Doing Missions in Difficult Contexts

Omnidirectional Missions

Paul Sungro Lee

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666725131
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Christians of the future global church will face challenges. We live in a time of unprecedented suffering of Christians. In the gospel-restricted world, more Christians have been persecuted in the past few years than at any other time while in the free world, Christians increasingly face the temptation of corruption, immorality, and family breakdowns. Lee shares his research and suggestions gleaned from his thirty years of ministry both in free and persecuted worlds. In the face of growing Christian suffering worldwide, this book provides hope and encouragement with stories from difficult mission contexts like a pandemic, social unrest, and other hostile environments to Christians. This is a must-read for anyone trying to live a godly life in Jesus Christ.

Part I

Suffering Nature Of Mission

1

Nobody Likes Suffering

Renewed Perspective

As many people do, I love watching football. Each one of my family members is a loyal fan of their favorite teams. We must have watched hundreds of games before, both on the football fields and on TV. We’d normally first check out the lineup of the players on the game day. We used to predict the winner of the day just for fun. Energetic cheers of the crowd, dazzling skills of players, and impressive strategy of coaches top up the list of our reasons to love football. When the scores were made, we’d usually express our excitement with shouts and exclamations. That is the pure beauty of the sport.

Frankly, we didn’t care much more than that. However, everything changed when Tim, my son, started to play football. I began to notice things I had never paid attention to before. Somehow my eyes were drawn to an ambulance standing by at a corner of the football field whenever I watched the games ever since. I couldn’t help but note that it was always parked backward and was headed toward the exit. I soon learned that the drivers intentionally parked it to hurry to the hospital in case of injury. It was a whole new dimension of watching the football afterward. Why? It could’ve been my son who might be in the ambulance, not just any player. I was no longer one of the crowd, but a caring family member of a football player. My perspective was changed.

It became clear to me that day. Even the same should go for my perspective for players of world mission. The way I see and treat the suffering counterpart of the body of Christ had to be renewed. I may not know them well or at all, but my Father does. They’re his children. This fact makes them my brothers and sisters in God’s grand family. They’re not just some statistics remaining unrelated to my tactile interests. They’re my family, too. It is my family out there going through harassment and persecution for my Father’s business.

I must admit that I was initially hesitant to write this book for several reasons. It was mainly because I thought I lacked the “experience” of suffering and wasn’t sure if I’d be qualified to write this book. As far as my memory is stretched, I don’t recall myself suffering like those venerable martyrs who went through extreme forms of harassment by imprisonment, torture, and even death for Christ’s sake. Though most people may call my missionary experience extensive, it fell short of such dramatic stories. Yet, the Lord has lately laid a special burden in my heart to address this commonly neglected topic. I sensed the global need for partnership with my fellow counterparts in the body of Christ undergoing various aggravations because of their faith.

Besides, I came to conclude that suffering is rather subjective and often internal. The struggle of a church minister over indifferent community responses to the gospel in prosperous post-Christian Europe can be quite overwhelming to him to the point of quitting the ministry. On the other hand, living as a Christian business owner in a Muslim community of the war-torn Gaza Strip certainly invites hassles and threats from the neighbors and risks his safety, needless to say. I don’t think any third person has a right to say who is suffering more for Christ. Also, one can’t say to the other that he is not suffering enough to bear the marks of Christ (Galatians 6:17). Suffering is deeply internal and to be gauged personally. Even the degree one embodies the hassle and describes it as suffering may differ from individual to individual.

The more I researched and got engaged in the world mission, my concern for the troubled part of Christ’s body grew. Eventually, it became a significant part of my daily activities to mindfully pray for them and to seek ways to stand with them. I hope you’ll end up with the same takeaway after reading this book. I pray you’ll get to feel the urgency and oneness with the suffering players of our Lord’s global mission team.

These are not someone else’s stories but our own—the stories of a greater family of our God. What you’ll read here can happen to you or to the people you know while serving the Lord. With that in mind, this book provides suggestions for difficult missions contexts that were observed and proven effective (and ineffective) over the years as I worked with my coworkers, disciples, and students who served alongside me in numerous corners of the nations, both free and restricted for gospel sharing. Thus, this book is full of biblical exhortations, researches, and anecdotes. In this book, you’ll be told genuine stories of how God has worked in the nations through me and my teams, ministering in hostile environments. “Real” scenarios of God’s missions in the nations are narrated in the following chapters.

Yet Speaketh

. . . He being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4, KJV, emphasis added)

It was one of those ordinary days in November 2019. An urgent message popped up on my smartphone chat app. A missionary that I knew was just slaughtered by an assailant in southeast Turkey.1 At first I couldn’t believe it because he sent me his periodical prayer letter just a few weeks ago. He was in my class at a missionary training school conducted years ago in South Korea. My heart was aching at this sudden news all the more because of his expectant wife and young child left behind. The second child was born a week after this young missionary passed away.

Two years prior to this incident, I lost my uncle, who was so dear to me. After twenty-plus years of pastoral ministry, he retired and dedicated the rest of his life to traveling to various countries and teaching younger Christian leaders around the globe. I immensely groaned when he passed away due to meningitis inflicted on him during one of his teaching trips to China in 2017.

While I’m aware that the gospel of Christ spreads recurrently at the expense of the sweat and blood of God’s people, it vehemently felt more real and firsthand when martyrdom took place to someone I personally knew. It wasn’t quite the same as the experiences of martyrdom I’d read about in church history books. Yet, the Bible clearly projected that everyone who wants to live a godly life in him will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). The truth is, their sweat and blood did become seeds of world evangelization and their voices of influence still do speak. I, for one, was also motivated by their sacrifices and am penning down this book today even long after they’re gone.

“Unnecessary” Sufferings?

In my three decades of life as a minister in America, Africa, and Asia, I have never met a person without a problem. You may not recognize it at the first acquaintance, but as you open dialogue and deepen the relationship, it soon becomes obvious and clear. Whether rich or poor, known or unknown, affluent New Yorker or impoverished Sudanese refugee, everyone faces a problem, only different degrees of heat. Yet, there are people who do not mind inviting additional problems by following Christ. Unnecessary sufferings, some might say...