One of the most common and accepted roles for Westerners in Thailand is that of English teacher.  Since there is such high demand for English teaching, it is common for missionaries to teach English as a way to get to know people and to share the Gospel, either inside or outside of the classroom.   But is this a good idea?  Is it a good use of a missionary's time?  Is using English teaching as outreach honest or is the missionary being deceptive in teaching English when his real goal is to share the Gospel? 

 

My friend Rich, a fellow missionary, recently did a post titled "Is Using English Teaching as Outreach a Deception?".  Rich does a good job of laying out the various perspectives on this question and there is some interesting discussion in the comment section.  I also included some comments there regarding my experience and convictions regarding this subject.   For those who have used (or thought about using) English teaching as evangelism or have wondered about it, Rich's post and the subsequent comments give some good food for thought in framing the discussion. 

It is always good to know that someone is speaking from experience and not just theory.  Therefore, following on from my previous post about Nevius’ thoughts on finding local leaders, I wanted to share Nevius’ account of how he and his missionary colleagues made the mistake of appointing elders too hastily:

“Twenty years ago our mission in considering this subject reasoned on this wise: We are Presbyterians, and our churches should be organized from the first on Presbyterian principles.  If we cannot get men for elders as well qualified as we should like, we must take the best men we can find, men who seem sincere and earnest Christians, and who may develop in character and ability to fulfill the duties of elders by having the duties and responsibilities of this office laid upon them.  With these views and expectations several churches were formally and constitutionally organized.  It was found, however, in not a small proportion of cases that the elders did not, or could not, perform their official duties, and were an obstruction to any one else attempting to do so.  They were placed in a false position, injurious to themselves and the churches of which they had the nominal charge.  Some were hardly able to sustain the character of an ordinary church member and others were in a course of few years excommunicated.  We then took action as a Presbytery, determining that

Every missionary wants to develop indigenous local leaders so that an indigenous church may be established.  When there are not many local Christians to choose from, it can be difficult to find the right people, especially those that are Biblically qualified.  With many years of experience under his belt as a missionary in China, John Nevius had that following to say on the subject:

 

"It is only natural that missionaries should at first seek and employ many native agents.  They are anxious for immediate results, and home societies and the home churches are as impatient to hear of results as the missionaries are to report them.  No communications from the field seem so indicative of progress, and are so calculated to call forth commendation and generous contributions as the announcement that native laborers have been obtained, and are preaching the gospel.  While the missionary himself is for months or years debarred from evangelistic work by his ignorance of the language, a native agency stands waiting his employ.  His circumstances and his wishes add stong emphasis to the oft-repeated truism, "China must be evangelized by the Chinese." So urgent seems the necessity to obtain native assistants that if such as he would like are not forthcoming, he is glad to avail himself of such as he can get.  How many of us have thought in connection with some specially interesting inquirer, even before he is baptized, "What a capital assistant that man might make." (John Nevius, The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches, Monadnock Press, Hancock New Hampshire, 2003, p.21)

 

There is a church that my wife and I know well where almost none of the people on the church leadership committee are qualified to be there (this church uses a leadership committee instead of an elder board, deacon board, or some other form of church government).  Sure they are aware of passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 that lay out the Biblical qualifications for elders but those requirements don't seem to be very important to them.  As in the time of Nevius,

I love reading stories of people and events in church history because many times the past gives me a different perspective on the present.  History helps me to peel back my contemporary blinders a bit and see things in a new way.  I recently finished reading a little book called, “The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches” by John Nevius, first published in 1886.  Nevius was an American Presbyterian missionary working in 19th century rural China.  Although relatively unknown outside of mission circles, Nevius is well known for developing the three self principles of planting churches on the mission field, namely that churches must be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.  These principles were applied to great effect in the evangelization of Korea and are well-known in the mission world.  As far as Nevius though, I had heard of him but never read the man himself.  I wish that I had run into his writing sooner.  

What I found most fascinating about Nevius’ writings is how Biblical and how practical his advice is.  I find that too much modern missiology is not very well anchored in Scripture, and as a result there is a lot of sociology, anthropology, and psychology but not much Bible.  Nevius speaks from years of experience as a missionary in China and, as most missionaries, is concerned about what are the most effective ways of doing ministry.  However, unlike too many modern pastors and missionaries, his advice about about what should be done about various challenges and obstacles to church growth is informed by the pages of Scripture rather than sociological studies, surveys of the unchurched, or over reliance upon methodology.  He gives practical advice, to be sure, but his advice is hemmed in ahead and behind by Scriptural principles, not the latest business management book or some radical

This morning my wife Sun had a good chat with one of the neighbor ladies and as they talked about this, that, and the other thing, somehow my wife ended up lending her a Christian book.  Like my wife, this neighbor is also a young mom with a little boy.  One of the things that this mom likes to do at home during the day is read.  The book that my wife lent her is called “Songs from the Heart”, the life story of a Thai traditional drama performer and musician who became a Christian, and eventually a well-respected pastor in Central Thailand.  Also significantly, Pastor Song San used his excellent musical abilities to compose many original Thai Christian hymns, using traditional Thai, Chinese, and Cambodian tunes.  Unfortunately, these traditional hymns are not used much anymore in Thai churches but they are a wonderful example of the Christian message being expressed using indigenous music and lyrics, rather than merely being translated from English.

Personal testimonies are not the Gospel but many Thai Christians say that hearing testimonies of people whose lives God changed were significant in their coming to faith.  God can and does use all sorts of means to pique people’s interest enough that they want to hear the Gospel.  Things like personal testimonies, Biblical principles for parenting, practical helps, or the love of the Christian community are distinct from the Gospel message itself, but they are wonderful results of the Gospel that adorn

Siam is the old name for Thailand and I have never known why and how that name change came about. A Bangkok academic is now petitioning the government to change the name back to Siam in order to make a step towards creating greater peace and unity in the nation. For those who are curious about the history of the name change from Siam to Thailand or wonder how on earth changing the country's name could do anything in the way of reconciling a divided nation, check out the Bangkok Post article "What's in a name?" The comments on this article are at least as interesting as the article itself as people weigh in on whether they think the change is a good idea.