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Articles
June 24, 2015
This week marks the 150th anniversary of Hudson Taylors Brighton
Beach experience. It was there andthen that he made a decision that
would forever shape church history. In honor of it, my friend Tim
Keeseehas prepared this excellent article. He also invites you
visit his site to watch a video clip from his film NoRegrets, No
Retreat.
One of my favorite quotes from Hudson Taylor, the very quotable
pioneer missionary to China is There arethree stages in every great
work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it
is done. Taylorknew about impossible. Impossible was going to the
other side of the world to untold millions who had yetto hear the
Gospel even once. To do that would take months of risky sea passage
to reach them, thenlearning their utterly confounding language,
while facing diseases that if they didnt kill you, then thepeople
you were devoting your life to just might. On top of all that, to
evangelize such a large country oflarge extremes, it would take an
army of Cross-bearers. Impossible.
The second and third stagesdifficult and doneare not reached by
Samson-like strength or Job-likepatience. Hudson Taylor would be
the first to correct such thinking. He said, All Gods giants have
beenweak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on
His being with them. And, he added,Perhaps the greatest hindrance
to our work is our own imagined strength. So the three stages are
Godswork from mans perspective: impossibledifficultdone. But the
men and women witnessing this tideturn are not spectators or
armchair criticsthey are men and women of faith. Faith is not a
warm, upwardthought. Rather faith is action displayed and lived out
in the arena of our days to the glory of God and theadvance of His
Gospel. Paul described his preaching, teaching, traveland jail
trips in betweenas hardlabor energized by God, Struggling with all
his energy that he powerfully works within me (Colossians1:29).
Therefore, faith is speaking and writing for the sake of the
Gospel. It is working and risking. It iswinning and losing. It is
going and not always returning. It is asking, seeking, and
knocking. Its what Jesussaid moves mountains.
Reaching vast China with the Gospel at a time when it wasclosed,
dangerous, and distant, was never impossible for God.But who could
believe this enough to follow Him and see Himwork? Apparently
hundredseven thousandscould! One ofthe treasures I unearthed during
the making of the mostrecent film in the Dispatches from the Front
series, NoRegrets, No Retreat, was a pristine, original edition of
ChinaInland Missions annual report from 1888. Chinas Millions wasa
years compilation of journal entries and reports fromHudson Taylor
and his fellow missionaries. The pages recountthe baptisms and the
beatings, riots and new arrivals. But themost striking page in the
book for me was one that resembleda high school yearbookonly older
in every way. Row uponsepia-tinted row of pictures of the 100
missionaries who hadleft for China the previous year.
Look into their faces. Look beyond the stiff,
monochromeformality of the photography, and see their faces blush
withlife. I wish I could talk with them, hear their voices, ask
themwhere they came from and what happened after they reachedthe
other side of the world. When these men and women set out for
China, they must have parted fromtheir families with kisses and
tears, but also with the joy that rushes the heart when Jesus is
near. Theycrossed the world to tell people about their Friend and
Saviour. They crossed the world, but some neverre-crossed it. For
them, missionary service was a one-way ticket. Of course,
cross-bearing is a one-wayticket, too.
Still, more and more would follow; and whether through a
lifetime of faithful ministry or through the witnessof an untimely
grave, the Gospel advanced deep into unreached China. God was
moving them from theimpossible, through the difficult, but they
would not see it done, because God had a bigger plan. HudsonTaylor
with Gospel-rooted vision and methods wrote in 1873:
The work is steadily growing and spreadingespecially in that
most importantdepartment, native help. The helpers themselves need
much help, much care andinstruction; but they are growing more and
more efficient as well as more numerous; andthe future hope of
China doubtless lies in them. I look on all us foreign missionaries
asplatform work round a rising building; the sooner it can be
dispensed with the better; orrather, the sooner it can be
transferred to other places, to serve the same temporarypurpose and
the better for the places yet to be evangelized.
The building Taylor referred to would rise far beyond what
anyone at the time could think possible. Todaythere is a vast army
of Chinese believers60-80 million by conservative estimates. Thats
not to sayGospel work is done in China. Hardly. Every generation
must reach its own generation. Yet, despite thepolitical,
religious, ethnic, and geographic barriers in China, the Gospel
continues to advance from theteeming coastal cities and westward to
the walls of the Himalayas and beyond. No great walls and nogreat
armies can stop Christ from building His Church! The impossible is
now being done all over China.
But what about today? Where does Gospel advance appear really
impossible? This isnt about ourwillpower. Its about Gods powerand
the faith in action to believe and follow Him. Yet, as His
servants,we so often see only the bricks and barbed wire, the risks
and unfavorable statistics. And so, we settle for
