What on earth are we doing with mission?
What are we doing with mission?
Oscar Muriu, from Nairobi in Kenya, says,
“You are so good at innovating, and resolving problems. But you see the problems and can’t live with them. You feel compelled, your compassion moves you to FIX them. We need a brother to give us space, a shoulder to cry on… You must understand that there is a greater hope than this life itself. I have prayed, ‘O Lord, please don’t send another missionary to fix us. We have been fixed so many times we are in a real mess now.’ Would you hear our pain before you try to fix us?”
Wow! That came as a bit of a shock. What are we trying to do with missions? Are they for the people we are going to or are they for ourselves, to make us feel good about fixing the world’s problems?
I’ve been watching this Missions Dilemma DVD for five weeks now and it has made a mark on the way that I think. I can’t believe that I sat for years in churches listening to the stories of people who had been overseas talking about people who have ‘so little’ or ‘are in such a mess’ and telling me that I had ‘so much to give’. I actually have a lot to learn.
This week’s episode was focussed on short-term mission (aka Mission Tourism).
I’ve never been on a short-term mission trip, but I have heard a lot from people who have come back from two or four weeks overseas, mostly revolving around the idea of us having so much and them having so little. That may be true, but…
In the introduction to this episode, Steve Saint (the host) gave an illustration using Paris Hilton (the person, not the hotel) with the idea of her coming to our community and trying to show our poverty (in relation to her wealth). I’m going to change that a bit, all you have to do is imagine you are in charge of a church community…
Dear friend
I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Phil and I am a member of [insert church name or organisation here] in the UK. This summer I will be visiting you with 20 friends from my church to bless, encourage and teach people in your community.
We would be happy to lead Bible studies, children’s groups, men’s and women’s fellowships plus give leadership training to you and your leaders. Of course we can also provide some manual help, carry out repairs to your building or, depending on the state of it, put up a new one.
We are all willing and enthusiastic volunteers who really want to bless you during this period.
All we will need when we are with you are places to sleep, if you could arrange that we would really appreciate it. We are happy to buy food and cater for ourselves, but obviously, will need somewhere to prepare and cook the meals. Oh, and we will want to take one day off to visit the local town and buy souvenirs.
Yours in Christ…
Don’t start by thinking about what it’s like in some African village to have a visit like this. Think what it would do in your church. What’s this saying? You can’t take care of your own people? You don’t know enough to teach the people? You don’t have a different group for the children, they go with the adults, so should you start something for my visit? What about the building, if someone else builds it is it yours? Then how to look after a group of 20 people in a different culture? And when you welcome guests isn’t it polite to offer a meal, so that’s 21 people to cater for?
We go with great and honourable intentions for short-term missions, but sometimes we can be a negative impact on a community. That’s not really what we want is it? I don’t think it’s wrong to go and vist, but how about we go with the attitude of learning rather than teaching. Instead of assuming we can do it better, go and find out what life is like there and just be a friend. Being part of God’s family it’s good to go and visit the extended family from time-to-time and to be an encouragement. But, let’s be a little more sensitive about the way we do things.
Missions Dilemma is an excellent resource that I think churches and missions agencies should at least consider. It’s going to be tough if you’re an American because it is presented for an American audience and deals directly with some American assumptions about mission (in the UK we make similar assumptions), but it’s also written by an American so I figure he’s allowed to be a little tougher with his own country.
A trailer for the DVD is below. Annoyingly, I can’t find it for sale on Amazon, but here’s a link to the I-TEC store where they are stocking this.
Wanna go on an Engage team next year??!!
I liked this bit:
“We go with great and honourable intentions for short-term missions, but sometimes we can be a negative impact on a community. That’s not really what we want is it? I don’t think it’s wrong to go and vist, but how about we go with the attitude of learning rather than teaching. Instead of assuming we can do it better, go and find out what life is like there and just be a friend. Being part of God’s family it’s good to go and visit the extended family from time-to-time and to be an encouragement. But, let’s be a little more sensitive about the way we do things.”
Wycliffe UK Engage teams (www.wycliffe.org.uk/engage) are a mixture of people with all different pre-conceived ideas about why they’re going, and as such they’re sometimes going to be more of a burden than a blessing to the people hosting them. But I HOPE they at least sometimes achieve this delicate balance of visiting and learning, while also somehow bringing encouragement.
Phil, if after watching these DVDs you feel there’s something we’re glaringly doing wrong with Engage, let us know! I know you’re busy, but we’d value your input.
The Paris Hilton comparison is interesting. Have you watched Secret Millioniare about how weathy people can help deprived areas of Britain? http://secretmillionaire.channel4.com/ (now showing on BBC Canada) and a US version http://www.fox.com/secretmillionaire/
Of course one key difference between this and some mission models is that most of the real initiatives for change in this program are already coming from local volunteers themselves rather than the millionnaires trying to send their friends to run everything.
Nice post. (Just noticed a small typo; it’s Oscar Muriu with an M).
I know I’ve busted on short term missions a lot, but they do benefit churches too. Keep in mind that Muriu’s church is a cutting-edge church with a lot of resources; tons of westerners visit. There may be other, more rural churches that would love to have people come and spread the wealth. The key which you nailed is the attitude issue. It makes all the difference in the world if you say, “We want to come to learn and help in whatever ways you think would be best.” Done right, the hype surrounding a short term visit by Westerners can do a lot to boost the work of a church in certain communities.
I loved the reversal in the letter. If more teams approached a short term mission trip here in the same way they would approach “blessing” their own churches (keenly aware of issues like the housing burden), lifelong relationships could develop.
Good stuff.
We may incorporate that into a missions conference coming up in Oct at our church.
I attended Muiru’s church for almost 3 years. It is indeed cutting-edge for the developing world – and they have benefited from western missionaries in more ways than one.
Hello folks… not used to this kind of action on the blog. Will take me a moment to compose some replies.
Steph, thanks for the Engage invitation. Will have to see what the next year holds. I honestly can’t think of anything you are doing ‘wrong’, I’m no expert at this missions thing, but the fact you’re even wrestling with this stuff is good. Maybe you should get a copy of the DVD for your office, or get in touch with Eddie and borrow his.
Peter, the secret millionaire thing is interesting. I’ve only watched one episode. That said, the millionaires take the time to build up a relationship before they give their money. They don’t just arrive, hang around for a few days and then dump a load of cash on an individual. They actually try to understand the situation, and probably wouldn’t give money if they thought it was going to be wasted. They also give the money to the individual who gets to decide how to spend it, rather than doing all the work for them as well.
Ben, thanks for the correction. Typo fixed. I guess there may be lots of churches/communities that would like lots of money given to them. Personally, I wouldn’t say no to someone giving me a few £ million, but, would it do me any good? Probably not, I’d just go home and sit in front of the cricket as much as possible and buy too much good wine and coffee… maybe a flash car, I do like Porsche 911′s…. anyway, I wouldn’t turn the money away, but it wouldn’t do me any good. Same with churches, getting the money for nothing isn’t always going to be a good thing but equally it’s not something you’re going to pass up.
I’m really starting to be persuaded that there’s more in relationships than in the simple transferral of wealth or goods. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for that, but that the physical could/should take second place to the relational.
Yes, there will always be exceptions. Muiru’s church may have flourished (maybe I’ll get to visit one day) but one exception cannot disprove the rule.
I guess that what I’m hoping is that mission has more to do with relationship building rather than the simple transaction of gifts and services.
Paul, enjoy your conference. It’s well worth thinking/rethinking from a church perspective.