INTRODUCTION
Some people have referred to Lottie Moon as the “Patron Saint” of Southern Baptist missions.” Nonetheless, the legacy of Lottie exemplifies the “missionary spirit” for Southern Baptists. Moreover, Lottie’s impact on missions has resulted in over 3.5 billion dollars given by church members to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Additionally, Lottie has been a role model for Baptist mission work and sacrifice for almost 140 years.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MISSIONS AND LEGACY
Advocate for Equal Treatment of Women in Missions
Lottie was an ambitious woman, earning one of the first graduate degrees awarded to a woman in the southern United States. After finishing her degree, she gained success operating schools in Kentucky and Georgia. However, God had greater plans for Lottie. Reluctant Christians called to serve as missionaries can learn from Lottie’s example. According to Lottie, God’s call to serve as a missionary in China was “clear as a bell.” Lottie immediately followed God’s call, and arrived in Shantung China to “go out among the millions.” However, she found herself confined to a school of forty “unstudious” children. As a result, Lottie complained that giving women such assignments was "the greatest folly of modern missions." Lottie pleaded that women missionaries deserved “free opportunity to do the largest possible work.” Thus, she became a pioneer and advocate for “women’s rights within the Southern Baptist Convention.” In addition, she had a lasting impact regarding “female equality in mission work.”
Lottie courageously traveled across more than 10,000 square miles, visiting with women and sharing the Gospel in their homes and on the streets.” She was the first woman from any foreign mission group in China...
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...ing foreign missions.” Christian’s can learn from Lottie’s example by advocating similar issues facing the Church today.
Advocate for a Better Quality of Life for Missionaries
Lottie’s impact on mission board policy was remarkable. She advocated that newly appointed missionaries become involved in mission work immediately rather than wait to complete language study. In addition, she helped in establishing regular furloughs for all missionaries. Lottie left a legacy that paved the way for the growth of the largest missionary force of any evangelical or Protestant denomination. Many people who no longer support the Southern Baptist Convention gladly give to the Lottie Moon Offering “because it doesn’t feel like Christmas” without it. Future missionaries can learn from Lottie’s example by continually looking for ways to make missions more successful and organized.
N.T. Wright: During my first semester at Northwestern College, I was assigned the book, “The Challenge of Jesus” by N.T. Wright for one of my Biblical Studies courses. This book and every other book Tom Wright has written has dramatically impacted my Christian faith. Dr. Wright has not only defended the basic tenants of the Christian faith, but also has shown how an academically-minded pastor ought to love and care for his or her congregants. N.T. Wright was previously the Bishop of Durham and pastored some of the poorest in the United Kingdom. His pastoral ministry has helped shape his understanding of God’s kingdom-vision which he is diagramming within his magnum opus “Christian Origins and the Question of God”. This series has instructed myself and countless other pastors to be for God’s kingdom as we eagerly await Christ’s return. Additionally, I have had the privilege of meeting with N.T. Wright one-on-one on numerous occasions to discuss faith, the Church, and his research. I firmly believe Tom Wright is the greatest New Testament scholar of our generation and he is the primary reason why I feel called into ministry.
While comparing her time, theology and spiritual practice we realize she lived during the time of immense change, similarly we are living on the edge of a challenged modernity. Her spiritual direction allows us to recognize and develop further abilities in our pastoral ministries of caring for one another as participants within the corporate communities as well as within the mission fields.
Adoniram Judson: A Bicentennial Appreciation of The Pioneer American Missionary. Edited By Jason G. Duesing, Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2012, xvii + 184 pp., $24.99 Paperback.
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file.
One important aspect of Quaker life to understand before reading An Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone, is the use of traveling ministers to spread the Quaker religion around the world. The Society of Friends, given the popular name “Quakers”, originated in England in the seventeenth century and quickly spread to the English colonies, and later to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Turkey, and America (Sharpless 393). The most influential people in this rapid spread of the Quaker religion were the missionaries. While Quakers believed that “no one should preach the Word without a direct call from God”, they did believe that any one “male or female, old or young (395)” could receive this call. The truth of the matter was, however, that the majority of the traveling ministers in the seventeenth century were women.
As I kept on reading, there was a strong connection between the novel and the Operation Auca missionary trip in Ecuador in 1956. The life of a native like Oknokwo’s and his tribe are rough and can be a problem with the more civilized people in a country. God needed some of His followers to reach towards the tribes to teach the Gospel, so that they can get along with anyone that intersects with the natives. In the mission trip in Ecuador, five missionaries were speared to death to spread God’s Word. After words, their wives took their places, took part in the native tribe, and members accepted Christ in their lives. When I read through the book, one question was connected to me; the question said, “What do Christian missionaries do in different cultures to spread the Gospel?”
Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis inspired missionaries to travel to foreign nations.
The Gospel Spreading Church was founded by a man by the name of Elder Solomon “Lightfoot” Michaux, who was born, raised, and educated in Virginia. In 1906, Lightfoot came to Mary Eliza Pauline, a woman one year his junior, was born and raised in the church. With hard work and dedication, by the age of 34, Lightfoot, had become “a prosperous business man, securing large government contracts to furnish food to defense establishments.” Mrs. Michaux prayed for the salvation of her husband daily, and one day, “God saved him and from that time forward, they worked as a team in gospel ministry.” One year after finding salvation, Elder Michaux was ordained and licensed. He then began preaching at a small church called “Everybody’s Mission” which he had built up from scratch. Moving from Everybody’s Mission, Michaux began once again to build a church, this time starting from a tent. It was here, in this tent, that one hundred and fifty people would come to accept the Lord as their Savior, and would join the Michaux family in becoming the foundation of the Gospel Spreading Church (GSC).
Lech, F. (2008). African girls, ninteeth-century mission education and the patriarchal imperative. Taylor and Francis.
I have learned a great deal about the Saints of the Catholic Church. Coming from a Protestant background, I knew very little about any of these individuals, nor did I ever really care about their missions or what they endured. This class has given me incredible insight to the lives of these astonishing individuals. For example, I learned that St. Anthony never took a bath. St. Francis of Assisi talked to animals and is believed to be the first person to experience the stigmata. St. Joseph of Cupertino is believed to have been able to fly.
Tennent, Timothy C. 2010. Invitation To World Missions. 1st ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
In Holy Boldness Women Preachers’ Autobiographies and the Sanctified Self, the history of women in ministry is addressed. The excerpt given starts by discussing the pioneers of women ministers—Wesleyan/Holiness groups. It was in the Holiness movement in the late 19th century where women preachers began to first emerge publicly. The main impetus for these women was the second work of grace, sanctification. According to several Holiness women (such as Julia Foote and Amanda Smith), they were freed from fear and doubt when they were sanctified. It was also at that point when most of the women were called to preach. Sanctification empowered them to be public witnesses of Christ. Many of these women were licensed with Holiness organizations. However, there were also many who could not receive ordination or licensing from their organizations because of opposition to women in ministry. During that time period, women were thought to have a specific “sphere.” Women were to work in the home with their children, not to preach. Most women preachers rejected this idea of ‘women’s work.’ Some even rejected the idea that the husband should be the head of the house. This did not mean that those of these women who were mothers were irresponsible or lax. Indeed many of th...
The postscript demonstrates the true meaning of missions in a global, postcolonial age through the telling of the gospel
Ritchie, M. (1999). Community bible chapel. The story of the church – Part 4, Topic 5. The Protestant
To answer God’s calling Mother Teresa decided to become a nun when she got older. In church one day she saw pictures of starving families in small cities around India. She consulted the Father for adv...