Honest Photography?

            http://crcc.usc.edu/initiatives/impa/ “Reading an Image in the Other Context: A Visual Essay by Paul Jenkins.”

            This video essay was very eye-opening. The thing that stood out the most to me is that as a Western society we always assume things that relate to our own society and culture, but that often, this is an incorrect view. The stories from the pictures taken in other cultures can reveal much more about the lives of the people to us if we know the history and context. Pictures can easily create a stereotype because of the often western mindset and manipulation of the photographer and viewers. Mission’s photographers must be especially careful not to distort the culture and needs of the people they take pictures of, but instead offer an honest representation. By not giving an honest snapshot of the people they are representing, when campaigning they can be deceptive in their request for money and also ingrain the stereotype that the missionary is “helping the poor people.”

The Church and Mission Perspectives

            The church often considers itself a power in the West. Particularly, churches in America have to be careful that they do not act as if they are doing people a favor by sending missionaries around the world. This mindset can very easily lead to the perspective that the church is the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. As a member of the church, we must be careful to keep the perspective that while the church is local it is also national. It is also important to keep in mind that the role of the church is to advance the kingdom of God, but is not a fulfillment of it. Church members of this town and others like it can actively be involved in mission and break this way of thinking by continually treating other churches as equal in mission and pointing to Jesus’ teaching about the actual coming of God’s kingdom.

Mission Implication of the Return

            An aspect of Christology that I find important is the return of Christ. The primary goal of this mission then, is to impact as many people as possible for the kingdom of God, because we do not know when the Jesus will return. Some of the implied mission activities would probably be to become very transparent everywhere we are so that people will see how our lives are different. Another implication might be to become a missionary, evangelist, or pastor, so that we are in what people consider influential places to quickly tell a lot of people about Jesus and his message of good news. A strength of this mindset is that there is a sense of urgency which causes people to make a more immediate effort to tell everyone about the life, message and return of the Savior. A weakness could be that people get too caught up in the salvation side of God’s kingdom that they can overlook the distribution of his justice.

Missions Then and Now

            A century ago people had a different view of missions, church and religion. They saw religion as something everyone needed and had. Technology was also much different, making ease of travel and ways to spread the gospel more limited. Even a decade ago technology and views of religion and mission were different. People in this country saw mission as something that people were called to do and not necessarily for everyone. There are some similarities though. Missions still emphasizes going to people everywhere and preaching and living the gospel. In the future there will be the same trials and similarities. Technology and mindset will keep changing, and going to people near and far will still be considered important.