How to Fail as a Missionary — Part 2
When there is a pattern of opposition to our outreach ministry, I’ve learned to look at *who *is opposing us.
If we are being opposed by religious people, I’ve learned to see that as a sign that we may be on the right track. After all, Jesus faced unrelenting opposition. But who was it that opposed Him? It was the established religious leaders.
A few years ago, at a music festival, we set up a booth that allowed us to minister to the festival attendees who found their way to our booth. So, I was surprised when the organizers of the festival came to us with concerns, saying that it had been reported to them that we were a dangerous group of Satan worshipers.
This was so far from the truth that it was laughable … except that these administrators were not laughing. They were serious about investigating these accusations.
When we set up our booth at this festival, it was for the purpose of ministering to the festival goers with the love and power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. As part of our strategy, we decided to focus on dream interpretation as the main theme of our booth. We did not advertise the fact that we were Christians because, in our experience, that would tend to cause many people to avoid us and lose any opportunity to receive a touch from the Lord Jesus. So, we presented ourselves as a group of dream interpreters. For many people, that made us more approachable.
When these festival administrators challenged us, I welcomed them, apologized for the confusion, and I explained to them that we were Christians who believe that God sometimes speaks to people through dreams. I presented Bibles, Christian worship CDs, and other evidence to help prove that we were not the dangerous Satan worshipers that we were accused of being.
The administrators were satisfied with my explanation and evidence, but I thought it might be best to go to the source to clear up this confusion. I asked the administrators for information about who had reported us. It turned out that we had been falsely accused by a group of Christians from a nearby booth that was sponsored by a traditional Christian denomination.
On the last day of the festival, I ran into the festival administrators again and asked them if they had received any other complaints about our group.
One of the administrators replied, “Oh, we don’t have any problem with you guys, but we have had problems with that church group! (Referring to the Christian denominational group that had falsely accused us) They’ve broken several of the festival’s guidelines for exhibitors. They moved their booth from their assigned spot, and they left their booth unmanned for hours at a time! They won’t be back.”
Sadly, these fellow believers from the denominational church failed to represent Christ well, giving unbelievers one more reason to resent Christians and Christianity.
On our part, I felt that being falsely accused by people from the traditional religious establishment was a good sign that we may have been on the right track.
“People will insult you and hurt you. They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you because you follow me. But when they do that, know that great blessings belong to you. Be happy about it. Be very glad because you have a great reward waiting for you in heaven. People did these same bad things to the prophets who lived before you.”—Matthew 5:11-12 (ERV)
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a bond-servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the bond-servant like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul (Satan), how much more [will they speak evil of] the members of his household.”—Matthew 10:24-25 (AMP)
Accepted by the Common People
In spite of all the opposition, our ministry at the festival seemed to be very successful and well-accepted by people who visited our booth. We witnessed many transforming encounters with festival goers. Sometimes, people would leave our booth after a positive encounter, find their friends, and return to our booth, dragging their friends with them. A couple of young ladies from a nearby university were so touched that they arranged for us to spend an evening ministering to their entire sorority.
So, when I watched the seminar about church planting in the Metaverse, and I heard the pastors describe their experiences of being cursed and threatened by the very people that they supposedly were trying to reach, I began to question their approach to ministry in this new mission field.
Is that how people reacted to Jesus? Did the common people curse Him and threaten Him? NO!
They flocked around Him! They followed Him everywhere He went! They couldn’t get enough of Him!
The Bible says that “the common people heard Him gladly.” (Mark 12:37 KJV)
If we are following God’s principles for ministry that Jesus modeled for us, then I believe we will experience results similar to what Jesus experienced. If that is not what we are experiencing, then I believe we need to re-examine our approach to ministry.
If the people we are trying to reach are consistently cursing us and threatening us, we should take it as a clear signal that we are *not *doing things right. We are not using the best approach.
We may be cursed and threatened by established religious community, but the common people should flock to us, embrace us, and hear us gladly.
If we are doing things Jesus’ way, we should experience Jesus’ results.
Like master fishermen in a new pool of water, it may take us a while to figure out just the right approach and just the right bait to use, but once we do, we may need to get a bigger net to handle the catch.