Taking a Stand for Christ
Who does it benefit?
Vasanthraj Albert, director of India Church Growth Research Association, wrote, "Recently I read an article written by a full- time worker who has been in the ministry for the last two decades. He is an example of the violent extraction in the name of conversion. He says that he severed his relationship with the natural family at the time of his conversion due to the wrong counsel of the Christian workers. At the time of his conversion he adopted a spiritual family. Soon he found that the spiritual family did not have the capacity to give him the love and care he needed."
Today in India the norm is extraction out of the family and into the church. To see a viable church established in all unreached people groups, we need to see conversions taking place that benefit the new believer's community. A person must not be treated as merely an individual, but primarily as a member of an organic social unit, a family, a community.
David Garrison, the Southern Baptist missiologist, in teaching his course on Non-Residential Missionaries, stresses an essential key to an NRM's success. That is, the NRM should always ask the question, "What is the best thing for the people group?" in every decision being made. No doubt, it is a good thing to see individuals from unreached peoples come to obedient faith in Jesus Christ. BUT when they come we need to ask, "What is the best thing for the people group from which this individual comes?" If we seriously ask this question, it will mean changing the way we see obedient faith in Jesus Christ for that individual. It will mean waiting for a bigger and more solid harvest within a people, rather than a quick convert extracted from his people and thus of little use to his people or to God in extending His Gospel.
Throughout history we see God blessing western mission methods. These methods predominately result in individuals leaving their segment of society and uniting with converts from other segments of society. These conglomerations of individuals make up our churches, becoming unique "Christian communities" in their own right.
Recently an Indian Bible translator from Tamil Nadu, shared about his survey work for the language he had been assigned to translate. His target group is located in the northern state of Haryana where there are .08% Christians. The major language of the people living there is Haryanavi, which is spoken by well over 10 million people. While surveying for previous translations, this Bible translator discovered a small town in the state of Haryana that was completely Christian. Interestingly the town was made up of converts whom the missionaries had won over from different cultures, castes, and fringe peoples of Haryana.
Today this town is known as a Christian community, but the people of this community can relate in no way to the people of Haryana. In fact they have become a distinct people with a culture appearing odd, having no roots, thus no connection to the peoples around them. Even though there is a light within this dark state, it cannot shine further than it's own boundaries. The light must be carried outside of the circle and into the unreached community. The light must be left there to expand throughout all the people of that community.
Jesus said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." (Mark 5:19) Even after begging to go with Jesus, the healed demon-possessed man from Decapolis was told NO!--Don't come with me, GO TO YOUR FAMILY.
What benefit would this Decapolis man be to Jesus? Was it not his family and community who would realize the mercy that Jesus had bestowed upon a member of their group? Was Jesus calling out this new believer to do "second front" witnessing among his Gentile people?
Jesus knew there was now a light in the healed demon-possessed man, but the light would not shine any brighter into the Decapolis communities if he called this new believer to join Him and His disciples. Instead, Jesus sent the light to penetrate the peoples of Decapolis.
It Happens in the USA
A clear-eyed look at most American evangelism reveals the same extraction method at work. Brian Aycock writes in VOX "Statistics show that most Christians, within two years of their conversion, no longer have any non-Christian friends. They leave the past behind and are inducted into a Christian society that surrounds them like a bubble and separates them from the rest of the world." Perhaps we need to learn to make disciples (instead of converts), teaching them over time to obey all that He has commanded us. Perhaps we need to believe in the Power of the Gospel to leaven and lighten the darkest families and cultures.
After all, faith works by love not by hook or crook.
Taking children away and breaking families apart in the name of 'betterment-Christianity' is extraction evangelism. The long term effects of an orphan-damaged soul that has experienced rejection, is much harder to heal in the long run than poverty. No amount of schooling and religion can substitute the vacuum of parents -even if they are poor, uneducated and broken unsaved themselves ....
