In the early stages of my talking about a makeover, someone asked, “Bob, why are you doing this?” That question has reverberated in my heart and mind over several months now. My response is embedded in an experience I had while in Dakar, Senegal. One afternoon I was taken by boat from Dakar to Goree Island just off the coast. It was from Goree that somewhere between ten and twelve million slaves left Africa for the Americas over a period of more than two hundred years. It was usually a 6-12 week trip on boats that were eight by thirty meters. Wanting to maximize their profits, slave traders would pack 300-400 slaves on each boat. Between 20 and 30% of the slaves who left that island died while crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
In the slave house on Goree Island my heart was deeply moved. To my horror, I learned that the value of young female slaves was based on the size of their breasts. They could become free by becoming pregnant to white slave traders. I walked through the spacious, well-lit quarters where the slave traders stayed while on the island. Then I went down the stairs to the dark, musty slave holding cells. I saw the room where male slaves were weighed to be sure they were at least sixty kilos before making the long trip to the Americas. I stood in the center of the yard where new slaves were auctioned off to the highest bidder. It was there, I learned, that often family members ended up being sold to different buyers creating situations where they were separated, never to see each other again . . . husbands ripped away from their wives, teenage and young adult children being torn from their parents, brothers and sisters . . . not just for a year or two, but in most cases for the rest of their lives.
Then I turned and saw “the door of no return.” It was through this doorway that slaves were crowded onto ship after ship after ship. Once a slave walked through this door, he or she would leave African soil never to return again.
Just as the slaves who passed through Goree Island were in a desperate situation, those without access to the gospel are in an absolutely desperate situation. What an incredible privilege it would have been to declare FREEDOM to those millions of slaves who left Goree Island. I would have given everything, even poured out my blood, for that privilege. But that privilege was never mine.
The privilege of declaring the gospel to those without access to it is within the realm of possibility for all of us today. Jesus made it very clear, “If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you FREE!” (John 8:32). He went on to proclaim, “If the Son sets you FREE, you will be FREE indeed!” (John 8:36).
The main reason behind the makeover is rooted in a burning passion to see us make the good news about Jesus Christ accessible to as many people as possible. We’re losing in the C&MA some of our effectiveness and capacity when it comes to taking the gospel to people who today don’t have access to it. If some of the present trends in the C&MA continue, we’ll wane as an effective missionary church. I don’t want to see this happen.
The main motive behind the makeover is to declare with greater effectiveness to those enslaved by sin that through Jesus, they can be set FREE . . . to concentrate more resources on those people without access to the gospel, where all the odds are stacked against us, proclaiming FREEDOM in and through Jesus Christ.
