In many lands today there is a growing antagonism between different races, political ideologies, and religious groups. The aftermath of the war has intensified these differences, and as a result men are looking more and more to their race or creed or nation to determine their behavior and to guide them in their thinking. Even in countries which we have thought of as semi-civilized or even uncivilized there has sprung into life a new nationalism with an intense race or creed consciousness that gives little room for an international movement like Christian missions.
These facts demonstrate clearly that the church in its missionary endeavor faces a different situation today from which it did a decade or two ago. We must grapple with new problems and try to find new methods in our efforts to direct these race-conscious peoples away from their new ideological loyalties into the cosmopolitan church of Christ. Or at least we must correlate the world-wide nature of Christian missions with the intricate situations which are found in many lands where the nation, race, or creed is being virtually deified.
The message of Christianity is above all an international one. "The field is the world." The child of God is first a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and after that a citizen of the land of his birth or adoption. It is the task of the Christian missionary to develop in the hearts of Christian converts a dual citizenship—first a loyalty to the King of heaven; and second, a national loyalty honoring the historic cultural and social inheritance which is his by birth, but which must always be secondary in the heart of the follower of Christ. As an ambassador for Christ the missionary must bear witness to a superior fellowship that transcends all national and racial boundaries in which there is neither Jew nor Greek, African nor European, Asiatic nor American.
This is no easy task. Missionaries are but human. They too have national and inborn race prejudices. They have a cultural background that is entirely foreign to that with which they come in contact in their new fields of labor. It therefore takes a wisdom born of heaven to discern between the legitimate cultural traditions of a people and those habits or customs that are a violation of God's law. It takes tact and wisdom to lead a people into a loyalty to Christ and His law, and yet not destroy those legitimate national or racial loyalties that are not opposed to Christianity. Paul set forth this principle when he said, "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 1 Cor. 9:22.
To accomplish this, the missionary must analyze his own inner motives, and determine what are the true objectives of mission service. He must be prepared to forget for a time his own nationality and racial consciousness, and try to understand and sympathize with the viewpoint of the people among whom he labors.
Christ is our example. He was the perfect foreign missionary. When He came to this sin-cursed world, He laid aside His glory; he emptied Himself of all that marked Him as belonging to another world. He divested Himself of whatever might give Him superiority in the eyes of men, and took the human form and the status of a servant. He became a Jew among the Jews, and lived their life and kept their laws. The apostle Paul in contemplating these amazing facts exhorts, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Phil. 2 :5. The foreign missionary should above all other Christians renounce the presumption of superiority. He should place himself in the position of the nationals and try to catch their viewpoint of things. He must, as Bishop Crawford expressed it, "think black."
The missionary who continues to think just as he did back home, and who feels that the customs and habits of the people must largely be changed because they are not like the Christian civilization he has known, will build up a wall of separation between him and the people, and give unnecessary offense to the very ones whom he has gone out to win to Christ. Much of our boasted civilization is anything but Christian. Modern life is built around gadgets and machines, which have no relation to Christianity whatsoever. Our message is one of salvation from sin through the precious blood of Christ. We are to make disciples of all men and acquaint them with our Lord and Saviour. Our task is not to overthrow any nationalistic ideology or expose its socialistic contradictions or applaud its success. We have but one task—that is to finish the work committed to us, to prepare a people to meet their God.
To accomplish this, the missionary must lay aside all disposition to play the part of lord and master over the national people for whom he is called to labor. With a growing nationalism and race consciousness in all lands, the missionary who assumes the attitudes and prerogatives of a "boss" will surely fail. As a true shepherd he should be a leader and a guide, but never an overlord. The worker who has the privilege of laboring for a few years now in some foreign land, should put forth every effort to develop and encourage the national workers and build them up into leadership, for they will, without doubt, be called upon to bear heavy responsibilities and be the leaders of the indigenous church after the missionaries are gone.
The successful missionary will respect the judgment and knowledge of the national workers, and recognize that when taken into his confidence they can be a great asset to him in his work. He will therefore seek their counsel and renounce every show of superiority, remembering always that, even as our Lord, he has gone to that distant land to be a servant of all and not their master.
Love is the measure of success in the mission field as at home. He who, constrained by the love of Christ, takes up his appointed task in some foreign field will find that under the saving power of love national differences will fade into insignificance. The native church will respond to such loving ministry, and there will be built up a Christian community that will hold forth the light of truth in a dark land.
Such leadership is especially necessary for Seventh-day Adventist missionaries. We know that as the perils of the last days thicken about us, we shall be cut off from our national churches in many lands. We should therefore build now upon such a solid foundation, and with such a complete spirit of co-operation, that when our overseas missionaries must leave the field, there will be a strong, efficient, loyal group of national leaders who will step into the breach and lead the indigenous Advent church on to its final triumph.
This world is suffering untold agony today, and dissolution is threatening. The problems of racial antagonisms are almost insoluble. Into this suffering, confused world we are sending thousands of our young men and women with a last message of hope, and it is the only hope in this tragic hour. May these missionary recruits catch the new spirit of missions and take to a troubled world the light and hope of a better citizenship in that kingdom which will endure when "the fashion of this world passeth away." 1 Cor. 7:31. This is our task.
