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Wandering is a very big part of the
church. Somewhere in the world right
now a church is planning a "mission"
trip. By its nature alone, the church as
an institution cannot confine its self to
the church buildings when carrying out
its mission. The church is the mission
and without the mission, it is no longer
the church. It must go out to the
people, it must strategically wander
outside the confines of its walls to
spread the good news. Churches,
congregations, faith organizations, visit
each other regularly to commune with
each other. And He said unto them, "Go
ye into the world and preach the gospel
to every culture .
Looking at the purpose and agenda
of both pilgrims and missionary
wandering, one can conclude that
pilgrims wandered to other parts of the
world to basically escape persecution
because they were not allowed to
practice their faith as they wished. As
they wandered away from their home,
they carried along their beliefs and life
style. Some of their beliefs were passed
on to local people in places where they
settled. Pilgrims were not very friendly
to the local people where they settled
and preferred to be among themselves.
They wandered to new territories for
the purpose of having the freedom to
practice their faith in safety and not to
convert people. Missionary wanderers
on the other hand traveled with a
purpose of spreading the gospel of
Jesus Christ and to convert people.
Wandering to many places reminds
me of the journeys of Paul. After his
repentance, he became a man of
action, traveling throughout the Roman
Empire to make the Gospel of Jesus
Christ known. Just like early missionar-
ies, he responded to God's call and
purposely wandered to foreign lands to
bring good news to people.
Then there were wanderers like John
Wesley who began preaching to crowds
of working class men and women in the
outdoors, "field preaching". He
wondered the country side by horse or
carriage visiting communities and
preaching. The world was his parish,
thus requiring of him to wonder the
countryside. There are hundreds of
examples of wanderers with a purpose
throughout the bible, in history, as well
Mission Journal
12
MISSION &
ISSUES
By Dr. Caroline W. Njuki
Pilgrims or Wanderers?