Dear friends,

My disillusionment with cross-cultural missions developed gradually. It came…

…as I realized that the ideal prototype for all peoples everywhere isn’t a white American Christian.

…as I discovered the growing body of evidence that many short-term mission trips do more harm than good.

…as I got to know missionary kids deeply malformed by their upbringing.

Then, at some point, skepticism and even mild resentment toward missions took root in my heart. I needed to be re-awakened to the goodness of the Great Commission.

So this past Sunday I went to hear missionary Tim Ingles speak. Sent by our church some fifteen years ago to a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea, Tim and his wife Rebecca have been doing the hard and slow work of building relationships, meeting physical needs, learning the language, and discerning which of the 1200 possible conjugations of ​“to give” should be used for translating John 3:16.

Importantly, Tim and Rebecca went as servants, not as saviors. And the remote tribe to which they went genuinely needed to be served with good news.

Any romantic notion I had that people groups are better off ​“untouched” by outsiders — the human equivalent of preserving pristine natural environments — quickly dissipated as Tim shared. These people were slaves, not to humans, but to spirits who could never be appeased; they experienced unnecessary physical and spiritual suffering; they, like all of us, need Jesus and all Jesus teaches in order to walk in the way of life and peace.

The message of Jesus, rightly delivered, doesn’t strip people of the dignity of their native heritage; it enhances that dignity with a new citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

Thankfully, rightly delivering the gospel cross-culturally and serving the poor is a growing conversation, featured in books like Freeing Congregational Mission (read an excerpt here) and the modern classic, When Helping Hurts. And missionaries like Tim and Rebecca embody that conversation, showing that the commission Jesus gave us to make disciples isn’t just ​“great” but thoroughly and abundantly good.