The Church in Mission

definitely worth republishing, from Carlisle Executive Presbyter

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Did you know that the Presbyterian Church in Madagascar has more members than our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? Did you know that we have a close working partnership with two different Presbyterian Churches in Ghana: the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana? Did you know about the efforts of American Presbyterians to establish relations with the emerging house churches, many of which include people with a Reformed and Presbyterian background, in all the “stan” countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan)? Did you know there are new efforts to connect our church with the peacebuilding efforts which have been bearing fruit in Ireland for many years, through the work of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland? Did you know about the longstanding effort of American Presbyterians to stand with our brothers and sisters in Columbia against the violence in that nation? Our Columbia Mission Network, in a powerful ministry of compassion, has provided for the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Columbia when he, his wife and young children needed to leave Columbia because of the death threats received in response to their Christian witness? Did you know that because of the influence and support of American Presbyterians, the Presbyterian Church in Honduras, after years of effort, has finally had their legal petitions with the government, which is dominated by Roman Catholic officials, approved. Now the Presbyterian Church has official standing as a religious organization in Honduras. This means, for the first time, that the Presbyterian congregations in Honduras are able to legally own their church buildings and property. Given the lack of social infrastructure in Haiti, do you know about the incessantly difficult work which American Presbyterians are doing to bring a long-term, sustainable, mission effort to that poor country? Did you know, after generations of conflict and war, the church is emerging with amazing life and vitality in Vietnam and Laos and that American Presbyterians are partnering with those congregations? All of this work is being carried and supported by the burgeoning, new Mission Networks of our Church.

http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08718.htm

October 2, 2008

‘An enormous phenomenon’

by Pat Cole
Associate, Mission Communications

LOUISVILLE — Short-term mission trips are “an enormous phenomenon” and “central to the ministry practices of a high proportion” of Christians in the United States, according to a seminary professor who studies the trend.

In a recent address to leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission networks, Robert Priest, professor of mission and intercultural studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, said it is likely that more than 2 million U.S. Christians travel abroad each year on short-term mission trips. 

Participation in international mission trips is particularly high among younger people, he said. In a study of students in 60 U.S. seminaries, Priest found that 48 percent of seminarians had been on an international short-term mission trip and that 67 percent of PC(USA) seminarians had a short-term mission experience abroad. A survey of students in Christian liberal arts colleges revealed that 47 percent of them had traveled internationally on short-term mission trips.

A total of 44 leaders from 31 PC(USA) mission networks  gathered in Louisville Sept. 25–27 to share best practices and participate in training opportunities.  PC(USA) mission networks are composed of Presbyterians who come together around a particular country, region, or other mission interest.

Short-term mission experiences, Priest said, can potentially broaden the horizons of participants, deepen their faith, and contribute to the well-being of communities in developing countries. 

However, such positive outcomes from these trips, which usually last fewer than 14 days, are not automatic.  In fact, Priest noted, many participants fail to try to understand the cultures they visit, can cite little evidence of spiritual transformation as a result of their trips, and engage in giving practices that create unhealthy dependencies.

Nevertheless, in his research with pastors in Peru and Thailand, Priest has found that most pastors in those countries who worked with short-term groups had positive appraisals of them. On a trip to one Latin American city Priest witnessed a large short-term mission team help construct a Protestant church building and staff a medical clinic that offered a variety of services.

“I couldn’t find anybody in that town who thought it (the mission trip group) was anything but wonderful,” Priest said.  The economically poor townspeople appreciated their services and saw that the host congregation had connections with affluent foreigners. Those relationships, he said, raised the esteem of the congregation in the predominately Catholic town.

However, many mission pastors and youth pastors acknowledge that the strategic contributions of short-term mission trips to overseas communities are of limited value, Priest said.  They justify short-term mission, he explained, “in terms of how it positively benefits the sending congregation or youth program.”

As the short-term mission trips began to grow in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, Priest said some leaders justified the trips by hoping the experience would nudge participants toward long-term mission service or make them more likely to support long-term mission personnel  financially. Research has shown that has not been the case, he said.

“Today the results are clear that the explosion of short-term mission trips coincided with a plateauing and decline of career missions and that short-term mission expansion reflected a redirection of resources away from career missions rather than an increase in the amount given in support of career missions,” Priest said.

Priest, who has interviewed many short-term mission participants, said they experience spiritual transformation more often when they combine international service with work in economically poor communities near their homes.  Some short-term mission participants have built relationships with recent immigrants from countries they visited on mission trips.

Yet a deepened involvement with economically poor people and lifestyle changes are not likely to happen “if you come from a church that doesn’t put justice issues front and center,” he said.

In his interviews with mission trip participants, Priest has found that many people struggle to identify ways they have changed as a result of their mission experience.

Priest recounted the story of one short-term mission trip participant who was eager to be interviewed about his experience. When questioned how he had changed as a result of the trip, the man could only say that he is now a more grateful person.

“Is gratefulness an adequate response to human need?” Priest asked.

by David Dawson*

This article appeared in the The Presbyterian Outlook on September 8, 2008, and was re-printed in the Presbyterian Cross-Cultural Mission Newsletter Email Group Posting #23 – October 2008 with the permission of the author and The Presbyterian Outlook. www.pres-outlook.org  There are footnote references in the article indicated by parentheses ( ).

You may be surprised that missionary could be in need of rehabilitating, but some readers will have a visceral aversion to hearing this word. It is time to reconsider what we call those who represent the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in international cross-cultural mission.  The recent General Assembly unanimously approved the Dallas Invitation (Expanding Partnership in God’s Mission) and affirmed the General Assembly Council’s proposal to reverse the half-century decline (from 2,000 to 200) in the number of mission co-workers serving internationally.  These are very significant defining moments for the PC(USA) and they provide us an important opportunity to review our beliefs and actions regarding mission.

Many readers will be surprised that using “missionary” is a no-no for some in the PC(USA).(1)  Officially we have preferred “fraternal worker” (1960’s – 1970’s) and “mission co-worker” since then. Presbyterians are far more influenced in their thinking about missionaries by James Michener’s Hawaii and Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible than they are by mission education provided by the PC(USA). In addition to popular literature this bias is also deeply influenced by western scholars.(2)  It seems that some in the PC(USA) defer to popular literature and academic writers for a critical understanding of missionaries. Maybe we should listen to international partners such as world-renowned missiologist Lamin Sanneh who twenty years ago labeled this lack of nerve “the western missionary guilt complex.”(3)

Have missionaries been paternalistic? Have they cooperated with imperialism and economic colonialism? Have they imposed western theological and Biblical understandings as normative Christian expression? Yes (with emphasis) to all of the above! However, missionaries are no better at sinning than the rest of us. They just get to do it cross-culturally in a foreign language more carefully scrutinized than most of us have had to endure.  Robert D. Woodberry (among many other serious mission historians) reminds us that the knee-jerk, emotional, negative reaction to “missionary” is ill-founded. Woodberry writes: Continue Reading »

Tags: Add new tag, missiological terminology, missionary, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Mission Co-workers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) just received some good news of a decision of General Assembly to increase the number of long-term mission personnel thus reversing a 50 year trend of decreasing personnel. Better yet is the explanation given by the current Director of World Mission, the General Assembly level mission sending structure located at denominational headquarters in Louisville. It demonstrates both sound missiology and diplomatic recognition of previous missionaries hard work to “work themselves out of a job”. I find this especially significant as it gives a good response to a statement often made by well meaning mission thinkers that decreasing numbers is good, while increasing numbers is not. Hunter’s nuanced repose is worth noting. Here is the letter:

2 June 2008

Dear colleagues in mission,

I want to share with you an historic decision by our Church’s General Assembly Council (GAC). Last month, the Council voted unanimously to reverse a 50 year downward trend in the number of PCUSA mission coworkers by approving a budget for the approval of the 2008 General Assembly that will increase the number of long-term, fully compensated mission personnel. Due to attrition, by this year’s General Assembly in June, we will have just under 200 mission coworkers (this does not include our nearly 70 long-term mission volunteers). The GAC voted to increase the number of our mission coworkers to 210 in 2009, and to 215 in 2010. We are thanking God for this remarkable decision.

But you know how U.S. audiences are tempted to focus on the 7 second sound-byte. Let me go a bit deeper about this important decision and the on-going conversation from which it emerges.

First, let me say what the decision does not mean: Continue Reading »

here it is!

http://www.pcusa.org/missionchallenge07/#

http://www.pcusa.org/missioncelebration/ 

The World Mission people in Louisville have developed great resources for interpreting mission, in preparation for the nationwide (144 presbyteries) campaign. These include:

• a video narrated by Hunter Farrell available online at: http://www.pcusa.org/missionchallenge07/index.htm
• Mission Challenge ’07 materials are you can see now at http://staging.pcusa.org/mc07
• a new “simplified giving” Web site went live a week ago: www.pcusa.org/mission so you can trully designate your funds to specific missionaries and projects

Take full advantage of these resources and let’s promote God’s great mission, also in this way!

An excellent article I found today:

Posted on Aug 2, 2007 15:45pm CST.
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All Things Catholic – John L. Allen, Jr.

If there were any lingering question about whether there’s a spiritual boom in China today, it now has a two word answer: Yu Dan.

A 42-year-old female talk show host and pop culture icon, Yu Dan is the author of Notes on Reading the Analects — a sort of Confucian Chicken Soup for the Soul — which has sold somewhere between 3 and 4 million copies, making it one of the biggest best-sellers in China since Mao’s “Little Red Book.” Dan’s success illustrates that China has become, according to writer Zha Jianying, the “largest soul market” in the world. With a population of 1.3 billion, China is trying to fill an ideological void left by the collapse of Communism as anything more than a system of political control, and the dislocations of astonishing but uneven levels of economic growth.

There are so many wounded, helpless souls that are desperate to find something to believe in and to hold onto after these drastic changes — Jianying told Reuters in May. Continue Reading »

Over the last 30 years as a missionary I have learned that the most exciting ministries we established or seen established are those which were self-reliant from the beginning. Self-reliance in terms of material resources translates into instant local “ownership” in terms of the personal and spiritual dynamic that governs the ministry and that is one of the most important keys for the emergence of long-lasting ministries with deep impact.

Westerners often assume, however, that overseas projects just cannot get along without us and consequently, faithfulness in world mission becomes a matter of writing checks. Glenn Schwartz of World Mission Associates, in his recent book, gives good insight and offers sound advice to churches who seek to encourage self-reliance and curb dependency in their desire to further God’s rule throughout the world. Check it out:

• When Charity Destroys Dignity. Overcoming Unhealthy Dependency in the Christian Movement. by Glenn J. Schwartz (World Mission Associates) available through www.wmausa.org

One more of those maps to put continents into perspective, this time, Africa. Read more about it HERE.

Another map that communicates well, even if dated. See more information HERE.