12 Aug 2018
Dear Phyllis,
Being back in Japan certainly is natsukashi (nostalgic). Living with Sam and Haeho is the first time I have been back in the missionary world in years. In Thailand, Pammy is Thai, all her friends are Thai, and nearly all the people we work with are Thai. In Chiang Mai I only have three friends who speak English as a native language. But being here in Japan for a month has brought me back to the world where, for 50 years the vast majority of people I worked with spoke English. This has caused me to reflect on the effectiveness of foreign missions. I would say that being a foreign missionary is the most ineffective occupation there is. In a capitalist world, any company who operated with the same effectiveness as missionaries would go bankrupt in six months. As far as missionaries go in spreading the Gospel, the impact on society is so minuscule it is almost undetectable. The national average of missionaries winning souls in Japan is about one soul a year. After five years of evangelism a missionary can usually look back and see five people saved going on with Christ. In a city of several hundred thousand that is not a drop in the bucket, that is an atom in a bucket. In defense of foreign missions it has been said that one soul saved is worth more than millions of dollars. That I true, but from a cold hard economic stand point foreign missions is a very poor investment.
In Mathew 13 Jesus told two parables about a man sowing seeds in a field. In both parables there were four components – the sower, the seed, the field, and the harvest. In the first parable the seed was the Word of God, but in the other parable the seed was saved Christians (children of the Kingdom). The fact that the field is the world and the harvest is saved believers, it is safe to say these parables are speaking about evangelism or missions.
In the first parable, where the seed that is being sown is the Word of God, clearly this is dendo (spreading the Gospel). No doubt preaching is basic. In Acts 5:20 when Perter and John got thrown in the slammer and the angel came and got them out, the angel told them, “Go, stand, and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”. GO, STAND, PREACH. This is foreign missions. You have got to GO, you have got to take a STAND, and you have to PREACH. If you don't go there is no mission. If you don't take a stand you are worthless. And if you don't preach, what is the point in going?
Missionaries had an eye hospital in Gilget in the northern reign of Pakistan. I asked the missionary, who was chairman of the board, how many people they had seen saved through that hospital. None. I asked him how many Christians they had on staff. None.. I asked him, “What is the point in having a hospital?” He said, “We are helping the people and they can see by our lives that we are Christian.” At the same time I knew a young American backpacker who stayed in Gilget for a couple of months and led a number of people to Christ. The missionaries were silent and after eleven years the Muslim staff took over the hospital and put the missionaries out. If you don't preach the Gospel what is the point of going?
In the second parable the sower is the Son of man. Jesus is the one who is thrusting out His workers into the field. If Jesus sends us out we better go. But in this parable the seed is “the children of the Kingdom” – Christians. This is a different aspect of missions. This is Christian lives. I say the impact of preaching the Gospel on society– certainly in Japan and Thailand – is undetectable. Thank God there are places and times where preaching has had an enormous influence on society. Wesley saved England. William Booth had an major effect on London. Whitfield and Finney radically influenced early America.
On the other side of the coin Billy Graham has been hailed as God's witness to America for the second half of the 20th century. But during the period of his ministry America made the deepest plunge into depravity since its founding. For 200 years America was a Christian country. But during the time of Billy Graham's ministry America plunged into the post-Christian era, where the Bible and prayer were banned from schools, abortion, drugs, divorce, and sexual perversion has been hailed as noble. In defense of Billy Graham we also have to note that Jeremiah had similar success. And if we look at how missionaries have changed Japan and Thailand in the past 50 years, there is little to show for it. On the contrary unquestionably the greatest dominant influence on society world wide since the 2nd WW has been Hollywood. The entertainment industry has altered society world wide like nothing ever seen in human history. Comparing foreign missions to the entertainment industry is like a whisper in a typhoon.
If preaching the Gospel versus Hollywood is like a mouse against an elephant what can we say about the parable of Jesus sowing the seed of Christian lives in the world? Historically, the reformation under Luther, Wesleys and other great reformers were responsible for the formation of western culture. The Gospel was the foundation of western culture. And world wide the influence of that has been transformable. It has been missionaries that have brought western education, hospitals, childrens homes, and western culture to foreign nations. Japan and Thailand can thank Jesus for these blessings and their democratic government. A friend of mine went to evangelize a Karen village in Thailand. The village was located several hundred meters on a hill above a river. All the water had to be carried by hand up the hill. The place was filthy and disease was rampant. Raidee said, “Why don't you live by the river?”, but they didn't listen to him. So he built a shack and lived there himself. After some time another man moved down and lived by Raidee. Eventually the entire village moved down there. Today the kids are clean, houses well kept, and disease way down. It was Raidee living among them that saved that village.
In Matthew 13 we have the two parables about the seed, but in John 12 we have a third place where seed is mentioned. Jesus said, “Unless a seed fall in the ground and die it abides alone. But IF IT DIES it brings forth much fruit”. Perhaps the greatest advantage there is about being a missionary is that the foreign field is the best place I know to die. Dave Lanum used to say, “I have done very little for Japan, but Japan has done much for me”. Joe Carroll used to say, “Thank God for the hole the Lord has dug for you to die in”. A couple of yeas ago I was visiting an Australian single lady living up near Mae Sai working with the Akah people in the mountains. It was tough work. She was one lonely soul. She had no fiends and only a few women who had been saved. Her impact there had been very minuscule. Man howdy it is hard to go on under circumstances like that, but she had certainly learned to die to herself, the world, and everything else. Her only point in living was Jesus. And Jesus said, “If it dies, it brings forth much fruit”. There are two aspects to this. One is the tremendous advantage of dying to self and the world. But there is another less visible fruit that I believe a life sown will bring tremendous fruit. During the Boxer rebellion in 1901 there were over 239 missionaries and thousands of Christians martyred. The house church movement in China today is crediting much of the fruit that is being reaped through the enormous revival going on in China today to the sacrifice of thousands of lives sown one hundred years ago.
It is tough being a lonely missionary stuck out in a mission station and seeing very little fruit coming from your ministry. But Jesus sees the sacrifice and He has promised that from that seed there will come much fruit. This is the three components of the seed. First there must be the sowing of the Word of God. Secondly there must be the Christian life. And thirdly that seed must die.
Praise the Lord these principles are not restricted to geographic location. You don't have to cross an ocean to be a witness for Christ. Sowing and reaping goes on where ever you live. Paul also said, “Whatsoever you sow you shall also reap” (Gal. 6:7). A life sown wherever you live will bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, we don't want to go to heaven empty handed. Lord please give us a basket full to present to You in that great day. Lord please do it for Your own great Names sake. bill
