Mitch Lewis

I think the church ought to remind its members frequently of their baptism. If the mission of the church is to make disciples for Jesus Christ, then baptism is at the heart of our mission (Matthew 28:19, Acts 2:38-39).

One reason that Christians think so little of baptism is that we hide it away and think of it seldom. Out of sight, out of mind. Let's keep God's gift of baptism in plain sight so that it can begin to shape our thinking about what it means to be a Christian.

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Here are two ads from the United Methodist Church, the denomination in which I am ordained as an elder and endorsed as a chaplain. The campaign is called "Rethink Church".

By way of contrast, here are also two ads from the Catholic Church's "Catholics Come Home" campaign that has resulted in 95,000 inactive Catholics returning to active congregational involvement.

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When it comes to foreign missions, there's one question that always comes up for those of us in uniform. When the government sends us out into "all the world" to fight or keep the peace, can we or should we use that opportunity to be part-time secret missionaries to the local population? For the most part, I think not.

We have chosen - and, I believe, have been called by God - to serve God and the cause of peace by taking up arms and serving our nation in uniform. Our first duty to both God and country is to do the job that comes with wearing that uniform: to keep or establish peace as part of a military force. In many (perhaps most) places, that means that we leave the job of evangelizing the resident population to others. Confusing the roles of "armed agent of a national government" and "agent of the eternal Christ" can be detrimental to both the cause of evangelism and the cause of ordinary peace.

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In the early history of United States, the "next towns" of the frontier were evangelized by circuit-riding preachers and tent-meeting revivals. Some Christians, however, wanted to take the message of Christ not just to the next town in the next valley, but to the next town on the next continent.

The 19th and early 20th centuries saw an explosion of "foreign mission" interest among Protestant Christians in Europe and the United States. Some of the reasons for the "foreign missions" movement were theological impulses that were born in 17th and 18th centuries. It was 19th century western technology (ships and railroads), however, that made the idea of global movements by large numbers of missionaries feasible. Unfortunately, some missionaries confused the Christian gospel with the western way of life.

The Christian faith is always on the move. Jesus' closing words in the Gospel of Matthew are "Go into all the world" and The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of the faith moving out of Judea and Galilee into Syria, Africa, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Rome. Philip Jenkins' The Lost History of Christianity recounts a time when the global center of Christianity was in the middle east, spreading east into what is now Iraq, Iran, the "stans," India, and China - south into Nubian Africa - as well as west into the Byzantine empire and what was left of Latin Rome. Only later did Christianity come to predominate in Europe.

The global center of Christianity is now moving south and east to South America, Africa and East Asia. This movement of the gospel is now fueled not just by western missionaries, but by missionaries and indigenous church leaders from throughout the globe. One advantage of Asian and African missionaries is that they change the perception that Christianity is a "western" religion.

In Korea

The first Protestant missionaries came to Korea in the 19th century and Protestant churches have been involved with the life of the Korean people through all the tumultuous events ever since. The first Catholics arrived in the 16th century. Approximately 25% of Korea is now Christian, and today the missionary movement in Korea is growing tremendously. In 1979, Korean churches had 21 mission sending agencies with about 93 missionaries worldwide. There are now over 177 sending agencies, with over 16,000 missionaries in more than 150 countries. Korea sends out more foreign missionaries than any other country in the world except one.

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Lectionary - Lent 4C - Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Luke relates three similar parables of loss and recovery in Luke 15. He sets up the parables by recounting how tax-collectors and sinners were listening to Jesus, and how the Pharisees and scribes grumbled because of it.

The first two parables picture a God who actively seeks the lost. Like a shepherd searching for a lost sheep or a woman looking for a lost coin, God seeks to recover those who belong to him. These images are not meant to draw upon feelings of sentimentality; rather, they are meant to connect the hearers' own experiences of loss with their understanding of God's actions in Jesus. I may not have lost a sheep, but I have misplaced checks, important documents and other items of such significance that I am nearly in a panic until I find them. What I still have in my possession at that moment comforts me not at all. My heart pounds and my mind races. My entire focus and energy are concentrated upon locating the lost article. It is with that sense of restlessness, compulsion and heartache that parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin are meant to connect. Finding the lost object is one's only concern until it is found. Recovery of a lost treasure is the cause of great relief and celebration.

If the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin caused the hearers to nod their heads in agreement, the story of the lost son surely caused them to clench their jaws with discomfort. It certainly created a good bit of cognitive dissonance for everyone who heard it.

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