James 4:2-4 You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Contextualization is a well known danger within missions. It happens when someone sharing the gospel uses portions of the existing culture, especially existing religion, to draw parallels to Jesus’ message. Only someone lacking Biblical study would dare to call this outright wrong. In fact, Paul himself, is a prime example of contextualization in his sermon on Mars’ Hill beginning in Acts 17:22. Rob Bell named his church Mars Hill and has made his ministry unique in his integration of American modern cultural context with the teachings of the Bible. This has earned him some significant scorn from mainstream Christianity and some have gone so far as to call him a heretic.

Despite Paul’s example, there are significant dangers with contextualization. Without sufficient understanding of the cultural or religious figures we draw parallels to we can easily make big mistakes that devastate our cause rather than further it. What if the “unknown god” that Paul pointed to was well known for his sexual promiscuity, or hatred of some people group? The Holy Spirit inspired Paul’s message because, in that case, it was the right thing, at the right time. However, it will not always be the right thing, and it won’t always be the right time.

Rob Bell’s version, and many of the most “successful” (by worldly standards) ministries today draw their popularity from pop culture. Some common criticisms are smoke machines, light shows, pretty boys with fancy hair and makeup, the makings of any rock concert with “glorify God” in the fine print. The criticisms are not misplaced, this is a dangerous path to tread, and unless the Lord builds the house those people labor in vain. Or in this case, labor in vanity.

A conversation with a missionary friend the other day got me thinking about a guy named Marshall McLuhan. Back in the 1960s he was a respected theorist, specifically on the topic of communication and coined the phrase “the medium is the message”. His theory was, in my most likely oversimplified summary, that it’s not what you say but how you say it that matters. Or more specifically, how you say things is the message you communicate no matter what you say. So with smoke machines, fancy hair and makeup, a mad riff on the electric guitar synthesized beyond recognition, and “praise be to God” tacked on to the end of every sentence. With that the message communicated would not be “praise be to God”. It would be, fix your hair, practice your music skills, get yourself a tan, and you can be a star like me.

It’s a dangerous road. Many missionary organizations, especially ones that target young people, will remove a crucial aspect of service and replace it with the exact opposite. Having identified their own “statue to an unknown god”. Unfortunately, what they don’t know about this god is dangerous. That crucial aspect they remove is sacrifice, and they replace it with adventure and excitement. Hmm… college/work or great adventure… college/work… great adventure??? Hmmm… Like bees to honey young people flock to that organization, signing up for a great adventure while calling it mission. They get a taste of a summer camp/lock in/high school party all wrapped up in one. They are the star of their own action movie! The hope is, they will also get a taste of mission, and of service. Little bits of synthesized sacrifice are injected into this process in a controlled environment, they’re young after all, got to start small. I know several people who have come out of the other side of that with a heart of service and a healthy recognition of the sacrifice demanded by the gospel. I also know more yet that come out with a completely skewed view of what missions is about. They become global tourists or worse yet, just disillusioned and depressed having no way to ever reach that level of euphoria again. Unless, of course, they do more partying!

Here in Asia, where incomes are lower as well as expectations, young people that go into these programs do serve in ways that offer little hope of excitement. That relative of course to their western counterparts. In fact, some of those same organizations that create fictional private fantasy games for westerners are rigorously working to facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of their Asian patrons. Every single instance will undoubtedly be different, but the fact is good trees bear good fruit. Trees are not organizations, trees are people entrusted with responsibilities in whatever way that comes about.

So reconsider James chapter 4. “Friendship with the world is hatred toward God.” Replacing sacrifice with pleasure damages our relationship with our creator and ultimately reduces our faith. God’s work in our lives is hindered by it as James 4 above explains. When we live this way, we don’t experience the generosity of God because we aren’t trustworthy. We assume that is how God works, and we grow colder and less faithful, and so on, and so on.

Let me close with a final little story. Young guy comes to an Asian Country. Really nice guy, loves God, but loves stuff too. Most of us do. He wants to do something big, so he convinces a small church to help him put together an orphanage. What a great ministry! What great updates… how proud all the people that contributed to his work must be. A few months later the young guy heads back to his Country promising to raise support for this work. A few months after that, sends an email to the little church who are still looking after the children… Dear Church, I’m sorry, I’m too busy with school to raise any money. You’re on your own…. Now, to top it all off, guy has break from school and spends the thousands of dollars to come back and visit, to have some more adventure… That pastor will smile and welcome this young man, knowing that the money he spent to fly here could have fed those children for a year. He may even let him share with the congregation about how he has been doing. Then that young man will write his friends and family about more of the great sacrifices he has made and that Pastor, the Pastor’s family, that church, they will all continue to be the ones who do the actual labor. That is the danger of the kind of missions many organizations are doing. The kind where long term is 2 years. On the bright side I’ve seen young people in that exact program who see through the illusion to the reality. They are sobered by the reality and learn a very important lesson. When they return, it won’t likely be for pleasure.