What if the same missiological focus that compelled missionaries like Amy Carmichael to rescue children from sexual abuse abroad is the same one that compels us to protect the vulnerable from abuse here at home?
What if the gospel that changes cultures overseas is the same gospel that calls us to confront our own culture's sins?
I am flummoxed by those that frame conversations about sexual abuse & racial reconciliation as somehow in opposition to or a distraction from the gospel.
There is this strange divide between the work we send missionaries to do, and the work we're willing to engage in here at home.
Somehow we expect that gospel work overseas will result in changed lives & cultures--we demand it even. But how is the gospel changing us in the domestic church?
A missiological focus does not kick in once you leave your home. It is a perspective, a vision, a way of being the church that interrogates a culture & proclaims the gospel of Jesus as its only hope.
