Maybe one of the reasons I'm struggling to complete my doctoral work is that I'm a product of a period in Southern Baptist life when missionaries were those people who sold everything, moved to a foreign land, and lived for years with little contact with the rest of us except for an occasional visit to our churches with slides and traditional garb. My DMin project is designed to help the rest of us live like that right where we are. Before I can write the project I have to accept the paradigm. The more I study the more change I realize is necessary...in me, in my family, in my church.
Yes, we are all missionaries called to serve the Lord and sent into our communities to do it. But I still get a chill thinking about those who sell everything and move to a foreign land. Those that I've met like Rusty & Lori Hart and Jesse Hoyer have impressed me with their selflessness. They live so far away from and removed from me. And I admire that. Deana and I strongly considered joining their ranks; I just have too much history. I'm glad I can be a missionary without a denominational board's approval!
But I still have this mental distinction between that kind of missionary and the type I will write about in my project.
Tonight I will attend an appointment service for the denominational mission board. More than fifty men and women will remember this night as the mark of a new beginning. One of them is a member of my family and I'm so proud I could bust. She and her husband are making a great sacrifice. They're selling everything and moving to a foreign land. They'll come back from time to time to show pictures and demonstrate the cultural differences. And they'll tell the stories of how God has changed them and in doing so changed a Christ-less culture.
I hope I can tell stories of Christ changing me and in doing so changing the Christ-less culture where I live.
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