Missiologist Lamin Sanneh says that humility is at the heart of Christian mission because this faith–unlike “spirituality”–must be received from another. No one is born into this faith. Nobody stumbles upon it after walking in the woods or rummaging around in one’s ego.

Christians are recipients, never initiators. Here is truth that can be had only with receptive, empty, open hands. Someone had to love us enough to show and to tell the story. We know what we know only through epiphany–that is, witness, testimony.

Sanneh says that Christianity is training in receptivity, learning to be gratefully dependent on the testimony of others.