LOUISVILLE — There has been a lot of talk in recent days about the shift in mission work, with the center of gravity moving to the congregations and presbyteries.
And now there’s beginning to be more discussion of what works and doesn’t work so well when local people get involved in international mission work. How can the enthusiasm of so many Presbyterians for making a difference around the world be linked to tried-and-true strategies for working in partnership?
Will Browne, the former associate director of Worldwide Ministries for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), led a panel discussion on that, before more than 600 people at the World Mission ’07 “Celebration of Grace” convocation, which met in Louisville Oct. 2-5. Browne said Presbyterians from the U.S. “come to mission with a little bit of danger of hubris, danger of pride that we are people who have something to offer to the rest of the world. In some ways I think that is very true.
“I think every American in some ways is born with an engineering gene within their soul and their mind, and we Americans see a problem and we immediately begin to think about how we can fix it. And more often than not, we’re pretty good at that. We are also a people whom God has blessed richly with material blessings. And we are for the most part a people who are easily moved to generosity.”
But in giving of our wealth to help others, Browne said, “we have to acknowledge that others did not have the gifts we have, so there is a power imbalance. And it becomes very hard for us to engage in mission in a way that demonstrates true mutuality and really opens ourselves to receiving what others can give to us.”
Sometimes, the mistakes people make are inadvertent, but still carry consequences. For example, Tricia Lloyd-Sidle, who is regional liaison for the PC(USA) for Cuba and the Caribbean, told of the unintended offense given by one U.S. group, whose numbers included a young pastor who happened to be moderator of her presbytery.
That the pastor served as the presbytery moderator was not mentioned until late in the trip, but when the Cuban partners found that out, “they were upset,” Lloyd-Sidle said. “Because they were denied the opportunity to share a gift, the gift of hospitality. The gift of honoring the moderator, which for them was very important.”
At first, she said, the response of the U.S. visitors was, “What’s the big deal?” But it took more conversations and a return trip by the pastor, in which full hospitality was extended, to smooth over the waters.
Rebecca Landholm, an elder from North Carolina who is a leader of the Peru mission network, said she thinks of involvement in mission work as layers of an onion — which “starts in our own heart. It starts with our walk with God.”
Landholm said she worries sometimes that people involved with mission work don’t always seem to have a solid faith walk, and aren’t working to discern what God wants them to do.
“Maybe they’ve just heard about this project over here and (think) `Boy, that sounds good and I think our church could really boost that,’ “ she said. “That brings up the haughtiness and the arrogance and `Look what we’ve done,’ that kind of attitude. So I think that inner core of that onion is our daily walk,” keeping close to God.
And North Americans need to follow the lead of the church partners in the countries they’re visiting, Landholm said.
“They know their culture, and we don’t, unless we have spent a long, long time there,” she said. “Listen to those partners. And know that God is working there. He’s not going to wait for us here from the States to come on down. He’s got people working there. He’s got people doing fantastic things to glorify His name and it’s up to us to find those people and work through them.”
Some told in that discussion of the difficulties of American churches knowing when and how it’s appropriate to provide financial support.
A man involved in the Kenya mission network said his church has formed a partnership with a small village, setting up a program to help children pay their school fees and to provide food for “the poorest of the poor.” But “we get reports from people that the elders are skimming off the top for their own families,” the man said. “For us to step back in feels very paternalistic. We don’t know exactly what to do.”
Lloyd-Sidle encouraged him to work through national church partners in Kenya, and responded that often, partnerships between one congregation and a particular project “have more problems than ones that go through church channels. Because there are checks and balances,” when national church partners are consulted.
The disparities in wealth between North Americans and those with whom they do mission always need to be considered carefully, said David Dawson, who has studied mission funding and history and is executive presbyter of Shenango Presbytery.
“Your church can mess up a partner church overseas out of your petty cash fund,” Dawson said. “Many of you know this from bitter experience. This is serious business.”
And he said later: “A church going as a lone ranger internationally is crazy. … You’re going to get in trouble somehow. It’s very difficult. You need partners.”
Rodrigo Maslucan, president of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Peru, spoke during one workshop of his country’s experience receiving short-term mission groups from the United States.
Speaking through an interpreter, Maslucan spoke of the importance of preparation, of the short-term groups taking the time to “listen to what it is that the churches in Peru are seeking.”
And “service with humility is important,” Maslucan said.
Some American groups will send links to their church web pages and letters of greeting or personal testimony before they arrive — a welcome step towards building friendship and understanding, he said.
Some groups bring gifts — clothing, medicine and more — but “it doesn’t really have a healthy impact,” because there’s no organized system for dispersing the gifts, Maslucan said. Sometimes, the church leaders take the best, and give others the rest.
“This is not healthy,” Maslucan said. If U.S. groups bring gifts, he said, they need to make sure a system is in place to dispense them in accordance with Christian ethics.
North Americans also must consider their behavior as they are guests in other countries. Maslucan said he’s known Peruvian pastors who felt they were not listened to — their opinions were not respected, so the relationship did not mature. In Peru, people are taught that to be a Christian evangelical means not to dance, not to drink alcohol, not to go to the movies, or smoke cigarettes, he said.
“Short-term missions are evaluated by that culture,” he said. Young people may be asked if they drink or go to parties. When one deacon saw an American smoking, he told his pastor: “The brother who has come is not a Christian. I saw him smoking.” These things are important, because “this is what the evangelical culture in Peru holds dear,” Maslucan said.
