Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Led by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.
In the session for finance, Dr. Jonathan Bonk, the president of OMSC gave us the special lecture on the relationship between mission and finance. The lecture was moved for my group because Dr. Bonk was very persuasive with several concrete stories. Especially, the story of Mizoram that was one of the poorest regions in Northern India and later became the second highest literacy village in India was amazing. Though they are poor, they are sending missionaries with supporting fund by 40% amount of their total budget because they see the task of proclaiming the gospel as their responsibility as a nation. With the stories, Dr. Bonk concluded that mission is not the byproduct of the money affair, but the precious fruit of the passion.
The responses of my group were varying from positive to the other side. Most of participants agreed with conclusion, “mission is the precious fruit of the passion.” Since the subject of mission is God and we are just agents for God’s mission, our obedience with passion to God’s mission is most important element in mission activities any other than circumstance, finance and cultural equipment. However, one of my group members pointed out in a succinct manner that money matters in all activities including mission. It could be used as a resource or asset and this is obvious when we are going to the ends of the earth. Another responded that the lecture has very familiar stories because he heard similar stories in Korea, that is, people would describe spiritual movements through people. Another member also stated that the lecture was little different from what he expected because he expected to hear the story related to how the financial problem can be solved in mission enterprises. Despite these responses, we agreed that we should have missionary zeal like Mizoram people who show us the miracle of God’s mission. Lastly, we finished our discussion by talking on the business mission stated by Dr. Johnson for a moment.
Gun Cheol Kim, discussion moderator
Showing posts with label Mizoram. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mizoram. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Money and foreign missions
Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Led by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.
Dr. Jonathan Bonk from the Overseas Ministry Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut gave the lecture on Christian/Mission Finance. He reminded us that missions does not require huge financial resources and large institutional structures but rather passion on the part of Christians who feel profoundly that they need to share what they have seen and heard. You don’t need a lot of money to evangelize the world. Bonk’s presentation included examples of this from around the world.
Once again we had a diverse group, men and women as well as Koreans, Indians and Americans, in which to reflect on our speaker’s contribution. As Dr. Bonk had referred to examples of mission in the church of Mizoram, one of our group shared about a visit he had made to that church. He noted the large percentage of the population that is Christian and how prevalent the church is in society, the Presbyterians being the largest Christian tradition in the region. It has invested significant time, energy and financial support in social programs. Government officials are active members and the state supports church activities in many ways.
As two of our number are from Korea, we reflected on the situation there. Dr. Bonk had noted that the number of Korean missionaries is increasing while the number of church members is actually decreasing. We were surprised since this seemed counter-intuitive to us. One of our group shared the perspective of his father who is a pastor in Korea. Since as a pastor he has seen that involvement in missions revitalizes his church, he encourages his congregation’s participation in the sending and financing of foreign mission initiatives. Hence mission is understood to be good for the sending church and is a measure of its vitality. That is certainly one of the principal themes in Robert Wuthnow’s book Boundless Faith that we have been reading for this class. Engagement in foreign mission activities then can, in some cases, be an attempt by Christian leaders to recapture forward momentum and energy in their churches.
Bruce Yoder, discussion moderator
Dr. Jonathan Bonk from the Overseas Ministry Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut gave the lecture on Christian/Mission Finance. He reminded us that missions does not require huge financial resources and large institutional structures but rather passion on the part of Christians who feel profoundly that they need to share what they have seen and heard. You don’t need a lot of money to evangelize the world. Bonk’s presentation included examples of this from around the world.
Once again we had a diverse group, men and women as well as Koreans, Indians and Americans, in which to reflect on our speaker’s contribution. As Dr. Bonk had referred to examples of mission in the church of Mizoram, one of our group shared about a visit he had made to that church. He noted the large percentage of the population that is Christian and how prevalent the church is in society, the Presbyterians being the largest Christian tradition in the region. It has invested significant time, energy and financial support in social programs. Government officials are active members and the state supports church activities in many ways.
As two of our number are from Korea, we reflected on the situation there. Dr. Bonk had noted that the number of Korean missionaries is increasing while the number of church members is actually decreasing. We were surprised since this seemed counter-intuitive to us. One of our group shared the perspective of his father who is a pastor in Korea. Since as a pastor he has seen that involvement in missions revitalizes his church, he encourages his congregation’s participation in the sending and financing of foreign mission initiatives. Hence mission is understood to be good for the sending church and is a measure of its vitality. That is certainly one of the principal themes in Robert Wuthnow’s book Boundless Faith that we have been reading for this class. Engagement in foreign mission activities then can, in some cases, be an attempt by Christian leaders to recapture forward momentum and energy in their churches.
Bruce Yoder, discussion moderator
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)