I have had a full week here in Saint Louis, teaching a course called ‘The History of Christian Missions’. I taught it in front of a video camera for our on-line three year training course called the Trilogy Project. Spending hours talking into a lens was a new experience for me I must say. Even though I had taught this material before I found my heart being stirred afresh as I spoke about the lives of those in church history who gave themselves to walk with Jesus in his mission. Their hearts beat with a passion that people from all nations would come to know the joy of Christ’s great salvation and they dedicated their lives to carrying the Good News to them.
As I think afresh about Patrick and the those amazing Celtic Monks, Raymond Lull in North Africa, the Moravians fanning out into many nations in the 1700’s, William Carey, Hudson Taylor and scores of others, I can’t help but think of the opportunities we have in our generation to take this wonderful message to people everywhere. The baton has been passed to us!
If you would like to know more out the kind of people I mentioned above, may I recommend the text book I use for this missions course, 'From Jerusalem To Irian Jaya' by Ruth A. Tucker? It is not dry reading! It is full of the stories of real people with all their strengths and weaknesses who committed their lives to doing all they could do to make Jesus known in all the earth. Check it out.
