By Joe McKeever, Preacher, former Pastor of seven churches, and retired Director of Missions at the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans.

In the summer of 1964, I arrived on campus at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to work on a degree that would train me to pastor a church. Among the unexpected delights of that multifaceted experience (which would last three years, with another 2 years in the early 70s) was the chapel services. The seminary brought in various outstanding (and a few average) speakers to address the faculty and student body.

That’s where I first heard H. L. Hunt of the oil fortune, Pastor R. G. Lee, Evangelist Eddie Lieberman, Missionary statesman Baker James Cauthen, and Mitsuo Fuchida.

For these forty-plus years, that name has held an honored place in my mind, even though I remember absolutely nothing he said that day. It was who he was that carved out a special spot inside this young preacher’s heart.

Mitsuo Fuchida was a bomber pilot for Japan in the Second World War. In fact, he led the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Once the planes were off the aircraft carriers and in the air headed for their destination, Fuchida was in charge. He became a great hero to his people and was active in practically every phase of that conflict.

Not long ago, while reading about Fuchida online (thank you, Wikipedia), I discovered several books tell his story and are available. I ordered “God’s Samurai” by Gordon Prange (published in 1990, so it can be bought used for a pittance) for one reason: I wanted to see what God did to capture such a prize convert for His glory.

Brother, did I find out. The story of how this warrior and Shinto-worshiper came to Jesus Christ is one for the ages. It may be one of the best testimonies of God at work in a man’s life I have ever read.

The first thing that hits you the reader is the numerous close calls Fuchida had. Clearly God was saving this man for something special.

Consider that he led numerous dangerous raids against the U.S. forces and survived them all. He was at Hiroshima on the eve of the atomic bomb being dropped and left town just in time. A day or two after the bombing, he went back into Hiroshima with an investigative team and was exposed to deadly radiation. All other members of the team died; Fuchida was pronounced to be in perfect health.

At the Battle of Midway, the ship on which he was recuperating from an appendectomy was hit and sunk. Fuchida received two broken legs and was rescued.

At other times, a raid that would have been suicidal for him was canceled at the last moment.

So, what did God do to reach this man? Bear in mind that at that time Christianity was associated with the hated United States. General Douglas MacArthur, appointed to govern the defeated Japan, urged Christian missionaries to come in large numbers to reach the Japanese.

Fuchida hated MacArthur for his arrogance.

And yet, within two or three years, Mitsuo Fuchida embraced the message of Jesus Christ with such a passion that he ended up traveling the world as an ambassador of the gospel for the rest of his life. What changed his mind?

The answer is in several parts: 1) Fuchida thought deeply and asked questions. 2) He watched God at work in nature. 3) He heard of an 18-year-old volunteer hospital worker whose story changed him forever. 4) One of the members of the Doolittle Raid had a role in reaching him.

Fuchida thought deeply and asked questions. At the surrender ceremony on the U.S.S. Missouri, which Fuchida attended, MacArthur talked of “freedom, tolerance, and justice.” Mitsuo thought to himself, “Whose justice? The Japanese thought they had justice on their side, too. Japanese justice collided with American justice and neither of them won–superior power won” (p. 176). MacArthur ended his message with, “Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.” Fuchida listened skeptically. He had doubted his own emperor when he spoke of everlasting peace, and he didn’t believe the general now. No, he thought, you are wrong, MacArthur. Peace isn’t coming to the world. More trouble is coming. All Fuchida knew from history was self-serving nations looking out for their own interests. War must always result, he concluded. There was no other way.

Fuchida watched God at work in nature. After the war, finding no other way to earn a living for his family, Mitsuo Fuchida bought a parcel of land and became a farmer. He studied books and learned how to construct a house. He watched things grow, and he was impressed. He had never been spiritual, although by no means was he a pugnacious atheist. He simply had accepted the universe of which he was a part without wondering what made it tick. Now as he looked into the bright night sky and saw the North Star, “so steady, so beautiful, so useful,” he began to see the workings of a supreme intelligence. “That night, there on my farm, God began to come into my heart,” Fuchida said reverently (P. 187).

As he continued reflecting on such things, he thought of how God had protected him during the war. The slow recurrence of the seasons, the plants springing to life, the birth of the baby chicks, all the complex workings of creation wove themselves into the fabric of his consciousness….

As one season passed into another, from “the miracle of spring” to “the patience of winter,” he experienced a revelation: “I began to realize slowly that all things were dependent upon a divine Creator, and that I was living under the grace of God. I could sow the seeds; I could plant the saplings; I could draw water with my hands, but they all came from the benevolence of a kind and far-seeing Creator”(p. 189).

All these insights worked to make Fuchida ashamed of his old independence and self-reliance. He began to see that just as the plant and animal world, he too owed his very existence to the Creator. “As he worked on the farm, he reflected, ‘Ah, the Creator–He is so wonderful’“ (p. 190).

Fuchida discovered the greatest proof of the reality of Christ: a genuine Christian.

Without any evidence to support his prejudice, Fuchida knew beyond any doubt that the Japanese who had been held prisoner by the Allies had been treated equally as horribly as Japan had treated its prisoners. One by one, as he interviewed returning POWs, he discovered his mistake. Some returning prisoners had even fallen in love with the United States. To his astonishment, many returned with amazing tales of kindnesses done to them while in the custody of the American military. Several spoke of one young woman in particular.

Margaret “Peggy” Covell was her name. She was 18 years old and worked in a POW camp as a volunteer social worker. Her story was passed on to Fuchida by a friend who had been touched by her in a prison camp.

The man said, “Something happened at my camp which made it possible for all of us interned there to stop nursing our resentments and to return to Japan with lightened hearts.”

He had Fuchida’s undivided attention.

Peggy Covell, they all called her. She ministered to the POWs with tireless energy and grace. “If you’re uncomfortable or need anything,” she would say, “let me know. I’ll do anything I can to help you.”

Three weeks into her work, finally some of the prisoners could stand it no more. They asked, “Why are you so kind to us?”

They were not prepared for her answer. “Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents.”

Reverend and Mrs. Covell had been missionaries teaching at a school in Yokohama. Before hostilities broke out, all the workers relocated to Manila. Eventually, the Japanese came there too, and captured them. They discovered in the Covell’s belongings a small portable radio which they were convinced was a secret communications device.

The Covells were tried as spies and beheaded.

Peggy, who had been living in the states, did not learn of their fate until near the end of the war. At first, she was filled with bitter hatred for the Japanese. Then, as she thought of her parents and the sacrificial service they had given to bring the gospel to that nation, she became convinced that they would have forgiven their captors before they were executed.

She would have to do the same.

Fuchida was greatly affected by her story. “This beautiful story overwhelmed me and made me ashamed,” he reflected. He had come to Uraga with hate in his heart. What he found was goodness that he could scarcely comprehend.

He began talking to every POW who had known Margaret “Peggy” Covell. In time, he found the members of the military who had executed her parents. What he wanted to know, Fuchida asked, was what exactly the Covells had said or prayed before they were beheaded.

The Japanese considered revenge a beautiful moral. A man captured and awaiting death never forgave his captors. He prayed to be born again seven times, and to exact revenge in each life. And his sons and daughters to avenge him. The Japanese word for revenge, ‘katakiuchi,’ means literally ‘attack enemy.’ Steeped in Japanese history and culture, Fuchida fervently believed in the principle of ‘katakiuchi.’ Now he heard a story of unjust suffering and death, and a daughter left to continue the bloodline. But the tale featured no vow of vengeance from either the dying or the survivor.

In time, as Fuchida began reading the Bible, he came upon the 23rd chapter of Luke’s Gospel. There he found his answer. Hanging on the cross, as Jesus’ life was ebbing away, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24).

Surely these words were the source of the love that . . . Peggy Covell had shown. It came to Fuchida that, as they knelt to die, Peggy’s parents had prayed just such words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Tears sprang to Fuchida’s eyes; he had reached the end of his “long, long, wondering.”

By the time he had finished reading Luke, Mitsuo Fuchida recognized Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. At this time, he had no Christian friends, no one to help him; no one to share his new experience.

God sent Fuchida an angel: one of the Doolittle Raiders.

After the April 18, 1942, bombing of Tokyo, Jacob DeShazer and his crew had to bail out over China due to a malfunctioning plane. There they were captured and sent to Shanghai. Three officers were executed; the others spent the duration of the war in prison camps in China. Beatings and starvations were commonplace.

As DeShazer reflected on his hatred of his captors, it almost drove him crazy. Little by little, he began thinking about the source of so much hatred in the world. That’s when he remembered truths taught by his Christian parents years earlier. One day, he was given the use of a Bible for a short time. In that prison camp, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and promised to return to Japan as a missionary.

Sometime in October 1948, in downtown Tokyo, Mitsuo Fuchida was handed a leaflet by an American man. “I was a prisoner of Japan” was the heading. The four pages, written by Jacob DeShazer, whetted Fuchida’s appetite. Eventually, he located a full-length book DeShazer had written and devoured its contents.

The former Japanese pilot was impressed by the force of DeShazer’s testimony. In time, Fuchida and DeShazer became friends and the former Doolittle Raider helped him learn to stand before crowds and give his story. DeShazer told him that until the day they met, he had concluded that his Japanese ministry had been a failure. In fact, the day the two ex-warriors connected, DeShazer was in the middle of a fasting and prayer vigil during which he was pleading with God to send some evidence that He was using their work. Fuchida was the answer.

Mitsuo Fuchida died in 1976. For the final 25 years of his life, he told crowds all over the world of Jesus Christ who had protected his life and sought him out and saved him. Large numbers of people, especially in Japan, turned to Christ as a result.

Anyone familiar with how these things work will not be surprised to learn that as soon as news of his conversion spread, religious and political groups tried to get a hand-hold on his life and use him for their purposes. Two stories in particular are interesting.

The Catholic Church of Japan tried to get him to join their church. They would help him write his story and he would make much money for their causes. It took this Samurai only a short time to see through this. He was turned off by the wealthy, showy displays of the church’s elaborate and ornate cathedrals at a time when the Japanese people were starving.

The Communists wanted to use him. They recognized that with his great fame in that country, he would be an important spokesman. When the leader of the Japanese communists invited him to investigate Lenin-Marxism to see for himself, Fuchida answered:

I acknowledge your most cordial letter. As you have surmised, this is my first step in searching the Bible. In my forty-seven years of life, I have learned that a dose of hydrocyanic acid, if taken internally, will lead to death, yet I have never seen this poison. Therefore, I have not the faintest idea of its form, color, or odor. But if someone should hand me this deadly poison, it would be ridiculous for me to experiment by taking it just to see if it was poison or not! To me, Lenin-Marxism is like hydrocyanic acid. Thank you.

What a privilege to be serving on the same team as this champion warrior. How I wish I had paid better attention in 1964 when he visited New Orleans. But then, I shall see him again . . . and the questions I plan to ask him then!

This article was posted earlier from joemckeever.com, and is reposted here by permission of the author.

By Tobey Pitman, Community Ministries Missionary, Northshore Baptist Association, LA

The ultimate task of the missionary is to bring people to Jesus. Missionary service is a widely varied work and many contributing factors make the task easier or more difficult. None the less the work always revolves around the singular goal of introducing others to Jesus. The missionary calling may be viewed as a diamond in that there are many facets or angles from which one may approach spiritual neediness and many ways to tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was always about the mission of helping people, all kinds of people, to achieve personal spiritual wholeness. The gospels remind us that Jesus spoke to people from the uttermost to the guttermost about the Kingdom. He spoke to the powerful…t Pontius Pilate and Herod, to the influential,,, Nicodemus, the scribes and Pharisees, and the High Priest, and to the least of society… lepers, beggars, and tax collectors. Jesus was singleminded in His work as He sought constantly to deliver humanity from the weight of the punishment of their own sin.

The good news is that Jesus receives sinful men and women! We are reminded of this joyful truth throughout the Gospels. But in spite of this good news, Jesus was criticized regularly by the religious traditionalists for the shoddy company He kept. Jesus invited these people into the Kingdom and to join Him in His mission. These men and women were not necessarily the most faithful members of the local synagogue.

In spite of the criticism, Jesus never changed His strategy of reaching out to all mankind, including the unclean and the outcast. He challenged the religious traditions of His day! He got into plenty of trouble considering that His only goal was reach out to people who needed the savior.

Jesus responded to His critics with simple truth. All the gospels record the same response, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Those who are sick usually know it. They may not do what it takes to get well! Some live in denial of their sickness. Others choose to deny that their sickness is a sickness- which may make them the most sick of all. Jesus defended His outreach efforts with a simple explanation and He continued to reach all with whom He came in contact.

The task of the church and of individual Christians is to bring people to Jesus. That task has not changed since those earliest disciples followed Jesus. So here is a question that is always worth asking… “How are we doing?” Are we making any headway? Are we taking our job description seriously? The water which we claim to be hauling… is it being carried to the ocean or to the desert?

A refresher is always in order. We need to be reminded. We can sometimes lose sight of the most important thing… Bringing people to Jesus… Sharing our faith with our lost world.

Mark 2 provides a reminder. We see four individuals taking their mission seriously… they are literally bringing someone to Jesus. We find a sick individual in Mark 2. He does not deny his sickness. He had a desire and a willingness to get well. But more than desire and willingness were required for this man to receive wholeness. Four hands of missional outreach were extended to help him reach spiritual completeness.

Mark 2:1-12 is the account of a man stricken with palsy. Several truths are evident… He was unable to walk… He was willing to be made whole… He had friends to come alongside to assist him… And he had a Savior able to provide healing. This man, because of his condition, was strictly at the mercy of others. People who were aware of his need were necessary in order for him to get help. This nameless man well represents contemporary lostness in the world around us.

Insight and wisdom can be gained in the study of four missional helpers who stepped up to aid the lame man.

The FIRST missionary arm to grab a corner of the mat was COMPASSION. Compassion led the way. Without compassion this man would have gone nowhere, would have received no help, and would have completely missed his opportunity for healing.

Compassion is never passive. Compassion is never about lip service. Compassion is an action word. Compassion demands that something be done. Compassion always steps forward to do something about the problem. Compassion never waits for someone else to do her work. Compassion without action is not compassion at all. Compassion without action is nothing more than simple sympathy.

Compassion is a uniquely divine trait, used in both testaments, and is usually cited as an attribute to the Godhead. Compassion when found in the New Testament is almost exclusively used to describe Christ. Compassion is used to describe Jesus’ reaction toward people and the needs around Him. His compassion is always followed by specific actions that He takes toward others.

Compassion must be the first missionary tool taken up by the church. We must find, hone, and develop a genuine understanding of compassion. Compassion must be activated and practiced if we are to increase our effectiveness among the lost of our communities.

Compassion provides the power needed to pick up the mat occupied by the lost of our communities and take them to Jesus. Compassion led the way and got him to the place he needed to be. Indifference, the opposite of compassion, never intends to take anyone to Jesus.

The SECOND corner of this missional mat was taken by the arm of DETERMINATION. Determination is that characteristic that refuses to be turned away. When they arrived at the house, the helpers saw that the house was full. They saw that the place was surrounded. They saw standing room only. Jesus was so popular that a mob had arrived. The doors and windows were blocked. There was no easy or obvious way to get this man to Jesus. However, these facts pale and are overridden by the reality that Determination was there and Jesus was there and need was there. Determination refuses to be turned away and his friend has no hope apart from Jesus. Determination is persistently single-minded.

Determination is a missional taskmaster that refuses to let any obstacle get in the way of bringing people to Jesus. Missional determination never gives up, never turns back, never cries uncle, is always challenged, and is never discouraged. Determination keeps not the goal but the bull’s eye ever present. Anything less than determination is failure and quits before the goal is reached. The opposite of determination is disinterest. Disinterest never took anyone to Jesus.

The THIRD missional helper to grab a corner of the mat was INNOVATION. Compassion and determination only got the man on the mat so far. It is there that Innovation took over. Innovation recognized that the typical way of getting this man to Jesus would not work. When the way is not obvious or seems impossible, Innovation finds a way. Innovation knows when something new is required. Innovation is not afraid to change or to try new methods. Innovation does not resist the tried and true but is always seeking new ways, when needed, to accomplish the desired result. Innovation recognizes the roadblocks and continues in a forward direction seeking answers. Innovation will depart from the tried and true when necessary. Innovation determined that the answer was to go above. Innovation says where there is a will there is a way. Innovation looks to new things and to new methods. The enemy of innovation is routine.

The FOURTH missionary partner to assist the man on the mat was PRIORITY. Priority ranks things by their value. Priority decides that some things are more important than others. Priority makes choices. In this case, priority decided that a soul is more valuable than a roof — that a roof would not stand in the way of this man coming to Jesus.

As a missional partner Priority helps keeps things in perspective. Priority refocuses the words from Proverbs 11:30b which says, “He who wins souls is wise”. Priority says that the end result of our missional outreach must be (not withstanding 1CO3:6) souls.

Missional outreach can be a troubling business, even bringing difficult and necessary discussions into the life of the church. This may be less true when we do our mission work across the seas because we tend to understand that “things” are different there. But what about locally, right here at home, in our own back yard, across the tracks?

The tendency must be avoided to react in ways similar to the religious right of Jesus’ day. Churches must guard against a lack a warmth for outsiders or for those who are different in some way. Believers must remember that the language of hurt and pain is not the language of Zion. We must resist being offended that lost people talk and act like lost people.

Baptists have a genuine desire for all people to hear the gospel. Individual Baptists must increase our personal desire and commitment to share the gospel. We know that the gospel makes a huge difference in the outcomes of lives, families, communities, and nations! We have a true heart for their salvation. Additionally we want to see God do His marvelous transforming work in the lives of people. But we must also want the privilege of bringing them to Jesus. I cannot depend upon someone else to do my part of the task. We must grab the corners of the mat to bring people to Jesus who will receive them just as they are. We must do no less as we embrace, disciple, bless, befriend, and invite new converts into our congregations.

If we fail to embrace and accept them they will likely never be discipled and enjoy the fruits of their new life in Christ. We must not pass on the huge blessing of being there at their spiritual birth. We must not pass on seeing the sharp learning curve that takes place as Jesus changes them right before our eyes. We must not pass on seeing the discipleship continuum as the rough edges are smoothed. We must not pass on seeing the change in vocabulary. We must not pass on seeing the change in priorities. We must not pass on being able to say, “I remember you before you came to know Jesus.”

This article was originally posted in Pitman’s The Church Breaking Out blog at https://thechurchbreakingout.wordpress.com, and is reposted at SBC Today by permission of the author.

By Tim Rogers, Pastor, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Indian Trail, NC

8. Undesignated Giving/Gifts
9. Total Giving/Receipts
10. Cooperative Program Giving
11. Annie Armstrong Easter Offering
12. Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
13. Great Commission Giving
14. Total Missions Giving

The above listing is a sample of the new Annual Church Profile (ACP).  Please notice something that is still there.  ”Total Missions Giving” (TMG) is a slot that we were assured, during the debate period, would be removed to make this a stronger Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) form.  The reason this would be a stronger SBC form, given from a member of the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force, was the deletion of the “Total Missions Giving” item.  Well, we still have a “Total Missions Giving” (TMG) platform.  While, it is not what we were told, I have no serious problem with it remaining.  This is for two reasons.

The True Level of SBC Cooperation

The way the ACP is now set up one can add all of the categories together and come up with a TMG amount.  That is, if the SBC missions agencies are the only missions agencies a church donates to missions. Thus, if one adds together Cooperative Program (CP), Lottie Moon (LM), Annie Armstrong (AA), and Great Commission Giving (GCG) and that amount equals the total in the TMG, then we will see that said church distributes their missions’ dollars throughout the SBC.  This is very important for the simple reason we as Southern Baptists believe in cooperating with other Southern Baptists.  Why do we believe in this cooperation?  The SBC places together our funds for the simple reason we can do more together than we can by ourselves. It is not that a local church is not free to distribute their missions’ dollars to other denominations and fellowships outside of the SBC. The issue for Southern Baptists is cooperation. Let me say it this way. I am a Baptist because I believe the Bible teaches a Baptist theology. I am Southern Baptist because I believe the Bible teaches a Baptist Cooperative theology. In other words, I am a Southern Baptist because I believe in cooperating with others of like mind and like practice to get the gospel to the nations.

However, let us say that after adding these items together one finds there to be a difference in TMG. That difference will tell us how much the church believes in cooperating with Southern Baptists. Thus, if a church with a one-hundred thousand dollar TMG reports a giving record of fifteen thousand dollars to CP; ten thousand dollars to LM; five thousand dollars to AA; twenty thousand dollars to GCG then we see this church is only half committed to the SBC. Their commitment to getting the gospel to the world may be 10% of their million dollar budget, but they have a half-heart commitment to Southern Baptists.

Why is this such an issue? If we as Southern Baptists accept this kind of commitment in support of our churches, then we owe the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship an apology. It is this type of issue that we fought so hard for when the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) was formed. Many states began directly supporting and forming giving plans for their churches that included the CBF. With the addition of the GCG along with the inclusion of the TMG we are now seeing the tent pegs removed and the tent being enlarged enough to bring the CBF back into the fold. I do not know of any CBF churches that may desire to re-enter the SBC but the opening has now been put in place. Within our geographical region we have two states that consist of state conventions giving to the SBC. With the inclusion of TMG, this door is open wide enough to ask a simple question. Why do we need two state conventions in those states?

The True Level of Cooperative Program Giving.

While many pushed for the GCG item to be added Dr. John Waters of First Baptist Statesboro, Georgia pushed hard for the CP to remain central in our giving during the 2010 Orlando, Florida SBC meeting. Dr. Waters was, prior to the Orlando convention and remains today, a stalwart for the CP. He eloquently addressed the need for keeping the CP as our central giving unit even going through the process of being over looked once his motion received a second and never received a vote. Then he was called to the platform to discuss his amendment where he was verbally put down and even received a finger tapping in the chest by one on the platform that did not want his motion to pass. Dr. Waters remained calm and discussed his disagreement with the task force and worked toward an amended motion that the convention could leave Orlando united around and moving forward with the GCR. Because of Dr. Waters motion we have in our reporting apparatus a separate line item apart from GCG and not a part of GCG.

Because of this new report we are now able to better assess a church’s cooperation among Southern Baptist. Certainly some churches do not want to cooperate with other churches in doing ministry. That is fine let those churches give around the Cooperative Program and be as independent as they desire. However, when one now sees a church’s CP giving at 3% and their GCG at 6% one will be able to tell how cooperative the church really is in our convention. A church that gives 3% to CP and 6% to GCG tells the world I will not cooperate with you on everything but I will give to my pet projects. When this ACP report is filed we will tell very clearly who cooperates and who is merely giving in order to advance their status within the convention political system.

Conclusion

One other issue that needs to claim our attention. I was informed that here in NC when a church does not file an ACP our state office contacts that church and tries to get the information. When I found that out I was astounded. Let me say, for the sake of our readers, I do not believe North Carolina is unique in this. I believe that if NC does this, then other state conventions are doing it also. I am reporting NC because I know this happens here. They do this because, it seems, some church pastors feel the ACP is some kind of invasion upon their autonomy. I was informed that when a church does not turn in their reports they usually do not do so because of the in-depth questions that are asked. Thus, through the state office contacts the church is asked a minimal amount of questions. This state office initiative ACP report is much less than the former reports. From what I understand the only questions asked concern baptisms and budgets. I know one church was asked by the state convention about their baptisms and budgets and the church does not maintain a membership. Thus, the question that begs an answer concerns the churches that now refuse to report. To be honest, I do not know the reason the ACP was first instituted. However, I do understand today it is an act of accountability for the churches. While I do not want to see the report used as a bragging tool, neither do I want to see it abandoned on the altar of local church autonomy. Certainly we can us autonomy to hide a multitude of sins, but if a church desires to cooperate they should not be afraid of report their statistics. While I understand there is nothing that demands a SBC church to file an ACP to be Southern Baptist, I certainly do not understand a church that refuses to participate in this process. Thus, with this new form I look forward to following our leaders as they lead in the direction they are advocating we go as a convention.

By Tim Rogers, Pastor, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Indian Trail, NC

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We are at the time of the year when many families plan to take a vacation some place on the globe. Many take vacations only to return from a time of rest and relaxation completely exhausted. Some return exhausted because of the stress experienced due to mishaps or disagreements among the very ones the vacation intended to help—family members. However, many times families will spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to try and build the perfect memory and to relax and rest from the daily grind of living life. Some churches plan short-term mission trips that are more of a vacation than a mission trip. I determined long ago that vacation time with my family was just that—a vacation—and yet we would live our lives missionally. However, I also determined that we would not call our family vacation a short-term mission trip; and we would not raise funds by asking friend, family, and church members to supplement our vacation.

I have tried to take a short-term mission trip every year since 1990. It was in 1988 that I received salvation and less than two years later I embarked on a short-term mission trip with the Raleigh Baptist Association to Brazil. This experience was embraced with negatives and positives. A couple of negatives come to mind whenever I am planning for a short-term trip. I experienced firsthand how just one negative and selfish person can inject a team with bitterness and discouragement. I also found the political situation of the Southern Baptist Convention has the ability to invade an entire associational mission directive. The positives of that trip were played out in the salvation of souls as well as with the bonding between those who held different theological perspectives but served the same Lord Jesus as the Lord Jesus.

I followed up that trip with a trip to Romania the following year; and I had a wonderful time there. Dr. Phil Roberts, who at that time was the professor of evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, took about twenty students on a mission trip to a city on the Black Sea. We entered Oradea, Romania and it was then that I found out how missionaries actually serve. On the Brazil trip we were told to remain flexible. There was a plan in place but it could change at any time; however, on the Romania trip we were told to get ready to be used by God. There was no plan in place because we didn’t know what God wanted us to do. The only plans we had concerned getting into the country of Romania and traveling to our destination. We were dividing into two groups. One group would travel to the eastern part of the country in a rental van, and the other group would travel by train. Little did I realize it was going to take an overnight trip to get us to the eastern part of the country. What made it more interesting was that we had no hotel arrangements and were depending on the hospitality of the churches we were visiting on the way. All, in all, I left that trip with a more positive understanding of missions than the trip to Brazil. It certainly helped me better understand how our missionaries depend on God for their places to sleep. Jesus said that the “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head” (Matt. 8:19-21, HCS). Thus our missionaries depend on our Lord for a place to lay their heads at night. Don’t misunderstand, I know that I depend on God for a place to lay my head, but I have never traveled to another country without plans of where I will be sleeping. The missionaries do this all of the time.

After 1991 I experienced a famine in leading mission trips each year. I focused on my own world trying to grow a church and do what God was calling me to do. I was convicted that I needed to lead my people in taking short-term trips but I just could not find the funds. I pacified that conviction by increasing our Cooperative Program giving along with Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong. This helped but it did not relieve the burden I was experiencing. God increased the strength of this conviction, and in 2002 I led the church I was pastoring to take a trip to Honduras through the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina partnership.

That first trip to Honduras was a wonderful success as we saw people that had never been out of the state go to an international mission field witnessing and sharing their faith. What a growing experience it was for me as a pastor and for our church members. Every year I went back to Honduras as we established a relationship with the church we shared in ministry outreach. From 2002 to 2006 we went back to Honduras and as my daughter grew she began thinking about when she was going to go.

Life sometimes seems to take turns you don’t expect; and it seems that we can get so caught up in ourselves that we need time to wallow in our own self-pity. Well, that’s what I did from 2006 until 2009. God would lead me to organize a team and I would try but ultimately fail because I would not pursue it in the way He wanted me. In the summer of 2010 I made up my mind that I was not going to allow this to happen any longer. God’s conviction was on me more than I could bear.

God’s conviction was so overwhelming that I surrendered and I was determined to organize a trip if it hair-lipped the Devil. I found a former professor who is now President of a seminary in San Salvador, Dr. Gerald Cowen. Along with his trusted friend Jerry Davenport—a rancher in Texas and a trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary—Dr. Cowen leads a trip to Mexico every year. I advertised this trip in the church in which I currently serve and we had the total of one person respond. If I was looking for large numbers I had the perfect excuse to cancel this trip. However, I knew that God can do mighty works through one person. We went despite the numbers, and I cemented the desire in my heart to be on a short-term mission trip every summer. Also on this trip I cemented a new friendship with a number of others. Jerry Davenport and I felt like we had known each other all our lives—a great friendship developed. Last summer, my daughter, Rebekah, begged to go with me but it just did not work out for her. She would have been the only female and at 13 years old it would have been difficult to say the least for her to minister.

This year, as I began praying and planning, Rebekah came and asked me when she was going to go on a mission trip with me. After some time of prayer I sensed the Lord releasing me to bring her with me. So on Friday, July 15, 2011 at 11:30 am, Rebekah, myself and two other members of Ebenezer Baptist Church will board a plane at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport bound for San Pedro Sula, Honduras. When we arrive we will meet up with Jerry Davenport, who will translate for us during the week, and with church members of Iglesia Bautista Tabernáculo. We look forward to being in Honduras for a week.

While preparing for this trip my mind takes me forward to seeing God work through our team members. I especially look forward to seeing Rebekah grow in the Lord. She is extremely happy to be going with us. She certainly has a desire to be used by God. Our ministry will consist of handing out tracts of our testimonies that we had translated into Spanish. Rebekah pushed me not to put my words on her testimony as I tried to help her. Dads are bad about doing things like that. She desired to use her words and not words that I felt “sounded” better. I look forward to being in the classrooms of the local schools sharing with the students about Jesus. I look forward to seeing Rebekah’s face light up as she sees someone praying to receive Jesus.

As we finish our preparations for this trip, I ask that you pray for us in the following areas. First, pray that God will work through us during the week. Second, pray for our safety as we will be traveling and doing much of our own driving. Also, the church is across the street from the soccer field that experienced gang violence. Third, pray for my wife, Gail, for she will be left behind and sometimes Satan uses that to cause unnecessary worry. Fourth, pray for our team as we bond on the field. Fifth, pray for the church that we will serve as we strive to minister and make a positive impact on that community. Sixth, pray that we will give glory to God through our work. Thank you.

Throughout the Bible we see where God sometimes leads individuals into the desert to teach them some powerful spiritual lessons. Whether it was the Israelites, John the Baptist, or Jesus Himself, the desert experience was always powerful in bringing to life spiritual truths.

I had my own experience in learning spiritual lessons in the desert, but this particular trip was because of my role as a military chaplain while I was deployed to Iraq in 2010. I serve as a chaplain with the Louisiana National Guard and deployed with the 1-141 Field Artillery out of New Orleans, Louisiana. We served in two locations of Iraq during the year. In the first part of our deployment we were stationed in Tallil, near the Kuwaiti border. Our soldiers performed convoy operations all over Iraq, starting from our base in Tallil. The second half of the deployment we were stationed in the International Zone, Baghdad. We provided security for areas of the International Zone and the US Embassy.

Though we went through loss of life and other difficult situations, I had wonderful deployment. I loved being with my soldiers and ministering to their needs. In the midst of the incredible ministry with the soldiers, God not only used me to touch their lives, but God used them to teach me a few lessons of my own that I would use when I returned to the States as I returned to my teaching ministry and church plant.

Lesson 1:  Engaging the Lost — The first lesson I learned early in the deployment was during the convoy operations. As a chaplain, I did not have to ride with my soldiers on the convoys, but my commander allowed me full access to our operations. To understand the danger they went through, I felt as though I needed to go through the same experiences. After being out on a few missions, I had a soldier that came up to me and said, “Wow, Chaps, you are one of the best chaplains we have ever had!” As we talked, he began to explain how many chaplains would just stay in their office and not go out with the soldiers. He respected me for placing myself in the same circumstances as them.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I become all things to all people so that I might save some.” God used this soldier to show me that as Christians, we must go to where the people are. In our post-Christian society, we know well that people are not flocking to churches. The only way we will reach them is by going to where they are. Jesus Himself went to the places of the “unchurched,” even to the disgust of the religious crowd. Returning from deployment, I am bolder in going to those places where I can meet non-believers, even if other Christians criticize me for doing so.

Lesson Two: Strengthening the Inner Man — The next lesson I learned was not so easy. We had several hard situations in our unit as well as on the bases I covered as a chaplain. We had one officer in our brigade killed by a road-side bomb. We had another soldier in our unit who committed suicide. I counseled several soldiers concerning marriage and relationship issues. During the last part of my deployment I was one of the few chaplains providing coverage for my area, and so I received a large load of counseling issues. I now look back and realize I had caregiver fatigue and should have set stricter boundaries for my own spiritual health. The last two months of my deployment I went spiritually numb.

During those months, however, I realized what it meant for God to give me a spiritual strength that only He can give. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” literally became my theme in prayer (Philippians 4:13). A person never realizes exactly what that strength is until they have to absolutely depend upon it. I believe I was at that point because even though I had never been so emotionally and spiritually exhausted in my life, neither had I really experienced such a spiritual and emotional strength from the Lord.

Lesson 3:  Entering into the Harvest — The last lesson I learned came in the form of humility as well as blessing. I received a call from a soldier at a remote base in Eastern Baghdad. She asked me to come perform some baptisms on my last Sunday that I would be in Iraq. A civilian from Uganda had been doing some evangelism and discipleship with both the international civilians as well as the American military on this particular base. They needed a chaplain to come and perform the baptisms and offer the Lord’s Supper. Of course I was not going to refuse, but I had no idea what was going to happen in the next few weeks. Originally I was told there would be a few persons being baptized, around 10 to 15. The day I arrived, the number had risen to 57! I had several soldiers and civilians that had accepted Christ during the deployment, but due to various circumstances, these persons were not baptized. So, to be able to baptize that many my last Sunday in Iraq was quite a gift from the Lord.

In reflecting upon that last Sunday in Iraq, I was reminded of Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 3:7 of how God causes the growth of His kingdom, though all of us play a small part. Someone else was able to do the evangelism, I was able to do the baptism, and another person has already started discipling the new believers in Baghdad. Nevertheless, God caused all the growth and I was privileged to have but a small part of what God was doing. As I have returned to the States, I am reminded that I am but a small part of what God is doing in this world to grow His kingdom on earth.

My time in the desert was not as long and perhaps as severe as some of the biblical characters we read (at least I had air conditioning!). Nevertheless, the lessons learned in Iraq will be with me for a lifetime of ministry.

As I understand it, the Camel Method is part of a larger missiological movement known as “Common Ground.” As it relates to evangelism among Muslims, I suppose the name speaks for itself. Today I came across a guest post on the blog Biblical Missiology. It was written by a Christian from a Muslim background, and I was fascinated by his perspective on this “Common Ground” movement. Particularly intriguing to me were the questions he asked regarding the so-called “converts” that result from this approach. Here is his paragraph containing those questions:

And so following some years in closeness with Common Ground movement, still there were a lot of unresolved questions within myself!  Should CMBs (Christians from a Muslim Background) continue to attend mosques and would that be helpful for them? If that is the situation what happens after the Islamic congregation understands there are some different Muslims in their congregation? Will they tolerate, expel or persecute them? Where will they get their true spiritual nourishment? Perhaps they will meet in home groups in addition to attending mosque, but for how long that situation will last? What about church planting since they are supposed to stay within the Islamic culture and religion, will it be established at some point the Christian community or such a thing is not necessary? What about their identity, is it like Christian with Christians and Muslims with Muslims? Who are going to be their true brothers and sisters, Muslims or Christians or both of them? Is there any compromise in all of that? These were some questions I faced and am quite sure most of these believers do go through.

The entire post can be accessed by clicking here, and I encourage readers to take the time to read about the experiences of this former Muslim who believes that this deceptive approach is doing more harm than good.

• Caring for the people
• Reaching the population
• Equipping pastors
• Encouraging participation
• Kneeling in prayer

This ministry supports a seminary, medical clinic, and orphanage in the southeast African country of Malawi. In our discussion today, Greg shares how this ministry began and what they do to support seminary students in a country that has a desperate need for trained pastors to lead churches. The seminary is presently facing a financial shortfall that threatens its continued existence, and Greg shares the details of that crisis in the podcast as well. If you or your church would like to help meet this need, the best way to do it is to send a check to the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Make the check payable to “BGCO,” and write “Malawi Seminary” on the memo line, then send it to:

Cindi Robinson

BGCO

3800 N. May Ave.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112

You can also send support directly to the CREEK Ministry. Make your check payable to “CREEK Ministry,” and send it to:

First Baptist Church

Creek Ministry

P.O. Box 656

Cleveland, Oklahoma 74020

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or you can subscribe in iTunes by clicking the image in this post, or the podcast link in the sidebar. Please leave a comment here if you have a suggestion for how we can improve the podcast, and while you’re on our iTunes page, give us a review or just click on some stars (the more, the better) to give us a rating. Thanks for listening.

More than a Prophet: A response to “My Pilgrimage” on SBCImpact

by Dr. Fred Smith
Associate Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies
Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Lynchburg, VA

The recent SBCImpact article, “My Pilgrimage,” attempts to offer a testimony in “contextualized form” designed to appeal to Muslims.  The anonymous author of this piece admits that some of the terminology “may not be everyday language for many readers.” Indeed much of what he writes is startling, even if it were biblical.

However, this author, in his zeal to contextualize the truth, sacrifices way too much.  The ideal of contextualization is to present the gospel in terms which the hearers will understand and so be able to make an informed decision about trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The challenge of contextualization is to find a way to do this without changing the basic message.  Unfortunately, this author, an IMB Missionary, crosses that line.  He moves from contextualizing to changing the gospel message itself.  The end result is a false gospel, not merely the “old message in a new form.”

On the surface, the article appears to be a “salvation” testimony. He describes his life as a non-believer and his search for meaning and truth. Then, he tells of a change of heart, a transformative experience that has made his life better.  So far, so good, except that he says his changed life came because of “greater understanding of the Kingdom of Allah and true submission to His will.”  Later he identifies the source of this new understanding: “only Isa Al-Masih [Jesus the Messiah] was capable of helping me understand the Kingdom of Allah.”

Of all the errors in this article, this one departs furthest from Scripture. Nowhere does the Bible ever tell us that salvation is a matter of merely understanding certain facts about God and his will. Certainly we must know something in order to believe it, but we are not saved because of what we know. We are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ because of His finished work on the cross. The writer of this article would have us believe that salvation comes by “understanding the Kingdom of Allah,” not by faith in anyone.

One may argue that when he speaks of “true submission to his will,” the writer really means “repentance and faith.” He has merely contextualized that idea in different terms.  However, the words themselves do not express that idea at all. Instead the writer has again suggested a works-based salvation, whether that was his intent or not. Whatever might have been the author’s goal, what he communicates here is not the truth as taught in the Bible.  We cannot communicate the gospel well if we say things that are different from what we really mean.  Certainly we can think of different ways to say the same things, but when we say something really different from what we actually mean, we cannot expect our hearers to understand us rightly. They will take meaning from what we say, not from what we meant to say.  In the context of Islam, where “submission to the will of Allah” means something very specific, involving a whole set of beliefs and religious practices, we cannot use the same term with a completely different meaning and expect to be understood.  In the end this writer is telling us, whether he intends to or not, that salvation comes by “understanding” and by “works,” not by faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross.

The author of this article also presents Jesus (Isa) himself in a way that is totally foreign to the Bible. Jesus, he says, is the source of this new “understanding” which saves. But this Jesus very different from the biblical Jesus who is God Himself in human flesh, the One who is co-equal with the Father and the Spirit.  He is instead merely a “Prophet. . . Isa Al-Masih.”  Nowhere in the testimony is Jesus, or Isa, referred to other than as a “prophet.”  The Bible tells us, however, that Jesus is more than a prophet; more than one who gives us “understanding;” more than a “great teacher.”  He is the eternal Son of God the Father, who became flesh and walked among us, and who “became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Our righteousness is in Him, not in “greater understanding.”

The writer again fails to consider how his words will be understood by a Muslim reader.  He presents Jesus as no more than a “prophet” to people who are used to the idea that a prophet is important because of his message, not because of who he is. Muslims are very specific that Mohammed, as a prophet, is not deity, and they insist that no other prophet could be God either.  A prophet merely brings truth to the world in his teaching. Since they have such an understanding of the word “prophet,” this is no way to present Jesus to them.  Jesus is Himself the answer to humanity’s greatest need, and it is faith in Him, not just acceptance of his teachings, that save us.

Nowhere does this testimony mention some essential truths about the gospel. The writer never mentions the need for “remission of sins.” He never indicates that regeneration – a new birth – happens to the believer. Repentance and faith are at best only implied, if they can even be said to be there at all.

There is one final problem with this author’s testimony.  It lies in his repeated references to God as “Allah.”  There are those who argue that “Allah” is nothing more than an Arabic word for God, but these people miss an important point.  Words have referents – that is, a word refers to something external to itself.  Within any specific culture, a word will evoke a certain understanding of the thing to which it refers.  In the context of Islam, “Allah” refers to a being who is remote from creation, who promotes salvation by works, who “begets not, nor is he begotten” (Qur’an 112:3).  This is a completely different person from the God of the Bible who is deeply involved with His people, who calls us to repentance and faith, and who “sent His only begotten Son” that we might be saved.  These two beings are not the same god and cannot be! The referent for the word, in the understanding of the people he is reaching, is completely different from the God who reveals Himself in the Bible.

Examples of contextualization of the Gospel, taken directly from the Bible, might be helpful here. The Apostle Paul, in a totally pagan context, never once referred to God as Zeus or Jupiter.  He did not see the God he worshipped as simply “Zeus under a different name” even though the culture in which he ministered would have encouraged him to do so!  Paul never once implied that salvation comes through “greater understanding” even though, again, Greco-Roman culture would have encouraged this. Paul never minimized the cross and the suffering of Christ on our behalf. Even in tough situations where his life was on the line, Paul never wavered in clearly presenting faith in Christ as the answer to the greatest human need: “What must I do to be saved?”  (Acts 16:30). Paul would never have answered, “Understand the will of Zeus by the teaching of his prophet and you shall be saved.”  He instead pointed a pagan Roman jailer to the true answer to his need and the way to access him: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. . . .” (Acts 16:31).

Again, on Mars Hill, Paul did not proclaim a new understanding of Zeus. Instead, he pointed to “an unknown God” and proclaimed Him to people who knew all about Zeus, and many other gods. They did not know the one Paul proclaimed. His purpose was not to help them understand their god better.  Paul called them to repentance from their false beliefs and to embrace the true God, the one they did not know and could not know, except through faith in Jesus Christ.

It is certainly worthwhile to “contextualize the gospel.” The task is difficult, surely.  The author of the SBCImpact.net article may well have sought to do something similar to what Paul did in these examples, but in fact he preached “another gospel” and we know what Paul says about that!

Last week at the convention, the big buzz phrase was, “Great Commission Resurgence.” (GCR) Every time I heard it there were positive affirmations given, but I wondered what exactly was meant by that terminology. Did it mean winning people to Christ or planting churches? If it did mean planting churches, what would these churches believe and how would they operate? Nathan Finn, an apt and astute scholar in his own right, believes it means to be the missional people God created us to be. Okay, what does it mean to be a missional people? I have read that to me missional, we must be incarnational. How is that played out in the real world as we are winning people to Christ? There seems to be a lot of terms used in defining the GCR, but after reading what others think it is and listening to still others explain to me me what they think the GCR is, it is not a stretch to say that there are competing ideas at play.

One thing that I noticed missing (though not totally absent) in explaining the GCR was the lack of using the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) itself as the defining parameter. I can’t say as to why this scripture has seemingly been ignored (again, not totally), but I wonder if it has to do with what it says. Namely that as we are going, we are to make disciples by baptizing and teaching disciples all that Christ had commanded. The little word “all” kills the idea that baptism and the Lord’s supper are some how “tertiary.” One excellent article I did find, even though it is not directly linked to the phraseology of GCR, was Dr. Yarnell’s White Paper, The Heart of a Baptist.

Now someone might argue that the Great Commission encompasses more than just Matt 28:18-20. In fact it encompasses the entire Bible. With that I do agree. In the revelation of the New Testament, we see that “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.” But there is a strong foundation that is laid in the Great Commission that is our compass in defining what the church is to do and more specifically, how to do it. It is the last recorded command of Jesus to his band of followers (along with Acts 1:8) before he ascended to His Father. It should carry a significant load of weight in defining the GCR not only theologically, but practically as it is lived out in the lives of those who call themselves followers of Jesus.

I am going to leave this post specifically open to the following questions. It is not my desire to start defining my understanding of the GCR, but this post is to get us thinking as to what exactly is the GCR and how it should be played out in our churches and our convention.

So, what do you think the GCR is? How should it be defined and practically carried out by Southern Baptists?

Interestingly, the attrition rate has actually declined since the IMB passed the policies on baptism and private prayer language that some people find controversial. Another way of putting it is that the attrition rate has dropped since John Floyd became chairman of the IMB. Now, do I think Dr. Floyd can or should take credit for that? Of course not. But I think it just as foolish when some critics of his or of the board simplistically blame the board or Dr. Floyd when missionaries leave.

You can read his post in its entirety by clicking here.