HUMAN JUST LIKE YOU!

by Mark Howe

Are missionaries spiritual supermen? Many Christians seem to want to put them on a high pedestal, along with pastors, itinerant evangelists and a few other exceptional people. Does the Bible support this view?

In fact, the New Testament is brutally honest about the failings of our forerunners in the Faith, and the information we have about the first missionaries leaves us in no doubt as to their fallible nature.

Peter struggled with theology and buckled under pressure from other Christians (Acts 10, Gal 2:11-14). Paul and Barnabus were sent out as the first missionary team (Acts 13:1-3), but they argued and eventually parted company over whether or not to give another team member a second chance (Acts 15:36-41). As Paul and Barnabas had previously made clear, "We too are only men, human like you" (Acts 14:15).

If the first missionaries had feet of clay, what about the founders of modern mission? Christian biographies tend to gloss over the failings of these great men and women of God. In most cases they had great spiritual strengths and weaknesses, and God used them because of the former and in spite of the latter.

It would be reassuring to find that today's missionaries have learned from the errors of the past and are now consistently successful, but this is far from being the case. They may not necessarily make the same mistakes as those who went before them, but missionary endeavour will always be dogged by failure at a personal, relational and strategic level. Considering that the fallenness of man is at the heart of the message we preach, this should not come as such a big shock to us.

So why are we so keen to believe in a two-tier Christianity? Partly because it lets us off the hook. The role of the majority of Christians is reduced to paying the professionals to live our faith for us.

Meanwhile, the world is waiting. Millions of people across Europe live and die without ever hearing the Gospel, while Christians in countries like Britain and the USA remain passive, convinced they have nothing to give.

When Jesus sent out the first evangelistic team, he told them that the fields were "white unto harvest." Today, God is still calling ordinary men and women to labour in his harvest field. Opportunities exist to get involved for a few weeks, a year or a lifetime. Just one word of caution: only fallible humans need apply!