This past weekend Dan Bouchelle from the Missions Resource Network guest spoke at Westark. I really enjoyed what he had to say, especially his Parasite vs. Bone marrow analogy about how missions is viewed by churches.
He used the idea of parasites feeding off a body, I'll use the idea of vampires, because I need to be hip since I work with teenagers. Now vampires are invited in just like missionaries sometimes are, and in some places are probably treated like such. Almost as if the missionaries suck away from blood or life from the church, and then go out and somehow go out and take life to non believers? That doesn't make a lot of sense. Bloodsuckers just kill period.
Now, Dan may have blew some minds on Sunday, when he continued his metaphor by talking about bone marrow. I know my ears perked up when I heard him say bone marrow. Partly because it's a strange phrase, and that dislodged bone marrow once put me in a coma and almost killed me. If that last sentence is the first time you've heard of bone marrow, I'd like to add that it's not supposed to kill you like vampires. Bone marrow is the stuff that produces more red blood cells which keep you alive. In the same way, missionaries like myself are sent out to produce life and goodness in the places that we go. We carry the resurrection of Jesus that has shaped our lives so much out to the places we go. In fact, all the church is supposed be like bone marrow, otherwise how will it grow?
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