Had a thought today, about something I discussed the other day, in my post on “How monsters are made.”
In that post I pondered a story of child abuse on the foreign mission field, and wondered how people who serve Christ sacrificially, far from home and comforts, could be so totally self-absorbed as to abuse children (child abusers, in my opinion and experience, are by definition people whose hearts are centered on their own needs and desires. They are profoundly selfish people).
I’ve figured out a way to think about it now.
I hasten to add that this is just my own way of wrapping my brain around the problem, and probably tells you more about the workings of my mind than anything in the real world.
But here’s my hypothesis. It starts with a story.
Some years ago, I found myself one evening sitting in a room with a handful of other Christians, all strangers to me.
Most of our time that evening was spent trying to help a young man who was struggling with the idea of becoming a missionary.
He came from a church body (it may have been the same group that ran the school referenced in the Christianity Today article linked in my piece above, but I don’t recall for sure) which taught, as an article of faith, that every true Christian is obligated to be a foreign missionary. If you want to be a disciple of Christ (they taught), you must be a foreign missionary. Refusal might not be the same as apostasy, but it was definitely the same as “putting your hand to the plow and then turning back.” You would be unworthy of the Lord, a spiritual failure.
But this young man felt no desire, or calling, to be a missionary. He saw in himself no missionary gifts. His only motivation was guilt, generated by years of sermons and Sunday School lessons that told him one thing– “You will be a missionary. Or you’re a bad Christian.”
The rest of us, who didn’t come from the same background, tried to explain the doctrine of Vocation to him—that God calls us to serve Him in all kinds of jobs and situations. We also tried to explain the idea of the Body of Christ—that we’re not all equipped for the same ministries, but that there are varieties of gifts and services (see Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12).
It seems to me that someone in that young man’s place, who finally makes the choice to “submit to Christ” and set out on a mission for which he is not suited, could easily become deeply frustrated. Lacking motivation or real talent for the work, he would likely be relegated to such “unimportant” work as teaching at a boarding school. And if he was angry enough, it would not be surprising if he started to take it out on the kids.
I believe that the New Testament provides a relatively clear, and very exciting, blueprint for life in the church, and that that blueprint is wonderfully flexible, involving diversity in unity, and opportunities for the joyful exercise of our individual gifts. I think the church suffers mightily when that blueprint is departed from.
As it generally is. And not just in one denomination.