Nice to meet you, have you heard about Hell?

The concept of "missionaries" has always been a little suspect. By definition, missionaries "go." They enter into a foreign place, not native to them...otherwise they wouldn't be missionaries, they'd be locals who believe in something. In a lot of ways missionaries are an extremely American concept saturated in ethnocentrism. OF COURSE, this does not mean there are not extraordinary people technically titled missionaries (like say a Macedonian woman who moves to Calcutta and takes care of the worlds most desperate people). The suspect concept is the literal antonym to the concept of leaving and helping people, its the concept of entering and assuming.

The real crime in the concept of missional work is not Americans moving to China to help build sustaining communities (is their anything that more meets the core of selflessness?) The problem is when a pompous, middle-aged white guy assumes with his college education and smug smile, any culture besides middle America is easily sculpted and effortlessly entered into. They sit around and toss terms like "post-moderns, or urbanites" and immediately classify huge age, race, or economic groups into tiny definitions, which after defining are easily understood, minimized, and ready for transformation by the intellectual giant who stereotyped them.

In the early 20th century, single, middle-aged women from Presbyterian churches around America were commissioned to "help" the southwest as it changed from Mexico to America. These missionaries moved into villages and brought with them refrigerators and ovens with stove tops. They thought with these flashy appliances, clearly more sophisticated than the household items of these villages, then these people would immediately reject Catholicism and find Jesus...not necessarily literally in the fridge, but still.

Its the same thing today; the greatest link is the contemporary church. White dudes playing Nashville twanged pop songs with daft lyrics, all the while confident that this "olive branch" to the "sight and sound generation" will attract people to spirituality. Assuming some hipster kid or confident young jock is going to hear an old guy make a cute comparison between a Nickleback song and why they should be a Christian.

Christianity was never intended to be a momentous concept of simple conversion, passport stamping for heaven, or transfer of eternal destination. Its a spiritual life of mystery lived in love for people and love for a creator. But people truly hate it, HATE IT

and its because presumptuous people of another world nod their heads pretending to listen, all the while waiting to explain why middle American, suburban Christianity is clearly superior to bohemianism, public education, or any sort of free expression. The sad crime of this foolishness is the ridiculous amounts of money spent on gigantic auditoriums, with unbelievable sound systems, when the present generation is curiously watching Africa crumble and themselves self-medicate wondering "could ANYTHING possibly fix these things?"