The 18Inch Principle: The Long Journey to the Heart of Missions

By Mike Burnard

This book does not provide neutral ground. Once youve read it, you either hate it and reject it, or you love and embrace it. The 18 Inch Principle confronts us with a U-turn in the field of missions. Church and missions are not two separate realities: missions is constitutive to the Church. The very existence of the Church is missional. However, for Mike Burnard, mission is not entertainment, religious tourism, professional speeches, or philanthropic projects. Drawing from Biblical principles and a long experience with the persecuted Church, Mike argues convincingly that mission is both the embodiment of the Gospel in the life of every true believer and a clear proclamation of the Gospel to a lost world. Willingness to endure persecution, suffering and martyrdom for the Gospel is the genuine mark of Biblical mission.
Paul Negrut (PhD), Professor of Theology, Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania and Pastor of the Emanuel Baptist Church of Oradea, Romania

I have finally finished reading the 18 Inch Principle. WOW! What an amazing, truthful book. I just wish every Christian could get their hands on a copy! I think the content of the book doesnt only apply to missions but to every God-fearing Christian. I have shed many tears throughout the book and after your conclusion I just wept. I have learnt a lot and it has been such a blessing to me!
Gigi Raimbault, Student at Africa for Jesus Mission School

One of the most profound books I have ever read. We are challenged in an unprecedented way to follow in the steps of Jesus. The commitment needed to bring in the end-time harvest is clearly spelled out. The plight of the lost millions without Jesus depends on our commitment to be obedient to a sacrificial lifestyle.
Christo Walters, Missions mobiliser, Gauteng

If you are looking for fluffy feel good, then this book is not for you! Be prepared for a challenging read that will evoke raw emotion, disagreement, agreement, inspiration, and hopefully action. We have been given all things, equipped, washed clean, for the work God has called all of us to do. Its time to leave the physical building we like to call the Church (but isnt) and get out there and get busy! So strap yourself in, have your pen and highlighter handy, take your time, and thank God for this amazing journey.
Curt Vahle, Just a guy from Indianapolis, Indiana

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504920735

Mike Burnard

As a young sport student at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, Mike committed his life to the Lord in 1976. Immediately after his conversion, he was introduced to missions as he travelled to the Montreal Olympic Games on an outreach with Youth with a Mission. In 1979, Mike and Helen got married, and two years later, they left South Africa to join the Anastasis, the Mission Ship of YWAM, in Greece. The impact of experiencing a broken world without Jesus changed their lives irreversibly, and their travels around the globe confirmed their calling time and time again. Upon their return to South Africa, Mike and Helen were introduced to the ministry of Open Doors, the organization that specializes in ministering to Christians in closed countries. They knew this was where the Lord has placed them and joined Open Doors in 1987. For the next twenty-two years, Mike and Helen had the incredible joy of serving the Lord by serving his church in closed countries. He was able to minister into the former Eastern Europe and travelled extensively into Africa, the Arab World, Asia, and the Middle East. The privilege of eating, praying, and crying with those who have sacrificed all for the honor of bearing the cross of Jesus has left a deep impression in their lives. Mike served as national director of Open Doors South Africa before moving to the UK, where he was appointed as vice president development of Open Doors International. Mike and Helen moved back to South Africa in 2009 with a new vision to assist the local church to interpret news events from a biblical perspective and approaching mission more strategically. To facilitate this vision, INcontext Ministries was established in 2010 with a goal of assisting believers in UNDERSTANDING global events within a Kingdom context.

Book preview

The

18INCH

PRINCIPLE

The Long Journey to the Heart of Missions

Mike Burnard

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©

2015 Mike Burnard. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/14/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-2072-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-1815-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-2073-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015910767

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

Contents

cin·tro·duc·tion

The the·ol·o·gy of this book

1. Ab·di·ca·tion

2. Ad·u·la·tion

3. Am·pu·ta·tion

4. Ac·qui·si·tion

5. Al·ter·na·tion

6. An·guish

7. Af·fec·tion

8. At·ten·tion

9. As·pi·ra·tion

10. Ac·cep·tance

11. Ac·ti·va·tion

12. A·lert·ness

13. An·ti·ci·pa·tion

14. Ac·quaint·ance

15. A·lign·ment

16. Ap·pli·ca·tion

17. Ag·gres·sion

18. Acceleration

Con·clu·sion

The Persecuted Church

About the Author

As you read this book…

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

(Ephesians 1:17 -19)

With deep gratitude to:

My wife, Helen, for her valuable contributions, her selfless commitment and her priceless encouragement

My family, especially my two daughters, Elisha and Helga, for years of endless endurance and support

Pastor Richard Baird for his sound Biblical counsel and for spending countless hours in proof-reading the book

Louis Botha for his professional input in taking the picture for the front cover at a church in Egypt

Other linguistic experts, Cherolyn, Helga, Hanlie and Andre who assisted in proof-reading the manuscript

The team at INcontext Ministries for their sacrifice, assistance and encouragement

Published by INcontext Ministries

Email: [e-mail]

1st Edition: 2011

2nd Edition: 2013

cin·tro·duc·tion

something that introduces a part of a book preliminary to the main portion

What if our generation bears witness to the demise of Christianity in Europe?

Before you read any further, consider for a moment this question: What if future generations look back at our generation and ask: How could they have allowed this to happen?

What if the names of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea are replaced with London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and Brussels? It happened to the seven Churches described in Revelation; and it can happen again. The one lesson we learn from history is that when Christian nations turn away from God, they face the prospect of total demise as their lamp stands are removed (Revelation. 2:5-7). ¹

Ironically, history is in the process of repeating itself. Rev. David Cornick, the General Secretary of the United Reformed Church in Britain, recently made the following statement: In Western Europe, we are hanging on by our fingernails. The fact is that Europe is no longer Christian.

At the same time the Church in North Africa faces a scenario similar to the one that the Church in Smyrna faced. (Revelation 2:10) ² The prospect of future suffering is forcing many believers to flee to the West. A number of secular reporters see the current events in the Arab World as the end of Christianity in the region, with fundamentalist Islam gaining ground in previously moderate countries like Tunisia and Egypt. Christians are fleeing in fear of what lies ahead.

However, every great challenge always comes with the ‘gift wrapping’ of great opportunity. The positive side of this coin is that a number of Christian agencies report that this could be the end of Islam as Muslims start questioning politics, economy, leaders and ultimately faith. The reality is that the Church is at a cross-road and is in need of men of vigour and men of movement. This is what this book is all about.

If you ended up with this book in your hands by mistake, do not put it down. However, do be aware that this is not a ‘feel-good’ book. It is not written to lift your self-esteem for missions, but rather to create a God-esteem in missions.

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust once said, "The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." This is the prayer behind this book: not to search for new theological missional landscapes, but to look at missions with new eyes. This book is not about equipping us to change the world, but about guiding us in changing our perceptions.

This world is ever changing, and we need to look at missions with different lenses and renewed perceptions, and then embark on a journey of obedience, faith and faithfulness.

You might not agree with everything in this book, but I pray that even in the points of disagreement there will be a sense of embarking on new horizons. Jesus did not come to earth to pacify our sensitivities nor did He come to earth to popularise our institutions. Whenever Jesus addressed the religious community of His time, the truth was generally perceived as insulting and offensive. If the Pharisees only listened with renewed minds and transformed hearts it could have been so different. In Luke 11:42 ³ we participate in a discussion where a spade is called a spade, a Pharisee a tombstone and the rest vipers. This does not go down well with an audience who see themselves as being a step above the rest, and we see in verse 45 one of the experts in the law answering him, Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.

However, being insulted with the truth is not as bad as being flattered with lies (Proverbs 28:23)⁴. The lessons in this book are all equally challenging and are neither for the fainthearted nor the easily offended. We live in times where the old time religion changed to a show time religion and the truth of the cross is sure to offend. Since my first mission exposure more than 30 years ago, my theologies and beliefs have more often than not been challenged and offended. In all truthfulness, if we are not willing to be continually renewed in our minds, and continually challenged in our lifestyles, then we probably deserve the label of being a spiritual tombstone: a place for the spiritually dead.

The purpose of this book, by God’s grace, is not to condemn but to convict; not to insult but to inspire. I know that some of the thoughts and teachings will challenge our non-Biblical lifestyles, just as the teachings of Jesus did to all who dared to listen to Him. The truth, believe it or not, is that I have often offended myself as I compared my belief system and theologies with those of the Persecuted Church. The sword of self-denial often penetrated the coat of self-indulgence that protected my comfortable and secure existence, where sacrifice is a theory and suffering an inconvenient truth. However, may God forbid that the message of the cross becomes a non-offensive message of self-enrichment. The cross was never intended to be a highway to self-esteem; it is has always been understood to be the road to death.

Once we interpret the Gospel as a way to happiness we embrace a theology of humanism.

This understanding clearly contradicts a carnal theology of humanism. The root of humanism is happiness. The root of the Gospel is the glory of God. Once we embrace the Gospel, or salvation, as a way to happiness, we compromise the Gospel of the cross with a pagan religion based on a theology of humanism. We literally become Christian Atheists and our worship becomes idolatry.

The tragedy is that whilst we all claim to know, confess and believe the true gospel, most of us in secular western society have accommodated humanism into our Christian living. We have created theologies to justify our prosperity and we live schizophrenic Christian lives, in that there is a split between what we claim to believe and what we live.

Please bear with me as I explain.

We confess that the Lord is our provider, but we do everything in our power to escape a situation where we would need His provision. We confess that the Lord is our protector, yet we flee from and avoid any unsafe environment. We confess that every believer has a mandate to GO, witness and serve, yet more than 70% of the world is still unreached. Our faith has become an expression and not a lifestyle, an opinion and not a conviction.

What we obtain cheaply we value lightly. Low-cost conversions lead to high-maintenance Christians.

I am fed up with Christian jargon and religious rhetoric where talk is cheap and words are used only to impress. What we obtain cheaply we will always value lightly. Low-cost conversions lead to high-maintenance Christians and uninvolved communities of immature believers.

Comfort and wealth have become a modern day cult camouflaged as Christianity but focused on self-indulgence. The cross has become a way to self-belief and self-esteem. The Health, Wealth and Prosperity teaching is robbing the Church of one of Her greatest joys: the privileges of proclaiming the glory of God, by displaying the cross of Christ and sharing in the death of a crucified Saviour. ⁵

How do we therefore transform self-obsessed soldiers into a mission-minded militia? How do we move from inspiration to perspiration?

There is an old Chinese proverb that perhaps provides a key: The longest journey a man must take is the eighteen inches from his head to his heart.

This surely is an answer. Indeed, the Bible speaks of the heart as being the source of life⁶. So how do we get from A to Z, from head to heart, from self to God, from life to death?

It will demand nothing less than extreme and radical lifestyles. It will necessitate a willingness to unlearn what is untrue and to relinquish preconceived theologies. It will require a willingness to be offended, it will expect a complete and utter death to self, and will further insist on a wholehearted obsession with the glory of God.

This 18-inch principle is especially true for missions. It is a sinful shame how apologetic spiritual leaders have become about missions. We beg people to participate in missions and dare not offend pew warmers by asking for involvement. We turn to entertainers to get numbers and pacify audiences into feeling good about missions as a peace offering, while millions, literally millions, are dying without Christ. The sin of our time is that we have replaced an army of soldiers with a band of entertainers and motivational speakers. The battle-field has changed to a playing field. How dare we sit and watch as the greatest of commissions takes a back seat to entertainment and self-fulfilment!

We live in Titanical times with ice-bergs of all shapes and sizes surfacing around us. If ever there was a time to contemplate a changing world, it is today. We are currently witnessing some of the most dramatic times since World War Two as the world is turned upside-down through natural and man-made disasters. Revolutions, civil wars, wars, famines and earthquakes are re-shaping our globe in a Mark 13 prophetic reality. We exist for a time such as this.

BUT the reality is that time is running out.

We will make a difference, whether we are involved or not, whether we believe it or not and whether we want to or not. There will be no neutral exchange.

The church is on the brink of some of the greatest opportunities of our generation. How dare we be found uninformed and uninvolved as the Arab world and Asia literally cry out for change and hope!

The truth is this: we will make a difference, whether we are involved or not, whether we believe it or not and whether we want to or not. There will be no neutral exchange. If we do not seize the opportunities, someone else will.

Being relevant in a time such as this will demand certain actions because, believe me, not all Christians lead relevant lives. Only those who count the cost, seize the opportunity and sense the urgency will eventually be found amongst the faithful. Today the urgency outweighs the cost.

There is a huge difference in obeying the Great Commission and accepting the Great Invitation

What must happen to bridge this 18-inch gap in missions? How do we make a theology of missions a passion for souls? This is not rocket-science, only uncompromising raw Scripture. Just like Gideon, we are presented with the choice in Judges 7:3 ⁷. Take it or leave it. The choice is ours. The battle is non-negotiable; participation is optional.

Participation on this journey, however, needs to be understood even before departure is contemplated. Missions is not a calling, it is an invitation.

When Paul encourages the Church in Ephesus ⁸ to live a life worthy of the calling they have received, he uses the word klay’-sis, which means invitation. As disciples of Christ we need to pursue a life worthy of the invitation we received.

The journey to the heart of missions is not obeying a calling but accepting an invitation. There is a huge difference in obeying the Great Commission and accepting the Great Invitation. We are not called into missions, we are invited. It is not about us but about the King and the Kingdom. Once we understand this invitation, missions takes on a whole new dimension and every inch is measured differently.

It is time to embark on this journey.

The invitation on this 18 inch journey will move inch-by-inch, step-by-step, from A to Z. It is a process and not an event, a marathon and not a sprint. And the quickest way to reach our destination will be to focus on Z and start with A.

Fasten your seatbelts.

The the·ol·o·gy of this book

the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially the study of God and of God’s relation to the world

Before reading this book, it might be of value to understand the theology behind the thoughts and experiences conveyed by the author. We believe God, and His relation to the world, to be simple and clear. This is our theology:

• We believe in Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2)⁹ and that He died and rose again. (1 Corinthians 15:4)¹⁰

• We believe in an expensive faith. It took Jesus, the Son of God, to die on the cross for the salvation of man and it will require nothing less of His Church to live and proclaim it.(John 15:20) ¹¹

• We believe that a faith that is not worth dying for is probably not a faith that is worth living for. (2 Timothy 3:12)¹²

• We believe that the Church has a mandate to display the wounds of Christ, and in so doing fulfil what was lacking on the cross. (Colossians 1:24)¹³(see page 149 for full explanation)

• We believe that in order to train someone to live you have to teach him to die. (John 12:24-25) ¹⁴

• We believe that the Church has been commissioned to a glorious and privileged life of sharing the marks of the cross (John 20:20)¹⁵ (Romans 8:18)¹⁶and not the luxurious rubbish the world offers as distractions. (Philippians 3:8)¹⁷

• We believe the Church should be preoccupied with obedience and not with blessings. (1 John 2:3)¹⁸ (Luke 11:28)¹⁹

• We believe in seeking the face of God and not the hands of God. (2 Corinthians 4:6) ²⁰

• We believe we are on a battlefield and not a playing field, (Ephesians 6:12)²¹ and that we are sent out as commandos and not committees.

• We believe that without God we can do nothing of eternal value. We do not believe in our sufficiency with Him but in our insufficiency without Him. (John 15:5)²²

• We believe the key to Christianity is simplicity and contentment (Hebrews 13:5)²³. Our Saviour was born in a stable, had no place to lay his head and died on a cross. As disciples and followers we dare not pursue the luxuries of life. (Matthew 8:20)²⁴

• We believe the message of Christ is a message saturated with Kingdom values, Kingdom principles and Kingdom purposes. We are not the object of the cross but the beneficiaries. (Matthew 10:7)²⁵ (Luke 9:60)²⁶ (and many other Scriptures)

• We believe that the Word of God contains the only source of Truth and Inspiration to a life of righteousness and right standing with God. (2 Timothy 3:16) ²⁷.

• We believe the only source to faithfulness and fruitfulness comes by abiding in Him (John 15:4)²⁸ and by the continued indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:8a)²⁹

• We believe missions is a requirement not a request, an obligation not an option. (Matthew 28:19)³⁰.

• We believe that our mandate as believers is to witness where we are planted. We believe our mission field is here AND there AND everywhere. (Acts 1:8b)³¹

• Finally, ultimately and primarily we believe that we exist for one purpose only: the GLORY of GOD. We do not believe in a humanistic theology of God being man-centred. We believe in a Godly theology of man existing for the Glory of God. (Psalms 19:1)³² (1 Corinthians 10:31)³³ (and many other Scriptures!)

Chapter 1st INCH

Missions starts with …

Ab·di·ca·tion

to cast off and to relinquish (as sovereign power) formally

"Wait a moment! Did you not get the chapters mixed up? you might ask. Shouldn’t chapter 1 be about ADULATION? After all, does Missions not start with worship? Haven’t you heard the famous declaration by Jonathan Edwards that worship, and not missions, is the ultimate goal of the Church? Don’t we all know that missions exist because worship doesn’t?"

Just in case you were thinking the above, here is my answer:

Yes and no. I fully agree that Missions is about the glory of God and therefore worship becomes the ultimate purpose of missions. However, the heart behind worship needs to be addressed before we look at the act of worship.

The true spiritual act of worship is defined by abdicated lives.

Chapter 2, which addresses the whole issue of ADULATION, was originally the first chapter of this book. I then read Romans 12:1 ³⁴ again and was reminded that the true spiritual act of worship is defined by abdicated lives and not adulating lives. ADULATION is the destination, not the beginning. Worship is indeed the root of missions, but only abdicated lives will eventually result in Godly worship.

I remembered my encounter with Philemon:

Meeting Philemon in Bhutan was an encounter that will remain with me as long as I live. Philemon shared that when he heard the name Jesus as a young Buddhist, he fell in love with Jesus. He knew little about salvation, but he fell in love with the Saviour. About 6 months after he had accepted Christ the persecution became very severe in the district where he lived. If Christians were caught, they

were beaten and given two options: 1) they could leave the country, or 2) renounce their faith. If they chose to leave, they were to take even the bones of their deceased family members with them.

Philemon knew he could not deny Jesus and he did not want to leave Bhutan. He understood there was a purpose for his life and he started visiting Christians in hiding, encouraging them to remain faithful. His activities were soon discovered and he was arrested. He was taken to a police station where his Bible was confiscated and he was beaten until he lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness he was filled with so much joy – what a privilege to suffer for the Lord! Authorities then took his police clearance and Bhutanese citizenship and let him go. Of course he did not stop his Christian activities and he continued to serve and encourage the Christian community.

Soon Philemon became known in the community and a bounty was put on his head: anybody who saw him could arrest him. It was therefore not long before he was arrested and faced the authorities once more. They again demanded that he renounce his faith. When he refused, he was beaten in public - hundreds of his fellow villagers watched the beatings. The police would beat Philemon until he was unconscious and then take him away, only to face the beatings again the next day with the same consequences. Philemon went through the process of public beatings for days without end.

Regarding all his ordeals, Philemon had the following to say: While they were beating me I only had one concern. I knew that other believers were watching me and I didn’t want them to be filled with fear or to be discouraged, so I knew I had to keep on smiling while they were beating me.

What a testimony of self-denial. What a testimony of true worship. What a selfless act to think about those who