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MurKeyt 09-10-147 |
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The Key to the
Missionary Problem A
Passionate Call to Obedience in Action Andrew
Murray CLC
Publications ISBN 978-0-87508-401-5 |
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The well known South African pastor and
devotional writer was not able to attend the 1900 World Missionary Conference
but wrote a major response to the two-volume set of papers submitted in
preparation for the Conference. He
concludes that the army of missionaries is so small because of lack of heart
on the part of church members, so little enthusiasm for the King. He asks how the
Church can be aroused to the work God has destined for her. In the first chapter he responds to the papers
submitted to the Conference. In the
second chapter he investigates the situation of the Church in regard to
missions. In subsequent chapters he
draws lessons from three great missionary movements of the past century. The Moravians were motivated by their great
love for Christ. The Church Missionary
Society in England was propelled by the deepening spiritual life. Hudson Taylor illustrated the power of
believing prayer. Next he examines the
power of the Holy Spirit in the Church at Pentecost. Final chapters examine the personal
situation of Christians, the challenge for pastoral leadership, and the
priority of prayer. Chapter 1. Responses to the
Missionary Conference "The problem is…not how to train new
missionaries, but how to kindle missionary passion in every person."
(Dr. Cuthbert Hall) "Until our pastors are ready to back this
enterprise, there will never be a missionary spirit adequate to the needs of
this generation." (S. Earl Taylor) "…it is the faithfulness of the local
pastor, translating the special appeal into an individual message to his own
people, that is, after all, the secret of success in foreign missions."
(Rev. D. S. MacKay) "It is one thing for a minister to be an
advocate and supporter of missions: it is another and very different thing
for him to understand that missions are the chief end of the Church, and
therefore the chief end for which his congregation exists. … He must learn how to lead the congregation
on to make the extension of Christ's kingdom the highest object of its
corporate existence." (15, Andrew Murray) "Each youth worker should make it his first
aim to inspire in every child real love for Christ and for the
unevangelized." (18, Mrs. T. B. Hargrove) Chapter 2. Missions: A Test of
the State of the Church What can be done to so stimulate the spiritual
life of the Church that the missionary cause shall have all the hearty
enthusiasm and support which it deserves? Why is the church so unfaithful? Because of the low spiritual state of the
Church as a whole. The chief symptoms
are worldliness and lack of prayer. (28-9) Chapter 3. Love to Christ as
Motivation The Moravians took their inspiration from Isaiah
53:10-12, making our Lord's suffering the spur to their activity: "To win for the Lamb that was slain,
the reward of His sufferings." (34)
"They counted the service of God the one thing to live for, and
everything was made subservient to this." (36) The first missionaries were sent out in 1732 with
only a few shillings and faith in God and his care. Their instructions were to "see and be
led of the Spirit in all things." (44)
"In the first twenty years of its existence,
the Moravian Church actually sent out more missionaries than the whole
Protestant Church had done in 200 years." (46) "…the majority of men are guided more by
emotions than by intellect: the heart
is the great power by which they are meant to be influenced and molded."
"…the more intensely the fire of God's love burns in the heart, the more
surely will it burn into those around us." (48) The Moravians were detached from the world and
its hopes. They were literally
strangers and pilgrims on earth and they had learned to endure hardships.
(49) Their power came from the intensity of their united and personal
devotion to Jesus Christ. (50) Three great principles: (52)
Chapter 4. The Deepening of the
Spiritual Life "In the long run the spiritual tone of the
missionaries and the mission congregation abroad cannot be higher than that
of the home church out of which it was born." "Great advances in missions are always
connected with a deep revival of spiritual life, and a higher devotion to the
Lord Jesus." (55) "The only way to waken true, deep,
spiritual, permanent missionary interest is not to aim at this itself so much
as to lead believers to a more complete separation from the world, and to an
entire consecration of themselves,
with all they have, to their Lord and His service." (55) "God's demand upon every one of His servants
is surrender with no conditions, no terms." (58, Dr. Handley Moule) "All failure in caring, giving, praying and
living for missions is owing to a weak, superficial spiritual life."
(63) "The missionary problem is a personal
one. Seek the deepening of the spiritual life and missionary consecration
will follow." (64) Chapter 5. The Power of
Believing Prayer "We have given too much attention to methods
and too little to the source of power--the filling with the Holy Ghost."
(66, Hudson Taylor) "Hudson Taylor's experience shows us how God
trains a man to believe in Him, to wait on Him, to give himself up entirely
to His will and service, however great the difficulty may be. The Church needs to learn the lesson, our
missionary meetings and our mission sermons must aim at teaching that, as
individuals give themselves wholly to God, He will equip them for being used
in the service of His kingdom. …And it requires close communion with God, and
a full surrender to His guidance, to fit us to do His work." (77) "…the missionary problem is a personal
one. Hudson Taylor's training for
fellowship with God was an intensely personal one. The missionary problem…is only to be solved
by each believer giving himself personally to the work… We want to train every believer to take
such an interest in the progress of the world of God's kingdom that he may
feel and hear the burden of its great need.
Only thus can he realize the impossibility of its being done without
God's own power, and he may learn to cry for more men and money, for the
Spirit's power, and for the ingathering of souls." (79-80) Chapter 6. The Church of
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit "If we take as a basic premise that it is
possible to evangelize the world in this generation--in view of the achievements
of the Christians of the first generation--then it is a terrible condemnation
of the Church of our day." (81) "…pastors and congregations must be led to
study the pentecostal pattern. We
should be content with nothing less than an equal devotion to the work of
making Christ known everywhere."
"The only power to evangelize the world in this generation lies
in knowing what Pentecost means and to have its faith and its Spirit."
(82) "The first coming of the Holy Spirit in
power was to a prepared people. For
the Church in our day to receive the Spirit in Pentecostal power, we need the
same preparation. This involves giving
up and forsaking all that hinders, an emptying and a cleansing of ourselves
and a thirsting, waiting, and entire surrender to Christ. Then the blessing of the Spirit's power
surely comes." (83) "The missionary problem is a personal
one. Every believer, in receiving the
love of Christ into his heart, has taken in a love that reaches out to the
whole world. The great commission
rests on every member of the Church." (90) Chapter 7. The Missionary
Problem is a Personal One "…every believer has been saved with the
express purpose that he should make the saving of other souls the main, the
supreme end of his existence in the world." (94) "The new life…is a life of love; how can it
manifest itself but in loving as God loves, in loving those whom God
loves?" (95) Love is the inward law of our new nature. In the surrender to a life of close
following, our spiritual nature can be strengthened. (96) "The one and supreme end of the Church is to
bring the world to Christ." (96) "It is simply a matter of being near enough
to Him to hear His voice, and so devoted to Him and His love as to be ready
to do all His will." (100) Chapter 8. The Responsibility
of Leadership in Missions "To the pastor belongs the privilege and
responsibility for the foreign missionary problem." (103) This responsibility rests on four principles:
"Nothing else than what God's eternal
purpose and Christ's dying love is can be the goal of the Church."
"Each congregation is meant to be a training class…." (104)
The pastor needs to study three things: the world
in its sin and misery, Christ in His dying love, and the Church as the link
between the two. (106) "The minister must study it, so he
will learn to preach in new power--missions, the great work, the supreme end,
of Christ, of the Church, of every congregation, of every believer, and
especially of every minister." (109) Chapter 9. A Call to Prayer and
Contrition "Our only hope is to apply ourselves to
prayer. Prayer, more prayer, much
prayer, very special prayer, should first of all be made for the work to be
done in our home churches on behalf of foreign missions. That is indeed the one great need of the
day." |
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