By Alan Ch’ng
What does it mean to live among the lost?
How far should we go in becoming all things to all people?
What should we do with our fears?
These questions are surely voiced by laborers around the world. Most recently, they have been asked by Navigators in pioneering contexts in the Africa Region. On October 9-10, 2021, I had the privilege of meeting virtually with 85 of them. This forum was set up to help them engage with “mission to the unreached and underreached,” which they have identified as a key aspect in advancing the gospel in Africa. They have defined five broad groups of unreached and underreached in their context: rural, poor, Muslims, illiterate/oral learners, and idol worshippers.
As we discussed principles and examples of laying a foundational generation to raise disciples who spread the Gospel, they asked these very good questions and more:
What does it mean to live among the lost?
Simply having non-believing neighbors is very different from intentionally sharing life, engaging with them and relating to them deeply. The group was very challenged to think of Luke 7:34, where Jesus was described as a “friend of sinners” (not just a friend to sinners) and pondered what that might mean for them and their reputations.
How far should we go in becoming all things to all people?
It’s easy for us to want to “draw a line” in engaging the lost as a protection mechanism for ourselves. We need to ask ourselves what is at the root of that behavior.
What should we do with our fears?
The early disciples also faced fears as they shared the Gospel. In Acts 4, after the believers were questioned by the rulers and teachers of the law, we read that they prayed for boldness, not for protection. Are we willing to do the same?
As they discussed these questions, they agreed that:
The fear of befriending sinners is real; the cost of befriending sinners must be counted.
Loving genuinely to share in the lives of sinners is tough. We need wisdom to love, especially when they are involved in illegal activities or they prefer a major moral shift.
We need courage to take risks with our eyes on Jesus, to allow the Gospel to drive us and to keep the Gospel at the forefront of the relationship.
As they move forward, two more major questions they want to answer are:
Who should we be laboring together with as we engage the lost?
What will a missional community look like in our context?
How would you answer these questions in your own context?
Here’s a story that one of our African leaders told in response to these questions.
In a Francophone West African country, a student we will call Bamidele began to follow Jesus. Her family background includes pervasive idol worship such as making regular sacrifices and incisions on the body for protection. Bamidele’s family told her she was too young to make her own decisions about her way of life. They tried to prevent her from connecting with the group of disciples she was meeting with, but she stood firm. She moved in with another student disciple to communicate clearly that she belonged to a community of Christians that she trusted.
Then Bamidele’s family tried to block her access to the Christian community by keeping her away from the university where she connected with them. The family told her she shouldn't go take final exams because a society that had supported her in middle school and high school was trying to arrest her for some kind of debt she owed them. But the missional community offered to go with her and discuss the accusations with that society. They said if she had any debt, they would accept responsibility for it, because she had become like family. Several believers went with Bamidele to meet with the director of the society, who told them Bamidele had no debt. Quite the opposite: she had been one of their star members and they were happy to see her! Bamidele realized her family’s threat was an attempt to separate her from the believers.
Bamidele was able to keep standing firm in her home because of the support of the community around her. She was not bitter against her family members, but kept reaching out to keep their bonds strong. As she grew in her faith, she began sharing Bible stories with her mother. One day after she prayed with her mother, she heard someone else behind her say “amen!” She found out it was one of her father’s other wives, who had also begun to participate in the Bible story time with Bamidele’s mother. Bamidele is praying for all the members of her family with her community of believers. She has been able to share with three of her family members and is trusting God for opportunities to share with her cousins as well.
Bamidele’s situation shows us the strength of community laboring together among the lost. They empowered Bamidele to set aside her fears as they intentionally shared their lives with her, creating a place for her to belong and encouraging her to stay connected with her relational network and model the change in her life through Christ.
The worldwide partnership can benefit from thinking through many of these same questions in our own contexts. One final question for us all to consider: What are the questions we need to be asking Jesus about our ministry to the lost?
