DNA is neat stuff. People who knew my grandfather have often told me how I look and sound like him. I like that. He was a great man of God and I loved him dearly. I’m glad I have some of his DNA. My daughter resembles both me and my wife in some ways. I rather like that, too! Again, we owe it to DNA. But I’m not exactly like my grandfather, and my daughter, thankfully, is a lot more than a replica of Pris and me. I’m also glad for that. That’s what God had in mind, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. It is his plan for the generations: the same, but different. I’d call it genius, but it’s much more than that. It’s divine.
I believe God has a divine plan for the World Mission Prayer League, too. DNA is involved. And smartphones. A lot of other things, too, some of which remain the same and others that change, but today I want to talk to you about DNA and smartphones.
Last month I wrote about the “sequel” I believe God is writing in the history of the Prayer League. Generally, a sequel features adventures, settings, and even characters that are different from those in the original volume. However, something of the spirit and essence of the original remains in and guides the sequel. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a sequel. The sequel contains the “DNA” of the original.
Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit would guide clearly our understanding of the “DNA” God has placed in the World Mission Prayer League. This will be a very important task for our board and staff this year: to discern and define clearly the values and principles that uniquely make WMPL what it is, things that must not change and must continue on in the sequel. As you may already know, many of these deep convictions are set forth in our handbook, and were derived from Spirit-led mission movements that preceded the beginning of WMPL. They are truths we find embedded in the WMPL story, and we understand that they will also bring life to the sequel.
The primary concern that the Lord has placed in the heart of the Prayer League is that his redeeming love be made known to people in the world who have little or no access to the gospel. For over 80 years now, the members and workers of WMPL have prayed, labored and sacrificed for this aim above all aims. The goal of salvation for all peoples has not changed! It remains the same, as does the power of God’s Word which achieves it, but the contexts in which God’s mission is accomplished have been irreversibly and dramatically altered. In an increasingly post-Christian North America, followers of Jesus will more and more find themselves to be a countercultural minority. Globally speaking, their role in God’s mission will be organizationally more international, financially more costly, politically more risky, and technologically more complex.
What does all this mean for the WMPL sequel God is preparing to write? Some things – the essential “DNA” – will remain the same, but other things, by necessity, will be very, very different. This is where I want to talk to you about smartphones, simply as an illustration of the way the sequel is bound to be different.
Thirty years ago I traveled by foot for multiple day visits into remote tribal villages in the mountains of North Luzon, Philippines. I took very little with me: my Bible, a sheet of plastic (as a poncho of sorts), some soap and a toothbrush, a change of underwear, and a bottle of sulfur (to keep the fleas from going up my pant legs at night). That’s really all I needed. Quite frankly, the people I was with didn’t have much more than that. Though I wasn’t serving with WMPL at that time, my service very much fit WMPL’s philosophy of keeping things simple. Do it all with less. Yes!
I’ve been back to some of those villages recently. Boy, have things changed! The churches have grown and matured in wonderful ways. The believers there are passionately spreading the gospel. They have electricity now! And they all have smartphones. That’s right. Smartphones. I wouldn’t even think of going into those villages today without a smartphone. It’s how they communicate with one another. In fact, now it’s the way I communicate with them regularly and readily from the other side of the world! It’s also the way I communicate with my daughter and those of her generation, and, for that matter, anyone younger than myself. What a blessing!
I still really like our WMPL ideal of simplicity. But simplicity isn’t what it once was. I love our WMPL DNA! It needs to remain, determining by God’s design who we are, both now and in generations to come. Some things simply must not change. However, other things, and probably most things, need to be very different. They will be different in the sequel that God is writing for the WMPL story. He’ll be sure of that. He’ll also be sure of the things that must be the same. Different, but the same. Pray for it. It’s divine.