When the bishops break for tea, all of us with booths get set for visitors. Yesterday one of the prominent bishops made the rounds before tea break, so he had time to visit each booth.
When he came to mine, Anglican Frontier Missions, I gave a very brief description of our effort. I said that we want to support efforts of bishops who want to see churches planted outside the Anglican Communion, especially in Islamic North Africa.
He paused, thought, and then gave one of the sorriest missions thinking around. What he said was that he had heard that some Anglicans in Egypt were reaching out into neighboring Libya.
Behind that is the belief that we can only reach out to those near by, and isn't it swell that Egyptian Christians are doing that with their neighbors in Libya.
I gave the simple reply that when Uganda was evangelized, the English missionaries left home and sailed thousands of miles to go beyond where their neighbors were.
Unfortunately that thinking I heard has a tight grip on most of the church, which explains why most of our efforts move our mission resources from one part of the Body of Christ to another part of the Body of Christ.
No, his mission thinking is not unusual, but I just hated to hear it from such a leader.
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