Theology Matters

Part of our TIMO curriculum is that we read a missionary biography every unit—a practice I really enjoy, since I didn’t grow up in an evangelical church and had no idea what a missionary was until I realized I wanted to be one. And, yes, I really like to read and learn, I’m finding.
In the last two days, I polished off two books about William Carey, “The Father of Modern Missions.” We were assigned a short article about him last unit and watched a video while we were in Nairobi , so my interest about this guy was really peaked. I can’t believe what he did in India , a place completely in the grip of Hinduism and Buddism. He went there in the name of the Lord, to preach the Gospel, but he didn’t just trust God to use the Gospel to save souls; he trusted God to use the Gospel to change society. And, wow, did it.
I would go on and on about all this guy did—he was a common shoemaker in England, but ignited modern missions, convincing Christians that the Great Commission was still valid today; he was a botanist who made huge inroads in the field in India; a self-made linguist, translating the Bible into 40 or so languages, while also translating the Indians own literary works; he was hugely responsible for the outlawing of infanticide and, later, widow burning… etc., etc., etc.—but I couldn’t do it justice.
Two things have really hit me in my study about Carey.
First, this guy really poured himself out for the Gospel, for the cause of Christ. He went hard. He was compelled by Scripture, compelled by Christ. The sacrifices he made were intense. The persecution he endured, amazing. God used him in huge ways. And I want to trust God to use me in huge ways, too.
The second thing ties into what I said before, about him not just doing the modern missions thing of thinking the Gospel stops at evangelism, at sharing the good news and welcoming new believers and separating ourselves from the world. He really believed in the social, political and economical effects of the Gospel. And his ministry affected that. And I can see—and the last book I read helped me to see even more clearly—that this guy’s theology had a HUGE affect on how he went about doing God’s work.
This has been a huge lesson for me while I’ve been here—that the theology we hold (consciously or unconsciously) really dictates how we live our lives, how we worship and think of our God, how we share that God with other people and how we expect that God to work. I’ve been learning about, in a word, presupposition. It’s HUGE. I can’t believe it. I don’t read books the same way; I don’t look at my days the same way; I don’t look at my God the same way. I’ve been forced to dig deeper, to examine why I do the things I do, think the things I think; why missionary organizations function the way they do; why writers write the way they write. There’s so much unsaid, so much underneath that governs how we respond to God. And it’s not always good.
Our team is going through a Francis Schaeffer series—How Shall We Then Live? It starts in the Roman Empire and explains how Christianity affected society and culture and how culture and society affected Christianity. It’s helped me to look at things and ask, “Where did this belief come from? Is it biblical or cultural? What influenced it? What does it influence?” It’s terribly interesting. If you can get your hands on it, watch it. It’ll change the way you think.
I guess this probably doesn’t make much sense to anyone—I haven’t done a very good job of explaining it and I’ve learned a lot of people run from even the mere mention of theology—but it’s what I’m learning on the academic side of this trip, so I thought I’d share. I’m growing so much in my walk.