Contemporary foreign missionary operations as carried on by churches and para-church organizations of the USA, Canada, Korea and other industrialized countries are in dire need of reformation. Generally, with a few notable exceptions, those who go from one country to another as missionaries end up hindering rather than helping the cause of Christ.

It's not that their motives are wrong. In most cases involving evangelicals, our intentions are good and objectives are noble. But the very thing we seek to accomplish is discredited by the way we operate. Like European crusaders a millennium ago, we march off to "the field" with dreams of glory, confident that we are following "the call" of God. But many times our actions bring dishonor to His Name and prove to be a denial of the very message we are there to proclaim.

You will note that I have put "the field" and "the call" in quotes. These are specialized terms for which unique meanings have been developed by evangelical Christians. In traditional missionary circles these specialized meanings are usually taken for granted. Those who use them assume that all within their circle will assign the specialized meaning in their conscious minds whenever one of the terms is used. To further clarify how certain words mean specific things, or may be used to denote unique concepts within the Christian community, I have prepared a glossary of specialized terms (chapter 23). So if you wish further comment on a word or phrase in quotes, please check chapter 23 to see if more has been added about its meaning to evangelical Christians involved in foreign missionary activities.

Half a century ago I was a young idealist eager to go out and save the world. It is understandable, then, that I was deeply disturbed at that time to read in Dr. Eugene Nida's book, Customs and Cultures, that in African countries when a person wished to slander an enemy he would call him a "son of a missionary." During the years I lived in Asia I found a similar attitude wherever I went. The typical foreign missionary from an industrialized country was looked upon as the ultimate hypocrite. The exact opposite of Jesus of Nazareth.

I found Christ to be held in high esteem by Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and, yes, even by many atheistic Communists. But His self-appointed representatives from "western" countries were often looked upon as being a travesty of what Christianity was presumed to represent.