Today we're continuing our look at Lost Mission by Athol Dickson.
One of the themes that interested me was Lupe's mission. She becomes convinced due to a miraculous vision to leave her shop in Mexico and travel north to America to preach the Gospel. She wants to be a missionary to the lost and hurting people she hears about on her neighbor's radio. And so she leaves everything behind and crosses the border. This, of course, only sets her on an incredible adventure, one that will shake her to her core (and that's all I'm saying about that).
In the additional material in the back of the book, Dickson reveals that part of his inspiration came from hearing about African and Latin American bishops coming to America to offer us advice on mission work and how South Korea now sends out more missionaries than America (I'd heard the latter when I was in seminary too). It's kind of jarring, but as it turns out, America is becoming a prime mission field. Again, when I was in the seminary, we were told that by the time we graduated, there would be more Lutherans in Africa than in the United States, something that really hit close to home for us.
For many years, the American branch of the Church (or, at least, many mainline denominations) were content to send the missionaries overseas while they relied on what I call "horizontal evangelism" to grow the local congregations (i.e. having children). Sadly, that trend isn't helping anymore. Now those countries that we used to send missionaries to are sending missionaries to us! Wow.
One of the things that this book helped me realize is that what Jesus said is still true today: the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Maybe it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work in the harvest field.
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2 comments:
Yeah, the book reminded me that it's been a while since I shared the Gospel with anyone. Immediately after high school, I went to Bible college to study to be a missionary to South America, but the methods didn't sit well with me. (For instance, we were given a quota each week -- a quota, can you believe it?) I was young and stupid, and thought maybe I had misheard God, so I quit. But, over time, I realized missionaries can be anyone in just about any profession, and that my own country needed to know the Truth.
Yes, it's been a while since I've had a chance to share God with people myself. I spend so much time by myself, working online!
But I'm volunteering at a health food coop now. It's possible that maybe one of these days I'll have another opportunity!
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