Missionaries

This week’s porch conversation is with three friends who have been a part of some of most formative and changing years for Nazarene missions. Along with the late Dr. Paul Orjala, and perhaps H.F. Reynolds, these men represent some of the most strategic and missiological thinkers in the Church of the Nazarene. It is no exaggeration to say that the current health and vitality of the Church of the Nazarene beyond the U.S. is largely due to the vision that God has placed in these three. It is an honor to have these gentlemen join me for this conversation.

Dr. Louie Bustle is the current Director of Global Mission and has served as South America Regional Director as well as missionary. Dr. Franklin Cook has served as the Regional Director for the Eurasia Region, Editor of the official Nazarene publication, Holiness Today, missiology professor at NTS and a multitude of consulting and leadership roles. Dr. Charles Gailey has served as a missionary in Swaziland as well as professor of missiology at Nazarene Theological Seminary and author of texts related to missiology.

DW: Let me begin by thanking you for accepting my invitation to participate in this conversation. You are good friends as well as leaders who love and respect the church and yet think creatively about God’s mission and the church.
As a beginning point, let’s talk about missionaries. Without doubt, missionaries have always worked within the framework of society in which they were brought up and there have been times when missionaries have been colonialistic and have not made the most positive impact. In my opinion, the real story, however, is about missionaries who have been incarnational and who have invested their lives, including their family and their careers to follow the call of God. Can you talk about this a little?

FC: My experience with missionaries began at the age of 10 months. My parents, missionaries to India, were my primary examples of what missionary life was like, and many of my later ideas have roots in what I saw, and experienced, during a time of the British Raj in India.

My first reflective observation is that the majority of missionaries were incarnational and for the most part, lived out their work according to their understanding of the message of the Gospel in a primarily non-Christian environment. True, some may have had colonialistic ideas, and without doubt many errors were made in judgement. However, one can only understand and analyze these in retrospect. At the time, the actions taken and the decisions made were considered ethical, proper, and Christ-like.

My second observation is that missionaries are creatures of their times and generation. The missionaries of the immediate pre and post World War II era were very much so, as indeed are the missionaries of today. I later realized that missionaries also carry with them "cultural baggage." In India, as a child, we had missionaries from many places, Scotland, England, Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Oregon, and elsewhere. At the time, they all seemed to blend together in my childish mind. I now realize that in fact each brought with them a different strand of the fabric. It is the composite of the whole that established the Church of the Nazarene in India, rather than the ideas of any one nation, or region, or area, becoming the sole standard.

My third observation is that missionaries were at the time long-termers. They left their home areas and families, many with no expectation they would ever return to their homes. If circumstances were good, a seven, even a nine year term was the norm. This was later reduced to five, then four. Missionaries went expecting to spend a life time in one area, with one primary language and cultural target group to learn. Life tended not to be mobile but stationery. In fact, the mission was called the "mission station" (an oxymoron if ever there was one).
My fourth observation is that some missionaries had an instinctive ability to relate to the issue of building relationships with indigenous persons, and thus to a developing indigenous church. Others did not. They did not fit, did not feel comfortable, did not adapt. God chose to build His church, sometimes in spite of rather than because of.
Finally, as an MK (missionary kid) I feel fortunate to have been able to experience and observe (and later analyze) the entire missionary experience. It has been almost all positive.

CG: Good missionaries have usually been knowledgeable amateur anthropologists. They learn the language and study the culture of the people where God (and the church) has placed them. They couple this knowledge with a strong devotion to Christ and commitment to His call, which enables them to become effective missionaries. A good example from the earliest days of Nazarene missionary endeavors is Harmon Schmelzenbach and his wife, Lula. They studied the language so earnestly and intensively that Harmon nearly had a breakdown. They learned the culture so thoroughly that, after buying the farmhouse, they did not live in it (as colonialists would have), but rather made repeated attempts (and long journeys) to ask the reigning Queen Mother for permission to do so. This resulted in them having to live in the wagon for a year or so (and, after the arrival of Miss Innis, Harmon slept under the wagon!) so as not to offend the cultural leaders. No wonder that the current government of Swaziland is considering making Harmon's "prayer rock" a national monument. Harmon and Lula were incarnational missionaries. They did it right.

Of course, "doing it right" does not guarantee immediate results. The Schmelzenbachs labored for three years before the first two persons (mother and daughter) accepted Christ. I interviewed the daughter before her death--she explained that the Schmelzenbachs high standards of holy living had influenced her mother to come to the Schmelzenbachs and say, "I choose Christ". Harmon and Lula were incarnational missionaries who established a strong foundation for the Church in Africa--today there are over half a million members!