Comments on CTEN // blog: Are you sure you want to know?

Hey Rick,Thanks for the post, especially the one a...

2008-02-18T09:32:00.000-06:00

Hey Rick,

Thanks for the post, especially the one about the views from Romanian leaders. I am challenged when reading this, as it does force us to reconsider our motives and approach.

I am also grateful to be with an org (CTEN) that encourages and allows us the freedom to spend the time learning, not doing, when we arrive so we can begin to fulfill the long term needs, not the short term agenda of leaders in the west. I have been burned at times from the short term expecations from western leaders that put the worker in a situation of choosing the lesser of two bad options.

Thanks & keep posting.

Rick,Thanks for the posting. It really hit the spo...

2008-02-16T07:41:00.000-06:00

Rick,

Thanks for the posting. It really hit the spot. Every aspiring missionary needs to read this.

Unfortunately, the feeling of superiority is not just limited to missionaries. This can be evident even among nationals. City dwellers again village dwellers.

There is often resentment from villagers again city dwellers.

We all need to develop a servant and learning attitutde as we go to help others be it in another country or culture or within the samme country and culture, but in a different locality.

writing to the to the troubled Corithian Church,the Apostles Paul wrote:

“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them...

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God".
2Cor 5:15, 17-21

We can deduce a lot from this passage as missionaries (and we all are missionaries, regardless of whether we have moved to serve or are serving in our locality).

1. Are we really living for the one who died for us?
2. Are we truly "new creations?
3. Do we really see ourselved as "reconcilers"?
4. Do we see ourselves as "ambassadors?

And if yes to all four question, what should our attitude be?

Ernest Ehabe

Great info Grant.I am going to post it as a separa...

2008-01-09T20:54:00.000-06:00

Great info Grant.
I am going to post it as a separate blog to make sure folks see it. Thanks.

I interviewed pastors while I was in Thailand and ...

2008-01-09T16:02:00.000-06:00

I interviewed pastors while I was in Thailand and asked them what I could do to better train missionaries to serve in that part of the world as to be a blessing rather than a hindrance. They told me that some of the chief complaints that they had about the Westerners serving there was that they hadn't made concentrated efforts to learn the language, didn't seem to work very hard compared to the national pastors, lived at a much higher standard of living than the nation workers, and that they usually came in with a plan of how to change the country rather than a servant and learner attitude. In general, they didn't have a lot of positive things to say about missionaries. It was definitely hard to hear, but we need to be good listeners as missionaries, especially to the local people who our best allies when it comes to understanding language, culture, strategy to reach their own people, etc.

Dear Chris:Great article on your LeakSpeak Blog. ...

2008-01-08T22:12:00.000-06:00

Dear Chris:

Great article on your LeakSpeak Blog. I tried to leave a comment there but -duh- couldn't figure out how to sign in. Still very new at this.

Hey Rick,Great to see you in the blogosphere! I t...

2008-01-08T17:15:00.000-06:00

Hey Rick,

Great to see you in the blogosphere! I think that definitely puts you in the cool category. (I recently started a blog, too, so I think I'm obligated to say that!)

Thanks for sharing the input from the Romanian leaders. Ouch. Very painful, but all too true, and things we need to hear. It's not just Romanians who are feeling that way.