tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post336520989773980211..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: TTT #13 Missionary Activity is Still Legitimate and ImportantLKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-6022845144536495722018-05-28T07:55:28.239-05:002018-05-28T07:55:28.239-05:00After posting a link to this article on Facebook, ...After posting a link to this article on Facebook, FB friend Cody McMahan posted the following comments. I much appreciate his very affirmative, and perhaps undeserved, words:<br /><br />"Dr. Leroy Seat, I saw your work at Seinan and at Fukuoka International Church. Your way of doing mission and of being a Christian changes my answer to you question. I watched you with utmost respect for the Japanese people and their culture stand not as a condemnation but as a witness to the grace you'd been given. You would preach and then open the floor for questions and respond with compassion and respect. <br /><br />"The Japanese students would joke that you were more Japanese than the Japanese because you had mastered the subtleties of the culture and could explain them. You took us, your exchange students, to observe Japanese religious traditions and helped us understand a little of the integrated spirituality of Japanese practice. <br /><br />"You showed thousands of Japanese and hundreds of exchanges students that one can be Christian and still have a great big brain and an even bigger heart. If only all missionaries could be like you."<br />LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-72091286250562182692018-05-24T09:30:53.871-05:002018-05-24T09:30:53.871-05:00Yes, it certainly is -- and I am sorry I didn'...Yes, it certainly is -- and I am sorry I didn't include it in what I posted but I much appreciate you doing so.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-72662117949048844112018-05-24T09:27:18.475-05:002018-05-24T09:27:18.475-05:00I think the sentence that followed that paragraph ...I think the sentence that followed that paragraph in the sermon is also pertinent: "It may be true that in America and Europe Jesus’ mission was used as an excuse for enslavement and colonization, but that does not excuse us from the obligation to proclaim forgiveness to all nations."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08836953447775081952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-54499690970004157562018-05-24T09:13:07.773-05:002018-05-24T09:13:07.773-05:00Steve Hollaway is pastor of Harbor Church on Block...Steve Hollaway is pastor of Harbor Church on Block Island, Rhode Island. He had not (yet) read this blog article, but what he said in his May 13 sermon is pertinent to what I wrote:<br /><br />"I was born in Japan because my parents were convinced that the forgiveness available through Jesus had to be conveyed to our bitterest enemies. There were no limits on God’s love, or the love of Americans who truly followed Jesus. <br /><br />"Nowadays, most mainline Protestants have abandoned the mission Jesus gave us. You would think Jesus said, 'Help the nations, but don’t proclaim repentance-and-forgiveness to anyone who already has a religion.' You know perfectly well that in Jesus’ world virtually everyone already had a religion—at least one. Jesus did not limit the church’s mission to his own kind, and he did not dream that his message would not be proclaimed to his own kind, the Jews. He understood that the Father’s purpose included every ethnic group (which was the meaning of the word 'nation' in those days)."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-33074529011943885812018-05-23T16:26:21.861-05:002018-05-23T16:26:21.861-05:00Dr. Hinson, thank you so much for taking the time ...Dr. Hinson, thank you so much for taking the time to read and respond to my blog article during this time of bereavement for you. <br /><br />You had written fairly recently about your wife not being in good health, but I did not expect her to pass so soon. I have been thinking of you and praying for you during these days of sadness because of your great loss.<br /><br />As one who taught as a missionary in an educational institution for 36 years, I fully agree with your comments.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-1479373051743496712018-05-23T16:17:21.532-05:002018-05-23T16:17:21.532-05:00Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson sent the following co...Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson sent the following comments by email--even as he was grieving the death last week of his wife of 61 years:<br /><br />"I think mission work is defensible, too, Leroy. One aspect of it, which Southern Baptists have shied away from [in recent years], is creating institutions that continue to enrich different peoples and nations. Educational institutions grew out of schools like the one founded by the Alexandrians that gained widespread approval. Carey founded Serampore College. We should not confine understanding of mission work as buttonholing people and dragging them into our religious camp."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-72575388903473791722018-05-22T18:46:03.116-05:002018-05-22T18:46:03.116-05:00Enjoyed the full chapter, once again, Leroy!
Coul...Enjoyed the full chapter, once again, Leroy!<br /><br />Couldn’t agree more about the both/and approach to proclaiming the gospel while also practicing it through the giving of ourselves to others in deeds. In fact, I’m not sure the proclaiming of it is quite possible without that.<br /><br />Exactly what we proclaim and how we proclaim it and who we proclaim it to are more difficult questions. I still wrestle with how to steer my religious conversations with Muslims, for example. Things seem to go best when both of us have an open attitude toward being educated about the beliefs of the other.<br /><br />For many, even atheism has become a sort of ideology demanding commitment, meaning any attempts to proselytize are recognized for what they are and usually met debate-style. The ensuing debates usually have little value, except for the rare case when both of us are actually seeking to learn through debate. Sometimes there’s some intellectual merit, at least, in testing one’s ideas against another.<br /><br />Real change in belief for me has happened mainly through my reading, and I sometimes wonder if the written word is the best way of proclaiming the gospel these days. It reaches those already interested enough to seek out the subject, and it allows for depth almost impossible in conversations, debates or sermons.<br />Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15701771893425250142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-13989354686298504382018-05-21T22:14:26.862-05:002018-05-21T22:14:26.862-05:00Imperial Christianity casts such a long shadow tha...Imperial Christianity casts such a long shadow that it is hard to see humble loving Christianity in the darkness. Imperial Christianity with its armies and Inquisitions is a whole different beast, much as multinational corporations practice a whole different kind of capitalism from your neighborhood entrepreneur. Let us share the love.Craig Dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00033176451913108084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-52992912587599272152018-05-21T13:09:39.497-05:002018-05-21T13:09:39.497-05:00Thanks, Anton, for your comments--and for raising ...Thanks, Anton, for your comments--and for raising the question about proselytization.<br /><br />An online dictionary definition indicates that to proselytize is "convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another." <br /><br />My experience as a missionary is only in Japan, although I have visited missionaries in other East Asian countries, I have seen very little proselization by missionaries. <br /><br />In my own missionary activities, and that was probably true for many if not most of my colleagues, there was never efforts to convert Japanese people because they were Buddhists, or Shinto believers (of which there were few, although every Japanese is a Shintoist to a degree).<br /><br />The Japanese people whom I knew who became Christians did so because they came to some class, or to a church, or to my faculty office seeking something--meaning/purpose in life, love/acceptance, maybe forgiveness for some wrongdoing--but mainly because they felt some (maybe considerable) dissatisfaction with their lives at the present and were looking for something more. And, yes, there were those who came to talk about Christianity because they were impressed with what some Christians had done or were doing to help people and to improve society.<br /><br />I never asked anyone to give up their non-Christian religious faith--and, indeed, hardly any younger Japanese (university students) had any personal religious faith. I talked with them about becoming a follower of Jesus. Some became Christians; many did not. But through my 38 years in Japan I don't really remember any Japanese person who became a Christian as a result of proselytization.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-20191817101055790332018-05-21T11:17:56.016-05:002018-05-21T11:17:56.016-05:00Thanks for taking the time to write substantial co...Thanks for taking the time to write substantial comments. I especially appreciate you writing about reading the entire chapter.<br /><br />Yesterday I heard a Thinking Friend say that he read the chapter in the book for the first time. I realize that people are busy and that there is a lot of "stuff" to read. But I have been disappointed that more people haven't read the chapters linked to in the blog articles.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-42794362902234401502018-05-20T13:23:59.432-05:002018-05-20T13:23:59.432-05:00It depends on what you mean "to have both.&qu...It depends on what you mean "to have both." If you include in that the conversion of people from other faiths, then I'm totally against it. I believe Christian missionaries should serve, as you've recorded here, and even that they have the obligation to give witness to their faith. But they should not be proselytizing. I work for a college/seminary whose mission it is to train missionaries job the Society of the Divine Word. They have a marvelous mission to the poor and oppressed of the world. Their mission includes proclaiming the gospel, but they do not endorse proselytizing people of other faiths. Anton Jacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17377655010541153458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-86698005988627559502018-05-20T11:20:53.205-05:002018-05-20T11:20:53.205-05:00Well that needed to be said, and you are right, th...Well that needed to be said, and you are right, the entire chapter must be read.<br /><br />Having grown up and witnessed the work of missionaries (and PC governmental NGOs), much needs to be said, and evaluations made. One is that the holy catholic Church must be one in mission and love - including saving lives as well as souls. And that the work of NGOs is not all positive - far from it.<br /><br />In those countries we had missionaries from the US, UK, Germany, Kenya, Holland, Switzerland, Canada, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), India, and South Africa. In our local area, by and large, they were after a common goal and cut across denominational lines from Assembly of God to Catholics and Baptists, Lutheran to Seventh Day Advents and Church of Christ, and Church of St Thomas(India), but also sought to improve lives - much needed to change, and still does (not the least of which is cannibalism as a means of gaining spiritual strength over ones enemies, or killing someone of another tribe as proof of manhood, or buying many wives to prove one's wealth).<br /><br />Side note: Christian tourism (mission trips) are commendable for expanding a view of the world to the wealthy children of our land. Maybe that is not all bad. Even in retirement, my folks continued to return to spot others for a needed break.<br />In our country here, I have met missionaries from India, Tanzania, Kenya, South Korea, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Australia, and Canada who are here on the same mission. We desperately need them as our land become post-Christian like Europe and we have learned to worship ourselves, our politics, and our government.<br /><br />Thank God for a Protestant man who sought to revive mission outreach. That God, through the Catholics and Orthodox, had not dropped the ball over the preceding centuries. And that God had retained a remnant of followers through His covenants with Abrahim and Japhu (Japheth).<br /><br />May the Spirit of God continue to use missionaries everywhere to draw people to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. (+)1sojournerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08541170856645246334noreply@blogger.com