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TL;DR:
After a lengthy communal discussion, a village chief in Malaysia tells two American missionaries that the entire community has decided to follow Jesus and requests baptism for everyone. Accustomed to viewing conversion as an individual decision, the missionaries question whether the group’s choice represents genuine faith. The case explores communal decision-making, individual conviction, baptism, and the danger of nominal Christianity.
Mark looked at the chief and elders before him and at the more than two hundred men, women, and children crowding behind them. “Have they all become genuine Christians? I can’t baptize them if they don’t each decide for themselves!” he said to Judy, his wife.
Mark and Judy Zabel had gone to Malaysian Borneo with the Malay Baptist Mission to begin a new ministry in the highlands. They spent the first year building a thatched house, learning the language, and making friends with the people.
In the second year, they began to make short treks into the interior to visit villages that had never heard the gospel. The people were respectful, but with few exceptions, none had shown any real interest in the gospel. One of the exceptions was Woofak. He always seemed to be around and had been interested from the beginning. In time, he had become a believer, but he was something of a village maverick. Few of the other villagers took him seriously. Then, there had been Tarobo and his wife and four others. By the end of the third year, the worship services were attended by these seven baptized believers, Mark and Judy, a few passersby, and a dozen children.
That year, an epidemic had spread through the highlands. Judy and Mark went through the villages for weeks, praying with the sick and dispensing medicines. There were times when they thought they could go on no more. They wept with families faced with death and told them of the God who loved them and who had conquered death.
One village, in particular, had suffered greatly from the disease. Although the villagers seemed to appreciate the missionaries’ loving care, they showed little interest in the gospel. Then, three months later, two elders from that village came to the missionaries’ home.
“Can you come to our village and tell us more about your God?” they asked. “We want to know more about Him.”
Hope flared in the hearts of Mark and Judy. Perhaps their hours on the trail in the rain and the weary days of ministering to the people would bear fruit for God’s kingdom. So, taking food, water, a change of clothes, cots, and mosquito nets, they set out for the village.
It was almost dark when they arrived. The village chief invited Mark into the men's longhouse, where all the adult males of the village were gathered. Judy joined the women, who sat in front of their huts, discussing the decision the village elders were about to make. She sensed that there had been much discussion in the village before she and Mark had been invited to come. Now, there seemed to be both excitement and uncertainty in the air. Some of the women wanted to know more about this new God. Others said that it was best to stay with their ancestors, who cared for them in the spirit world, and with the tribal gods who had helped them to be victorious over their enemies in the past.
In the longhouse, the chief asked Mark to tell them more about his God. For three hours, Mark talked to the men about the Jesus Way and answered their questions. Then the chief asked Mark to sit down on a log. Mark noticed that the men broke up into smaller groups, each made up of men from the same lineage. For half an hour, there was a loud debate as men argued for and against following the new God. The arguments died down, and then the leaders from the various lineages gathered with the chief. Again, there was a heated discussion. Finally, the chief came to Mark and said, “We have all decided to follow the Jesus Way. We want to be baptized like Woofak and Tarobo.”
Although it was late, neither Mark nor Judy could sleep after the meeting. The decision of the village and especially the way it was made had caught them totally by surprise. They knew that people in this community often made important decisions—such as relocating the village or responding to conflict with a neighboring group—through discussion and communal consensus. However, it had not occurred to the missionaries that the people might use this method to choose which religion to embrace. All their experiences in church, as well as their theological training, had taught the young missionaries that each person should make an individual decision to follow Christ.
Here, the group leaders appeared to have decided for all. What did that mean? Was it a valid decision, especially when it was clear from the debates that some had opposed the choice? How could they baptize the whole village when not all agreed? Then again, what did it mean in Acts when the jailer believed, and Paul immediately baptized him and his whole household? Was this village’s decision a legitimate example of interdependent personal conversions?
What’s more, if they did not accept all of the villagers as authentic Christ followers, the entire community might become resistant to the gospel message and simply return to its traditional religious beliefs. On the other hand, they remembered how the rapid identification of Christianity with imperial power following Constantine’s conversion contributed to large numbers of people entering the church, sometimes with limited understanding or personal commitment. Judy and Mark worried that baptizing the entire village immediately might similarly produce nominal Christians. They knew they had to do something before leaving the next day.
As Mark and Judy searched for an answer that night, they suddenly heard the ceremonial gong used in rituals associated with the spirits ringing in the men’s longhouse. Mark went to see what was going on. He found the chief and asked him why they were summoning the tribal spirits if they truly wanted to become Christians.
“Don’t worry,” the chief said. “We are calling them to tell them to go away because now we have a new God.”
Judy and Mark were still uncertain what to do as they finally fell asleep, bone-tired and knowing that they would have to give the chief and the village an answer in the morning.
— Originally written by Paul Hiebert and edited by Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
The original version of the case study appeared in Case Studies in Missions, published by Baker Book House. Permission from the copyright holder of the original version may be required before reproducing this case study.
George Patterson, a Conservative Baptist missionary in Honduras, has identified seven basic commands of Christ that must be taught to churches filled with new believers. The commands are:
Is this material relevant in any way to this case study?
Case studies are descriptions of real-life situations. They usually include a brief history of how the current situation developed and outline a problem that a key person is facing. Originally associated with Harvard University’s MBA and law programs, case studies are now used across a wide range of academic disciplines.
The three main benefits of using dilemma-based case studies such as this one on group conversion are applying theory to practice, encouraging critical reflection, and developing problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Seven steps to good case study use
Many cultures use group decision-making processes rather than relying solely on individual decisions. These approaches vary widely depending on the society's cultural context, values, and traditions. Here are six common ways in which group decision-making is practiced:
Reminder: Group decision-making processes reflect the values, social dynamics, and historical contexts of the societies in which they are practiced. While individual decision-making has value, group decision-making can foster cooperation, a sense of belonging, and collective responsibility—all of which many cultures value highly.