Revising our economic view of partnerships. What is the best way to utilize our financial resources? Should we just start sending money to support indigenous workers? If we do that, will the Western church implicitly affirm an already pervasive materialism that believes that God wants our money more than he wants our lives? Will Western generosity continue when our resources go to support national leaders only and not our own flesh and blood?
Managing the relational imbalances created by economic inequalities is extremely complex.11 On the one hand, Christian resources are not evenly distributed. Christians of the Global South represent 70 percent of all Christians but receive only about 17 percent of all money earned by Christians. This puts them at a disadvantage in many areas including health, education, communications and overall quality of life.12 As a result, the North American church has a profound stewardship responsibility along the biblical lines: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Lk 12:48).
On the other hand, the introduction of money often skews any hope of partnership equality. Non-Westerners often feel compelled to create structures and report results using parameters assigned to them by donors. Westerners feel that they need to hold recipients accountable for the money donated.
The ideal solution, as I mentioned in chapter six, is to build relationships before any money is exchanged. Because this is not always possible, both North Americans and Majority World leaders need to strive toward honesty and trust. North Americans need to learn to give without holding controls. Majority World leaders need to understand where the questions from the Western donors are coming from and respond with integrity.
Revising our longevity view of partnerships. In one conversation, Oscar Muriu of Nairobi Chapel cited the fact that North Americans tend to think of partnerships from a business paradigm. We come together to accomplish a task, build a building or translate the Scripture, but when the project or transaction is completed, the partnership ends. Oscar described the idea of partnership from a more relational culture’s perspective: “For us in Africa, we think from a family paradigm. When we come together in partnership, it’s a partnership based on relationships (not tasks), and we stay partners for life.”
Revising our spiritual view of partnerships. At the core of this issue is the question of servanthood. Are we really willing to enter partnerships as servants? In his predictions about the future of Western missions, Bruce Camp highlights “the dramatic shift from the missionary being over the national church to serving under the national church.”13
Traveling over the past twenty-five years to more than one hundred countries, I have often asked local leaders, “Where does the church in the West fit in global missions?” responses have included: “You have the educational resources”; “You are enthusiastic and optimistic”; “We have the people, but you have the money.” I suppose I have heard dozens of responses, but I have not yet heard any leader say, “Well, you really set the pace in teaching us how to be servants.” We in North America know how to be in control, but do we know how to follow the orders of those who will lead Christendom through this century? We often pray, “O Lord, use me,” but how do we respond when we feel used? If Jesus came not to be served but to serve, will we be willing to follow his example?
Questions and Next Steps
1. Why do you think North Americans in general and people from the United States specifically have a difficult time taking the second place or subservient role?
2. Are you a “capital K” Kingdom person (one who places priority on the expansion of God’s reign) or a “small k” kingdom person (one who prioritizes agency- and denomination-level objectives)?
NOTES
1. Duane Elmer, foreward to Mary T. Lederleitner, Cross-Cultural Partnerships: Navigating the Complexities of Money and Mission (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2010), p.11
2. Joe Handley, personal correspondence with author, August 11, 2011.
3. Richard Tiplady, personal correspondence with author, Aug. 22, 2011.
4. Ron Blue, personal correspondence with author, August 11, 2011.
5. Bill Taylor, “The Great Global Shift: Implications for Church and Mission” (workshop, Woodmen Valley Chapel, Colorado Springs, February 10, 2011, emphasis added).
6. Robert Morrison, quited in J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), p. 62.
7. Hwa Yung, “A Fresh Call for U.S. Missionaries: Americans Should Focus less on ‘Western Guilt’ and More on Sharing the Gospel,” Christianity Today, November 2011.
8. Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself (Chicago: Moody, 2009), p. 115.
9. Ibid., pp. 115-19
10. Andrew Walls, “Demographics, Power and the Gospel in the Twenty-First Century” (lecture, SIL International Conference and WBTI Convention, Waxhaw, N.C., June 6, 2002).
11. I refer you here again to Mary Lederleitner’s Cross-Cultural Partnerships because it is the best book specifically addressing the “complexities of money and mission.” Jonathan Bonk’s Mi$$ion$ and Money: Affluence as a Western Missionary Problem(Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1991) strongly rebukes the insensitivity of Western missionaries to the relational impact of the economic divide between themselves and Majority World leaders, but Mary Lederleitner offers more constructive solutions.
12. Todd Johnson, “Religious Demography and Global Christian Education” (presentation to the board of trustees, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., February 10, 2012).
13. Bruce Camp, “A Survey of the Local Church’s Involvement in Global/Local Outreach,” in Jonathan Bonk, ed., Between Past and Future: Evangelical Mission Entering the Twenty-first Century (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2003), p. 242.
Taken from Western Christians in Global Mission by Paul Borthwick. Copyright © 2012 by Paul Borthwick. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426. IVPress.com.
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