Convention speaker Jean Johnson shares from her experiences on the mission field in Cambodia
The “bigger, better, faster” model—so ingrained in American culture—is usually not the best path to success on the mission field. That’s just one of the crucial messages found in convention speaker Jean Johnson’s new book, We Are Not the Hero: A Missionary’s Guide for Sharing Christ, Not a Culture of Dependency. All too often, missionaries try to produce results before they’ve taken time to learn the new language and become fully immersed in the culture. According to Jean, indigenous people usually can’t recreate many missionary models, such as connecting schools, orphanages, and clinics to their gospel work, and so become dependent on the missionaries.
Instead, Jean is suggesting missionaries “come lightly and softly.” When we swoop in to save the day with all kinds of resources, we can fall into the trap of feeling needed—being the hero, if you will—rather than pointing people to Christ and letting them work out the details of how Christianity works in their world. “Don’t make our resources indispensable to their fruitfulness,” she says. “If we’re going to show off our power, let it be Jesus.”
“My ‘aha’ moment came after I had developed a solid a ministry in Cambodia,” Jean continues, “and then there was a coup. When you build ministry and make yourself indispensable and then you disappear, it’s like chopping off the legs of the stool. It was a real eye opener for me,” she says.
That’s why Jean recommends bringing Christ into the intimate details of people’s lives, without all the systems and programs. “It’s why we must learn the language and live life alongside people,” says Jean. “That’s how we’ll change a society from the inside out, rather than the outside in.” Want to learn more? Join us for convention, August 3 – 5, at Grace Morton Church in Illinois, where Jean will share her missionary experiences and offer guidance for today’s global missions. Check out the full speaker lineup, plus online registration, here: https://fecministries.org/convention-freedom-2017/.
