men may be presented with the Gospel message. The senior missionary listens to this program and recalls similar measures which were tried pre- • . viously with no results; perhaps one such experi ence was even disastrous. He objects to the junior missionary’s plan on these grounds. The younger man will press his point more or less insistently, as he has just come from his period o f training where such a program has been described as being very effective in comparable circumstances. There is now a strong difference o f opinion between the veteran, who does not wish to see a program disrupted by a premature or discredited experiment, and the new missionary, who does not like to have a useful method discarded because o f prejudice. If both men are relatively normal, a solution is likely to be reached. The senior will find some merit in the projected method. The junior will recognize that experience with the local outlooks and psychology may require some modification of his ideas. Working together, the two men will final ly come to agree on a program which will be a fresh attempt to reach young men and suitable for that particular area. Such a healthy discussion, culminating in agree ment, will be valuable to both men. Each will grow a bit in this whole matter. The work will be strengthened and the ministry made more effective. In some individuals who are in trouble and who have ideas which they cannot accept within them selves, the mechanism of projection may show it self. There are varying degrees of this. For exam ple, there is the person who consistently blames fellow-missionaries for qualities which are present within herself. The following example will illus trate this situation: Case #58. D.Y. was sent to the office for examination because of constant problems which had existed with her on the field. A day prior to her visit the doctor had the op portunity of talking to a colleague o f hers who had a great deal o f affection for D.Y. and tried to minimize many of her difficuties. D.Y. expressed the opinion that others had spoken too much about her, that they had at tempted to tear her down, and that they re vealed the opposite, that she had consistently belittled all of her fellow-workers, damning with faint praise the best and thoroughly condemning those who did not meet with her ideals of education and missionary outlook. We see here an individual full o f discussions o f how she was misunderstood. She was forced to live in close relationship with other missionaries and her own feelings of unworthiness were shown in her attempts to bring others down to her level while at the same time she read into their actions her disagreeable feelings about herself. Such projection may continue to the develop ment of frank paranoid ideas, a full-blown persecu- THE KING'S BUSINESS
in many instances the expectation is fulfilled. Too often, however, hopes are shattered by bitter ex periences. These deviations from what we hope to find are not rare, nor are they new; they have occurred since New Testament times. We have only to think of Euodias and Syntyche, two women who had worked faithfully with Paul but with whom he had to plead that their dissension might not seri ously disrupt the life o f the church. Even Paul was involved directly in at least one such dispute when he and Barnabas separated over their disagree ment as to whether John Mark should accompany them on the second missionary journey. Incidental ly, this last example should make us pause before stating that all church dissension is simply a spir itual matter. As you may recall, Paul, Barnabas, and Mark had set out on the first journey together, but Mark left the other two and returned home. Perhaps this is analogous to the missionary who has a health breakdown halfway through his first term or else leaves suddenly for the homeland be cause o f family difficulties or even homesickness. When the time came for another trip, Barnabas wished to give his young relative another chance, but Paul apparently believed that Mark was too unreliable and unstable to be returned to foreign service. Paul and Barnabas separated, the first of many splits that have occurred in missionary so- cities! Who was right, and who was wrong? We only know that many years later Paul testified of Mark, “He is profitable to me for the ministry.” Before discussing some of the factors leading to problems in the church and in Christian serv ice, it may be well to outline briefly what a normal relationship between Christians working together may be like. We may take as an example the situa tion on the foreign mission field. An underlying harmony based on the common interests of the workers is present. This harmony is not simply a passive willingness to live and let live, but an active co-operation and vital mutual concern, both based on and leading to a tremendous affection for the fellow-missionary. This deep re lationship is almost as close as that within the family—closer in some ways—with strong identi fication of each with the work of the group as a whole and with the members as individuals. Within the framework o f this harmony there will be normal differences. As no two people are alike, there will be varying viewpoints toward methods o f work, toward policies as to the fields which should be occupied, and toward the genuine ness o f the profession o f this or that convert. How ever, the basic agreements o f the workers will tend to keep their differences from becoming destructive. Let us examine this type of difference o f opin ion a little more closely. An older missionary in a station is confronted one day by a younger mis sionary who offers a plan by which more young
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