On Being Gospel Centered Missionaries in a World of Suffering, part 6

It may be difficult to find ways to help those who are suffering physically while making a priority out of the gospel and planting churches but it is possible. William Carey did. He gave his life for the spread of the gospel. In fact, Carey did so much that many call him the ‘father of modern missions.’ It was Carey’s devotion to truth that led him to be passionate about evangelism. In his day, William Carey was criticized for many things and yet, it would be difficult to question his commitment to training and discipleship and evangelism. But, at the same time, he made a tremendous impact in other areas of society as well.  

In their book, The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for Transforming Culture, Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi ask “Who (Really) Was William Carey?”

They write, “Imagine a quiz master at the finals of the All Indian Universities’ competition. He asks the best-informed Indian students, ‘Who was William Carey?’ All hands go up simultaneously. He decides to give everyone a chance to answer.”

They then go on to survey some of the various answers the students might give.

He was an industrialist.  “William Carey was the first Englishman to introduce the steam engine to India and the first to make indigenous paper for the publishing industry.” He was an economist. “William Carey was a missionary…who introduced the idea of savings banks to India to fight the all-pervasive social evil of usury.” He was a medical humanitarian.  “William Carey was the first man…who led the campaign for a humane treatment for leprosy patients.”

He was a media pioneer.  “Dr. William Carey was the father of print technology in India. He brought to India the modern science of printing and publishing and then taught and developed it.” He was a translator and educator.  “Carey was a British cobbler . . . who became a professor of Bengali, Sanskrit, and Marathi at the Fort William College in Calcutta where civil servants were trained. Carey began dozens of schools for Indian children of all castes and launched the first college in Asia at Serampore, near Calcutta.” He was an advocate for women’s rights.  “William Carey . . . was the first man to stand against both the ruthless murders and the widespread oppression of women . . . Carey opened schools for girls. When widows converted to Christianity, he arranged marriages for them rather than allowing them to be burned alive. It was Carey’s persistent 25 year battle against sati that finally led to Lord Bentinck’s famous edict in 1829, banning one of the most abominable of all religious practices in the world: widow-burning.” He was a moral reformer and transformer of culture.  “Dr. William Carey was the father of the Indian Renaissance of the 19th and 20th centuries…His this-worldly spirituality with as strong an emphasis on justice and love for others as on love for God, marked the turning point of Indian culture from a downward to an upward trend.”

They conclude, “So who was William Carey?”

“William Carey was all of these things…Carey also pioneered the Protestant Church in India and translated or published the Bible in 40 different languages. He was an evangelist who used every available medium to illuminate the dark facets of India with the light of truth.”

Preaching the gospel and caring for the poor don’t have to be in competition. It will be difficult. It will be messy. It will require careful thinking. It will require sacrifice. But, if we truly believe the gospel we are preaching we will care about the suffering of the people we are preaching the gospel to. Eternal suffering, first and foremost. Hands down. But also, the very present and real suffering they are experiencing right now. And so while we are not going to be able to alleviate all their suffering, we must care, we must feel, and when possible, we must act because we know God cared for us  when we were His enemies, and He reached out and sacrificed in very real ways to show His love to us, so that we might become His children and He wants to use us to show His love to others in tangible ways so that they might be able to hear God’s Word and experience that love in the most profound ways of all.