Reflections on a Big Small World

Sorry it's been a while. Busy times here at this beautiful university. The latest events at Biola include the annual Missions conference this week. This conference with extraordinary guest speakers, events, and the global vision has been going on faithfully for 81 years and is one of the best reflections of the mission of Biola University. Aside from it's great system of education, Biola University works hard to equip students with a passion for the world, and a safe and fertile environment in which this passion can grow and begin to bear fruit. Biola takes off three days of school to work hard to represent different cultures and to make sure that we are sufficiently out of our comfort zones by (as actively as can be accomplished on a college campus) exploring the customs and situations in which other countries and nations find themselves.

This year in particular was especially inspiring for me, a college student studying business, simply because of the different approach to missions that seemed to be stressed this year. I am in college right now. The doors to go into all the nations of the world and preach the gospel are closed as of this four year long time in my life. Period. I stand confident in the fact that this is God's will for my life right now. In the past, however, speakers have urged us to feel this calling on our lives but instead of feeling inspired, I felt as if I should be feeling guilty for being in a state primarily of consumption rather than production even though it is appropriate and, I believe, essential for young people's growing experience. This year, though, some of the speakers made it an important part of their messages to call out to the alumni and stress a heart for missions once we become Biola Alum. This gives me something to pray about and look forward to in the future rather than feel judged and guilty about in the present.

Never once did anyone prod me to go off to Kenya or Yugoslavia or Bangladesh or any other nation to preach the truth. They talked about the importance of building relationships rather than pushing a religion in someone's face even if you are called to go to Kenya or Bangladesh. Jesus didn't preach and teach a religion, he preached and taught love and grace and freedom through Christ. It is a refreshing reminder that we don't have to have the mindset that Calcutta and Jakarta are the places to make an impact for Christ. What I love most about this conference is the sincerity surrounding this message. I've heard many a mission lecture lauding overseas missions, and they include local or smaller scaled missions as either plan b, second rate, or they put on the, "that's good too" voice or else they flat-out rebuke the nature of local missions. Either way they make their bias known. Where they might have good reasons for their opinions, their focus is often in the wrong place.
I have also heard many a lecture over-stressing local missions. The "look-what-you-can-do-right-here-right-now" speech can be effective in the same way an overseas speech can be, but the danger with this speech is that people will use the fear of cross-culture to restrict themselves to local missions. Playing this "local" trump card will cause the missionaries themselves to feel defensive about their work as if they have to prove themselves with a list of good things they have been doing. This year's missions conference neither blatantly promoted nor rebuked this mentality. Many think this issue should have been addressed but I think it was.
Many overseas and local missionaries act from a desire to "do" missions. Carl Medearis spoke about how missions is not about missions. Missions is not about spreading Christianity. Missions is not about missionaries. Missions are about Jesus, the lover of souls. Local involvement and foreign missions alike can be equally hazardous to the people you are ministering to as well as yourself if you are not walking in the will of God out of a love for Jesus. God doesn't want us to "do" stuff. He wants our heart to be changed and out of love for him we build relationships and establish a deep love that can only come from the Father to those around us. The surrender of our will to God's is when God is going to send us to the furthermost corners of the world... which could also mean next door. Our own wills grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That's where we want to be, not "doing" stuff, but loving people made in the image of God and showing through the establishment of relationships a mere spark of the infinitely burning flame of love that God has for each person.

I loved this year's advocacy of business in Missions. Speaker Tim Svaboda spoke of several business strategies for getting into a community and making a positive impact by, first and foremost, building relationships within your community, but also helping the economy greatly by creating jobs, and successfully and intelligently multiplying the resources. This is another area of missions that people either overlook or say is a cop-out excuse for missions. I've felt this pressure even from missionaries in my own family! As a business major and feeling God's direct call on my life to move in that direction and also having a love of people and missions I wasn't quite sure where I fit in. I'm still not sure, but being at this missions conference has encouraged me that God uses this skill to directly and deeply impact people and present opportunities to talk about God's love in just as "legitimate" of a way that "missionaries" impact cultures.

All in all I think the reminders that we receive at the annual missions conferences were very well executed this year and I have little nuggets of inspiration that I will carry with me for a long time. My only hope and prayer is that students (including myself) will seek out proper coaching and discipleship because without proper coaching, guiding, and instruction we, like the Israelites, will forget. Changed hearts will not stay changed for long if we forget what changed them in the first place.
Jesus loves us... hard to fathom, easy to forget, hard to believe, easy to abuse, easy to choose, hard to live in light of this truth. We're called to do hard things because those are the things that are going to shape and fashion our character into the sons and daughters that God intends us to be for his glory by the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.