“If social activism is not a legitimate evangelistic technique, fundamentalism itself is in need of rethinking its long practice of institutional missions. “Missions” (home and foreign) now covers activities far removed from preaching the gospel and establishing local churches. Doctors, nurses, lab technicians, crisis pregnancy centers, diesel engineers, radio technicians, pilots, mechanics, music teachers, English teachers, karate experts, magicians, and many others have for a long time been using the label “missionaries” or “Christian workers,” whose fundamental rationale seems purely social. Local church missionary budgets are bloated and clogged with those whose real New Testament ministry is non-existent, obscure, or at best “on the side.” It is incongruous for fundamentalists to critique new evangelical social agitation when their own missionary/evangelism philosophy is often bereft of a consistent proclamation, local church establishing motif.” (McCune, Rolland. Promise Unfulfilled: the Failed Strategy of Modern Evangelicalism, 273-274.)
Rethinking “Missions”
Frank Jones
Pastor, Exhorter, Cyclist
Frank Jones is presently pastor at Faith Memorial Baptist Church in Chesterfield, Virginia.
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