Old or New Testament Witness?
The people of God displayed to a watching world ("the nations") very different types of witness in the Old and New Testaments. The Israelites preceded the advent of Christ, the Church, the indwelling Holy Spirit and--for the most part--the written word of God. In the absence of these revelations, the main way the nations could come to understand the presence and power and nature of God was through the victory and prosperity of His followers. When the Israelites triumphed, their God was recognized as stronger than an opposing deity. When the Israelites prospered, their God was understood to be the One who could protect and bless and answer prayer. (Consider Elijah vs. the Baal worshippers on Mt. Carmel!)
But in the New Testament we encounter the manger and the cross. The faithfulness of God finds its pinnacle expression in the sacrifice of God. The power of God is revealed in victory over death--but victory achieved by embracing death first. Hence the witness of God's people came to be displayed through servanthood and clay pots and martyrdom.
As vital--and more challenging!--as it is to incarnate the latter witness, we must not forget that God is unchanging. The Lord worshiped in catacombs is one and the same with the Lord who prescribed the construction of a lavish temple. This presents a challenging question to the missionary community: what kind of witness should we display to the nations?
Obviously we should not live ostentatiously, flaunting wealth and prosperity amidst a culture of poverty. But at the same time, if the Christian community does not "look" very different, does not display lives changed visibly, does not present to people in need an attractive outcome, then the Gospel is not seen as powerful and effective. There is little that the nations recognize as desirable and worth pursuing. All of this to say that...RFIS has the best soccer field in the entire country of Cameroon.
Huh? It's true! There are perhaps three or four fields that are flat, grass, regulation size and well-maintained in all of Cameroon! Of them, the RFIS field is tied for best with (or possibly even better than) the stadium pitch used by the national (i.e., men's World Cup) team. Because of this, teams of all sorts want to use it. In fact, this past Monday the RFIS varsity boys scrimmaged the visiting Cameroon women's national team! Yup, we played the team that competed in the Olympics. A couple of their top players were missing, and of course we lost, but our coach got to pray with both teams before the game. In this case, the missionary community's visible prosperity provided an opportunity to begin a relationship with several Cameroonians in positions of significant influence.
My thought is that in general our individual lives should be primarily marked by lowliness, but our church/community testimony should display in at least in certain ways a measure of visible attractiveness and success. That's a difficult mix to achieve--our sinful hearts typically want personal triumph while our mission-school budget lends itself to raw concrete floors and a shortage of dry-erase markers and such. At least the soccer field is pretty cool though!
--David
