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CH A P T E R 1 1

The Church

Returns to the

Upper Room

have chosen to begin this chapter with a notable quotation of Sir
Winston Churchill who addressed his embattled people during one
o
I f the darkest hours of the World War II:

“I have nothing to offer the nation but blood, toil, tears and sweat,”
said Mr. Churchill on that memorable day on May 13, 1940, when
as Britain’s newly appointed Prime Minister he addressed the
House of Commons. “We have before us an ordeal of the most
grievous kind. We have before us many long months of struggle
and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? It is to wage war against
a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable
catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our
aim? I can answer in one word: Victory.” (Hunter, 300)

Although Churchill was referring to the challenge of the Second World
War, we can make an application to world missions. The world has been
confronted with the “monstrous tyranny” of sin, and this tyranny cannot
be defeated by the “carnal weapons of mankind.” We—members of the
church, the body of Christ—have been confronted with an invisible war
that we must wage against unseen principalities and powers and against

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