people are worth criticism

"Hudson Taylor was a missionary from England who went to China in the 1800's. He was accustomed to the "English" way of evangelism, but when he got to China he realized that how you go about being a missionary there is going to look and be a lot different than evangelizing in England. So he changed his approach, he spent time with people, he even took it to the extreme of where he shaved his head, leaving a little hair which would grow into a Chinese cue [hair tied at the back of the head in a braid], and changed his normal English garb to wearing Chinese styled baggy trousers, white calico socks, satin shoes etc. He didn't just go walking into Buddhist Temples or go to Buddhists and slam Buddhism or focus on the negatives of not knowing Jesus. He relationally went in and got dirty with them, serving the people in all types of ways. The irony, is that the English missionaries who were used to evangelizing in England in a certain way - criticized Hudson Taylor since he was doing things radically different. From the outside he looked different, no proper English dress anymore, his methods were totally different. Did he teach the gospel? Absolutely. But how he did was very different and the criticism came from poodle-types. The critics had good intents and were concerned, but they just didn't understand in different cultures you need to do things differently. He eventually broke off and started China Inland Mission and trained new types of missionaries since he knew the culture there in China and understood it would be different." - Dan Kimball
Kimball contends that people outside the church are worth us taking criticism for.

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