Jim had a passion for God, a love for people, and a burden
to communicate the gospel. But he wrestled with the question of how to bring
the message of Christ into a setting that seemed so far from him. How could he
help people see and embrace the truth when they had so little biblical
understanding?
Even with all of the obstacles in front of him, Jim knew he
had to try. So try he did! In fact, he went to great lengths to relate to their
culture. Following the example of the apostle Paul, he took bold risks to “…become
all things to all people….for the sake of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23
NRSV).
What kinds of risks? For starters, he shaved his head right
down to the skin - that is, except for the patch of hair he grew long. He gave
up his familiar business attire and began to dress like them. He even changed
his eating patterns and started to dine in the style of the ones he cared so
much about. Further, he worked hard to learn their vocabulary, in the hopes
that he would be able to effectively convey biblical teaching in their everyday
street language. He read their papers, studied their ideas, and went out of his
way to discover and build on whatever areas of common ground he had with them.
Jim didn’t do this all from a distance. No, he actually
moved into their neighborhood. He lived close to them, became their friend, and
spent extended periods of time talking with them, getting to know them, playing
with their children - all of this in spite of their non-Christian lifestyle and
in almost every case, their outright rejection of his message.
What did other church leaders think of all this? They mostly
misunderstood, misrepresented, and even openly maligned him. Today, generations
later, countless people from the neighborhoods he worked so hard to reach know
and serve Jesus Christ as their Forgiver and Leader. Jim - or as he’s more
widely know, James Hudson Taylor - is the man who more than a century ago gave
up everything to build a ministry called China Inland Mission. (Taken from Building
a Contagious Church by Mark Mittelberg).
Like Jim and the Apostle Paul, God is calling us to be a
missional community for the curious in a culture that is increasingly
un-Christian. We are called to be a people who are in the culture but not infected by the often-ungodly values of the culture. We can primarily understand
the church in two ways. A “self preservation” church that defines success and a
fulfilling of God’s mandate in our life as paying the light bill, filling the
sanctuary, learning information about the Bible, feeling comfortable, and doing
what we have always done. Or we can be a missional “community for the curious” that
sees the mandate of Christ as truly impacting the culture for Jesus Christ. We
are to go where the people are, open the resources of CrossWay Church to the
community, and live out the transforming reality of Christ in our spheres of
influence at work and in our neighborhoods.
Clearly Christ has called us to be missional, to take the
necessary risk, to stretch, to pray, to be a church that is living and sharing
the good news of Jesus Christ to a desperately hurting world. To extend
ourselves personally and corporately so that we can walk with people and impact
them where they reside.
That is the revolutionary message of Jesus Christ and
followers like James Hudson Taylor. It is living and presenting the world, sharing
the truth of our Creator God in the culture. That is the path we are called to
be on at CrossWay Church. It is the compelling revolutionary vision that God
has called us to. A question each of us needs to wrestle with and embrace in
our given context is: What does it look like for each of us to be like Jim
bringing the revolutionary power of Jesus Christ to the broken and hurting
community we live in and surround? The answer and application of that question
has the potential to change everything for the cause of Christ.
On The Journey Together,
Jason Esposito
Lead Pastor, CrossWay Church
www.crosswaygt.org
