Naga Christian is today standing in the valley of decision. He is caught in the turmoil of political revolution and national reconstruction. These changes are affecting every aspect of our lives. The villages are being invaded by outside forces which they are unable to resist. Rapid transportation and quick communications have drawn people together in uncomfortable proximity. The aged old traditions are breaking down and giving ways to modern scientific technological advancement. Our rural population have now easy access to urban ways of life. Old patterns of behavior are slowly giving way to modern thinking and practices. But new patterns have not yet been evolved. Our villages are still not yet industrialized but large number of our villages are being urbanized in their outlook. There are still some differences of values, modes of behavior and standard of living for those who live in urban areas compared to those who still have their homes in the villages. Agriculture has continued to be the main occupation in the villages but rural economy is no longer conditioned by the traditional agrarian social structure.
The villages have been suddenly exposed to the scientific, technological and industrial advancement. Through these chaos and changes, Christians are groping to find a solid rock of foundation on which to build their lives. They are listening to the false prophets, inciting them to senseless violence. In the midst of the sounds of advertisements, claring out from every nook and corner, they are unable to hear which voice is right and true. The call to discipleship has become dimmed. Which way they will take ? It will depend on which voice calls them with the deepest conviction. Will it be the voice to discipleship of Christ or to the voices of the secular movements? It will depend on how much we care for them or how we nurture them. Much will depend on the future enterprise of the Church. The stirring time in which our lives are set, summons us to re-examine the nature of the Church and her mission. We are called to listen afresh to the Word of God in our own context. We are called to discern the hand of God at work in the events that are shaking the very foundation of our lives. We are called to uncertainties, perils, and change in the knowledge that the judgment and mercy of God which is stronger than all the powers of the World will ultimately prevail.
In Nagaland, we have become to believe that evangelism is a professional undertaking. An Evangelist of any category is invariably a full time employee of the church. He gets some professional training and gets regular salaries. It has become highly organized enterprise. The emphasis is on the oral proclamation of the gospel. The work of the evangelist is measured by (1). the number of baptism given to the children of Christians.(2). The numbers of household he had visited in a specified period of time.(3) The numbers of those who raise their hands or stand up during Evangelistic rallies and crusades. Statistic counts is the measure of his success or failure. In fact we do not realize that we are making spiritually parentless children to be born. The spiritual orphans is the outcome. We should start building spiritual orphan Homes to take care of them.
The church in Nagaland began as Foreign Missionary outpost. The Missionaries employed their best converts as mission agents and were commissioned to preach the gospel. The missionaries were deputed by Mission Boards and not by the local churches. They were commissioned to evangelise the non-christians and not for pastoring churches.
But in more recent times, certain significant factors have come to surface. This leads us to re-think many of our long accepted ideas and policies. The first factor is that we have a new understanding of the church because of the World Christian Movement. Secondly, the rediscovery of Biblical concept of Mission. Thirdly, the revolutionary changes which has overtaken the total life of the World . We may add another factor, which in fact, is the resurgence of traditional religions all around us.
This leads us to ponder over the necessity of trying to understand fully the nature of the church. The church of Christ is God’s design and not of man’s making, the people of God, a community of forgiven sinners who have been entrusted with a mission. It is this mission that gives the church its reason to exist. It has to carry out this mission till He returns. The mission is the mission of God in Christ reconciling the World to Himself. In the real sense, it is a peoples movement. It is a people, a community of believers that we are sent out. It is not merely a team work of an organization. The basic concept of People Movement is that of a living organism like the body of man controlled by the head. It is the wonderful work of God in Christ, because only God can create that “newness of life”. This change of life of a person is what we know as conversion. The church that grows in numerical strength with additions of those that have found Christ, must also grow in grace that it may verily be the people of God. The whole membership of the local congregation should be brought into the comprehensive scheme of mission as a cosmic process, a historic reality, a Divine undertaking and a people’s movement. We should never think of evangelism and mission as a paid profession. We should not be misled by our present day world economy which is based on the principle of remuneration for service rendered.
The problem we face today is lack of nurture and care of the sheep. Most of them are left to fence for themselves. The result is they are swept away by gentle breeze; nothing to speak of storm. And they call this sheep stealing. Many of our shepherds are not aware of the warning given to the shepherds in Ezekiel 34:10. Jesus Christ our Lord may at this time take away His sheep from the shepherds and nurture them Himself. Why don’t we ponder over this happening in our own time. Let us remember that evangelistic work is not that of a specialized activity of organized paid professionals but normal concerns of every Christian in all walks of life which finds expressions in all human relations in which a Christian is involved. Christian faith should not be confused with any vain desire of the Christian community for quantitative growth by merely expanding geographical boundary and numerical strength at the expense of other religious groups. It should be committed endeavor of sincere Christian to further God’s concern for the world of His making.
We have countless numbers of organizations, this or that fellowship, which is draining all the resources of our local churches. None of them has any specific vision and strategy of accomplishing their objectives. Often times, they gathered together to praise each other and pool their ignorance. Such organizations in turn celebrate their silver, golden, platinum and centennial Jubilees etc spending huge amounts. The Bible speaks of only one jubilee (Lev.25:10-12), all other ones are man made jubilees invented by the Pope in the 13th century. The entire teaching on stewardship is made oblivious. Nobody likes to evaluate the cost effective analysis. They have no mechanism to assess their accomplishments. They are just the means of their distinctiveness like ordained ministers, Pastors, theological graduates fellowship etc. It does not matter to them about success or failure of such organizations. We are very particular about spending our individual resources but when it comes to God’s money, we are very generous. We forget that the poor people had contributed the fund for God’s work, from out of their own needs. Naga Christians are fond of celebrating their past glories but they have nothing for the present and for the future.
So the church is at the cross roads. Many outside agencies are trying to strangle the life of the church and to frustrate the mission. They are trying to domesticate the church by subversion from within. The life of the church has become irrelevant for most Christians because of scientific and secular outlook. Our church has become a social institution. Wherever we may live we are now living in a global village. The church is now a global church. A Christian has become a World Christian.
What is a World Christian? We are standing and staring at God’s marvelous World wide purpose and fulfillment of it. There are Christians trapped in boxes of pea sized Christianity, full of myths with no incentives to care for millions of people who have not got the opportunity to hear the gospel. But there are other Christians who have the burning desire to make Christ’s global cause the unifying focus. They have taken personal responsibility for reaching some of Earth’s unreached, especially from among the billions at the widest end who can only be reached through major new efforts by God’s people. Among every people group where there is no vital evangelizing community, there should be one, there must be one, there shall be one. Together we want to help make this happen. They are the World Christians. They are not worldly Christians. Remember a World Christian is not better than others. But by God’s Grace, they have made new discovery, so important that life will never be the same again. So which road shall we take?
Dr. L.M. Murry, Chairman,
Okotsoe Mission Society
