Posted on 02/26/2022 4:13:53 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Very frequently mission mistakes result from a lack of appreciation for, and even ignorance of, the culture in question. It may be that the greatest flaw today in missionary orientation for post-Soviet lands is not its brevity, although that is frequently a serious shortcoming. The greatest flaw may be inadequate to nonexistent country-specific and culture-specific preparation; that is, woefully insufficient study of pertinent languages, literature and history.
Ministry training too often focuses on what might be called generic preparation...Greater attention to culture-specific orientation and training... would reap ample dividends in terms of less traumatic culture shock and greater longevity for personnel in the field. Missionaries to Russia, for example, who arrive ignorant of icons and Orthodoxy, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, Stanislavsky and Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, will not be taken seriously and will give deep offence.
I often have been asked by mission boards and mission candidates for recommended reading on Eastern Orthodoxy. And when I have suggested Don Fairbairn's thoughtful Evangelical critique Partakers of the Divine Nature I have been told, more than once, that at a hundred pages it is too much." My response is that if even 500 pages of reading on Orthodoxy is too much for missionaries bound for Russia, then the distance - in comprehension as well as miles - is too great. They had better stay at home.
Fortunately, those too busy to prepare properly do not represent the whole picture. I have also had the joy of leading a semester-long independent read- ings course on Eastern Orthodoxy that involved two missionaries on leave and one missionary candidate who regularly drove the over two hours round-trip to my office so that all four of us could gain a better understanding of Slavic Christianity. They minister today in Romania, southern Russia and Siberia.
(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalstudies.org.uk ...
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Salvation through Christ alone, by faith alone Placemarker.
Stay out of Slavic nations??
Pfffft!
We are commanded to reach every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
That includes Slavic peoples God loves enough to send His only Son to die for their sins.
It includes everyone in “Christian religions” that do not preach the Gospel of Grace. They too need to hear the Gospel.
Many will respond and have salvation.
Amen
In season and out.
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