short cut to missions enthusiasm
Stevens
by Betty
A r e you a pastor who at one time thought you would be a mis sionary—but the Lord definitely led into the home mission field instead? However, you’ve always had a heart interest in the foreign field. You just wish you had a closer tie-in with the field—so you could make it real to your people—really fire them with more missionary zeal!
Or perhaps you are ministering to a congregation that is indifferent to the way “the other h a lf’ lives. They believe that charity begins at home. They will give generously for a new Christian Education building — but they haven’t caught the vision at all of tile spiritual and physical darkness where there is no opportunity to know Christ. They see no urgent necessity
Home Base of Missionary Aviatic
Lacandon Indian at Naja—Phil Baer’s tribe.
for getting the Word of God out to Bibleless tribes. It may be that you, a missionary- minded church member, are wishing that your pastor would be behind the program of missions and give it a big push in your church. You’ve just had a week at a summer conference where the emphasis was on missions —and no one in your church seems even remotely interested. Your pastor wields so much influence that you know if he once got on fire, there would soon be a conflagration. How can you get him enthused about the fields white unto harvest, where it may soon be too late—where doors are closing? Why not start a “whis pering campaign” to get the church sponsoring such a trip—an anniver sary, Christmas, or birthday gift for an overworked pastor? Some churches have shared expenses with the minis ter in order to make the trip a possi bility. Are you teaching in a Bible college or seminary and feeling the need of that added spark which a firsthand experience of the mission field can impart through you to fire the en thusiasm of your students? The successful solution to these problems may lie in a comprehensive visit to a mission field—no longer a remote possibility because of limita tions of time and finances that it once seemed. A Pastor’s Tour of a field where actual missionary work is in progress would seem tailor-made to fit these needs, and such tours are now available. A series of such trips have been ar-
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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