The Geography of the Mission Field

The Geography of the Mission Field The Geography of the Mission Field
“THE FIELD IS THE WORLD”, CHRIST THE GREAT MISSIONARY

During the Lecture Week there were Round Table Discussions held about the principal fields where churches of Christ were ah ready working or ought to be. The following articles seek to give a summary, incomplete though it must needs be, of those discus* sions and studies. And the geography should be studied. Jesus studied it. (Acts 1:8.) There may be many efforts wasted at pres* ent, too many workers in one field and too few in others. One time my father had me sow some turnip seed in the garden. One corner of the garden got too much seed, three corners didn’t get any. As foolish as I was, aren’t some churches and some preachers doing worse? Paul strove to preach Christ where He had not yet been named (Romans 15:20) and not to build upon another man’s foundation; too many preachers are content to build upon another’s foundation and labors (2 Corinthians 10:15-16; 1 Corinthians 3:10), too many churches are sowing again seed where the field is already overseed* ed instead of going out into virgin soil.

Again, what would you think of a wholesale house that would not sell any products outside its own city or county until every store in its city had put in exclusively its wares? We need to send out our Gospel salesmen wherever there is good sales territory. Brother Hockaday asks: “What would you think of the man who paints each year the front of his barn and never paints any other part of the barn?” Are the well established churches in such places as Tennessee and Texas, where there are capable elders that could easily dispense with a preacher altogether, still “painting the front of the barn”, still paying a big salary to our preacher and only send* ing five or ten percent of our support (our “paint”) out where there is no church established, no elders and where we expect some* one on $25 to $50 per month to do more than our high paid preacher? Such procedure is not scriptural. Paul was the most powerful and capable preacher among the disciples, but he was not kept at Jerusalem. In arranging the Round Table Discussions, or geographical studies, we studied:
I. The Orient, where there is hardly one worker to ONE HUNDRED MILLION heathen.
II. Africa, with its broad expanse and great need of the “light of the World”.
III. The populous Northeast (of our own United States) which is a “great open door”
to millions who never heard of the simple New Testament church in our own nation and our good
neighbor on the North.
IV. The extensive Northwest, with its sturdy but untaught population.
V. The religious Southeast, with its great victories of the past, but with fields still unsown such as
Virginia, and the great numbers of colored folk for whom Christ died also.
VI. The great Southwest with many new fields among the Americans (such as Utah) and still
greater opportunities among the Mexicans and other Spanish'Americans. We did not even get to
mention Europe with its enlightened millions—such an opportunity for profitable missionary investment.
Surely we should sow more seed in sparsely seeded regions. With such broad fields to plant, such good and plenteous seed but such shortage of sowers and of interest in sowing in sparsely seeded fields, surely there should be no jealousy between fields or workers. Mexican workers, for instance, should not try to discour' age those fellowshiping the South Africa work; workers in China should not criticize workers of Japan before the sponsoring church, etc. But above all, our religious papers should not criticize the “errors” of missionary workers anywhere. All workers are fallible, to be sure, for “we have this treasure in earthen vessels”. But no Christian can read 1 Cor. 13 and then drag out to public gossip re' ports that may or may not be true, but are sure to bring great hin' drance to the cause everywhere. Of course, any mistake should be reported and corrected, but it should be reported privately in love to the elders of the sponsoring congregation. They will be able to investigate thoroughly and bring about the correction. In fact, they are the only ones authorized by the New Testament; any other person or agency is setting himself up as “pope”. May we all work together for the evangelization of the whole world!

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Give as many reasons as you can for studying the geography of the mission field.
(You can find many more reasons than this article had space for.)
2. What lessons may be learned from garden sowing? From barn painting? From the business world?
3. What examples did Paul give for all workers in this field?
(Here, too, many other teachings may be found by studying the New Testa' ment with this in view.)
4. Name the principal fields that should be worked. What are the opportunities and responsibilities of
our churches in each of these?
5. What can we and our local congregation do to help or hinder in sowing the seed of the kingdom in
these fields? (Think in terms of some definite field and some definite real work.)