I tire of reading either/or, incarnation vs proclamation opinions or even discipleship vs evangelism. Really? It’s a false dichotomy. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It’s not enough to just say it, we have to share it. And vice versa. Both/And is ALL IN.
A great example of this came to mind as I reflected on a talk given earlier this year I heard at Exponential by Oscar Murio from Nairobi Chapel. I look forward to meeting him next January in Kenya to discuss the idea of ‘New Thing Global.’
Oscar passionately shared something of this challenging story, first recounted by Robert Murray McCheyne, so I tracked it down for a little more detail.
At the beginning of the C19th a missionary from England happened to be on a hilltop in South Africa, and as he glanced over a wall that surrounded a leper colony, saw two lepers ploughing a field.
One had lost his hands, the other had lost his feet. The one without hands was carrying the one without feet, and they would stop at each pre-dug hole in the field. The one with hands, riding on the other’s back, would drop a seed into the hole while the other would cover it with dirt by his foot. He told the heart breaking story to others.
Two young Moravian missionaries heard about the situation. They began to pray, and both felt the leading of the Spirit to enter the leper village, preach the good news and ‘be Jesus’ there.
‘Can we go in?’ They asked.
Yes, but…
They knew the consequences – once a person entered such a village they were forbidden to ever come out again. It was a death sentence. But both willingly went in to show and tell the love of God to these people.