Chapter 13
What a Nation’s Visitors
Should Do
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of
God,
having been built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together
for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
— Ephesians 2:19-22 (NKJV)
History is filled with misunderstandings made by visitors to
a nation who failed to appreciate the context, tradition, culture, or
assumptions of those who lived there. With an increasing number of urban areas
becoming filled with the same companies, offerings, and amusements as are found
in a visitor’s home nation, it’s easy to assume incorrectly that more is the
same than different.
By visitors addressing God’s
agenda for a nation in cooperation with brothers and sisters in Christ who are
citizens and permanent residents, many of such misunderstandings can be
avoided. Even after becoming aware of how easy it is to make mistakes, visitors
still need to approach gaining understanding with unselfish love, an open mind,
eager curiosity, genuine interest, and much respect.
God wants visitors to be part of
transmitting His love and plans for a nation. Just consider that if Jesus had
not commanded His disciples to make still more disciples in all nations
(Matthew 28:19-20, NKJV), many more people would not know the Good News today.
Even when dealing with something
as potentially fruitful as sharing the Gospel, it’s possible for a visitor to
do harm by developing and projecting a superior, instead of humble, attitude
that will repel listeners rather than attract them. I cannot emphasize too much
that visitors should assume that acting on their unrestrained fleshly instincts
is as likely to be fruitful for the Lord as are the tantrums of an assertive
two-year-old.
Visitors should be especially
aware that many times God’s plan is for them to learn from the nation they visit, rather than to instruct it. For
example, many people who visit churches constructed of cardboard boxes that are
sited on landfills become more impressed by the love of God and spiritual
riches they experience with their brothers and sisters in Christ there than
with awfulness of the material poverty. From such an experience, a visitor can
begin to appreciate how having material comforts can get in the way of having a
fuller relationship with God.
Some visitors are, in fact, keen
observers who quickly learn many important lessons. In such cases, permanently
capturing those lessons can become an important way to guide future generations
within and without the nation that’s visited. As an example, I’m reminded of
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat who visited the United States in 1831. He wrote a
book describing why the nation was then so productive, based on having been
impressed by how citizens voluntarily chose to serve in meeting the needs of
others because of their piety. Debates about the proper role of government in
the United States
still draw wisdom from de Tocqueville’s observations.
Keep these cautions in mind as we
examine these important steps for fruitfully visiting another nation:
• Understand how visiting by
anyone adds to or detracts from God’s purposes.
• Learn and act on what God has
called a particular visitor to do for that nation’s fruitfulness.
Let’s begin with understanding how a visitor’s presence adds
to or detracts from God’s purposes.
Understand How Visiting by Anyone Adds
to
or Detracts from God’s Purposes
And they took him and brought him to the
Areopagus, saying,
“May we know what this new doctrine is of which you
speak?
For you are bringing some strange things
to our ears.
Therefore we want to know what these
things mean.”
For all the Athenians and the foreigners
who were there
spent their time in nothing else but
either to tell or to hear some new thing.
— Acts 17:19-21 (NKJV)
When the Apostle Paul addressed the crowd in the Areopagus,
he failed to fully appreciate how the Athenians and foreigners there loved to
learn of and to dispute about new things. As a result, any new thing would get
a hearing. But after much debating, most such new information would be rejected
in favor of traditional thinking. In attempting to craft a clever argument,
Paul failed to use the right approach for softening the hearts of his hearers.
While subsequently visiting other
Greek cities, Paul made the wiser decision of just sharing the Gospel message
without trying to dispute logically with his hearers. Consequently, the Holy
Spirit’s influence worked better in the other cities, allowing Paul’s messages
to be more fruitful in softening hearts. It’s a cautionary tale for helping us
to appreciate that actions based on good intentions for wanting to “fit in”
after good faith efforts to understand a nation’s culture aren’t necessarily
going to generate the most fruitful results.
The relevant measures for
ascertaining the impact of visitors on a nation are the same as for those who
regularly live there: Add to spiritual, moral, health, emotional, and physical
fruitfulness as defined in Chapter 1.
Let me provide a few examples of
what to avoid that can detract from each dimension of fruitfulness. In the
spiritual dimension, for instance, a visitor can unintentionally distract a
nation’s people from seeking Salvation and from encouraging others to do so.
Here’s how that can happen.
Imagine that most of those who proclaim the Gospel in a nation are materially
poor people. Now, picture the potential reactions that unsaved people might
have to a well-dressed visitor who has been successful in business. Seeing such
a visitor may cause others to emulate the outer attributes of the person, such
as the manner of speaking, acting, and dressing. Yet the source of all the
material success is God’s grace due to the businessperson’s heart being
committed to God and the person having faith in God’s plans for his or her
life. If the businessperson doesn’t share her or his faith while visiting and
give the glory to God for the material results, much harm can result due to
people drawing incorrect conclusions.
In the moral dimension, a visitor
can unintentionally encourage immoral behavior. Here’s a simple example. A
visitor might express an interest in taking a tour to meet local people.
Without being asked to do so, the person who arranges for the tour might employ
immoral methods to make the tour “nicer,” such as bribing officials for special
access to what is prohibited and arranging for police to remove beggars from
their regular locations.
In terms of health, many
countries lack enough clean drinking water. A visitor might not realize that
taking a long shower in a modern hotel is using up drinking water so that some
poor people will be drinking more tainted water.
Emotional fruitfulness is a
fragile capability for many people who are living under great stress. A visitor
who is going to be touring a factory may not realize that each worker there
will be expected to put in hundreds of extra hours for no pay to make the
premises even cleaner and neater than usual, exhausting the workers and leaving
them too physically drained to encourage others to take fruitful actions.
Trying to enhance physical
fruitfulness leads many well-meaning visitors to make serious errors. Visitors
may confuse providing immediate material benefits, such as paying for some
need, with being the most fruitful thing to do. In fact, such a one-time
provision during a visit may undermine the efforts of local people who are
seeking to strengthen communities to identify and to apply their own
breakthrough solutions that can be continually afforded and provided from quite
limited local resources. Consequently, temporary provision by a visitor may
lead potentially self-sufficient people to decide they should, instead, just
depend on asking for handouts from visitors.
Let’s now look at a few examples
of the potential for positive influence in these same fruitfulness dimensions.
A visitor who hands out copies of his or her testimony and asks those she or he
meets to describe their spiritual experiences, as well, can help expand
awareness of God’s glory and draw more people to become interested in repenting
and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
In terms of moral influence, a
concerned visitor who asks about the potential impact of personal actions on
those in the nation will show God’s love in a way that may inspire expanded
consideration by people in the nation during the visit as well as afterwards.
If the visitor asks hosts for opportunities to serve others in self-sacrificing
and humble ways while in the country, the hosts may join in doing such
activities then and in the future.
Healthier living conditions may
be difficult for many poor people to obtain without changing some of their
long-held practices. A visitor who takes the time to learn from people in that
nation how to help people there to improve their own health practices and who
effectively encourages those practices could contribute to expanding
healthiness.
Emotional fruitfulness might be
increased by helping people to realize that they can accomplish a great deal
more, giving them hope for a better spiritual, moral, health, emotional, and
physical future. Conducting a meeting where breakthrough solution methods are
described and also facilitating investigations by those who attend to create
their own solutions could help to provide such a benefit.
In terms of physical
fruitfulness, many businesspeople don’t know about the great benefits that they
and their stakeholders will receive when the needs and desires of more types of
nonstakeholders are properly considered in making business decisions. Someone who
wanted to add value in this way could bring some copies of Business Basics and The 2,000
Percent Nation to share with people there who are committed Christians but
don’t realize all the ways that God wants them to operate their businesses.
While circumstances will be
different from country to country in terms of understanding the unintended
potential to add to or to avoid harming a nation’s fruitfulness, let me suggest
a few practices that can help:
• Pray for guidance from the Holy
Spirit before planning your trip and throughout your visit.
• Reach out to Christian brothers
and sisters who live in the nation to advise you on what practices to use and
which ones to avoid while visiting.
• Ask for advice from Christians
who are not native to the nation but who have long served in expanding Godly
fruitfulness there.
• Politely explain to any hosts
or hostesses for your visit that you wish to contribute to and not to detract
from the nation’s spiritual, moral, health, emotional, and physical
fruitfulness by sharing examples of what you have learned from visiting other
nations.
• If someone offers “special”
treatment, indicate that you do not want wish to reduce anyone’s spiritual,
moral, health, emotional, or physical circumstances as a consequence.
• Share your Christian testimony
with everyone you meet.
• If you feel uncomfortable in
any circumstance, ask questions until you understand what the Holy Spirit is
communicating to you.
The subject of understanding how
to add to and to avoiding harming a nation’s fruitfulness while visiting could
fill a whole book. I leave you to pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance to help
you determine how else you should approach gaining such understanding before
and during your visits to other nations. Let’s now shift our attention to
learning and acting on what God has called a particular visitor to do for that
nation’s fruitfulness.
Learn and Act on What God Has Called a
Particular Visitor
to Do for That Nation’s Fruitfulness
The LORD is righteous in
all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
The LORD is near to all
who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who
fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save
them.
— Psalm 145:17-19 (NKJV)
Just because you receive an invitation from someone to visit
a nation, you should not assume that God has called you to go there and to
perform acts that will enhance fruitfulness. Instead, such invitations may be
inspired by the enemy who is in the world in hopes of leading you and others
astray. Even if there is no evil influence motivating the invitation, there may
be the potential for evil to occur due to results that the enemy can use. Or,
the invitation may represent nothing more than someone’s secular purpose, with
no particular fruitfulness dimension connected to it. Even when Godly people
invite you for what seem to be Godly purposes, they may be unaware of greater
fruitfulness dimensions that the Lord has in mind for you to address.
In making these observations, I
don’t mean to make you leery of accepting any invitations you receive to visit.
I do, however, want to make you aware that the fullest potential for enhancing
Godly influences on fruitfulness may require decisions and actions on your part
that will not be obvious from the nature of the invitation.
Since each person’s calling from
the Lord is unique and the circumstances of a given nation vary from time to
time, it’s impossible to present precise instructions for how to learn and to
act on what God has called a specific visitor to do for that nation’s
fruitfulness. However, let me list some practices that may help:
• Start by considering your most
fruitful visits to other nations to identify activities that might be
appropriate for an upcoming visit to a given nation. If you have already been
to that nation, be sure to carefully consider those prior experiences.
• Review what you are confident
that God has called you to do for enhancing fruitfulness.
• Develop hypotheses about what
fruitful activities are most appropriate for you to do in that nation on this
particular visit.
• Pray for guidance from the Holy
Spirit about your calling and the appropriateness of these hypothetical
fruitful activities.
• Test what you learn from the
Holy Spirit by contacting Christians in that nation who are citizens,
noncitizens who are long-term inhabitants, and relatively new residents. Check
for both appropriateness of the activities in general and for how to conduct
them. If you receive conflicting advice, put the people in contact with one
another and ask them to help resolve any differences so you will understand the
advice.
• Check your ideas for enhancing
Godly fruitfulness with any hosts, hostesses, or sponsors you have who aren’t
Christians. They may be able to help, especially in nations where there are
relatively few Christians. In particular, they can assist in avoiding false
steps that could create barriers between you and those you want to help.
• Stay in prayer for guidance,
humility, and submission to God’s will throughout your planning period, the
visit itself, and your continuing contacts with the nation.
• Keep alert for nonverbal signs
of what you are to do and not to do. These signs may well show up just in the
nick of time.
• If you have a choice between
making a temporary contribution to Godly fruitfulness and encouraging someone
who lives in the nation and making a longer-term contribution using local
resources, do your best to encourage the longer-term contribution.
Having seen how much care must be
taken to help enhance Godly fruitfulness as a visitor, you are now be in a much
better position to consider how to contribute more to a nation’s fruitfulness
where you are a citizen or a long-term resident, the subject of Chapter 14.
Copyright
© 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Donald W. Mitchell.
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Scripture
quotations marked (NKJV)
are taken
from the New King James Version.
Copyright
© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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