Gleanings from the FieldKarl & Sun Dahlfred are Missionaries in Thailand, working with OMF International. This site contains articles on missions, theology, evangelism, and Thai culture, as well as our current prayer letters.https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field2024-03-19T04:18:05-04:00www.dahlfred.comdoulosx@protonmail.comJoomla! - Open Source Content Management - Version 3.10.12A Meme about Missionary Stress2024-02-05T01:59:43-05:002024-02-05T01:59:43-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/1009-a-meme-about-missionary-stressKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I recently discovered a meme about stress and then modified to be about cross-cultural missionaries. I took this new meme (which you'll find at the end of this post) and shared on social media because I thought that many of my fellow missionaries could relate to it. Many could. No matter where you live, life can be difficult. But there are numerous additional stress factors in the lives of cross-cultural missionaries that people rarely experience unless they live outside their home country for an extended period of time.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">What particular stresses do missionaries experience? Imagine the following:</span></div>
<div> </div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Doing everything you already do in your everyday life, but do it in a second language that you had to learn as an adult, starting in maybe your 20s or 30s. Even though you may now understand that language fairly well, you often don’t understand 100% of what people are saying and you don’t know how to say 100% of what you want to express.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Next, you’re doing your normal life in a culture where people have different ideas than you (and the people who grew up with) about what it means to be on time, how to solve relational issues, ideas of how or what should have authority, and whether communication should direct or indirect, verbal or not verbal. Oh, and the values and expectations of the community at large are different from where you grew up.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">More than 50% of the stores and products you are familiar with are not available. There are other similar shops and products but they are not quite the same.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">You are always viewed as an outsider and transient.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">To simply remain living where you are and doing what you do, you have to annually (or more often) submit a ream of paperwork (with official stamps from multiple branches of bureaucracy) together with fees for you and all members of your family in order to have permission to stay where you are and do what you do. And don’t be too quick to think about quitting your job and getting another one because your permission to stay in the country is tied to that particular job. </span></li>
</ul>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The above list of stress factors particular to the mission life could be expanded to include a lot more, but the above list gives you an idea.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div class="box-content">
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">If you know a missionary, pray for them today to be able to </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">manage stress, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">find outlets for relaxation and refreshment </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">always look to God for all that they need to get through the day and also do effective ministry. </span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And if you had the discipline and interest to read the introductory paragraphs, congratulations. You are a highly literate learner. Most people just scroll down for the funny meme. I love reading but I confess, if I was reading this post instead of writing it, I probably would have gone for the meme first.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/stress-meme-missionaries.jpeg" alt="" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I recently discovered a meme about stress and then modified to be about cross-cultural missionaries. I took this new meme (which you'll find at the end of this post) and shared on social media because I thought that many of my fellow missionaries could relate to it. Many could. No matter where you live, life can be difficult. But there are numerous additional stress factors in the lives of cross-cultural missionaries that people rarely experience unless they live outside their home country for an extended period of time.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">What particular stresses do missionaries experience? Imagine the following:</span></div>
<div> </div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Doing everything you already do in your everyday life, but do it in a second language that you had to learn as an adult, starting in maybe your 20s or 30s. Even though you may now understand that language fairly well, you often don’t understand 100% of what people are saying and you don’t know how to say 100% of what you want to express.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Next, you’re doing your normal life in a culture where people have different ideas than you (and the people who grew up with) about what it means to be on time, how to solve relational issues, ideas of how or what should have authority, and whether communication should direct or indirect, verbal or not verbal. Oh, and the values and expectations of the community at large are different from where you grew up.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">More than 50% of the stores and products you are familiar with are not available. There are other similar shops and products but they are not quite the same.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">You are always viewed as an outsider and transient.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">To simply remain living where you are and doing what you do, you have to annually (or more often) submit a ream of paperwork (with official stamps from multiple branches of bureaucracy) together with fees for you and all members of your family in order to have permission to stay where you are and do what you do. And don’t be too quick to think about quitting your job and getting another one because your permission to stay in the country is tied to that particular job. </span></li>
</ul>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The above list of stress factors particular to the mission life could be expanded to include a lot more, but the above list gives you an idea.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div class="box-content">
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">If you know a missionary, pray for them today to be able to </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">manage stress, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">find outlets for relaxation and refreshment </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">always look to God for all that they need to get through the day and also do effective ministry. </span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And if you had the discipline and interest to read the introductory paragraphs, congratulations. You are a highly literate learner. Most people just scroll down for the funny meme. I love reading but I confess, if I was reading this post instead of writing it, I probably would have gone for the meme first.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/stress-meme-missionaries.jpeg" alt="" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>A Missionary Call is for the Whole Family2024-01-29T01:15:31-05:002024-01-29T01:15:31-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/1008-a-missionary-call-is-for-the-whole-familyKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">One of the internal debates in the world of evangelical missions is whether the missionary call extends to the whole family or to just the parents. I’ve written <a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/en/blogs/14-gleanings/551-your-wife-must-be-a-missionary-too">previously</a> on why both husband and wife (and not just the husband) must be committed to mission work, so in this post I want to think a bit about the kids. Does the missionary call extend to them as well?</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">If I were living in my home country, and I answered a call to pastor a church there, my wife would need to be supportive, but the pastoral call would be to me, not to her. Likewise, the pastoral call would not be to my kids, but to me. Hopefully my kids would be okay with their dad being a pastor but whether I were a pastor or a carpenter or a salesman, our family could largely carry on with our regular activities and patterns of life that we were accustomed to. We’d be using the same language and living in the same culture that we had been. If we had to move to a different part of the country, that would obviously be difficult for the kids in terms of moving house, leaving friends, and more. I don’t want to ignore the fact that domestic moves come with heartache too but when compared to moving overseas, there is a lot more that changes for kids.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/family-1517192_640.jpg" alt="family 1517192 640" width="600" height="450" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/kalhh-86169/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1517192">kalhh</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1517192">Pixabay</a></span></p>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When dad and mom decide to move to the mission field, the kids don’t have much of a choice because the whole family needs to go. Depending upon the age of the kids, it may be necessary to discuss the decision with them before a final decision is made, but at the end of the day, the kids don’t decide. The parents do. If the kids are young, they may not really understand what is happening or what that means for them. If you have very young kids, it is physically more difficult to move (i.e. dragging stroller and car seats through multiple airports), but emotionally it may be easier because the kids barely understand where they are going or where they have been. As long as they have mom and dad, food, and toys, they are good to go anywhere. That is probably an oversimplification but I think there is much truth to it. When kids get to be teenagers, they can actually carry their own luggage, manage themselves on the airplane, help you move furniture, make food for themselves, etc. Moving and getting settled in a new place with older kids is physically much easier. But when they are older, it is harder for the kids emotionally because they are starting to have opinions and convictions about what they want and what they don’t want, including the pluses and minuses of moving. Leaving behind friends, pets, and favorite activities can be difficult and traumatic. It is tough to move from a context where they know the culture and can express themselves (and understand others) easily in their native language. Teens are just starting to get their feet under them and become confident in their ability to interact with the world outside the home as they head towards adulthood. Moving overseas often bumps them back down to the level of a young child in terms of their ability to do things for themselves and communicate with people outside the home.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Kids are still growing and changing physically, emotionally, and spiritually and it is too much to expect that kids of missionary parents will have the same conviction and commitment to sharing the Gospel as their parents do. Part of discipling your kids is helping them to understand the “what” and “why” of sharing Christ with others as they understand what it means for them personally to follow Christ. And some kids of Christian parents, in all walks of life, go through periods where they are not interested in spiritual things. Some come out of that and become young adults with a firm faith in Christ. Some don’t.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">With these realities in mind, does a missionary call extend to the whole family, including the kids? They answer is both yes and no. Let me explain. If we mean that the kids are expected to be little evangelists just like the parents, I would say no. We can hope and pray that they would want to share Christ with others as they understand and embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior, but we should not expect more of them spiritually than we would if dad and mom were doing some other profession in their home country. But because cross-cultural missions usually involves the whole family uprooting and moving into an area with a different language and culture, I would say yes. The family is a unit and it moves together to the mission field. If God has placed a call upon the parents to cross-cultural service, then that includes the kids because everyone has to move and adjust. This involves both blessings and heartaches for everyone in the family, whether it be parents or kids. Parents should be able to say to their kids, “God has called our family to the mission field” as a way of helping them understand that God views the family as a unit that sticks together, moves together, and helps one another. Parents need to do all they can to raise their children to trust and follow God (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Proverbs 22:6, Psalm 78:1-4) and to be sensitive to their particular needs (Ephesians 6:4), but the kids also need to honor and respect the parents authority (Deuteronomy 5:6, Ephesians 6:1-3) as they try to obey God as best they know how.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The call to missions does not look the same for the parents as it does for the kids but the missionary family is all in it together as they live, study, work, and play in a foreign culture with a different language. There are joys but also heartaches as families work through together what it looks like to live and thrive in the place that God has put them. If you know a missionary family with kids, pray for them today.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">One of the internal debates in the world of evangelical missions is whether the missionary call extends to the whole family or to just the parents. I’ve written <a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/en/blogs/14-gleanings/551-your-wife-must-be-a-missionary-too">previously</a> on why both husband and wife (and not just the husband) must be committed to mission work, so in this post I want to think a bit about the kids. Does the missionary call extend to them as well?</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">If I were living in my home country, and I answered a call to pastor a church there, my wife would need to be supportive, but the pastoral call would be to me, not to her. Likewise, the pastoral call would not be to my kids, but to me. Hopefully my kids would be okay with their dad being a pastor but whether I were a pastor or a carpenter or a salesman, our family could largely carry on with our regular activities and patterns of life that we were accustomed to. We’d be using the same language and living in the same culture that we had been. If we had to move to a different part of the country, that would obviously be difficult for the kids in terms of moving house, leaving friends, and more. I don’t want to ignore the fact that domestic moves come with heartache too but when compared to moving overseas, there is a lot more that changes for kids.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/family-1517192_640.jpg" alt="family 1517192 640" width="600" height="450" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/kalhh-86169/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1517192">kalhh</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1517192">Pixabay</a></span></p>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When dad and mom decide to move to the mission field, the kids don’t have much of a choice because the whole family needs to go. Depending upon the age of the kids, it may be necessary to discuss the decision with them before a final decision is made, but at the end of the day, the kids don’t decide. The parents do. If the kids are young, they may not really understand what is happening or what that means for them. If you have very young kids, it is physically more difficult to move (i.e. dragging stroller and car seats through multiple airports), but emotionally it may be easier because the kids barely understand where they are going or where they have been. As long as they have mom and dad, food, and toys, they are good to go anywhere. That is probably an oversimplification but I think there is much truth to it. When kids get to be teenagers, they can actually carry their own luggage, manage themselves on the airplane, help you move furniture, make food for themselves, etc. Moving and getting settled in a new place with older kids is physically much easier. But when they are older, it is harder for the kids emotionally because they are starting to have opinions and convictions about what they want and what they don’t want, including the pluses and minuses of moving. Leaving behind friends, pets, and favorite activities can be difficult and traumatic. It is tough to move from a context where they know the culture and can express themselves (and understand others) easily in their native language. Teens are just starting to get their feet under them and become confident in their ability to interact with the world outside the home as they head towards adulthood. Moving overseas often bumps them back down to the level of a young child in terms of their ability to do things for themselves and communicate with people outside the home.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Kids are still growing and changing physically, emotionally, and spiritually and it is too much to expect that kids of missionary parents will have the same conviction and commitment to sharing the Gospel as their parents do. Part of discipling your kids is helping them to understand the “what” and “why” of sharing Christ with others as they understand what it means for them personally to follow Christ. And some kids of Christian parents, in all walks of life, go through periods where they are not interested in spiritual things. Some come out of that and become young adults with a firm faith in Christ. Some don’t.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">With these realities in mind, does a missionary call extend to the whole family, including the kids? They answer is both yes and no. Let me explain. If we mean that the kids are expected to be little evangelists just like the parents, I would say no. We can hope and pray that they would want to share Christ with others as they understand and embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior, but we should not expect more of them spiritually than we would if dad and mom were doing some other profession in their home country. But because cross-cultural missions usually involves the whole family uprooting and moving into an area with a different language and culture, I would say yes. The family is a unit and it moves together to the mission field. If God has placed a call upon the parents to cross-cultural service, then that includes the kids because everyone has to move and adjust. This involves both blessings and heartaches for everyone in the family, whether it be parents or kids. Parents should be able to say to their kids, “God has called our family to the mission field” as a way of helping them understand that God views the family as a unit that sticks together, moves together, and helps one another. Parents need to do all they can to raise their children to trust and follow God (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Proverbs 22:6, Psalm 78:1-4) and to be sensitive to their particular needs (Ephesians 6:4), but the kids also need to honor and respect the parents authority (Deuteronomy 5:6, Ephesians 6:1-3) as they try to obey God as best they know how.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The call to missions does not look the same for the parents as it does for the kids but the missionary family is all in it together as they live, study, work, and play in a foreign culture with a different language. There are joys but also heartaches as families work through together what it looks like to live and thrive in the place that God has put them. If you know a missionary family with kids, pray for them today.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>Cindy Jacobs’ Prophecy for Thailand2024-01-17T01:02:24-05:002024-01-17T01:02:24-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/1006-cindy-jacobs-prophecy-for-thailandKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In late January 2024, traveling preacher Cindy Jacobs is speaking at a large event in Chiang Mai, Thailand. What she will say this time remains to be seen but at the end of </span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">2008, a lot of Christians in Thailand (both Thai and missionaries) got excited about Cindy Jacobs' prophecy of an imminent coming revival in Thailand. The text of that prophecy has since been removed from her website, but you can still find <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100814141818/https://www.kingdomprophetic.com/thailand/index.php/en/resources/prophetic-words/75-cindy-jacobs-prophecy-thailand">her 2008 prophecy online courtesy of the Wayback Machine.</a> Jacobs prophesied:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><em>“Look to South Thailand. Revival is beginning to burn in South Thailand... In 2009, it will begin. In 2010, Fire begins in fullblown. 2010-2020, I will fill this nation. More churches will be planted, more than in all the years before...Prepare in 2009 with Daniels and Josephs bringing about market place revival...You have one year (2009) to prepare for the Decade of the Harvest. Prepare regional evangelists. There will be revival in all sectors, great transfer of wealth, wisdom and revelation.”</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/thailand-map-revival-fire-cropped-600px.png" alt="" width="395" height="612" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />Prophecies like this are very exciting because there are still so few Christians in Thailand (less than 1% of the population) and everyone wants to see revival. It is thrilling to think that God is telling us that the very thing that we have desired for many years is about to happen. And there are good things happening in the Thai church. People are coming to faith. The church is growing. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">But Jacobs' propehcy claims that a great revival was supposed to start in Thailand in 2009 and then progressively fill the nation between 2010-2020. As of January 2024, the <a href="https://estar.ws/Interactive-Maps.html">latest statistics</a> on Protestant Christians and churches (broadly speaking, this includes evangelical, charismatic, Pentecostal, etc.) show the following:</span></p>
<table border="1" style="width: 347px; height: 266px; border: 1px solid #000000; float: left;"><caption>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Protestant Christianity in Thailand</span></h3>
</caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Country Population</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">65,729,098</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Total Christians</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">497,867</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Total Churches</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">8,552</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Percent Christian</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">0.76%</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Based on the numbers above, has revival come? Did revival fill the nation between 2010 and 2020 like Jacobs' claimed that God told her? If revival has already happened, praise the Lord. If it has not yet occurred, what does that say about the reliability of this claimed prophet? </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><em>“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.”</em> (Deuteronomy 18:22)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In late January 2024, traveling preacher Cindy Jacobs is speaking at a large event in Chiang Mai, Thailand. What she will say this time remains to be seen but at the end of </span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">2008, a lot of Christians in Thailand (both Thai and missionaries) got excited about Cindy Jacobs' prophecy of an imminent coming revival in Thailand. The text of that prophecy has since been removed from her website, but you can still find <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100814141818/https://www.kingdomprophetic.com/thailand/index.php/en/resources/prophetic-words/75-cindy-jacobs-prophecy-thailand">her 2008 prophecy online courtesy of the Wayback Machine.</a> Jacobs prophesied:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><em>“Look to South Thailand. Revival is beginning to burn in South Thailand... In 2009, it will begin. In 2010, Fire begins in fullblown. 2010-2020, I will fill this nation. More churches will be planted, more than in all the years before...Prepare in 2009 with Daniels and Josephs bringing about market place revival...You have one year (2009) to prepare for the Decade of the Harvest. Prepare regional evangelists. There will be revival in all sectors, great transfer of wealth, wisdom and revelation.”</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/thailand-map-revival-fire-cropped-600px.png" alt="" width="395" height="612" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" />Prophecies like this are very exciting because there are still so few Christians in Thailand (less than 1% of the population) and everyone wants to see revival. It is thrilling to think that God is telling us that the very thing that we have desired for many years is about to happen. And there are good things happening in the Thai church. People are coming to faith. The church is growing. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">But Jacobs' propehcy claims that a great revival was supposed to start in Thailand in 2009 and then progressively fill the nation between 2010-2020. As of January 2024, the <a href="https://estar.ws/Interactive-Maps.html">latest statistics</a> on Protestant Christians and churches (broadly speaking, this includes evangelical, charismatic, Pentecostal, etc.) show the following:</span></p>
<table border="1" style="width: 347px; height: 266px; border: 1px solid #000000; float: left;"><caption>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Protestant Christianity in Thailand</span></h3>
</caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Country Population</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">65,729,098</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Total Christians</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">497,867</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Total Churches</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">8,552</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Percent Christian</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">0.76%</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Based on the numbers above, has revival come? Did revival fill the nation between 2010 and 2020 like Jacobs' claimed that God told her? If revival has already happened, praise the Lord. If it has not yet occurred, what does that say about the reliability of this claimed prophet? </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><em>“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.”</em> (Deuteronomy 18:22)</span></p>Christmas is the Time of Humility2023-12-22T05:42:12-05:002023-12-22T05:42:12-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/1005-christmas-is-the-time-of-humilityKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<div class="box-content" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.dahlfred.com/blog-xmas-humility-thai.pdf">บทความข้างล่างนี้ถูกแปลและปรับจากต้นฉบับภาษาไทย</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The Thai language has an endless number of words related to emotions that use the word <em>jai</em>, or “heart.” And since most Thai are concerned about saving face (and losing face!), one of the common “heart” words is <em>noi joi</em>, which roughly translates as feeling slighted, hurt, or overlooked.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Have you ever felt slighted? At one time or another, all of us have felt unhappy and hurt because someone overlooked us or did not give us credit. Even though we have knowledge, position, and dignity, someone fails to give us the honor that we are due. We are someone that others should respect and honor, but instead they dishonor and disrespect us. Don't they know who I am?!</span></p>
<p><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; max-width: 600px; width: 100%;" role="figure"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/angry-man-ai-generated-8413908_640.png" alt="angry man ai generated 8413908 640" width="600" style="display: block; margin: initial; float: none; width: 100%;" /><span style="text-align: center; display: block;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/rafiq23-8902190/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8413908">rafiq23</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8413908">Pixabay</a></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">They might not know who we are. They might not know where we went to school. They might not know about our experience or expertise in one area or another. Maybe they think we did something wrong when we know that we were in the right. And even worse than that, maybe they know who we are, but they have intentionally chosen to disrespect us, deride us, blame us, and criticize us in front of other people. We have lost face. When someone does that to us, it feels awful. We feel slighted, upset, and hurt because we know that we are better than that. We are better and smarter than other people are willing to admit.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When other people overlook and disrespect us, we often think that we have good reason to feel slighted. We feel like we have a good reason to get angry. We have a good reason to get revenge, insult, or explode on someone in a rage of emotion… don’t we? God tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves but we don’t feel like loving some neighbors because they slighted us. But do we really have good reason to feel this way? In this post, I want to tell you about a certain person who had more reason than anyone else in the history of the world to get upset because he was slighted… but he didn’t do so. That person is Jesus Christ.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When the Son of God was still in heaven with his Father, an innumerable number of angels continually bowed down and worshipped him. Every spirit in heaven worshipped Him because they all knew and acknowledged his holiness and greatness. The Son was worthy of all worship, and no one overlooked him. When he was in heaven, the Son of God had a very comfortable existence. His glory was always acknowledged and exalted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">But when the Son of God the Father came into this world and born as a man, there were very few who knew who he was and acknowledged his greatness. The apostle John explained, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:10-11). When Jesus was in this world, most people overlooked his beauty, his greatness, his honor, and his glory. The Jewish leaders criticized and disdained him again and again. But Jesus never got upset because he felt slighted. He never got annoyed with other people because they were not honoring him as befits his status as the Son of God.</span></p>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/jesus-manger-god-7558871_1000px.jpg" alt="jesus manger god 7558871 1000px" width="600" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When Jesus was still in heaven, he braced himself to enter into a world that was going to constantly overlook his glory, look down on him, and mock him. When Jesus was ov­erlooked and insulted, what kind of attitude and reaction did he have towards other people? The apostle Paul explained that though Jesus “was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:6-8)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus is infinitely good and without blemish. He is worthy of the highest honor because he created the world and is over all. Jesus is therefore the only person in the history of the world who really has a reason to get upset because he has been slighted. As for us, we are sinners whose actions are often good and evil mixed together. We often feel slighted because we regard ourselves too highly and think we are better than other people. But we don’t have nearly as much reason to feel slighted as Jesus did. Yet Jesus didn’t get upset or annoyed with those who dishonored him. Instead of being indignant, Jesus humbled himself and served us. Jesus was more interested in the honor that comes from God than the honor that comes from man. This is the reason why Jesus did get upset at being slighted and overlooked.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">During this Christmas season and throughout the year, let us remember just how much Jesus humbled himself in order to redeem us from pride, selfish ambition and conceit. We are sinners worthy of judgment. But instead of condemnation, we have received grace. Even if we are sometimes overlooked or insulted, Jesus was overlooked and insulted so much more than us. Let us follow Jesus’ example. Instead of getting upset, angry, or annoyed at being slighted, let us humble ourselves and entrust ourselves to God who will lift up and honor everyone deserving of honor at the right time.</span></p><div class="box-content" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.dahlfred.com/blog-xmas-humility-thai.pdf">บทความข้างล่างนี้ถูกแปลและปรับจากต้นฉบับภาษาไทย</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The Thai language has an endless number of words related to emotions that use the word <em>jai</em>, or “heart.” And since most Thai are concerned about saving face (and losing face!), one of the common “heart” words is <em>noi joi</em>, which roughly translates as feeling slighted, hurt, or overlooked.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Have you ever felt slighted? At one time or another, all of us have felt unhappy and hurt because someone overlooked us or did not give us credit. Even though we have knowledge, position, and dignity, someone fails to give us the honor that we are due. We are someone that others should respect and honor, but instead they dishonor and disrespect us. Don't they know who I am?!</span></p>
<p><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; max-width: 600px; width: 100%;" role="figure"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/angry-man-ai-generated-8413908_640.png" alt="angry man ai generated 8413908 640" width="600" style="display: block; margin: initial; float: none; width: 100%;" /><span style="text-align: center; display: block;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/rafiq23-8902190/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8413908">rafiq23</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8413908">Pixabay</a></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">They might not know who we are. They might not know where we went to school. They might not know about our experience or expertise in one area or another. Maybe they think we did something wrong when we know that we were in the right. And even worse than that, maybe they know who we are, but they have intentionally chosen to disrespect us, deride us, blame us, and criticize us in front of other people. We have lost face. When someone does that to us, it feels awful. We feel slighted, upset, and hurt because we know that we are better than that. We are better and smarter than other people are willing to admit.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When other people overlook and disrespect us, we often think that we have good reason to feel slighted. We feel like we have a good reason to get angry. We have a good reason to get revenge, insult, or explode on someone in a rage of emotion… don’t we? God tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves but we don’t feel like loving some neighbors because they slighted us. But do we really have good reason to feel this way? In this post, I want to tell you about a certain person who had more reason than anyone else in the history of the world to get upset because he was slighted… but he didn’t do so. That person is Jesus Christ.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When the Son of God was still in heaven with his Father, an innumerable number of angels continually bowed down and worshipped him. Every spirit in heaven worshipped Him because they all knew and acknowledged his holiness and greatness. The Son was worthy of all worship, and no one overlooked him. When he was in heaven, the Son of God had a very comfortable existence. His glory was always acknowledged and exalted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">But when the Son of God the Father came into this world and born as a man, there were very few who knew who he was and acknowledged his greatness. The apostle John explained, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:10-11). When Jesus was in this world, most people overlooked his beauty, his greatness, his honor, and his glory. The Jewish leaders criticized and disdained him again and again. But Jesus never got upset because he felt slighted. He never got annoyed with other people because they were not honoring him as befits his status as the Son of God.</span></p>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/jesus-manger-god-7558871_1000px.jpg" alt="jesus manger god 7558871 1000px" width="600" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When Jesus was still in heaven, he braced himself to enter into a world that was going to constantly overlook his glory, look down on him, and mock him. When Jesus was ov­erlooked and insulted, what kind of attitude and reaction did he have towards other people? The apostle Paul explained that though Jesus “was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:6-8)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus is infinitely good and without blemish. He is worthy of the highest honor because he created the world and is over all. Jesus is therefore the only person in the history of the world who really has a reason to get upset because he has been slighted. As for us, we are sinners whose actions are often good and evil mixed together. We often feel slighted because we regard ourselves too highly and think we are better than other people. But we don’t have nearly as much reason to feel slighted as Jesus did. Yet Jesus didn’t get upset or annoyed with those who dishonored him. Instead of being indignant, Jesus humbled himself and served us. Jesus was more interested in the honor that comes from God than the honor that comes from man. This is the reason why Jesus did get upset at being slighted and overlooked.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">During this Christmas season and throughout the year, let us remember just how much Jesus humbled himself in order to redeem us from pride, selfish ambition and conceit. We are sinners worthy of judgment. But instead of condemnation, we have received grace. Even if we are sometimes overlooked or insulted, Jesus was overlooked and insulted so much more than us. Let us follow Jesus’ example. Instead of getting upset, angry, or annoyed at being slighted, let us humble ourselves and entrust ourselves to God who will lift up and honor everyone deserving of honor at the right time.</span></p>Navigating Officialdom and Trusting God2023-10-14T00:40:35-04:002023-10-14T00:40:35-04:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/1002-navigating-officialdom-and-trusting-godKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Returning to Thailand after a long time away, my family and I have had a lot more government related paperwork and encounters with government offices and officials than we have had in a long time. This has especially been true for visa applications and immigration related tasks as we’ve left the U.S. and come in and out of Thailand and Malaysia before finally coming into Thailand with the right kind of visas. We’re not done yet though, because even though we are back in Thailand on the right visas, a work permit needs to be applied for and additional paperwork and address verifications need to be accomplished certain tasks, such as buying a vehicle.</span></p>
<p><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; max-width: 600px; width: 100%;" role="figure"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/thai-consulate-penang-oct2023-1000px-cropped.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="326" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin: initial; float: none; width: 100%;" /><span style="text-align: center; display: block;">Royal Thai Consulate General, Penang, Malaysia</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Once all this initial paperwork and bureaucracy is settled, there will be annual visa renewals for the whole family in order to retain permission to stay in Thailand. We’re thankful for our mission organization’s staff to help guide us through the paperwork, and for the advice and experience of missionary friends, colleagues, and people on internet forums, but there is always a cloud of uncertainty and tenuousness that hangs over the whole process. Do we have ALL the right documents? Are we missing something? Will the official examining our docs require something previously unknown? Will the official give us the right stamp with the right date? Are our photos to the exact specifications that this particular government office requires (which may be different than another government office)? The right to stay in our host country can never be assumed. We are always here by the good graces of the government of our host country, a status that can be revoked at any time. The situation in Thailand is not nearly as tenuous as some places but there is always uncertainty that presses me to turn to God.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">As I’ve applied and renewed visas and gone through immigration checkpoints time and time again over the years, a Bible verse that often comes to mind is Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” In the human sphere, governments and their officials have sovereignty over their domains. They have power and authority to give individuals the “yea” or “nay” and their word is final, especially for those who are foreigners. However, this world and all its peoples are ultimately under the rule of God who created the heavens and the earth. The proverb quoted above teaches us that if God wishes to direct a human authority or government in a certain direction, He can make that happen. In terms of immigration status, if God wants my family and I to live and serve in a certain country, then He can guide the relevant officials and offices to grant that permission. This does not mean that I can be cavalier about getting paperwork in order. I must do my best to respect the authority of the relevant officials and government agents. But at the end of the day, remembering this proverb and the ultimate sovereignty of God over all things helps me to be less anxious and afraid when approaching and interacting with the powers that be.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I still struggle with all the “what if...?!” fears about what could happen if we don’t get approved, if we are missing a document, or if we meet an official who decides to make life difficult for us for some reason. But all of this uncertainty can be a good thing because it forces me to turn to God and remember that all our times are in His hands, that He is good, and He does what is good and best. So, whether we receive the desired government approvals or not, God is still in control and is actively directing our lives as He desires. God will bring us to where He wants us to be.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Returning to Thailand after a long time away, my family and I have had a lot more government related paperwork and encounters with government offices and officials than we have had in a long time. This has especially been true for visa applications and immigration related tasks as we’ve left the U.S. and come in and out of Thailand and Malaysia before finally coming into Thailand with the right kind of visas. We’re not done yet though, because even though we are back in Thailand on the right visas, a work permit needs to be applied for and additional paperwork and address verifications need to be accomplished certain tasks, such as buying a vehicle.</span></p>
<p><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; max-width: 600px; width: 100%;" role="figure"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/thai-consulate-penang-oct2023-1000px-cropped.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="326" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin: initial; float: none; width: 100%;" /><span style="text-align: center; display: block;">Royal Thai Consulate General, Penang, Malaysia</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Once all this initial paperwork and bureaucracy is settled, there will be annual visa renewals for the whole family in order to retain permission to stay in Thailand. We’re thankful for our mission organization’s staff to help guide us through the paperwork, and for the advice and experience of missionary friends, colleagues, and people on internet forums, but there is always a cloud of uncertainty and tenuousness that hangs over the whole process. Do we have ALL the right documents? Are we missing something? Will the official examining our docs require something previously unknown? Will the official give us the right stamp with the right date? Are our photos to the exact specifications that this particular government office requires (which may be different than another government office)? The right to stay in our host country can never be assumed. We are always here by the good graces of the government of our host country, a status that can be revoked at any time. The situation in Thailand is not nearly as tenuous as some places but there is always uncertainty that presses me to turn to God.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">As I’ve applied and renewed visas and gone through immigration checkpoints time and time again over the years, a Bible verse that often comes to mind is Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” In the human sphere, governments and their officials have sovereignty over their domains. They have power and authority to give individuals the “yea” or “nay” and their word is final, especially for those who are foreigners. However, this world and all its peoples are ultimately under the rule of God who created the heavens and the earth. The proverb quoted above teaches us that if God wishes to direct a human authority or government in a certain direction, He can make that happen. In terms of immigration status, if God wants my family and I to live and serve in a certain country, then He can guide the relevant officials and offices to grant that permission. This does not mean that I can be cavalier about getting paperwork in order. I must do my best to respect the authority of the relevant officials and government agents. But at the end of the day, remembering this proverb and the ultimate sovereignty of God over all things helps me to be less anxious and afraid when approaching and interacting with the powers that be.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I still struggle with all the “what if...?!” fears about what could happen if we don’t get approved, if we are missing a document, or if we meet an official who decides to make life difficult for us for some reason. But all of this uncertainty can be a good thing because it forces me to turn to God and remember that all our times are in His hands, that He is good, and He does what is good and best. So, whether we receive the desired government approvals or not, God is still in control and is actively directing our lives as He desires. God will bring us to where He wants us to be.</span></p>Is the Era of Pioneer Missions Over?2023-04-24T19:46:00-04:002023-04-24T19:46:00-04:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/996-is-the-era-of-pioneer-missions-overKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In 1910, representatives from mission organizations working across the world met together in Edinburgh, Scotland for a <a href="https://amzn.to/3n1cNa6">World Missionary Conference</a> that promised to be “a Grand Council for the Advancement of Missionary Science.” The vast majority of delegates were European or North American and those present discussed the missionary task in terms of “the Christian world” and “the non-Christian world.” In 1910, this division of the world made sense because the vast majority of those who identified as Christian lived in Europe in North America.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_1910_World_Missionary_Conference,the_Edinburgh_Missionary_Conference.jpg"><strong><span class="mw-page-title-main" style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 10pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/600px-The_1910_World_Missionary_Conferencethe_Edinburgh_Missionary_Conference.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="480" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 10pt;">The 1910 World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">However, if we fast forward 100+ years, it seems both ridiculous and ethnocentric to talk about “the Christian world” and “the non-Christian world.” Europe today is quite secular and North America’s Christian heritage is fading quickly. Two-thirds of those who profess the Christian faith live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The world is changed. No longer is the missionary task of the church a question of “the West to the rest.” Rather, <a href="https://amzn.to/3mUm4kh">as Allen Yeh has put it</a>, twenty-first century mission is from everyone to everywhere. Around the world, there are vibrant churches on every inhabited continent and the number of truly unreached peoples is rapidly diminishing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Westerner believers can no longer assume that they are “the missionaries” whose job is to bring the Gospel to the rest of the world. They can no longer assume that if they are not working among a particular country or people group, then nothing is happening. Western missionaries today would be short-sighted to go into a country and get to work “reaching the lost” without touching base and coordinating with local churches and believers to find out what they are already doing and how foreign missionaries can fit in to what is already happening. Today is an era of partnership.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">So, is the era of pioneer missions over? Is there no place in the world today for foreign missionaries, especially Westerners, to do pioneer cross-cultural evangelism among unreached people groups? Should foreign missionaries primarily focus on supporting roles, partnering with indigenous Christians who are now at the forefront of pioneering among their own people?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The answer is yes and no.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">On the one hand, there are still a massive amount of people in the world today who have not heard of Jesus Christ and live in places where there are no Christians and no churches. Somebody needs go tell them about Christ. Thailand, for example, has a population of over 66 million people and only about 500,000 Protestant believers. The country is about 95% Buddhists and there are <a href="https://estar.ws/">many towns and villages without a single church</a>. Who is going to proclaim the good news in these places? Thai and tribal churches are making efforts to do so but it's a big country with a lot of people. There is plenty of work to go around. There are many similar situations around the world where a good case can be made for the continuing presence of foreign missionaries engaged in pioneer evangelism and church planting.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">On the other hand, even among mostly unreached people groups, churches exist. They may not be large numerically when compared to the overall population. But they know the language. They know the culture. And in some cases, there are three or more generations of local believers with established denominations, networks, schools, seminaries, publishing houses, etc. The national level leaders have a good grasp on where ministry is happening, where it is not, who is doing what where, and what kind of help they need to push forward in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting and development. In these circumstances, it would be foolish for a foreign missionary to enter the country and make plans on how to reach the nation for Christ without learning what Christian ministry is already happening, who is doing it, and how foreign missionaries might come alongside indigenous believers and other missionaries who are already there. We live in an era of partnership. Believers who feel called to proclaim the Gospel in another part of the world have a moral obligation to find out what is happening on the ground in the place where they are working and to seek out opportunities for partnership with local believers when possible.</span> </p>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/together-hand-holding-across-world-map-2450081_640.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="180" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 10pt;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2450081">Gerd Altmann</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2450081">Pixabay</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">So where does that leave foreign missionaries? Should they focus on pioneer evangelism? Or slot into other roles that indigenous churches want them to do?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer but as much as possible, missionaries should seek to partner with local churches to do tasks that they are best suited for, which may not be pioneer evangelism.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes local believers want to launch a church plant or do outreach in a new area and could really use teammates. Missionaries can fill that role.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes missionaries have skills and experience in translation or publishing, theological education, pastoral counseling, IT and computing, or some other technical area that meets a need of local churches. Missionaries can fill those roles too.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When I was recently teaching at a Thai Bible study picnic in central Florida, the Thai pastor who invited me told the gathered group of Thai believers about our upcoming move back to Thailand where I will teach at <a href="https://www.ctsthailand.org/en/">Chiang Mai Theological Seminary</a>. He explained that Thai people are better at sharing the Gospel with other Thai people than missionaries are. Thai are more receptive to another Thai coming into a neighborhood than a white foreigner.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And I thought to myself, “Yes, that’s true.” I like talking with Thai people about Christ and I enjoy opening the Scriptures with non-believers. And I have done so many times in Thailand. But all things considered, Thai Christians know the language and the culture far better than I do. They have an insider status that I don’t. Can God use a foreign missionary to reach people with the Gospel, disciple them, and plant churches. Sure. God can do anything. But is that the best full-time role for me serving God and his people in Thailand?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In the mind of our Thai pastor friend, teaching and training Thai Christian leaders at the seminary level is a good role for a missionary. Given my background, education, and previous experience, I can probably do more for Thai churches through formal and informal training of leaders than I could by devoting all my time to grassroots cross-cultural evangelism. That was the assessment of this Thai pastor, and I am inclined to agree. When we are in Thailand, I always want to be involved in local church ministry with Thai Christians, but I also want to teach and write to build up Thai churches and leaders.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I would not want to dogmatically say that the era of pioneer missions is over because it is not. But the roles of missionaries are changing. We live in an era of partnership with believers around the world. Missionaries still go from west to east to do evangelism and to plant churches, but they also go from east to west and south to north to do the same.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Whatever it is that missionaries do in today’s world, no matter where they are from, or where they are going, they need to be aware that God has gone before them and has likely already started something there. And when that’s the case, how can we best partner with God and his people around the world? That’s the question that we need to ask.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In 1910, representatives from mission organizations working across the world met together in Edinburgh, Scotland for a <a href="https://amzn.to/3n1cNa6">World Missionary Conference</a> that promised to be “a Grand Council for the Advancement of Missionary Science.” The vast majority of delegates were European or North American and those present discussed the missionary task in terms of “the Christian world” and “the non-Christian world.” In 1910, this division of the world made sense because the vast majority of those who identified as Christian lived in Europe in North America.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_1910_World_Missionary_Conference,the_Edinburgh_Missionary_Conference.jpg"><strong><span class="mw-page-title-main" style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 10pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/600px-The_1910_World_Missionary_Conferencethe_Edinburgh_Missionary_Conference.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="480" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 10pt;">The 1910 World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">However, if we fast forward 100+ years, it seems both ridiculous and ethnocentric to talk about “the Christian world” and “the non-Christian world.” Europe today is quite secular and North America’s Christian heritage is fading quickly. Two-thirds of those who profess the Christian faith live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The world is changed. No longer is the missionary task of the church a question of “the West to the rest.” Rather, <a href="https://amzn.to/3mUm4kh">as Allen Yeh has put it</a>, twenty-first century mission is from everyone to everywhere. Around the world, there are vibrant churches on every inhabited continent and the number of truly unreached peoples is rapidly diminishing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Westerner believers can no longer assume that they are “the missionaries” whose job is to bring the Gospel to the rest of the world. They can no longer assume that if they are not working among a particular country or people group, then nothing is happening. Western missionaries today would be short-sighted to go into a country and get to work “reaching the lost” without touching base and coordinating with local churches and believers to find out what they are already doing and how foreign missionaries can fit in to what is already happening. Today is an era of partnership.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">So, is the era of pioneer missions over? Is there no place in the world today for foreign missionaries, especially Westerners, to do pioneer cross-cultural evangelism among unreached people groups? Should foreign missionaries primarily focus on supporting roles, partnering with indigenous Christians who are now at the forefront of pioneering among their own people?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The answer is yes and no.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">On the one hand, there are still a massive amount of people in the world today who have not heard of Jesus Christ and live in places where there are no Christians and no churches. Somebody needs go tell them about Christ. Thailand, for example, has a population of over 66 million people and only about 500,000 Protestant believers. The country is about 95% Buddhists and there are <a href="https://estar.ws/">many towns and villages without a single church</a>. Who is going to proclaim the good news in these places? Thai and tribal churches are making efforts to do so but it's a big country with a lot of people. There is plenty of work to go around. There are many similar situations around the world where a good case can be made for the continuing presence of foreign missionaries engaged in pioneer evangelism and church planting.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">On the other hand, even among mostly unreached people groups, churches exist. They may not be large numerically when compared to the overall population. But they know the language. They know the culture. And in some cases, there are three or more generations of local believers with established denominations, networks, schools, seminaries, publishing houses, etc. The national level leaders have a good grasp on where ministry is happening, where it is not, who is doing what where, and what kind of help they need to push forward in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting and development. In these circumstances, it would be foolish for a foreign missionary to enter the country and make plans on how to reach the nation for Christ without learning what Christian ministry is already happening, who is doing it, and how foreign missionaries might come alongside indigenous believers and other missionaries who are already there. We live in an era of partnership. Believers who feel called to proclaim the Gospel in another part of the world have a moral obligation to find out what is happening on the ground in the place where they are working and to seek out opportunities for partnership with local believers when possible.</span> </p>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/together-hand-holding-across-world-map-2450081_640.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="180" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 10pt;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2450081">Gerd Altmann</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2450081">Pixabay</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">So where does that leave foreign missionaries? Should they focus on pioneer evangelism? Or slot into other roles that indigenous churches want them to do?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer but as much as possible, missionaries should seek to partner with local churches to do tasks that they are best suited for, which may not be pioneer evangelism.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes local believers want to launch a church plant or do outreach in a new area and could really use teammates. Missionaries can fill that role.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes missionaries have skills and experience in translation or publishing, theological education, pastoral counseling, IT and computing, or some other technical area that meets a need of local churches. Missionaries can fill those roles too.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When I was recently teaching at a Thai Bible study picnic in central Florida, the Thai pastor who invited me told the gathered group of Thai believers about our upcoming move back to Thailand where I will teach at <a href="https://www.ctsthailand.org/en/">Chiang Mai Theological Seminary</a>. He explained that Thai people are better at sharing the Gospel with other Thai people than missionaries are. Thai are more receptive to another Thai coming into a neighborhood than a white foreigner.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And I thought to myself, “Yes, that’s true.” I like talking with Thai people about Christ and I enjoy opening the Scriptures with non-believers. And I have done so many times in Thailand. But all things considered, Thai Christians know the language and the culture far better than I do. They have an insider status that I don’t. Can God use a foreign missionary to reach people with the Gospel, disciple them, and plant churches. Sure. God can do anything. But is that the best full-time role for me serving God and his people in Thailand?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In the mind of our Thai pastor friend, teaching and training Thai Christian leaders at the seminary level is a good role for a missionary. Given my background, education, and previous experience, I can probably do more for Thai churches through formal and informal training of leaders than I could by devoting all my time to grassroots cross-cultural evangelism. That was the assessment of this Thai pastor, and I am inclined to agree. When we are in Thailand, I always want to be involved in local church ministry with Thai Christians, but I also want to teach and write to build up Thai churches and leaders.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I would not want to dogmatically say that the era of pioneer missions is over because it is not. But the roles of missionaries are changing. We live in an era of partnership with believers around the world. Missionaries still go from west to east to do evangelism and to plant churches, but they also go from east to west and south to north to do the same.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Whatever it is that missionaries do in today’s world, no matter where they are from, or where they are going, they need to be aware that God has gone before them and has likely already started something there. And when that’s the case, how can we best partner with God and his people around the world? That’s the question that we need to ask.</span></p>An Alternative, Less-Stressful Way to Use an Annual Bible Reading Plan2022-12-29T14:32:59-05:002022-12-29T14:32:59-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/994-alternative-way-to-use-bible-reading-planKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">It is nearly the end of the year and I am just over half way through my through-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plan. That may seem like a failure since I didn’t even come close to completing the reading plan. However, I am totally fine with where I am in the plan because I usually don’t use these type of annual plans in the way that they are intended to be used.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">For me, the most important thing is not that I am reading all of the prescribed readings on the precise day indicated but rather that I am making progress. I use plans like my current one as a type of checklist to make sure that I am consistently reading through all of Scripture, and not just randomly jumping around or repeatedly reading only my favorite parts.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/bible-resding-plan-chrono-pen-bible_cropped-600px.jpg" alt="" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">For most us, there are probably parts of the Bible that we gravitate to more. Don’t know what to read? We head straight to Romans, or the New Testament epistles, or one of the Gospels, or maybe Psalms or Isaiah. Few of us think to ourselves, “Oh boy, I know what I’ll read next… Zephaniah! or maybe Leviticus!” Yet, these less popular books of the Bible are part of God’s Holy Scripture as well. As Paul reminded Timothy, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Though some parts of the Bible don’t seem as attractive or interesting or immediately applicable to everyday life, they still have something that God wants to teach us. We neglect them to our detriment.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">For that reason, I want to be regularly reading through the whole Bible no matter how long it takes. In the past, I have completed the whole Bible in a year and that was worthwhile. But I’ve also taken two and a half years to complete an “annual” Bible reading plan. And that was good too.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Sometimes I read another book of the Bible that isn’t next in the plan.</h3>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>Sometimes I miss a day because life got busy.</h3>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>Sometimes I read fewer chapters than what I am “supposed to.”</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">And that’s okay.</h3>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><span>But even if something gets in the way of my Bible reading (including my own failure to allocate time in a given day), I always have my reading plan to return to and tell me where to read next. At this point, I don’t even pay attention to whether I am up-to-date with my readings and I don’t feel any pressure to “catch up.” My goal is be a man of the entire Bible, not just parts of it, always pushing forward in Bible reading even if my reading progress is sometimes slow. Sure, I also want to be consistent and regular in my Bible reading, taking in larger portions of Scripture, not just a few verses here and there. But using a dated Bible reading plan as a simple checklist to keep me on target and moving forward has turned out to be a great way to build into my Bible reading a bit of margin and grace for those days when, as they say, “life happens."</span></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div class="box-content">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">If you would like to read through the Bible, there are many excellent plans for either digital or hardcopy use, including those available via <a href="https://www.esv.org/resources/reading-plans/">ESV.org</a> and <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans">Ligonier Ministries</a>.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">I have gathered PDFs of Bible reading plans in Thai and English at <a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/4christ/688-bible-reading-calendars-in-thai">this link</a>.<br /><br /> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">This past year, I began using a chronological Bible reading plan that you can <a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/bible-reading-plan-chronological.pdf">download here</a>.</span></li>
</ul>
</div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">It is nearly the end of the year and I am just over half way through my through-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plan. That may seem like a failure since I didn’t even come close to completing the reading plan. However, I am totally fine with where I am in the plan because I usually don’t use these type of annual plans in the way that they are intended to be used.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">For me, the most important thing is not that I am reading all of the prescribed readings on the precise day indicated but rather that I am making progress. I use plans like my current one as a type of checklist to make sure that I am consistently reading through all of Scripture, and not just randomly jumping around or repeatedly reading only my favorite parts.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/bible-resding-plan-chrono-pen-bible_cropped-600px.jpg" alt="" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">For most us, there are probably parts of the Bible that we gravitate to more. Don’t know what to read? We head straight to Romans, or the New Testament epistles, or one of the Gospels, or maybe Psalms or Isaiah. Few of us think to ourselves, “Oh boy, I know what I’ll read next… Zephaniah! or maybe Leviticus!” Yet, these less popular books of the Bible are part of God’s Holy Scripture as well. As Paul reminded Timothy, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Though some parts of the Bible don’t seem as attractive or interesting or immediately applicable to everyday life, they still have something that God wants to teach us. We neglect them to our detriment.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">For that reason, I want to be regularly reading through the whole Bible no matter how long it takes. In the past, I have completed the whole Bible in a year and that was worthwhile. But I’ve also taken two and a half years to complete an “annual” Bible reading plan. And that was good too.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Sometimes I read another book of the Bible that isn’t next in the plan.</h3>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>Sometimes I miss a day because life got busy.</h3>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>Sometimes I read fewer chapters than what I am “supposed to.”</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">And that’s okay.</h3>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"><span>But even if something gets in the way of my Bible reading (including my own failure to allocate time in a given day), I always have my reading plan to return to and tell me where to read next. At this point, I don’t even pay attention to whether I am up-to-date with my readings and I don’t feel any pressure to “catch up.” My goal is be a man of the entire Bible, not just parts of it, always pushing forward in Bible reading even if my reading progress is sometimes slow. Sure, I also want to be consistent and regular in my Bible reading, taking in larger portions of Scripture, not just a few verses here and there. But using a dated Bible reading plan as a simple checklist to keep me on target and moving forward has turned out to be a great way to build into my Bible reading a bit of margin and grace for those days when, as they say, “life happens."</span></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div class="box-content">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">If you would like to read through the Bible, there are many excellent plans for either digital or hardcopy use, including those available via <a href="https://www.esv.org/resources/reading-plans/">ESV.org</a> and <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans">Ligonier Ministries</a>.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">I have gathered PDFs of Bible reading plans in Thai and English at <a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/4christ/688-bible-reading-calendars-in-thai">this link</a>.<br /><br /> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">This past year, I began using a chronological Bible reading plan that you can <a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/bible-reading-plan-chronological.pdf">download here</a>.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>How I Pray For Evangelism2022-12-16T14:28:25-05:002022-12-16T14:28:25-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/993-how-i-pray-for-evangelismKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When I pray for evangelism, I don’t pray that as many people as possible make a profession of faith at the end of an evangelistic event. That may seem weird, because the success of evangelism is often measured according to the number of people who pray to accept Christ.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">However, the reality is most people who pray to receive Christ in an evangelistic meeting never join a church, don’t grow in the Lord, and perhaps were never converted to begin with. That’s not always true, but statistically, it’s a high percentage.</span></p>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/man-praying-2179326_640.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">How then should we pray for evangelism? What outcomes should we pray for when we pray for evangelistic events and other types of evangelistic outreach? Whether it’s a personal conversation or a large event, my prayers tend to be similar.</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that the Holy Spirit will open hearts and minds to be interested in Christ and want to know more.<br /> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that people will begin to see the futility and wickedness of their sin and the greatness of Christ. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that when they initially hear about the gospel at an event, they will be interested in Christ enough to start going to church, start going to a Bible study, or start asking the friend who invited them more about Christ. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that in the coming weeks and months after their initial exposure to the Gospel, they will start reading the Bible and learning more about this Jesus, both on their own and in a group setting such as church. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray they will start taking part in a small group Bible study, worship services, and fellowship meals so that they can experience the love and welcome of the Christian community.<br /><br /></span></li>
</ul>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Becoming a Christian is not just about an individual decision to follow Christ but it’s about becoming part of the body of Christ. The goal of evangelism is not just an individual decision, but a lifelong walk of growing discipleship and active participation in the body of Christ. That’s the goal and that’s what I pray for.</span></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/pexels-2286921/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2179326">Pexels</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2179326">Pixabay</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">When I pray for evangelism, I don’t pray that as many people as possible make a profession of faith at the end of an evangelistic event. That may seem weird, because the success of evangelism is often measured according to the number of people who pray to accept Christ.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">However, the reality is most people who pray to receive Christ in an evangelistic meeting never join a church, don’t grow in the Lord, and perhaps were never converted to begin with. That’s not always true, but statistically, it’s a high percentage.</span></p>
<p><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/man-praying-2179326_640.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">How then should we pray for evangelism? What outcomes should we pray for when we pray for evangelistic events and other types of evangelistic outreach? Whether it’s a personal conversation or a large event, my prayers tend to be similar.</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that the Holy Spirit will open hearts and minds to be interested in Christ and want to know more.<br /> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that people will begin to see the futility and wickedness of their sin and the greatness of Christ. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that when they initially hear about the gospel at an event, they will be interested in Christ enough to start going to church, start going to a Bible study, or start asking the friend who invited them more about Christ. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray that in the coming weeks and months after their initial exposure to the Gospel, they will start reading the Bible and learning more about this Jesus, both on their own and in a group setting such as church. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I pray they will start taking part in a small group Bible study, worship services, and fellowship meals so that they can experience the love and welcome of the Christian community.<br /><br /></span></li>
</ul>
<div><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Becoming a Christian is not just about an individual decision to follow Christ but it’s about becoming part of the body of Christ. The goal of evangelism is not just an individual decision, but a lifelong walk of growing discipleship and active participation in the body of Christ. That’s the goal and that’s what I pray for.</span></div>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/pexels-2286921/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2179326">Pexels</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2179326">Pixabay</a></span></p>Defending the Truth of Christmas2022-12-12T19:43:48-05:002022-12-12T19:43:48-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/992-defending-the-truth-of-christmas-engKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<div class="box-content" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/4christ/979-defending-the-truth-of-christmas-thai">อ่านบทความนี้เป็นภาษาไทย</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Christmas is a beloved holiday around the world and every December, Christians turn their attention to celebrating the miracle of the incarnation, namely that God chose to condescend into our world and be born as a human baby. It is truly a wondrous thing that the sovereign Lord of the universe would abase himself in this way for us and our salvation.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">But in the early centuries of the church, this truth came was aggressively attacked. In the year 318, an elder in the church at Alexandria by the name of Arius popularized the idea that Jesus Christ was a created being inferior to God the Father. Arius maintained that Jesus, the Son of God, existed before all things and had a hand in the creation of the world together with God the Father. According to Arius, Jesus was a created being.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus had a beginning and thus was not eternal. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Though Arius readily affirmed that Jesus was truly human, he denied that God the Father and God the Son, namely Jesus Christ, were equal or were of the same substance. In other words, they were different beings. This heretical teaching spread through the Roman Empire and there were many who held to Arius’ false teaching on the nature of Jesus Christ, including the son of the Roman emperor Constantine.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">As this teaching spread, Emperor Constantine became concerned about swelling conflict in the church and called a grand council of bishops to respond to Arius’ teaching. Were Jesus and the Father the same God or weren’t they? Because resolving conflict was a prime concern for Constantine, one option for the council at Nicea would have been to issue a statement that used broad, vague language which no one on either side of the issue could find objectionable. If they had chosen this route, all sides would have been able to save face and the substantial difference between the teaching of Arius and those who opposed him would have been covered over. Superficial peace and institutional harmony might have prevailed.</span></p>
<p><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; width: 100%;" role="figure"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arius_St_Nicolaus.jpg"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/Arius_St_Nicolaus.jpg" alt="Late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea." class="pull-center" style="margin: initial; float: none; width: 100%;" /></a><span style="display: block;">Late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea.</span></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">But the council that met at Nicea in 325 AD didn’t try to skirt the issue with a smoothly nuanced diplomatic statement. The goal of the council wasn’t to save the face of church leaders so that everyone could conclude the meeting with a smile and a hug. The goal of the council was to examine the teaching of Arius and make a definitive statement on the nature of Jesus Christ.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">They wanted to preserve the Good News of Jesus Christ and the honor of God more than they wanted to please any man. In their minds, the most important matter was the truth that Jesus is truly God, equal with the Father and of the same substance, or being, as the Father. The divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ is not an issue upon which Christians can agree to disagree. If the church leaders at Nicea had compromised and said that Jesus had a beginning and was a lesser god than the Father, the whole Christian faith would be fatally corrupted.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">If Jesus was inferior to the Father, he could not have saved us from sin and death. If Jesus and the Father were two different gods, the Christian faith would be no different than Roman polytheism or various animistic beliefs in spirits and ghosts.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">For that reason, the Council of Nicea wrote a short, clear statement to affirm what the Bible teaches about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so that churches throughout the world would have certainty and confidence in Jesus Christ our Savior. Unless Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, he could not have been a perfect sacrifice on our behalf and reconciled us to the Father.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The council at Nicea wrote the following:</span></p>
<div class="box-content">
<h2 style="color: #000000;">The Nicene Creed</h2>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.</span></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(187, 180, 180); max-width: 531px; width: 100%;" role="figure"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicaea_icon.jpg"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/531px-Nicaea_icon.jpg" alt="" width="531" class="pull-center" style="width: 100%; margin: initial; float: none;" role="figure" /></a><span style="display: block; font-size: 12pt;"><br />Emperor Constantine and the bishops at the Council of Nicea holding a copy of the Nicene Creed</span></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Through the writing and dissemination of this statement to the churches, the council of that generation dismissed the false teaching of Arius and upheld the truth about Jesus Christ. The battle for the triumph of the truth declared at Nicea was not finished, but a line had been drawn in the sand and the church had spoken.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In every generation and every era, Christians must preserve the Gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim the truth with clear, unequivocal language in order to oppose false teaching that is circulating in churches.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Not only at Christmas time but also throughout the year, Christians can uphold, defend, and preserve the Gospel by reading, proclaiming, praying, and singing the truth about Jesus Christ. One way of affirming the truth is by reciting the Nicene Creed together, out loud, when we gather for worship with other believers. Declaring together what we believe is one way that Christians can build one another up in the truth of the Gospel. Also, in reciting the Nicene Creed, those in our churches who are not Christians will hear in summary form what it is that Christians believe.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">We should be grateful to God that the council at Nicea deemed it worthwhile to defend and uphold the truth of Jesus Christ that is at the core of our Christmas celebration. Jesus Christ is truly human and thus can be our representative before God the Father. Jesus Christ is also truly God and thus is able to bear the penalty for our sin and reconcile us to God the Father. We can have hope and joy in Jesus Christ because he is nothing less than truly man and truly God.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">May all of us who trust in Jesus Christ play our parts in defending and preserving this good news through singing, praying, and proclaiming Christ at Christmas time and throughout the year.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/christmas-jesus-christ-god-holy-5751280/"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/christmas-nativity-640.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="339" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>For Further Reading on the Incarnation and the Council of Nicea:</h3>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Justin S. Holcomb, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3uOwhyQ">Know the Creeds and Councils</a> (KNOW Series Book 1)</i></span></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "kasuda-20";
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual";
amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart";
amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon";
amzn_assoc_region = "US";
amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links";
amzn_assoc_asins = "B00GS084MW";
amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit";
amzn_assoc_linkid = "7a0910d8b1941ca709175fdf9c6bc379";
</script>
<script src="//z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=US" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Athanasius, <a href="https://amzn.to/3HBnE2s"><i>On the Incarnation</i></a>, Kindle edition.</span></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "kasuda-20";
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual";
amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart";
amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon";
amzn_assoc_region = "US";
amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links";
amzn_assoc_asins = "B07FMPWH4W";
amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit";
amzn_assoc_linkid = "692f141d2292b9993de32c0cf0696aff";
</script>
<script src="//z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=US" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="box-content" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/4christ/979-defending-the-truth-of-christmas-thai">อ่านบทความนี้เป็นภาษาไทย</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Christmas is a beloved holiday around the world and every December, Christians turn their attention to celebrating the miracle of the incarnation, namely that God chose to condescend into our world and be born as a human baby. It is truly a wondrous thing that the sovereign Lord of the universe would abase himself in this way for us and our salvation.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">But in the early centuries of the church, this truth came was aggressively attacked. In the year 318, an elder in the church at Alexandria by the name of Arius popularized the idea that Jesus Christ was a created being inferior to God the Father. Arius maintained that Jesus, the Son of God, existed before all things and had a hand in the creation of the world together with God the Father. According to Arius, Jesus was a created being.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus had a beginning and thus was not eternal. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Though Arius readily affirmed that Jesus was truly human, he denied that God the Father and God the Son, namely Jesus Christ, were equal or were of the same substance. In other words, they were different beings. This heretical teaching spread through the Roman Empire and there were many who held to Arius’ false teaching on the nature of Jesus Christ, including the son of the Roman emperor Constantine.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">As this teaching spread, Emperor Constantine became concerned about swelling conflict in the church and called a grand council of bishops to respond to Arius’ teaching. Were Jesus and the Father the same God or weren’t they? Because resolving conflict was a prime concern for Constantine, one option for the council at Nicea would have been to issue a statement that used broad, vague language which no one on either side of the issue could find objectionable. If they had chosen this route, all sides would have been able to save face and the substantial difference between the teaching of Arius and those who opposed him would have been covered over. Superficial peace and institutional harmony might have prevailed.</span></p>
<p><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; width: 100%;" role="figure"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arius_St_Nicolaus.jpg"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/Arius_St_Nicolaus.jpg" alt="Late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea." class="pull-center" style="margin: initial; float: none; width: 100%;" /></a><span style="display: block;">Late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea.</span></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">But the council that met at Nicea in 325 AD didn’t try to skirt the issue with a smoothly nuanced diplomatic statement. The goal of the council wasn’t to save the face of church leaders so that everyone could conclude the meeting with a smile and a hug. The goal of the council was to examine the teaching of Arius and make a definitive statement on the nature of Jesus Christ.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">They wanted to preserve the Good News of Jesus Christ and the honor of God more than they wanted to please any man. In their minds, the most important matter was the truth that Jesus is truly God, equal with the Father and of the same substance, or being, as the Father. The divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ is not an issue upon which Christians can agree to disagree. If the church leaders at Nicea had compromised and said that Jesus had a beginning and was a lesser god than the Father, the whole Christian faith would be fatally corrupted.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">If Jesus was inferior to the Father, he could not have saved us from sin and death. If Jesus and the Father were two different gods, the Christian faith would be no different than Roman polytheism or various animistic beliefs in spirits and ghosts.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">For that reason, the Council of Nicea wrote a short, clear statement to affirm what the Bible teaches about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so that churches throughout the world would have certainty and confidence in Jesus Christ our Savior. Unless Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, he could not have been a perfect sacrifice on our behalf and reconciled us to the Father.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The council at Nicea wrote the following:</span></p>
<div class="box-content">
<h2 style="color: #000000;">The Nicene Creed</h2>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.</span></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="wf_caption" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(187, 180, 180); max-width: 531px; width: 100%;" role="figure"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicaea_icon.jpg"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/531px-Nicaea_icon.jpg" alt="" width="531" class="pull-center" style="width: 100%; margin: initial; float: none;" role="figure" /></a><span style="display: block; font-size: 12pt;"><br />Emperor Constantine and the bishops at the Council of Nicea holding a copy of the Nicene Creed</span></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Through the writing and dissemination of this statement to the churches, the council of that generation dismissed the false teaching of Arius and upheld the truth about Jesus Christ. The battle for the triumph of the truth declared at Nicea was not finished, but a line had been drawn in the sand and the church had spoken.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">In every generation and every era, Christians must preserve the Gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim the truth with clear, unequivocal language in order to oppose false teaching that is circulating in churches.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Not only at Christmas time but also throughout the year, Christians can uphold, defend, and preserve the Gospel by reading, proclaiming, praying, and singing the truth about Jesus Christ. One way of affirming the truth is by reciting the Nicene Creed together, out loud, when we gather for worship with other believers. Declaring together what we believe is one way that Christians can build one another up in the truth of the Gospel. Also, in reciting the Nicene Creed, those in our churches who are not Christians will hear in summary form what it is that Christians believe.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">We should be grateful to God that the council at Nicea deemed it worthwhile to defend and uphold the truth of Jesus Christ that is at the core of our Christmas celebration. Jesus Christ is truly human and thus can be our representative before God the Father. Jesus Christ is also truly God and thus is able to bear the penalty for our sin and reconcile us to God the Father. We can have hope and joy in Jesus Christ because he is nothing less than truly man and truly God.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">May all of us who trust in Jesus Christ play our parts in defending and preserving this good news through singing, praying, and proclaiming Christ at Christmas time and throughout the year.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/christmas-jesus-christ-god-holy-5751280/"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/christmas-nativity-640.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="339" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>For Further Reading on the Incarnation and the Council of Nicea:</h3>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Justin S. Holcomb, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3uOwhyQ">Know the Creeds and Councils</a> (KNOW Series Book 1)</i></span></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "kasuda-20";
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual";
amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart";
amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon";
amzn_assoc_region = "US";
amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links";
amzn_assoc_asins = "B00GS084MW";
amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit";
amzn_assoc_linkid = "7a0910d8b1941ca709175fdf9c6bc379";
</script>
<script src="//z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=US" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Athanasius, <a href="https://amzn.to/3HBnE2s"><i>On the Incarnation</i></a>, Kindle edition.</span></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "kasuda-20";
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual";
amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart";
amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon";
amzn_assoc_region = "US";
amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links";
amzn_assoc_asins = "B07FMPWH4W";
amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit";
amzn_assoc_linkid = "692f141d2292b9993de32c0cf0696aff";
</script>
<script src="//z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=US" type="text/javascript"></script>Missionaries, Wife Beating, and Culture Change2022-11-22T19:49:08-05:002022-11-22T19:49:08-05:00https://www.dahlfred.com/index.php/blogs/gleanings-from-the-field/989-missionaries-wife-beating-and-culture-changeKarl Dahlfredkarl@dahlfred.com<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">It is sometimes claimed that missionaries are imperialistic colonizers who arrogantly try to change other cultures and impose their own. There’s lots of misunderstanding, misinformation, and over-generalizations packed into those claims but the one I want to focus on in this article is the claim that missionaries try to change other cultures. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The assumption behind this claim is that all cultures, together with their values and norms, are equally valid and that all truth claims are relative. Therefore, Westerners who (supposedly) advocate for the superiority of their own culture(s) in other parts of the world are narrow-minded and arrogant. They have no right to tell other cultures what they should and should not do or value. Of course, this slam against missionaries is disingenuous because Western secularists have no problem promoting their own Western secular values, such as abortion and LGBT “rights”, in parts of the world that traditionally oppose such things. Even if they sometimes call evil good and vice versa, even they know that there are some things that are universally right and universally wrong. They see the value in promoting what they believe is good and right even in other cultural contexts where such values get an icy reception.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">This brings us back to the charge that missionaries try to change other cultures. Undoubtedly, there are some ways in which missionaries have tried to change other cultures when they shouldn’t have. In the past, “Christianizing” and “civilizing” were often intertwined in the minds of many Western missionaries. But on some matters, the Bible is clear about what is right and what is wrong, and missionaries have opposed many wrongs in other cultures even though those practices represented embedded cultural values.</span></p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">William Carey in early 19th century India opposed widow burning. </h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Missionaries in China opposed foot binding.</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">John Paton opposed wife beating in the South Pacific.</h3>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/paton-book-cover-cropped.jpg" alt="" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Here’s what Paton had to say about his attempt to change the local culture of the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu):</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">“Leaving all consequences to the disposal of my Lord, l determined to make an unflinching stand against wife beating and widow strangling, feeling confident that even their natural conscience would be on my side, I accordingly pleaded with all who were in power to unite and put down these shocking and disgraceful customs. At length, ten Chiefs entered into an agreement not to allow any more beating of wives or strangling of widows, and to forbid all common labour on the Lord's Day; but alas, except for purposes of war or other wickedness, the influence of the Chiefs on Tanna was comparatively small. One Chief boldly declared, "If we did not beat our women, they would never work; they would not fear and obey us; but when we have beaten, and killed, and feasted on two or three, the rest are all very quiet and good for a long time to come!” I tried to show him how cruel it was, besides that it made them unable for work, and that kindness would have a much better effect; but he promptly assured me that Tannese women 'could not understand kindness.' For the sake of teaching by example, my Aneityumese teachers and I used to go a mile or two inland on the principal pathway, along with the teachers' wives, and there cutting and carrying home a heavy load of firewood for myself and each of the men, while we gave only a small burden to each of the women. Meeting many Tanna men by the way, I used to explain to them that this was how Christians helped and treated their wives and sisters, and then they loved their husbands and were strong to work at home; and that as men were made stronger, they were intended to bear the heavier burdens, and especially in all labours out of doors. Our habits and practices had thus as much to do as, perhaps more than, all our appeals, in leading them to glimpses of the life to which the Lord Jesus was calling them.” (excerpted from James Paton, <em><a href="https://amzn.to/3Vi37n1">John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides</a></em>, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Christian Focus Publications:</span> <span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Ross-shire, 2009, p.70-71)</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Other examples of missionaries trying to change culture could likely be given, including modern anecdotes about ending sex trafficking. But the examples above, including the “confession” by John Paton are sufficient to sustain the charge that missionaries do try to change other cultures. And sometimes that is a good thing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">It is sometimes claimed that missionaries are imperialistic colonizers who arrogantly try to change other cultures and impose their own. There’s lots of misunderstanding, misinformation, and over-generalizations packed into those claims but the one I want to focus on in this article is the claim that missionaries try to change other cultures. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">The assumption behind this claim is that all cultures, together with their values and norms, are equally valid and that all truth claims are relative. Therefore, Westerners who (supposedly) advocate for the superiority of their own culture(s) in other parts of the world are narrow-minded and arrogant. They have no right to tell other cultures what they should and should not do or value. Of course, this slam against missionaries is disingenuous because Western secularists have no problem promoting their own Western secular values, such as abortion and LGBT “rights”, in parts of the world that traditionally oppose such things. Even if they sometimes call evil good and vice versa, even they know that there are some things that are universally right and universally wrong. They see the value in promoting what they believe is good and right even in other cultural contexts where such values get an icy reception.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">This brings us back to the charge that missionaries try to change other cultures. Undoubtedly, there are some ways in which missionaries have tried to change other cultures when they shouldn’t have. In the past, “Christianizing” and “civilizing” were often intertwined in the minds of many Western missionaries. But on some matters, the Bible is clear about what is right and what is wrong, and missionaries have opposed many wrongs in other cultures even though those practices represented embedded cultural values.</span></p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">William Carey in early 19th century India opposed widow burning. </h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Missionaries in China opposed foot binding.</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">John Paton opposed wife beating in the South Pacific.</h3>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;"><img src="https://www.dahlfred.com/images/paton-book-cover-cropped.jpg" alt="" class="pull-center" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Here’s what Paton had to say about his attempt to change the local culture of the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu):</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">“Leaving all consequences to the disposal of my Lord, l determined to make an unflinching stand against wife beating and widow strangling, feeling confident that even their natural conscience would be on my side, I accordingly pleaded with all who were in power to unite and put down these shocking and disgraceful customs. At length, ten Chiefs entered into an agreement not to allow any more beating of wives or strangling of widows, and to forbid all common labour on the Lord's Day; but alas, except for purposes of war or other wickedness, the influence of the Chiefs on Tanna was comparatively small. One Chief boldly declared, "If we did not beat our women, they would never work; they would not fear and obey us; but when we have beaten, and killed, and feasted on two or three, the rest are all very quiet and good for a long time to come!” I tried to show him how cruel it was, besides that it made them unable for work, and that kindness would have a much better effect; but he promptly assured me that Tannese women 'could not understand kindness.' For the sake of teaching by example, my Aneityumese teachers and I used to go a mile or two inland on the principal pathway, along with the teachers' wives, and there cutting and carrying home a heavy load of firewood for myself and each of the men, while we gave only a small burden to each of the women. Meeting many Tanna men by the way, I used to explain to them that this was how Christians helped and treated their wives and sisters, and then they loved their husbands and were strong to work at home; and that as men were made stronger, they were intended to bear the heavier burdens, and especially in all labours out of doors. Our habits and practices had thus as much to do as, perhaps more than, all our appeals, in leading them to glimpses of the life to which the Lord Jesus was calling them.” (excerpted from James Paton, <em><a href="https://amzn.to/3Vi37n1">John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides</a></em>, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Christian Focus Publications:</span> <span style="font-family: verdana, geneva;">Ross-shire, 2009, p.70-71)</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;">Other examples of missionaries trying to change culture could likely be given, including modern anecdotes about ending sex trafficking. But the examples above, including the “confession” by John Paton are sufficient to sustain the charge that missionaries do try to change other cultures. And sometimes that is a good thing.</span></p>