Taylor that was the whole point.  Sounds like a lot of work. Why go to all the trouble when it's so much easier to shove the Bible in someone's face and call it a day? Because we were all initially like the native Chinese, unable to comprehend the message of the cross. It was our inability to understand the Word in the form it had been given to us that created the need for the Word to appear in another form. So the Word became flesh (John 1:14). Had it not, none of us would have understood it.

Consider Carey's motto:

Expect great things from God.

Attempt great things for God.

At what point in our life have we chosen to follow God in this way?  What happens when either half of the motto is followed without the other half?  Is there any other way to experience great things?

Matthew 18:11-12 was important to Cameron Townsend.  He said, "those verses guided me."  Jesus asks His listeners to think about the story.  Having just stated His life purpose as resolutely focusing on the lost, it becomes clear that Jesus is revealing the rationale for His own sense of priority.  How does it shape yours or guide you?