A MISSION TO AMERICA

A number of years ago I learned that my denomination’s church in Hawaii was looking for a pastor. I was considering making a move about that time and I suddenly felt a great burden for the people of Hawaii. I was sure this was a calling from God so I quickly updated my resume and sent it off to their pastoral search committee. Having grown up in Southern California, I was certain that I could relate well to the Japanese-American community as well as the surf crowd in Hawaii. I knew it would be tough but I was willing to suffer for Jesus.

Our major Grand Rapids newspaper, creatively named The Grand Rapids Press, ran a lengthy article from the Associated Press last Sunday on The Redeemed Church of God (RCG). The RCG is a denomination in Nigeria. Well, it started in Nigeria. It is one of the fastest growing Christian denominations in the world. It is a Pentecostal group that embraces all the same typical charismatic beliefs that Pentecostals here in the good old US of A hold. True, their international leader claims to receive annual prophecies from God concerning international issues and spiritual life. That’s not really so strange. I mean, look at the things Pat Robertson has been telling us this year.

But here’s the thing that really caught my attention. The RCG is sending missionary church planters to the United States. Now there’s an interesting turn of events! After over 150 years of sending Americans as missionaries to Africa, they are returning the favor! Now it is our turn to see how it feels to have people who are so culturally different from us coming to save our souls! I wonder if they will encounter the same kinds of issues our missionaries met with. They probably won’t have serious language issues. Doesn’t the whole world speak English? And Wycliffe Bible Translators won’t have to send people to give us a written language and translate the Bible for us. The missionaries won’t have to deal with jungles and wild animals. The natives here won’t be likely to kill them and have them for dinner. (Or will they?)

Actually, the RCG is doing a great job of fitting in here in the USA. They are building a multimillion-dollar national headquarters and conference complex about fifty miles north of Dallas. They have launched a satellite TV network named Dove Media which will broadcast reruns of the Dick Van Dyke Show and Bonanza along with sermons from their world leader. (I think they will learn soon enough about the mistake of letting people go on TV!)

Their message is that the USA is a post-Christian nation. The article quotes an RCG official as saying that Christianity in America “has become a lifestyle, not a transforming way of life.” Actually, I can’t disagree with that statement. I think they’re right. In fact, those are reasons Shiloh exists today.

This is the thought that made me smile: I’m picturing the missions conferences in their churches back in Nigeria. They must have been the same as the missions conferences I went to growing up. Can you imagine missionaries coming back from the United States and showing their slides and media presentations of their work? They wear American style clothes to the services to show how the people they are trying to reach dress. Then imagine the impassioned pleas for young people to dedicate their lives to missions. The calls for young people to come forward to the altar and for their parents to stand behind them and support them in their calling. I see them giving their testimonies and saying they are willing to go and suffer for Jesus in America. Their colleges are naming dorms and athletic fields after them already as they give their lives to missions.

I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a little hurt I never got a call from that church in Hawaii.