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Revolution in world missions

One man's journey to change a generation

Fund nationals!

REVOLUTION IN WORLD MISSIONS
One man’s journey to change a generation
By K.P. Yohannan
GFA Books. 230 pages
ISBN 978-1-59589-061-0
Available from www.gfa.org/store

‘KP’ founded Gospel for Asia, and his premise is that Asia can only be effectively reached by indigenous nationals.

Several challenges to the North American church flow from that. He asserts a lost sight of judgment, and that socially focused work is ineffective in bringing lost souls to Christ. (He points out that Jesus fed after preaching.) He claims that the church’s thinking is still ‘colonial’, and details the downsides of sending foreigners to Asia. For example, the enormous cost of sending overseas compared to that of supporting a national, and the perpetuation of a ‘Western religion’ view with imperialistic intentions. Language and cultural barriers need to be overcome and there can be huge lifestyle inequalities which feed an increasingly anti-Western mindset.

Mission boards can demand a controlling accountability that smacks of superiority, and he challenges the churches with the fact that few foreign missionaries evangelise the unreached — giving examples of how national Christians are prepared to suffer persecution and poverty for the sake of reaching their countrymen, and how thousands are coming to Christ.

So what should the church be doing with its money? It should be funding national missionaries. KP claims that this massive release of funding so targeted would bring ‘thunderstorms of blessing’.

There are the predicable ‘rave’ reviews from evangelical heavyweights. Yet challenging it is, and the argument strong, with scriptural backing and quotes from Watchman Nee and C.S. Lewis among others. For my taste he repeats his arguments unnecessarily, but I will put this down to the passion with which he wants to share them.

However, I concur with the ‘Pastor MW’ who wrote that the book ‘draws the church back to the very heart of what Christ has called us to do’. Although written for North America, we would do well to heed!

Graham Went,
mission elder, Enfield Evangelical Free Church, North London