Welcome to Twoth.com we are speaking with Dr. Elias Medeiros, the Harriet Barbour Professor of Missions at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS. Dr. Medeiros has been an ordained minister of the Gospel since January 1975. While in Brazil he worked in pioneer church planting (rural and urban). He also taught at several theological institutions in Brazil, including the Presbyterian Seminary of the North, and was Dean at the Evangelical Missions Center. In addition to numerous articles, he has written Teaching Them to Make Disciples of All Nations and Missiology as an Academic Discipline in Theological Education. Dr. Medeiros is deeply committed to evangelism through every member of the body of Christ
Dr. Medeiros has earned the following academic degrees:
Seminario Presbiteriano do Norte, Th.B.
Reformed Theological Seminary, M.A., D.Min., Th.M., D.Miss.
Highland Theological College Ph.D. (Cand.)
Having taken your classes this is a real treat to share you with the world. Let's get to it:
Chris: Born and raised?
Dr. Medeiros: Northeast Brazil.
Chris: Family?
Dr. Medeiros: I am married for 32 years with Fokjelina, a beautiful Dutch young lady. We have three children (all married as well) and two granddaughters, for while.
Chris: Currently living?
Dr. Medeiros: Somewhere in God's world, but most of the time somewhere in Mississippi.
Chris: Favorite book(s)?:
Dr. Medeiros: My favorite is the HOLY BIBLE.
Others: John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad and When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy; Will Metzger, Tell the truth: The whole gospel to the whole person by whole people;
Michael Green, Evangelism in the early church;
Thomas Boston, The art of manfishing: A Puritan's view of Evangelism;
Ajith Fernando, The Supremacy of Christ;
Richard F. Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Growth;
George Eldon Ladd, The gospel of the kingdom (although I consider myself an amilenialist); John Stott, Between Two Worlds;
Martin Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers;
Calvin's Commentaries; Also every good well-written and researched Christian (evangelical) biography.
Chris: Being Brazlilian I've gotta ask...what's your favorite food or drink?:
Dr. Medeiros: Brazilian "churrasco."
Chris: Interpretation = Brazilian BBQ. Especially grilled meat.
Chris: Favorite hobbies?
Dr. Medeiros: Soccer, beekeeper (African bees), and carpentry
Chris: Ah taken up hobbies after Charles Spurgeon heh? You know Spurgeon was a beekeeper.
Chris: Favorite place to frequent?:
Dr. Medeiros: My "closet."
Chris: Favorite web links?:
Dr. Medeiros:
www.desiringgod.org;
http://www.ccel.org;
www.truthforlife.org;
www.bibleplaces.com;
www.greatcommission.com;
Chris: Quote that stirs your heart:
Dr. Medeiros: "'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'" (Jesus).
"But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works" (Asaph).
Chris: Were you always reformed? Tell us a little about your road to reformation.
Dr. Medeiros: I do not remember a time in my life when I was not aware of being Reformed. By God's grace I have always been reformed and always reforming.
Chris: What does a typical day or week look like for Dr. Medeiros?
Dr. Medeiros: I have no typical day. But during the workdays I wake up around 6:45 AM (when I have classes at 8:00 I try to get up at 5:30 AM) spend at least two hours meditating on and praying through the Scriptures. Pray for myself, family, RTS students, faculty, staff, friends overseas, unconverted friends, etc. Spend some time writing comments (verse by verse) on a book of the Scriptures. Check my to-do-list for the day and plan to finish at least two or three of those goals for the day. Review the classes to be taught at RTS. Pray to meet students (bookstore, library, corridor, etc). Pray for a daily opportunity to encourage someone and to share my faith in Christ with an unbeliever somewhere.
Try to have lunch every day with my wife with whom I have been in love for more than 32 years. At least three times a day I check my e-mails and answer them. The amount of e-mails is relatively extensive. But I used e-mails in order to correspond with godly servants of the Lord in USA and throughout the world. Besides, e-mails may be a blessed means to minister (and to be ministered by) to brothers in Christ as well was to unconverted folks. Spend time reading (and taking notes from) books and articles related to my teaching, writings, and spiritual growth. After dinner I work with some Brazilian students whom I teach over the internet (www.fitref.org).
I spend every weekend preaching the gospel somewhere in God's world and try to minister overseas at least once a year.
Chris: How big is your personal library?
Dr. Medeiros: I do not count my books. My first library I donated to a Brazilian theological school in 1990. At that time it was around 2,000 volumes.
Chris: What volume are you most proud of owning?
Dr. Medeiros: None in particular. Except the Holy Scriptures and some copies of the Bible (in English and Portuguese) that I have used and written some notes in.
Chris: Do you read a lot? Are you a fast or slow reader? We want to know about you as a reader.
Dr. Medeiros: Yes, I read a lot. I believe I am both a fast and a slow reader. It depends on the kind of literature I am dealing with. But most of the time I want to read slowly. As James Sire wrote: read "world-viewshly." Reading trying to understand the assumptions of the writers. I do not trust speed-reading, especially for real learning and researching.
Chris: What's Dr. Medeiros currently reading?
Dr. Medeiros: I do not read just one book at a time. I try to read few pages of different books every day. But everyday I read something related to a biography. Among other books (and articles) I am reading Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana (The Great Works of Christ in America) and David F. Well's Above All Earthy Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern world.
Chris: What does Dr. Medeiros do to keep the heart aflame?
Dr. Medeiros: Meditation, prayer, and talking with people about Jesus.
Chris: It must be an honor to be on the faculty at RTS Jackson. Was that a goal of yours or did it just kind of happen?
Dr. Medeiros: The greatest honor is to be called a child of God (1 John 3) and a servant of God through whom others may come to believe (1 Corinthians 3:5). But, of course, it is a great privilege and responsibility to be part of a theological school such RTS with such commitment to the Person of God, the Word of God, the Work of God, the people of God, and to world evangelization.
I was not seeking any professorial position in USA. I was not even thinking about that possibility when I was invited in 1992 (through Dr. Paul B. Long, Sr. chairman of the Missions Department at that time). The Lord opened the doors. I consulted the leadership of my denomination and my Presbytery in Brazil and they supported me. And, of course, I am very glad to be part of this team. What a strategic place to make a difference throughout the world! I praise the LORD for the history and the worldwide influence of this institution.
Chris: Some people say that we need to go back to a mentor-apprentice structure for raising up pastors. What do you say? Is the current seminary structure hitting the mark for pastoral training?
Dr. Medeiros: All of us-professors and students-could do more towards this "mentor-apprentice" model. This model requires more than just the efforts of any faculty member. It involves the students' initiative as well. Besides, it has to do with the participation of local churches. Seminaries do not stand by themselves nor serve themselves; we serve the church.
Chris: One of the biblical qualifications for a minister is that they should be able to run their own household well. Is this a quality being ignored in most seminary training?
Dr. Medeiros: We should not attribute to a seminary education that which is the responsibility and initiative of each one of us before the Lord. In an ideal situation such qualifications should be required prior to seminary education. I taught in a denominational seminary in Brazil. Only candidates examined and approved by the local session and the presbyteries were admitted. The local session and the presbyteries had the responsibility to assess such qualifications. It does not mean, however, that such qualifications are not to be seriously considered, taught, and modeled by the faculty and the students.
Chris: What can you say to those who desire to be seminary professors? Yes, we exist!
Dr. Medeiros: Finish your M.Div degree and be sure to spend significant time in ministering somewhere in God's world. DO NOT JUST GO FROM ONE ACADEMIC DEGREE TO ANOTHER. Spend significant time ministering in the context of the church and of the lost. Look at Jesus and His apostles. They spent time with prayer and in the Word, but never without being actively involved with people: both believers and unbelievers. They were teaching, preaching, praying, talking, visiting people, day and night, publicly and house to house.
Listen to Paul: "You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house" (Acts 20:18-20).
Chris: What's the theological subject that gets you fired up?
Dr. Medeiros: "Evangelism"-across the street and around the world. The kind of evangelism that includes the whole process of making disciples-from new birth till death. Paul said: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus prayed: "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word" (John 17:4-6).
Chris: Your work on missions is the best efforts in the field we've seen. Is there anything in the publishing pipe that we should be aware of? Or what would you like to write next?
Dr. Medeiros: I have a book on Evangelism and pastoral ministry to be released in Portuguese by the Presbyterian Publishing House of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. I have several other material in my computer already. I do not know when or if they will be published one day. As Rabbi Duncan once said: "I am a talker. Not a writer." It is not an excuse. The time is coming. Do not misunderstand my point: I write everyday. But I love to preach and I pray constantly for the Lord to pour a great love and compassion for those to whom I preach. When Jesus saw the multitudes He had compassion on them (Matthew 9:35ff).
Chris: Instead of giving Dr. Medeiros a "Dinnger" I asked him to share with all of us his viewes/definitions of missions, for I think the church is in dire need to hear what Dr. Medeiros is saying on these things.
For those that haven't gotten a taste of your passion for missions would you briefly explain what you mean when you speak of the terms: missions, missionary, and mission field?
Dr. Medeiros:
Mission refers to the will and the work of God the Father, reconciling the lost with Himself through the redemptive work of His Son Jesus Christ by the convicting and convincing power of the Holy Spirit and all for His glory and our joy. The words "will" and "work" are constantly used by Christ to describe it (check the gospel of John). And the biblical words "will" and "work" are better and more meaningful than the word "mission."
Missionary is simply a servant (a worker, a witness) through whom others may come to believe (1 Corinthians 3:5). The words servants, workers (laborers), witnesses are biblical words. And they are better and more meaningful terms than the word "missionary."
The "mission field," according to the Scriptures is the whole world-across the street and around the world. Wherever you have lost people you have a "mission" field. "In you [Abraham's seed] all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3 cf. Genesis 3:15 and John 3:16). Jesus also taught that "the field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38). The field includes "all the nations [which includes our own]" (Matthew 28:20). And not only Jerusalem but also Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9). See also Revelation 7:9-10.
Chris: So to refer to the "mission field" as being somewhere "over there," i.e. getting on a plane and leaving my general surroundings isn't any more of a "mission field" than where I came from because where you have an unconverted person you have a "mission field." I sure think if we began to grasp the biblical definitions of these words we would be doing a lot more in the places we currently live.
Chris: Can you recommend any books on "missions"?
Dr. Medeiros:
John Piper's Let the Nations Be Glad,
Walter Kaiser's Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a light to the nations,
Peter T. O'Brien's Gospel and mission in the writings of Paul: An exegetical and theological analysis,
Robert E. Speer, Christianity and the Nations,
Christopher Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative,
the autobiography of John Paton,
the biographies of Robert McCheyne, George Whitefield, William Carey, etc.
Chris: You're a big fan of biographies and have drunk deeply from them. Can you recommend to our readers some of the ones that really got you stirred up?
Dr. Medeiros:
Missionary Patriarch: The True Story of John G. Paton, Leen J. Van Valen, Leen's Constrained by His love: A new biography on Robert Murray McCheyne, John H. Armstrong, Five great evangelists; George Whitefield, George Whitefield's Journals; George Müller, Autobiography; T. Pierson, George Müller of Bristol; S. Pearce Carey, William Carey; Jonathan Edwards, The Life and Diary of David Brainers; etc.
There are several good websites from where you can download some excellent biographies (www.desiringgod.org).
Chris: Can you speak for a moment to those desiring to be "missionaries"? What can you say to them that would help them? (I anticipate you saying, "For them to realize they are already a missionary if they are in Christ.")
Dr. Medeiros: You are right. You do not desire to be what you already are. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me" (Acts 1:8). If you believe the Lord is calling you to be a servant through whom other peoples in other parts of the world will come to believe, be sure you have been a witness here. Everyone mentioned in the Scriptures who were used by the Lord of the harvest in other parts of the world were those actively involved with and committed to the work of the Lord in their own neighborhood. The question is not primarily what you will be doing over there, but what are you doing over here? Are you making Christ known here and now? Do you take advantage of every situation and circumstances to make Christ known? To be "a missionary" is not a matter of geography but "theo-graphy." I used to illustrate it this way: a soldier does not become a soldier because he was deployed somewhere. He was deployed somewhere because he was already a soldier where he was.
Faithfulness is not assessed by geographical location per se. The problem of Jonah was not location (he had no problem to move from northern Israel to Tarshish) per se but lack of compassion (Jonah 4:10-11). "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing" (Matthew 24:45-46). Consider also Luke 19:17; Colossians 1:7; 4:7; Hebrews 3:5; etc.
Chris: Last thoughts?
Dr. Medeiros: I hope these are not my "last thoughts." The ultimate purpose (not in the sense of being purpose-driven) or chief end of any Christian ministry is to glorify the Father, by the faithful teaching, preaching, witnessing, sharing, speaking, and living of God's Word by Which God's people (the church) will be edified, and the unconverted will be saved. And all for the Glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and our joy. Study and consider also the priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17. Meditate on Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27; 10:35-11:1. These texts are all based on the Old Testament teaching-Isaiah 43:7; Psalm 73:24-28; etc.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, keep the following questions in mind: What does it have to do with the glorious Person of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? What does it have to do with the glorious Word of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? What does it have to do with the glorious Work of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? What does it have to do with the People of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? What does it have to do with the Unconverted People whom God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will save?
Chris: Well this has been another edition of Twoth. We hope you enjoyed the offerings Dr. Medeiros brings to the table. Until next time: in all that you do, do it to the glory of God.
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----- Interview by: Chris Rehers of twoth.com ----
*All introductory biographical information has been taken from the Dr. Medieros faculty page
** The views expressed in our interviews are not necessarily the beliefs held by those of us at Twoth.com but then again you're not here because you care what the two guys at Twoth believe anyway, now are ya?!?!
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