They Just Don’t Make Them Like They Used To…

In the last post, I spoke about one attitude that we have received from a number of people, which responds negatively to the risk that moving overseas brings. I will do a third post on the overwhelmingly majority response which we have received (which is incredibly positive and encouraging), but today I am going to point out a response that exists on the flip side of the coin to overstating risk: thinking one-dimensionally about sacrifice.

Dee and I have had the awkward encounters on more than one occasion of being in conversation with people, even as we’ve just taught on mission or spoken about our calling, who then come out with lines such as:

“They just don’t make them like they used to. There’s no Jim Elliots around these days. There’s just not the same sort of fiery commitment.”

or

“Missionaries were tougher in the last generation. Nowadays you hear of missionaries coming back to school their children or look after parents. They just don’t stick to the job like they used to.”

I must confess that when people talk about the riskiness of mission, I may not fully agree, but at least I expect it, and sympathise with their concerns. When the above started happening I was somewhat surprised that a reasonable number of people thought this way and found it quite discouraging. So, I took some time to think about whether or not people were right, and what an appropriate response would be. These are my thoughts on the matter, but I would love to hear yours. Am I overstating my case? Or is there a shift one way or another that I need to make in my thinking?

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the matter:

1. The olden days can be rose-tinted

We could borrow from the wisdom of Ecclesiastes in this matter. The preacher cautions us to:

“Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
    For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

– Ecclesiastes 7:10

It is a dangerous thing to be looking back at the old days with over-fondness, for multiple reasons.

Firstly, it breeds false comparisons. For example, to say that people who lived in the UK in olden days were tougher, being up at all hours, working hard in mines etc. might paint a picture of strength. But at the same time the mortality rates were higher, average age was decreased, and overall health was poor. It is not a bad thing that we have machines to do certain work for us. It is not a case of being “less tough”, it is the fact that we live in a different age, with a different set of circumstances, which allows us to live healthier lives. Some 21st Century circumstances are good, some are bad, but we should judge them in light of the age in which we live rather than comparing apples and oranges.

It is the same issue that comes with missionary biographies. We should learn lessons from them, but should not evaluate them by 21st century standards, nor ourselves by 18th, 19th, 20th century standards. Let’s take one of my mission heroes as an example. William Carey. There is much that I can learn from his life; principles that I can seize upon and apply to our context. But there are two dangers at play.

Firstly, I can turn a biography into a hagiography, where everything that was done by William Carey is good and should be repeated. Even the apostle Paul knew to warn against this: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” He was only worth following inasmuch as he reflected Jesus. Not everything William Carey did was good. Yes, he left home to voyage to unknown places for the gospel. But he also could have treated his first wife better. Are we thankful for his sacrifice? Yes. Should we celebrate every aspect of his home life? Maybe not.

CT Studd was a great pioneer. Praise God for his work. But he left his wife for 13 years. Do I want to emulate his passion and resolve to preach Christ? Certainly. Do I want to leave my wife for 13 years to do so? Absolutely not.

The truth is that God uses sinful people to accomplish his means. There is good and bad in it all, and rather than use them as the standard, we should evaluate their lives by the standard of God’s word and apply it in the areas in which it lines up with that.

Secondly, we can judge them by our 21st Century standard. We may quickly judge how William Carey treated his wife and condemn. But he lived in an age where medicine, travel, pastoral care on the field, and a host of other things did not exist like they do today. We cannot transplant modern concepts into their time. Could they have done better? Surely. Is “better” the 21st Century standard? Nope.

The second reason we should not have rose-tinted glasses about the past is that it can lead us to miss what God is doing in the present.

William Carey translated Scripture in 38 languages (Bibles, New Testaments or small portions), with his team as a whole adding another 8. I have been to Serampore and seen the work that he did. It took long hours, incredible patience and a gift from God. Praise God that India got William Carey when they did. But while I see many people writing and reading about William Carey, I find a very niche community reading and writing about the advances in Translation through technology that we have today. It is not as glamorous. It does not shine a spotlight on one man as an example of hard work in translation. But we should be shouting for joy to the heavens for the advancement of AI and such that is bringing the Word of God into many new languages these days. According to Wycliffe Bible Translators, work started in 370 new languages in 2023. And “for the first time in history, the number of languages with work in progress (3,742) has exceeded the number of languages without work in progress (3,652).”

Are those who labour with technology to aid this work any less worthy servants than William Carey? No. But if we only focus on what looks impressive in the past, then we miss how God is moving today.

2. A one-dimensional view of sacrifice is not healthy

There is an unhealthy view of the body of Christ that comes from focussing on the sacrifice of a few. The reality is that for those who have grown up with missions biographies, there is exposure to only one small segment of the body of Christ throughout time and history. Imagine we had more biographies about administrators in Mission Agency offices, or about “ordinary” folk who give financially to their local church, or about Sunday school teachers in a local church setting, or about a “normal” Christian in the workplace providing a daily witness through their work and conversation.

The reality is that I think we are sometimes a bit more like the Corinthian church than we like to admit. They were impressed by the “Super-apostles” who were physically, verbally, and in ministry more outwardly impressive than Paul. The reality is that we shouldn’t want everyone to look like Jim Elliot. We shouldn’t even want all missionaries to look like Jim Elliot. We should want a variety in the body of Christ. I remember reading an excellent article a long time ago, on the difference between Jim Elliot and his brother Bert. Jim is described as a “meteor, streaking across the sky”, while “Bert was a faint star that rose night after night”. Bert and colleen Elliot served for many decades in Peru and saw many churches planted and many workers trained. Their lives were not spectacular and headline-grabbing like Jim’s, yet each served Christ faithfully.

We are all called to take up our cross daily and follow Christ. But for every believer it will look different. For some it will mean facing the derision and persecution of a family or village every single day. For some it will mean going to a difficult job, but doing it well and cheerfully for the glory of God. For some it will be going through the same routine of motherhood on a daily basis, with intentionality in their hearts. For some it will mean leaving houses and lands and dying daily in a foreign country. For some it will mean martyrdom.

Paul wisely counsels “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” Let us take that advice and celebrate every type of life and ministry in the body of Christ, rather than using one type of missionary as a mould for what a faithful servant looks like.

The best route we can take is to use Jesus as the standard. Then by assessing people’s lives in light of Him, we can imitate the good, and learn from the mistakes. That is why a writer of commentaries who spends hours in an office, and a pioneer missionary hacking down trees in the jungle, can equally be passionate and faithful to Christ’s call, and equally benefit the church. The standard is conformity to Christ.

3. Sacrifice should aim to be sustainable

Christopher Ash has a lovely, little, well-known book that really helped me at a low point in my life. I highly recommend it. It is called “Zeal Without Burnout”, and in it he talks a lot about “sustainable sacrifice”, a phrase which is very helpful to those in ministry. Which would we prefer: A missionary who leaves and never returns, pumps out “sacrifice” in terms of health and family for the sake of ministry and dies after ten years on the field, or one who ministers on the field for a decade, then returns home to mind parents, educate children, or take a sabbatical, and then minsiter at home or abroad for another season, then move fields again etc.?

There are so many factors in the above, and of course they are extreme examples. We should not even judge them on a blanket statement but a case-by-case basis. But the purpose is to show the falsity of the “benefit” of martyrdom style ministry. It is a good thing to minister slowly and surely, taking family responsibility seriously, taking Sabbath rest seriously, etc. To do less in a year in order to do more in a decade is not a bad thing. To minister to elderly parents is not a lesser thing than to preach the gospel to the lost. To provide what our children need, is not necessarily a capitulation on ministry, but a sphere in which 99% of Christian parents, who are not missionaries, live without question. Long-term views on the health of family, church, children or specific ministries themselves shows no less urgency or seriousness about the gospel than those who neglect all of the above in the name of ministry. We should aim to have sustainable sacrifice and if at times it requires more from us, we should not be afraid or hesitant to give it. But we should also rest in the sovereignty of God whose ministry it is, to do his work himself.

Even Jesus, while hanging on the cross, made time to ensure his mother was provided for. He had that care for her, he did what was practically possible to ensure it would happen, and yet was literally in the very act of sacrifice. To apply this to the lives of missionaries will look different in every circumstance, but they should certainly not be condemned for practically ensuring their parents or children are provided for.

4. Let us be spurred on to greater works

Having said all of the above, we do not want to fall into the opposite problem of despising the sacrificial death or commitment of any of God’s servants. Nor should we dismiss the call such examples put upon our lives. We do not want to use the above arguments as an excuse for reluctance to die to ourselves. The lives of Jim Elliot, and others like him, should be honoured. (Even my own children bear the names of members of the Ecuadorian martyrs and their wives!). Revelation celebrates martyrs, just as much as Hebrews 11 celebrates those who lived full lives of faith but also died at a very good age. We should read mission biographies of the saints of old. We should allow their lives to spur us on to greater zeal and commitment. (Which of us feels that we have enough zeal?) Scripture urges us to imitate and follow the lives of the zealous and faithful, even as it also urges us to heed the widow who gives her two mites.

However, can I humbly suggest that we use their lives to fan the flame of zeal, rather than crush the vision of those seeking to minister faithfully in their context. Missionaries who return home will feel enough guilt leaving their sphere of ministry as it is, without needing to worry about whether others will view them as half-hearted or quitters. The reality is that we should take these lessons and apply them to everyone in the church. Every gift is valuable in the kingdom, and every role has its season. Returning missionaries, those who put out hymn books on seats, administrators, and the most well-known of preachers, are all called to greater zeal, but are also all equally able to live out their calling faithfully in that season of life.

In the words of another, I guess this is a call to “consider” how we view and stir up zeal and sacrifice.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

– Hebrews 10:24-25