What Can Two Dozen Do?

For those who have been lurking around looking for updates on the Caleb Project remnant, immigrants, and refugees, here’s some more “scoop.” Official news should be posted on our web sites within the next few days. As I write I notice both are down for no particular reason. (Carrying on without a computer guy is tough. The main network guru from before still helps on a contract basis but has full-time employment elsewhere.)

At this point two dozen people who were formerly on staff with Caleb Project or ACMC have accepted positions with Pioneers. All are part of the ‘remnant,’ those who still worked here as of February 13 when we were all laid off – so, people who were hanging around waiting for something like this to come through. Not surprising that many of us took the Pioneers offer.

It’s possible that some of the ‘immigrants’ – those who resigned previously – or the ‘refugees,’ those who were previously laid off or sort of pushed out – may return, but it would surprise me. If we can make a go of this and rebuild some momentum, I think we will pick up some volunteers and new staff, but that is a ways down the road. At this point further personnel losses seem more likely than further gains.

What Can We Do?

A press release sent to Pioneers staff around the world is accurate and realistic about this. However, it does bring up some kinda scary questions about our capabilities which the Pioneers staff may ask:

“Will [Pioneers Denver] now be doing the UPG research and resource production for which Caleb Project was known? Who do I contact to submit a UPG in my area for research consideration?”

“How can I get training programs like …Encountering the World of Islam, the [five-week Perspectives] Exposure Course, Ethnography Training, Advocacy Training, and the Crossing Cultures Seminar… in my home church?”

I am the only one remaining on staff with experience in several of those programs, so I’d have to say they are pretty vulnerable. We may have two dozen people signing on, but no single area of our previous ministry has more than two people committed to it, and some have none. Our ability to produce or accomplish anything is severely compromised.

On the other hand, it’s an amazing thing that we are able to go on at all. Can't two dozen people change the world? When I was teaching 'Pioneers of the World Christian Movement' recently I noticed that number cropping up a couple of times... here are excerpts from my teaching notes.

Twenty-four Willing Skillful Laborers

A large map of China was hanging on the walls of Hudson Taylor’s study. He read over and over again the names of the Inland provinces: South of the Clouds, West of the Mountains, North of the Lake. He knew there were hundreds of cities, thousands of towns, and tens of thousands of villages where the Word of God had not been preached. He had already talked to all the mission societies he knew of urging them to send men to the inland provinces, and they listened sympathetically but told him nothing could be done at present.

If only, he thought, there were two missionaries in each province. That would be a start. Then the thought came to mind, “Why don’t you ask God to send them to you?” This was a much more difficult thing for Taylor to accept than going himself. Suppose he sent them out and there wasn’t enough money? Suppose they starved to death? What if the Chinese got angry at them and killed them? How terrible to be the one to send them to their death. The responsibility would be too great.

But one Sunday morning in June he was walking on the beach at Brighton and came to the conclusion he would have to do it. How could he leave those millions of Chinese to die without God? That would be far worse than his missionaries dying. After all, even if the missionaries starved to death, they would go straight to heaven. If they turned only one Chinese to worshipping God it would be all worth it. Comforted by this thought (!) he also realized he could only start a mission agency if God was calling him to do it. And if that was the case, the responsibility for what happened would be God’s, not his. That was a revolutionary thought; the weight of responsibility rolled off his shoulders.

So he would ask God to send whatever was necessary to start a mission society that would go West of the Mountains, South of the Clouds, North of the Lake – to 11 provinces and Tibet. Two workers each. He would pray for 24 workers. He wrote it in his Bible. “Prayed for 24 willing skillful laborers at Brighton, June 25, 1865.”

So what if he had barely enough money to support his own wife? The Taylor family was really living on almost nothing at this point. But God would provide. If he was doing God’s work, God’s way, God would supply all that was needed. He walked across the beach, up to the promenade where the fashionable men and women strolled and went home. Back in London, he went to the bank as soon as he had a chance and began to prepare for the resources God was sending. Surely the money was already on its way. That Tuesday he opened a bank account with ten pounds in it - in the name of the China Inland Mission.

In his life Hudson Taylor would see CIM send 700 missionaries to China. They faced a lot of failure and rejection along the way, of course. However, his work continued to grow and now his agency works in countries throughout East Asia as well as among East Asians in other parts of the world.

The strength of the church is China comes from many things, but among them is the faithfulness of Hudson Taylor’s missionaries - starting with the answer to his prayers for two dozen.

Another great missionary endeavor I spoke of was the Moravian church, particularly in its eighteenth-century heyday. Moravianism was really a movement, made of communities of believers that worked and worshipped together and committed themselves to God's purposes in their lives and in the world.

Twenty-four Hours of Prayer

"The Moravian missionaries were the first large-scale Protestant missionary movement. They were also first to send out un-ordained "lay" people (rather than trained professional clergymen), the first to go to slaves, and the first in many countries of the world. …Hundreds of missionaries [were sent] to the Caribbean, North and South America, the Artic, Africa, and the Far East." [Summary pulled from wikipedia]

Prayer was a key element of their ministry. Following a revival, the Moravians establish a 24-hour prayer vigil that lasted for more than 100 years. Imagine that! It’s interesting, when prayer and outreach are combined the gospel spreads. The early church in Rome was a praying church. The medieval monks were intercessors. And now the Moravians were just as dedicated to prayer as to outreach. A true revival will result in both prayer and outreach.

...In his book “Red Moon Rising” Peter Grieg writes about being inspired by the Moravian focus on prayer:

“Back home we knew that God was calling us to pray. We also knew that we were bad at it. Just a handful of worthy “intercessors” were diligently responding to the call while the majority of us struggled to even attend their weekly prayer meeting. We knew it was wrong whenever we thought about it. So we tried not to think about it. But the voice of the Spirit had been growing more insistent of late.

“Maybe, I thought, there is something in this Moravian, non-stop prayer model that could help us back home to pray a bit more...Walking into the Moravian chapel back in Hernnhut with its plain, shaker-style interior, I calculated that it would only take 24 one-hour shifts to fill a day with prayer. Perhaps some people would enjoy praying through the small hours of the night. Surely, if this little community of 32 houses could pray non-stop for 100 years, a church like ours could manage a month. And if God could touch the world from a place like Hernnhut, maybe he could even do it from an old English Cathedral town like [ours]."

...One thing stood out to me as I was going through my notes to prepare for teaching is that we can point to pioneers, key men and women on whose efforts everything seems to turn. But there are always co-workers, mentors, helpers, and supporters - communities of people that formed around the vision.

Consider this 24/7 prayer movement modelled after the Moravians. It takes just 24 people giving one hour a day of prayer to start a 24/7 prayer room. And to send two missionaries to every province of China took just 24 men willing to give themselves to God. Of course many more came along as well, in time. But isn’t it remarkable what two dozen people can do to change the world?

The amazing thing about the kingdom is that when you are empty, or weak, or vulnerable, you are right where God can use you. God is not looking for half-full glasses, and certainly not all-full ones - it's the ones that know their emptiness that he can use!

So, when I look at the two dozen of us joining Pioneers, a pair here, a pair there: Seems so small and weak. Yet we are not all there is. We are part of something much bigger. And, we have many former staff, program alumni, and friends scattered across the country and world in a variety of ministries. Might this situation be the very thing needed to get us to work alongside others in true partnership, bringing both our skills and our vulnerabilities to the table and putting the kingdom of God first?

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)