Glorified Tourism?: Pt. 3 of a 4 pt. series on modern missions according to the American church.
When I think of great examples of missionaries heading into cultures that are classified as “unreached people groups,” I think of William Carey who left England moving himself and eventually his reluctant family into Calcutta, India to reach a people group
unmet with any Scripture or any word of Jesus Christ. He moved there permanently with slim intention if any to ever move back to England. He was committed to a spiritual uprising in Calcutta. Even after losing a son to dysentery, his first wife to insanity and eventually death, he then remarried and soon after lost his second wife to a rare disease, William Carey still stayed true to his calling and did not waver in his relentless pursuit of God’s glory in Calcutta, India. His life was characterized by sacrifices.
Even in the case of William Carey, a totally committed lifelong missionary, his ministry was not overly fruitful. Still considering the “5-7 year rule,” Carey’s first convert was not until seven long years after his arrival. In December of 1800 Carey baptized the first convert from his efforts, Krishna Pal. Even at the time of William Carey’s death after 41 years invested in India without a single time of furlough, through his ministries influence, only 700 converts could be counted in a nation of millions. That is a lifetime invested into a group of people (the 700 converts) who may not even number the size of your local church. And based off of this one man’s life, the “Father of Modern Day Missions,” I wonder if the words mission and trip should ever belong in the same sentence. I wonder if missions should be a call that demands your entire life. I also wonder if we may be doing more damage in our form of modern missions rather than basking in light of the possible success of missions and rejoicing in the glory that God is receiving through modern missions.
In the current structure of modern missions, I wonder, are we just sending people around the world to become glorified tourists who return to the States with an emotional badge of honor having their spirits uplifted and leaving them feeling closer to Christ solely because they stepped out of their comfort zone and did something radical that many Sunday morning church go-er’s would not? Could we not then be compared to the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witness who do their two year “duty” to their organization and then live in the plush lifestyle of convenience within close proximity to family, friends, and other loved ones going about their lives the way they please without any trace of what they were once committed to?
Glorified Tourism– sad but true. The worse part is God’s people, His resources are being used so American Christians can soothe their conscience, play missionary and sightsee. 26,000 children die everyday of preventable diseases and we’re spending tens of millions of dollars to put untrained, inexperienced, American Christians into an airplane to be a glorified tourist for 2 weeks.
This is something that bothers me more than anything else man.
In short, men like William Carey knew that when they went overseas to do missions, they were going to die there. They said goodbye to all family, friends, luxuries, their own language, culture and life and left knowing they would never return.
Today missionaries have terms, most organizations its 4 years. You go and if you don’t like it, four years its over, kind of like college.
William Carey is a hero, and even though his ministry was not fruitful in our human logic and worldly wisdom, when he stood before Jesus, he was VERY happy!
However, there is one extremely redeeming and attractive quality to sending missionaries on short term trips and that is to raise awareness to us selfish Americans about the needs overseas, to whet the appetite for further missions giving and going and to dramatically change the life of an American Christian.
I’ve been on 5 short term missions trips, from as short as 10 days to as long as 90. My life is transformed, I now use missions stories in sermons, my youth group prays for nations and my philosophy of what it means to be pastoral has been rocked, and not only that, my end goal in life is to go back forever like William Carey.
I could expound upon your thoughts… but you were right on the money with this one.