discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 58
58 Doing Mission Together
mission enterprise. A person doing research on a particular mission board or
agency needs to find out how that board tries to relate to the clusters of
churches emerging from its work. The end result that some mission teams are
working toward is the spinning off of independent churches or groups of
churches. In their exit strategies, such mission agencies fully embrace a scaffolding
metaphor in which any structure related to the parent mission group is
to be dismantled and taken away. Some mission agencies, such as the
Methodists, have opted for loose international fellowships of various national
associations. The Anglicans have put together a little tighter organization, using
words such as federation or federalism to talk about how their global communion
is structured. Still others, such as the Presbyterians, become global
partners (usually in terms of financial aid) with groups that may not even have
roots in their tradition. A handful of denominations are trying to create global,
organically unified associations of churches.
Paternalism and Dependency
Missionaries are always children of their times. So, paternalistic attitudes
lingering from colonialistic times have had to be faced. Students doing research
on their mission board need to ask how its mission policies have been shaped
by paternalism in the past and how the board is dealing with that problem in
the present. Questions such as “Who ultimately calls the shots?” and “Who
makes the final decisions?” can help reveal the degree of paternalism tainting a
mission agency.
The relationship between a national church and the international body
that gave birth to it usually goes through a series of stages that have been called
pioneer, parent, partner, and participant. 4 These stages define not only attitudes
but structural relationships as well. Missionaries infected by paternalism
often are satisfied with progress at a snail’s pace through these stages.
While the problems of paternalism and dependency are often intertwined,
they deal with different issues. Paternalism has to do with decision-making
power. Dependency relates to who is expected to provide financial resources.
In earlier centuries it was often the gospel being shared between equals or even
from poorer to richer. Then, beginning with the Age of Exploration in the
1500s, a reversal occurred and world evangelism became largely a going from
well-off Christian areas of the globe to the poorer, unevangelized areas. That
reversal in terms of economic levels has too often produced unhealthy dependencies
on the financial resources of parent organizations. Funding came to be
accorded such a determining role that many assumed evangelism or compassionate
ministry work was possible only when outside funds were available.
Any study of a mission organization should ask questions about dependency
problems it has encountered and take a look at how it is dealing with them.