Our trips to the outlying villages in Kwongland to teach and preach these
last few months have opened our eyes to some frightening realities with profound
implications for our ministry. Here are three of them.
The Kwong church is worse off than we thought
Mark
has been telling people for years that "the Kwong church was planted in the
1980's and we are doing what is necessary to assure the long term viability of
the church" (see our
philosophy of mission). Our travels through the outlying villages of
Kwongland have compelled us to reevaluate our perspective on things. In
particular, we found that it doesn't do justice to reality to say that the
church is
"planted" in most of these villages. The truth is rather
that there are one or two strong believers in each village with a a dozen or
so hanger's-on around them. These hanger's-on, as Mark has noticed
over the years in Chageen, are on a two or three-year rotation through the
church, and we question seriously whether most of them are justifiably
called "Christian" at all. The upshot of this is that we might
better think of ourselves as full-fledged "church planters,"
rather than the "church nurturers" which has hitherto been our
perceived role.
We don't understand Kwong traditional religion very well
Our final realization from our travels is just how little we really
understand about traditional Kwong religion. We have known, for example
about the "Yamas" that they worship, and habitually
translate in French as "idol." It is only recently, however, that
we are learning that they really regard these Yamas as a kind of guardian
spirit over the entire village to do both good and bad, and not merely the
evil fabrication of some enterprising shaman. The comparison with Baal of
the Old Testament seems very appropriate (and convenient for preaching
purposes). Pray for us as we try to better learn what they really think
so that we can preach with the kind of precision and clarity that will cut to the
heart.
Mark
has been telling people for years that "the Kwong church was planted in the
1980's and we are doing what is necessary to assure the long term viability of
the church" (
is
"planted" in most of these villages. The truth is rather
that there are one or two strong believers in each village with a a dozen or
so hanger's-on around them. These hanger's-on, as Mark has noticed
over the years in Chageen, are on a two or three-year rotation through the
church, and we question seriously whether most of them are justifiably
called "Christian" at all. The upshot of this is 
that we might
better think of ourselves as full-fledged "church planters,"
rather than the "church nurturers" which has hitherto been our
perceived role. 
Our final realization from our travels is just how little we really
understand about traditional Kwong religion. We have known, for example
about the "Yamas" that they worship, and habitually
translate in French as "idol." It is only recently, however, that
we are learning that they really regard these Yamas as a kind of guardian
spirit over the entire village to do both good and bad, and not merely the
evil fabrication of some enterprising shaman. The comparison with Baal of
the Old Testament seems very appropriate (and convenient for preaching
purposes). Pray for us as we try to better learn what they really think
so that we can preach with the kind of precision and clarity that will cut to the
heart.