We love our methods.
We have our prayer and ministry techniques that we believe will convert and change people.
We count the number of "hands raised" and "bodies slain".
We compare the amount of funds raised.
We record the number of locals who muttered the sinners' prayer.
"Though we may deny it in theory, yet we show by word and act that we are convinced that material possessions mark the successful man-even the spiritual Christian..."
Yes. Many locals may have responded and we are satisfied or maybe relieved that our "methods" have worked.
"The debilitating departmentalisation of Western culture insidiously threatens to make some missionaries satisfied with producing emotional Christians who are intellectually still pagans.
This type of cultural hybrid is not only reproductively sterile, but what is worse, has become one of the principal reasons for mounting suspicion among foreign people, who resolutely reject imperialism, whether political, economic, or socio-religious".
Beyond that moment of "power" and "anointing", what have we done for the local people? Have we truly identified with the locals?
Nida suggests that "what really counts is having a mind which can understand, hands which join with others in common tasks, and a heart which responded to others' joys and sorrows".
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