Theology of Suffering: Luke 10:2

This past Sunday’s discussion addressed the rising dangers and suffering involved in cross-cultural missions work. Pastor Daniel Mills who is currently serving as the Associate Pastor at Unionville Alliance Church presented a thoughtful and compassionate lens through which to begin developing a theology of suffering. Pastor Daniel has been active in pastoral ministry for the past 19 years and spent a significant amount of that time pastoring throughout the United States and church planting in Puerto Rico and Mexico. 

 Suffering is a heartbreaking and complex reality for many people and places. Pastor Daniel provided three main points to begin establishing a Jesus-centric perspective:

  1. At the foundation of grasping a Christian worldview towards suffering, it’s crucial to begin with understanding the sovereignty of God. 

  2. The life of Jesus provides the pattern for the Christian life- suffering was an integral part of his life and death. 

  3. There is no shortage of risk involved in missionary work. Whether it’s COVID or other global or local issues, to participate in the mission of God is to risk suffering.

 From Pastor Daniel’s perspective, these three points provide a starting framework for confronting and addressing danger and suffering in cross-cultural missions. 

Make sure to catch the next Luke 10:2 gathering on the second Sunday of the month!

This blog post was written by Caitlin Normore, summer Creative Communications assistant!

How God Changed Me at Perspectives

During this summer at the Missions Hub, many brothers and sisters in Christ across the GTA meet up every Wednesday with the Missions Hub in downtown Toronto. We’ve been going through a Perspectives on the World Christian Movement Course which takes an in-depth look at cross-cultural ministry and global missions through a Biblical, Historical, Cultural and Strategic lens. As our Perspectives course drew near to its final weeks, we asked various students questions on their experience taking Perspectives. Here are their responses:

Could you share a bit about yourself and how you first heard about Perspectives?

  1. My name is Jason and I’m going into my second year of Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto. I first heard about Perspectives from Chez who works at the Missions Hub. She told us that it would be a summer-long course talking about global missions and that it would be very packed with lots of wisdom being shared from missionaries, directors from missionary organizations, and pastors. It sounded like a great opportunity to learn about global missions. - Jason Chan, UofT P2C Student Leader, Trained Engineer.

  2. I worked as a Chemical Engineer for about 8 years until God called me into ministry recently. Being connected with Missions Hub was how I heard about Perspectives. - Jimmy Chao, OMF Canada Missions Mentorship Coordinator.

  3. I’m a recent graduate from the University of Toronto where I completed my undergraduate degree in life science. I got connected with the missions hub through P2C and that’s where I heard about Perspectives. I knew about it the previous years it was run too, but finally made it out to this one. - Caroline, UofT Alumnus and UofT P2C Student Leader.

  4. I am a 28 year old TCK. I heard about Perspectives through word of mouth. - Christine Park, TEAM International Missions Coach.

What are some key lessons/stories you learned throughout this Perspective Course?

  1. Through the Perspectives Course, I love how it goes through the Biblical, Historical, and Cultural perspectives of global missions. One of the biggest things I learned was how the mandate for global missions didn’t just come from the great Commission at the end of the Gospels or from the beginning of Acts, but really it was laid out ever since the covenant with Abraham and has spread out through all the Bible, so that for me was very powerful to know that this is a mission that God has given to man to partner with Him for all eternity. That was one of the key things I learned. Another thing that has been conveyed to me from an article I read was that every believer has a duty to partner with God in missions - no believer has the right to stay unless they’ve truly considered and prayed about going to the world in the name of Jesus. That made me really reflect and ask myself, “All this time have I been thinking about staying because that’s comfortable or that’s the easy thing to do? Have I really been ignoring this call to go because that seems to be out of my comfort zone?” But this article completely flipped it for me and changed my perspective. - Jason Chan, UofT P2C Student Leader.

  2. The concept about Modalities & Sodalities really hit home. A point was made that when we got rid of the sodalities after the Protestant Reformation, there was a 200 year lull in World Evangelization. That’s to say that we need the missions agency structure to co-exist with the local church body to complete the great commission. Another implication is that a local church (modality) cannot have the attitude that “we don’t need partners. We can fulfill the great commission on our own.” History would prove otherwise. - Jimmy Chao, OMF Canada Missions Mentorship Coordinator.

  3. The importance of adopting a spirit of humility and reliance on God. - Caroline, UofT Alumnus and UofT P2C Student Leader.

  4. God is a missionary God with a mission to bless all the families of the earth, and we get to be a part of that blessing. - Christine Park, TEAM International Missions Coach.

Do you currently serve in any ministries (e.g. local church, campus fellowships, parachurch organizations)? What are some ways in which you could apply what you learned at Perspectives into your own ministry context?

  1. In the upcoming year, I’ll be serving in a leadership position at [UofT] Power to Change and also a Sunday School teacher at my local church. I guess some ways in which I could apply what I learned at Perspectives at Power to Change is sharing what I’ve learned with the students there and really taking in this Perspective of the mandate for global missions. Through whatever material we’re going through, I would like to draw from what I learned from this course and share that with my discipleship group or people that we [individually] disciple. - Jason Chan, UofT P2C Student Leader

  2. This was a great training course for my role. It is potentially a Seminary credit after all. - Jimmy Chao, OMF Mobilizer – Missions Mentorship Coordinator.

  3. I’m currently in between serving at ministries having just left P2C and being a little delayed in getting involved with my church. However, learning about cross-cultural missions has really inspired me to pursue learning about other cultures while in Canada before going overseas and serving a certain people group here first. - Caroline, UofT Alumnus and UofT P2C Student Leader

  4. Yes, my full time job is with a missions agency and I serve with the Children's ministry with my church. I learned a lot from each lesson, but the Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches lesson really stood out to me, maybe because that one was the most recent. Finding a pioneer for a vision to reach those in the peripherals of our Sunday services and knowing the people that God has placed in my city and how my church congregation is adjusting to convey the gospel in a way that would be understood well by those in my church community would be really helpful to identify, consider, and implement. I also learned again of the importance of house churches(home churches) to have a perspective to multiply and not just add. - Christine Park, TEAM International Missions Coach.

If you were to chat with yourself when you were a new Christian on missions and cross-cultural ministry, what words of wisdom would you share with your younger self?

  1. I guess ever since I was younger, I had this view of missions as something closely tied to colonialism because of what I learned from school or social media. I guess when I first became a Christian, my view of missions was still the same - I thought it was an imposition of thought on these people who wanted nothing to do with it. I even thought that as a Christian, but after going through this [Perspectives] course, what I would tell my younger self is that God wants every tongue, tribe and nation to worship Him. It’s not about imposing one single culture to all the nations of the earth, but instead the opposite way - embracing all the cultures that God has created to know His name so that we can have this huge plethora of people worshipping Him in every language and in every unique way that they are made - we want to see how beautiful that is. - Jason Chan, UofT P2C Student Leader.

  2. Don’t be so gung-ho. There’s a lot to learn from the greats of the past and from current trends in missions. Missions isn’t meant to be a solo activity. We need the wider body. - Jimmy Chao, OMF Canada Missions Mentorship Coordinator.

  3. Remember God and why you are serving before just doing. - Caroline, UofT Alumnus and UofT P2C Student Leader.

  4. Ask lots of questions. Be curious and read and connect with missionaries and mobilizers to hear their stories. - Christine Park, TEAM International Missions Coach.

Random Bonus Question! If you were a fruit, what would you be?

  1. The first thing that came to mind was papaya - I have no idea why. I don’t hate them. I don’t love them, but they’re okay. - Jason Chan, UofT P2C Student Leader.

  2. Pineapple – Yellow on the inside. Refreshing. Don’t touch me. - Jimmy Chao, OMF Canada Missions Mentorship Coordinator.

  3. Peach - Caroline, UofT Alumnus and UofT P2C Student Leader.

  4. Coconut - Christine Park, TEAM International Missions Coach.

The Harvest is Plentiful, but the Workers are few. As these students are completing their Perspectives coursework, please continue praying that God will stir their hearts to bring the valuable truths covered throughout this summer course to be applied into their own respective ministries and to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Revelation 7:9-12, English Standard Version9

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”----

Our greatest thanks to Justin, who volunteered to write this piece! Justin is a nursing student at McGill who serves with Power to Change, and has trained as a Missions Discipler with the Missions Hub. If you would like to connect with the Missions Hub, or write a piece for us, please email khevna@missionshub.ca. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank Knox Church, Christ the King Church, Chinese Gospel Church and Runnymede Community Church for their generous collaboration this summer for Perspectives! From May 15 through Aug 21st, we averaged 75 people coming every Wednesday evening. This would have been completely overwhelming except for our wonderful volunteers; we could not have done it without you! We thank God for the 49 students and 102 other visitors who joined us over the summer!

God Uses Failure and Sacrifice for His Glory

Psalm 127:1a (ESV)

Unless the Lord builds the house,

    those who build it labor in vain.

During this summer at the Missions Hub, many brothers and sisters in Christ across the GTA meet up every Wednesday at Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto. We’ve been going through the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course, which takes an in-depth look at cross-cultural ministry and evangelism through a biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic lens.

Our lesson this week was on spontaneous multiplication of churches. Our speaker, Dr. Stephen Beck (Author of The Mosaik Miracle, Pastor of Mosaik Frankfurt-North, Church Planter, and Professor of Practical Theology at the Gliessen School of Theology), shared from his wealth of experiences planting churches in Canada, Germany, and the US. As a McGill University student with a campus ministry focus on leading community/social events and discipling first years, I didn’t think there could be much to apply from a church-planting seminar… but God always has a way to surprise us.

The Remedy of Combating Ministry Risks and Potential Failures is not a Greater Desire to Control, but rather Firmly Resting in One’s Identity in Christ

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

The heart of man plans his way,

but the LORD establishes his steps.

Dr. Beck shared about ministry strengths and barriers inherent within German culture. When it came to creating innovative automobile industries such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes, they were top quality and world class. However, such impressive quality came only through a time-consuming, meticulous analysis of all risks while heavily controlling and minimizing every confounding factor. This desire to control every factor and avoid every risk often fails within church ministry, simply because church planting almost always has risks inherently involved and relationships are often messy - or as he humorously coined, “some good Holy Spirit-ordained chaos!” He stressed the need to create a solid plan for church planting, but also an expectation that God will likely determine that some things will never really go according to plan.

How often have I tried to find my own worth and identity in my successes in academics, work, and even ministry! The slightest failure would have me doubting my own credibility or becoming defensive, pushing the blame onto factors which were outside of my control. Conditional worth based on my own performance only leads to overwhelming insecurities, a critical view of others, and an insatiable desire to control everything. How can anyone partner with others in ministry, let alone plant a church, with those qualities dictating their life?

Reflecting on his young adult years serving in ministry, Dr. Beck shared that the greatest barrier to church planting was an unwillingness to consider the wisdom of well-seasoned church planters and an arrogance which demands to do everything his own way. He explained that we must avoid thinking that church planting is primarily about building and expanding our own churches and more about expanding God’s kingdom. It is a foundational shift from thinking that we will serve God on our own terms to celebrating the privilege of joining God in His global mission to redeem all people to Himself and to serve under His guidance.

The remedy to combating risks and potential failures is having a firm identity in Christ, as a beloved child of God (1 John 3:1-3, ESV). As I reflected on the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32, ESV), Tim Keller’s quote on the gospel rang more true than ever before: “The gospel is this: we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope” (Keller & Keller, 2013). Even in the face of ministry failures, I can rest in the knowledge that God does not see us ultimately by our failures, but rather as His child who is already loved and accepted by Him. No failure or blunder can ever change that identity, for it was never our own work which brought it in the first place. It is only through the work of Christ on the cross that we become children of God, and that is why we can still have hope for God to continue working through us, even with our failures.

God Uses what the World sees as Failures and Reckless Sacrifice for His Glory and Kingdom Work

John 12:24-25 (ESV)

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

In a Western world of high-speed communication and updates, busy work cultures, and social media that promises instant gratification of one’s emotional and social needs, it’s easy for our church ministries to feel the need to meet those same expectations. Short-term mission trips involving building houses in a developing country and booming worship nights with an altar call seem to promise that we’re making life-changing impact in a relatively short period of time with relatively low risk for ourselves. However, we often find throughout Scripture and church history that God has his own timeline for doing His will, and usually it involves intentionally walking alongside communities in joy and suffering, making tremendous sacrifices, and working through the unlikeliest of people. God can use even the most painful losses and failures to bring about his kingdom. 

The violent death of Stephen, the first martyr of the early church, was the catalyst for the Apostle Paul’s journey to Christ: from Saul of Tarsus, a vehement persecutor of the early church, to an apostle to the Gentiles who planted churches across the Roman Empire and wrote the vast majority of the epistles we enjoy today in the New Testament. God used the death of Stephen to powerfully impact Paul’s testimony and strengthen his conviction for the Gospel (Acts 22:1-21, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, 1 Corinthians 15:8-11, ESV).

Even the most central doctrinal foundation (and perhaps the most iconic symbol) of our Christian faith is found in what the ancient Roman world saw as the most humiliating and gruesome method of death: the cross. When the world - and Jesus’ disciples and best friends - watched him hanging on the cross and thought his mission had failed, God used His death as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and his resurrection put death to death and invited us into new life in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55, 2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV).

To share one last example: In 1955, Jim Elliot and his four missionary colleagues answered the call to bring the Gospel to the Huaorani people of Ecuador. However, after two years of initial friendly contact, one of the tribe members, Nankiwi, spread a false accusation on the missionaries, which led to the missionaries’ brutal martyrdom (Taylor, 2016). Although the world saw their deaths as a waste of life and reckless sacrifice, God used their deaths to move the missionaries’ families to continue their legacy, working with the Huaorani people and living out genuine love and care for the tribal communities. Eventually, as members of the Huaorani turned to Christ, the missionaries’ legacy glorified God even more as the world witnessed these communities powerfully transformed through love, forgiveness, and grace which could only be found in the Gospel! Therefore, Christian, rest in the knowledge that there is no “failure” or “reckless sacrifice” which happens outside of God’s sovereign and almighty hand. There is no loss or sacrifice great enough on this earth - even your very life - that God cannot use to bring glory to Himself and make His name known.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” - Jim Elliot

Our greatest thanks to Justin, who volunteered to write this piece! Justin is a nursing student at McGill who serves with Power to Change, and has trained as a Missions Discipler with the Missions Hub. If you would like to connect with the Missions Hub, or write a piece for us, please email khevna@missionshub.ca. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank Knox Church, Christ the King Church, Chinese Gospel Church and Runnymede Community Church for their generous collaboration this summer for Perspectives! From May 15 through Aug 21st, we averaged 75 people coming every Wednesday evening. This would have been completely overwhelming except for our wonderful volunteers; we could not have done it without you! We thank God for the 49 students and 102 other visitors who joined us over the summer!

References:

Keller, T., & Keller, K. (2013). The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the complexities of commitment with the wisdom of god. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Taylor, J. (2016). They Were No Fools: The Martyrdom of Jim Elliot and Four Other Missionaries. Retrieved from https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/they-were-no-fools-60-years-ago-today-the-martyrdom-of-jim-elliot-and-four-other-missionaries/