Notes from the Trail

I was reading this short book by C.S. Lewis at a swim meet a week ago. Imagine my surprise when I was approached by three different people who had read it and asked if I was liking it! That’s pretty unusual for southeast Arkansas – or perhaps anywhere, I would think.

Mere Christianity and the Narnia Chronicles were the only Lewis books I’d read prior to the Great Divorce, and I was a little nervous about this one. I’ve heard nothing about it, for one (that’s why I was so shocked when approached about it at the swim meet). Second, I just didn’t want to be disappointed.

I wasn’t.

It took me a few pages to “get into” the book, simply because I had no idea what it was about. I told a friend I was reading it and quickly qualified it by saying that Carolyn and I were fine.

It ends up that it’s an imaginative short story about a man’s journey – on a bus of all things – from a dreary city to an alarmingly bright wilderness. The man travels with some less than amiable companions, and in the course of the book, he has several conversations with his travel mates and the occupants of the strange land he finds himself in.

What’s so interesting about the story is that you soon realize that he is on the outskirts of heaven – not quite in. The conversations that he has and overhears all entail the different arguments and objections that people have for entering heaven – namely that it requires surrender and acceptance of joy from the Creator.

You’ll recognize some arguments in this book as being those you’ve either heard from atheists, “good” people, or those who can’t turn loose of addictions to experience real life.

Lewis has one conversation about the discovery of true life go like this:

I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned was precisely nothing: that the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in ‘the high countries.’ 

It’s a great book, full of some profound thoughts amidst the fictional conversations. I would not recommend it as your first Lewis book. Go with MC or the Narnia books first. But if you enjoy those, then this is a great read.

Here’s the scene: a pastor is deeply frustrated about the steady degeneration of his society. In addition to this, churches are in sad shape across the country. Members of churches are self-consumed and refuse to be held accountable for their spiritual lives. They actually get offended when a pastor seeks to point out issues, sins or rebellion in their lives.

In addition, churches are splitting left and right. Some entire groups won’t tolerate other groups. The pastor continually warns that such division will only discredit Christianity as a whole in the eyes of society.

To make matters worse, many pastors have abdicated their role as spiritual shepherds and simply seek to preach and teach bland self-help material, passing it off as the Gospel of Christ. They avoid controversial matter, for fear of offending someone. They do not seek to discipline nor disciple their members, nor are they training leaders to carry on the work of the ministry.

You may be thinking that this sounds pretty normal. However, Richard Baxter addressed these concerns and many others in his book The Reformed Pastor during the mid-1600s. I wrote a while back about the importance of learning from “old dead guys,” and I stand by that. If you haven’t read any Christian books published prior to 1900 recently, your Christianity is certainly skewed, and you may even be guilty of what John Piper calls “chronological snobbery.”

Baxter has been called the “Prince of Preachers,” and this book (one of his more than 168 works!) is a demonstration of his deep burden for the beauty of the bride of Christ, his careful articulation of theology, and his extremely practical approach to Christian living and leading.

For pastors who avoid discipline (or church members who decry it), Baxter said:

The tempter surely has gained a great victory when he gets but one godly pastor of a church to neglect discipline… if it were well understood how much of our pastoral authority and work consists in church guidance, then it would be also discerned that to be against discipline in the church is tantum non to be against the ministry. Again, to be against the ministry is to be absolutely against the church. And to be against the church is near to being absolutely against Christ. 

Sir Stephen James, writing of Baxter, said, “Men of his size are not to be drawn in miniature.” I am afraid that any attempt to summarize this book or the man in one-entry blog would do just that. I highly encourage any Christian leader to read, digest, and allow this book and its hard-hitting practical advice to reform your ministry. At the very least, it’s a humbling evaluation tool.

This small book by Baxter would cause large waves in the evangelical pool if but half of the pastors in your area would read it. It is a great discussion tool for practical and personal ministry. Much of the book was originally written to be an address to a group of protesters – Protestants. Baxter does not pull any punches. When talking of ministers’ communion with one another, he says:

Do not grow strange to one another. Do not say that you have business of your own to do when you should be at any such meetings or other work for God… Even if you could do without the benefit of such meetings, yet the church and our common work required them. Do not then show yourselves condemners or neglecters or such necessary work. Distance breeds strangeness and foments dividing flames and jealousies. Communion will prevent or cure this… Ministers have need of one another. 

Before one thinks that Baxter doesn’t have much to offer the Christian layperson, I would urge anyone with the desire to learn to read the book as well. It has so much to say about the attitude and practice of laity as well as pastors.

Considering that Baxter was both a political leader and prison frequenter during his tenure as pastor should interest you as you do more research and reading into his storied ministry. I, for one, am putting one book on my wish list: A Life of the Reverend Richard Baxter.

According to Wikipedia, Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted is, “without doubt, his most famous and enduring contribution to Christian literature… This slim volume was credited with the conversion of thousands and formed one of the core extra-biblical texts of evangelicalism until at least the middle of the nineteenth century.”

Revolution is a dangerous book to pick up. It will change both your concept of missions and what may be the most effective way of doing missions. Author K.P. Yohannan is the founder of Gospel for Asia, a ministry seeking to equip, train, and provide funding for native pastors in India and Asia.

While the first part of the book shares the author’s personal spiritual journey to Christ and then to America, the rest of the book is deeply challenging to western Christianity and its churches.

It challenges the mindset of western mission agencies and their strategy to send western missionaries into foreign lands that already have a Christian presence. Yohannon argues passionately that a better and more strategic method would be for the affluent western church to send financial support for native pastors.

with more traditional mission agencies … it costs today between $50,000 and $80,000 per year to keep an average American missionary family on the field.

One could support a native pastor in India for only $60 per month. That means that the cost for keeping an American missionary family overseas for one year would also support one native Indian pastor for 111 years!

While Yohannan is not opposed to western missionaries, rather, he is deeply appreciative of the foundation that they have laid, he asserts that a “revolution” in world missions is occurring. He urges western churches to rethink their use of resources and to support native pastors where Christianity has already been planted and then to focus other resources on completely unreached people groups.

Approximately 85% of all missionary finances are being by western missionaries who are working among the established churches on the field – not for pioneer evangelism to the lost.

One of the things I deeply appreciated about the author’s heart was his constant differentiation between the “social gospel” and the Gospel of Christ. In a chapter entitled “A Bowl of Rice Is No Substitute for the Holy Spirit,” he urges Christians to quit buying into the notion that helping their fellow man is the same as sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. While it may help build relationships, if it’s not combined overtly with the life-giving message of the Messiah, the social gospel of good works alone is no gospel at all.

He says,”We believe the most effective way now to win Asia for Christ is through prayer and financial support for the native missionary force that God is raising up in the Third World.” He also provides five thoughts as to why Gospel for Asia believes it’s wiser to support native pastors in their own lands than to send western missionaries.
1. It is wise stewardship.
2. The presence of western missionaries perpetuates the myth that Christianity is the religion of the West.
3. Western misionaries and the money they bring compromise the natural growth and independence of the national church.
4. Western missionaries cannot easily go to the countries where most so-called “hidden people” live. (due to political restrictions or overt persecution)
5. Western missionaries seldom are effective today in reaching Asians and establishing local churches in the villages of Asia.

Overall, I am impressed by Yohannan’s book and passionate plea for support of missions by supporting native pastors and missionaries. However, he is so passionate for this cause that he may miss some of the benefits of “outside help.” Many times, foreign missionaries have a much clearer perception of the sins and strongholds of a national people group than do native pastors and missionaries who were brought up in that culture. Foreign missionaries to Asia – whether from the West or not – (and for that matter, missionaries from other cultures) may have a harder time establishing ministries than native pastors do, but normally, they provide invaluable counsel, help, teaching, and direction that is balanced, wise, and full of perspective.

Another consideration is that if western churches were to do what Yohannon says, they could very well be reduced to “checkbook missions.” Coming from a denomination that has always given a large percentage of its resources to world missions, I am personally aware of churches who think they’re actively involved in missions because they send their money to agencies that support missionaries. They do little actual missions themselves. What they do manage is usually an “easy mission trip” or two that is designed to give teenagers or church members a “taste of success” rather than leaving a long-term impact and making true disciples of the Lord Jesus.

I don’t say this to counter Yohannan or to belittle western churches, for I agree with most of his missiology. I hope my comments only serve to strengthen the need for more churches, more people, and more resources to be poured into the glorious hope of bringing the Hope of the world to all peoples.

We stumbled on Michael with his two young’uns and felt a little badly that our kids were all old enough to go see this movie with us – that girls’ night out also meant boys’ night out for us. But not for him. You’re not supposed to call it babysitting when you’re with your own kids, but he had a distinct glaze in his eyes when we left for the movie.

All I can say about the movie is a simple… wow. Magical. Wonderful. Moving.

Some of Susan’s dialogue with Aslan in this movie was so deeply profound. I was impressed with the production and selection from the book. Although it diverged a tad from the storyline of the book, it all came together for a dynamically powerful epic tale.

At the end, I glanced over at Adelyn during a particularly poignant moment and saw her wiping away tears. My throat caught just a little, and upon reflection, I am delighted that my daughter is moved by moments of deep love, truth, and beauty.

Go see Prince Caspian. You won’t regret it. Better yet, read ALL the Chronicles of Narnia by Christian philosopher/writer/spreader of divine joy C.S. Lewis.