Missions 101

As the “Healing Jesus Crusade” ended (see last post), the news of its success was all over town. Many in town confirmed the pastor’s account of the many healings. As we entered restaurants and listened to people on the street, the news was about the dumb woman healed and the hunchback man restored. In fact, the market place was packed with people going to see for themselves those who had been healed.

What are we to make of this? My students were impressed with the healings that took place. Like the pastor, they could not articulate the actual gospel that they heard at the crusade. It was their turn to question me, asking, “Are you denying the healings? 

The question is not whether I accept or deny the healings. Let us accept the fact that they took place. The critical thing is what is missing in this development of events. The omission of the word of the cross that saves is troubling. What is remembered from the crusade is the signs performed and not the message preached; the emphasis is on the greatness of the preacher and not the great Lord who saves. What is missing is that healings are a testimony to the gospel message, not a testimony to the great success of the preacher. People came not to hear the good news of the gospel but to see and experience signs and wonders.

Additionally, this whole experience raised many critical questions in my mind. What is the place of crusades in the advancement of the gospel in Africa? Why are most crusades promoted on the theme of healing and not on the theme of deliverance from the power of sin through the power of the cross? I can just imagine banners saying, “Jesus Saves from Sin Crusade.” How many would show up to hear? Should the supposed evangelists invite people to come for healing? Would that not be putting God, Jesus and the Spirit to the test? Is there not a danger of leading people to believe that God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus jump and act at our command? Do we have a biblical mandate to do that? What is the testimony of those healed? It appears hidden. In the above case, those healed were there to be watched but they themselves were not testifying to what God has done or to the gospel that has saved from sin. All they can show is the absence of their sickness. All they can say is that the preacher healed them. What is the place of signs and wonders (healings) in the preaching of the gospel? How has the African church grown as a result of this event? Is the Church in Africa healthier as a result?

The church does not need more healings in order to be prepared for the return of Christ. When he returns, he will not be looking for healings but for faith.

My response to this? More questions and a commitment to theological training, which will provide pastors with the tools they need to respond to the growing climate of health and wealth gospel in their setting, and to the growing infatuation with healings at the expense of the gospel message.

On a very recent trip to train pastors in Africa, I was reminded again of the critical nature of this ministry for the well-being of the church. Upon arrival at the airport, we drove an hour to the capital city. All along the way were many-colored banners reading, “Healing Jesus Crusade.” They were all over the city as well. During our six-hour drive the next day to the small town where we were to teach, the banners colored the dusty roads and plastered the town. That evening, I learned that this country is only one stop for the crusade. Evidently, the preacher from Nigeria is crisscrossing all of Africa with his crusade. 

As I looked at the title, “Healing Jesus Crusade,” I wondered what it meant and what was the connection between “healing,” “Jesus,” and “crusade.” Was this going to be a crusade about healing Jesus of something? With interest, I asked my students what they understood the crusade to be about. They were full of praise for the fact that it was coming to their town. I was informed that the preacher is a rich former medical doctor from Nigeria and since he is rich, he is not looking for money. That he loves God and only wants to serve him. Then I asked, “What do you know of the message he preaches?” They answered that he heals many people at his crusades. I tried in vain to get an explanation of the message preached. I then asked what they hoped to be accomplished at the crusade. The resounding answer was that many healings will take place.

This answer is exactly the problem, isn’t it? Crusades are supposed to be about preaching the gospel and calling people to repentance and salvation in Christ Jesus through the power of the cross. Yet, in this one place, and throughout Africa, crusades are more an occasion to perform healings. They are remembered more for the healings received than for the message preached, more for the preacher than for the person preached (Christ).

For example, a day after the three day crusade ended, one key pastor who attended was asked, “In one sentence or two, can you summarize for me the gospel that was preached at the crusade?” He answered that truly the gospel was preached because many people were healed. He was again asked, “Can you please not tell me about healings first but about the message that was preached?” The pastor replied, with a smile on his face, “Oh, yes, the preacher did a very good job preaching and so many people came forward and received healings.” The exchange went on for several minutes but in the end, a summary of the gospel was not given. A man with a hunchback was totally healed. A lady who sells in the market and has never spoken was now speaking. So, it was a wonderful successful crusade.

What are we to make of the response of this pastor?  See the next post.

I've always been enriched by anything I have read by Jerry Bridges.  He has suffered greatly and submitted his life under the severe mercies of God’s providence.  I came across my notes of a sermon I heard Bridges give at the Desiring God 2007 National Conference.  You can listen to it here.  Here were his four essentials to finishing well:

1) Daily time of focused communion with God.
2) Daily appropriation of the gospel.
3) Daily commit yourself to God as a living sacrifice.
4) A firm belief in the sovereignty and love of God.

There are numerous resources on the Internet for those who want to research theology and learn more about various evangelical doctrines.  Well-known fraternities of theologians (such as Evangelical Theological Society) commence each year to discuss the latest theological research and debatable doctrines.  Many seminarians, professors, and even missionaries are not aware that within the study of missions—missiology—there are likewise fraternities of missiologists (such as Evangelical Missiological Society), and they also write for journals, research missiological issues, and discuss orthodoxy and orthopraxy.  Below are sample resources of evangelical missiology’s scholarship:

Enoch Wan is president of Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS) and the founder/editor of the research journal, Global Missiology.  EMS has some great missiological resources.  And The Southern Baptist Journal of Missions and Evangelism (SBJME) offers some very good theological-missiological research.  For a more denominationally eclectic missiological research journal, the International Bulletin of Missionary Research contains many scholarly resources for missiological studies.  And Joshua Project and People Groups are two easy-to-access websites containing data about Unreached People Groups.  There are other helpful resources out there, but these are a good start for missiological research.

The end of C.S. Lewis's Four Loves as he reflects on his own experience of God:

God knows, not I, whether I have ever tasted this love.  Perhaps I have only imagined the tasting.  Those like myself whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty; we easily imagine conditions far higher than any we have reached.  If we describe what we have imagined we may make others, and make ourselves, believe that we have really been there.