Can We Move The Chicken To The Side?

It wasn’t too long ago I found myself in a remote village in tropical Asia.  I was traveling with three national partners when all of a sudden they decide to take a detour and check out a certain village.  

According to our standard procedure we find someone who smiles and engages us in conversation.  This day, we ask them for a tour of their village.  This takes a while.  We ask about history, stories and issues of pride.  We exchange gifts.  We eventually find ourselves ushered into a very large local ancestor worship site, especially considering the size of this village.

Idol Worship Begins

Worship begins while we are standing there.  Twelve young men unload and light up bundles of incense, unpack the chicken and other assorted offerings, and set it all up in front of the larger-than-life statues.  It is all done perfunctorily, for good luck if it might come their way.  Within a matter of ten minutes it is summed up with the lighting of a few rounds of firecrackers.  The oddest thing is that they don't seem to mind that strangers, including a foreigner, are in the shrine with them.

When the noise subsides the people just hang out for a while.  My partners and I start praying and conferring about our next move and how we might preach the Gospel in this place of idols.  The Holy Spirit starts flooding our minds with options.  It is decided that I will be the fall guy and so one of them introduces me, the foreigner, to talk about world religions and get to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as fast as possible.   This way the translator can’t be blamed for “repeating” my words, although my partners are much better at this work than I am.

True Worship Explained

Well, by God’s grace, they are all fascinated by my summary of world history in five minutes, and my claim that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the true and only hope for us all.  I ask if they would like to watch a 15-20 minute video that would explain it all more fully.  They agree.  We forgot the video player.  No problem, they send someone off and within a few minutes procure one.  

So, then I ask, “Could we move the chicken to the side?”  I see the opportunity for irony, to replace the idol sacrifice with the true message of life.  It works, as they have no problem with the idea.  There sits the Gospel video playing right at the feet of the replica of the great ancestor couple--cool!

Four leave during the transition from my speaking to the video.  The remaining bystanders are all fascinated by the opening scenes of the video, which explain who God is and His great work of Creation.  As the story becomes more detailed about the Fall and how sin thoroughly corrupted and enslaved humanity a couple more guys peel off.  Not much longer and yet a couple more leave.  

However, the final four make it through the whole Gospel presentation and hang out for some Q & A.  In a matter of minutes though we are left talking with one young man.  But, he seems genuinely interested, has some questions and says he will give the message further thought.  This is their first hearing of the God’s Good News in Jesus Christ.

About six of the men return with massive amounts of firecrackers to resume their ancestor worship.  That effectively breaks up our conversation and forces us to end our visit, being deafeningly loud in that tiny concrete shrine.

Lessons On Prayer And Boldness

This whole experience taught me many things.  The Scripture that captured that day in the the village is 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, especially verse 4, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

My good friends and national partners taught me to pray as often as I breathe for opportunities for the Gospel of Christ and the impressions of the Holy Spirit leading me where to share it.  They also taught me to sow the seed of the Gospel broadly regardless of how people respond, and without over-thinking the presentation.  

The third and most important lesson I learned that day was to preach more boldly than I have ever done before, and to do so fearlessly, giving less heed to personal safety, caution or human prudence, than I have in the past.