Remembering Those Who Devoted Their Lives to Mission
I grew up in a family whose life was centered on serving the
Seventh-Day Adventist church. My grandparents and their sons discovered the
truth that would change their lives in 1921. Ever since then, serving God
through this church has been synonymous with our identity. My uncle went on
to become a missionary doctor and my father’s dream was to be a missionary but
he served in the homeland as a teacher and administrator instead. My sister
became a pastor’s wife and missionary, and my brother followed in my father’s
footsteps, including fulfilling my dad’s dream of becoming a missionary. I married
a pastor and we, too landed in Africa as missionaries. The mission was in our
blood.
With all the modern media, I would suppose that today anyone
interested in history will find the necessary information. However, some people
need a little nudge to be reminded of special years and dates. 160 years since
the organization of the Seventh-Day Adventist church went by last year almost
unnoticed. Then 150 came up with podcasts about Adventist Mission. 150 years
since the first missionary was sent to Europe in 1874. Adventist Archives have
been posting interesting weekly podcasts for almost a year now about the
development of the missiological concept of the church, presenting interesting
life sketches of missionaries[1].
But who knows about these podcasts? They have been put out there on the World Wide Web to be discovered by chance.
Every nation has its days commemorating special occasions, be they
Independence Days or memorials of great people or deeds. These days are
remembered regularly and in special ways by centennials or half-centennials.
Just like Mission 150 has been preparing the church to commemorate the sending
out of its first missionaries. Being interested in missions, I appreciate the
effort. When will this preparation reach its climax in a special occasion? Will
there be a grand celebration?
I miss intentional information to local churches about such dates
and programs. Unless there are individual nuts like me actively on the search
for information, our churches can snooze comfortably without knowing anything
about such initiatives. I wanted my local church to commemorate Mission 150 in
some way. But we have yet to receive any information either from the Conference,
Union, or Division level. There was no official strategy or encouragement for
local churches to become creative in commemorating 150 years of mission. As
churches, we are too low down on the administrative ladder to have importance anymore.
Commemorating something at Annual Council or Spring Meeting without previous
warning is enough. But it takes more time for information to trickle down
the various administrative levels for some action of the General Conference to
be noticed in a local church.
The information church members get through the church papers is
about events that have taken place, rather than promoting creative involvement.
Mission has become the battle cry of the General Conference, urging Total
Member Involvement and Mission outreach during the meetings of the Executive Committee or General Conference sessions. But what does a normal pew warmer
associate with Mission 150 if he or she even has heard of the slogan?
The good ideas and incentives of all the people working in the administration
of the church do not seem to reach the normal church-goer. Adventist leadership
is good at developing programs and projects and a few initiatives are actually working.
We have a Communications Department that does interesting things like ANN in-Depth,
where top church leadership is interviewed to help members connect with the
administration, making the names of people meaningful. Lots of good
programming. But what if it is all as King Solomon would have said, “‘Utterly
meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’ What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2+3 NIV) because the message
does not reach the people it is supposed to reach?
Making things public has become more difficult because of the flood
of news that we are subjected to. We have church bulletins and make
announcements but still members are not aware of what is happening or get
things wrong. Transmitting information to the congregation has become
frustrating because people do not want to be involved in anything except the
church service. We are happy that our pews are being warmed at least once a
week. Lethargy reigns. Where has all the energy and motivation gone? Where is the
mission spirit that my family had over 100 years ago?
So, why would I want my church to commemorate 150 years of Adventist
mission? Is it relevant for us today? After all, we are now a worldwide church,
and cross-cultural missionaries are hardly needed anymore. Still, the
missionary zeal and the sacrifices made by generations of missionaries who went
out to conquer the world for the Advent message should not be forgotten. They
all “had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every
nation, tribe, language and people”[2]
and worked faithfully, often in dire circumstances, because they were convinced
of the importance of their message for the salvation of souls. Should we not do
more to respect and honor their efforts? We are probably all familiar with the
quote from a little old lady, “Remember lest we forget….” Yes, let’s remember them and
make a big deal of this remembrance.
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