My Bible reading for this week has been through the book of Acts. As I was reading I got started on a small project. I was reading the accounts of all Paul's missionary journeys. As I looked at these I started to jot down what his approach was and the response. I won't catalog all of them here, but I will summarize.
Paul went from town to town and preached the undiluted gospel. He often offended some portion of the population. So much so that he was run out of or abused in every city that he went to. He was debated, attacked, abused, arrested, vilified, beaten, almost killed more than once, stoned, and finally arrested and sent to Rome.
Now compare that with the missions philosophy today. Not every situation and country has comparable circumstances to the ones that Paul encountered. But, there are many that do. I don't think that Paul's example is modeled enough. And I know that it is easy for me to be a critic while I am here in my American freedom and one-week-plush-mission-trip experiences. But, I still question the philosophy.
In my next post I will give a real life, modern day, Paul-like, missions encounter from a true story I heard.
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