We’re better together
Each member of the body of Christ has a vital role in God’s mission to the world
By Hunter Farrell
In recent decades a seismic shift in the understanding and practice of mission has opened the door to direct involvement of U.S. Presbyterians at unprecedented levels. As globalization has increased international communication, travel and awareness, U.S. Presbyterians haven’t waited on the denominational offices to engage in mission — they’ve gone themselves! Researchers estimate that 2.2 million Americans traveled on international short-term mission trips in 2008.* There are signs that the Spirit is calling the church to a broader understanding of partnership at the dawn of a new chapter of mission history.
World mission: a story in 3 chapters
The story of Presbyterians’ involvement in God’s mission to the world is a long and beautiful one that can be understood in three chapters.
Chapter 1: Beginning in 1837 the Presbyterian Church’s Board of Foreign Mission sent missionaries into the world to preach, teach and heal. In Brazil, Congo, Egypt, China and other countries, mission workers planted churches and helped them grow into witnessing, serving communities. Thousands of women and men came to faith in Jesus Christ, as U.S. Presbyterians, sent by our denominational mission board, took the gospel around the world. This first chapter of Presbyterian mission history was a good and faithful response to God’s call to our church at that time.
Chapter 2: In the 1950s and 60s Presbyterian communities in other nations multiplied and matured. The developing world’s clamor for self-determination in the waning years of the colonial era grew. U.S. Presbyterians discerned a movement of the Spirit and reformed the church’s mission policy to respect the role of national Christian communities and their leaders in what was previously considered “the mission field.”
General Assembly offices began working with churches around the world in the spirit of partnership, turning over the reins of leadership to them and empowering the national churches to serve their communities through ministries of evangelism, health, justice, education and development. Since then the churches in Korea, China, Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, Brazil, Mexico and many other countries have exploded in growth, adding millions of members to the church of Jesus Christ.
Chapter 3: In 1960 Presbyterians worked primarily through one centralized international mission agency. Today there are literally thousands of Presbyterian “mission agencies”: congregational mission committees, international presbytery partnerships, and numerous Presbyterian mission organizations. This new context requires that in addition to continuing to partner with churches around the world, Presbyterian World Mission partners with congregations and church members in the United States who are involved in God’s mission.
Good and not so good
The changes in how the church does mission have brought positive effects: more widespread involvement; increased giving; more opportunities for personal and congregational transformation.
But global partners of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have pointed out several problems:
- Mission efforts have become highly uncoordinated. For example, three congregations arrive at the same Central American community for a work trip.
- Mission outreach is less strategic. In a given year, for example, perhaps a hundred Presbyterian congregations take a mission trip to tourist-friendly Kenya, but only a few to neighboring Sudan, a poorer and less-evangelized nation with a longer history of relationship to the PC(USA).
- In some cases mission projects are less responsive to the needs as perceived by the local overseas community. U.S. congregations offer what they have, which is sometimes not what the partner needs.
- For more faithful and effective witness, World Mission leaders have begun to work intentionally in “communities of mission practice,” gathering and nurturing spaces of prayer, reflection, mutual learning and discipleship. A growing number of mission networks, international presbytery partnerships and other programs provide concrete examples of this emerging phenomenon.
The rising tide of collaboration comes none too soon: in this age of rapid globalization the causes of poverty and injustice often reach across national borders. To truly make a difference, Presbyterians must coordinate their work with each other and with the church’s global partners.
In many cases global partners are unable to address the root causes of particular problems in their countries without the witness and advocacy of U.S. Christians.
For example:
- Thousands of children in Peru are discovered to have lead-poisoning because of the environmental practices of a U.S.-owned metal smelter.
- U.S. “free trade” policy forced Haiti to lower its tariffs on rice, opening up that impoverished nation to a flood of cheap U.S. rice — subsidized by U.S. taxpayers — effectively destroying all incentive for Haitian farmers to grow rice.
- Women and children in many countries are routinely lured away from their communities in search of a job, but can wind up ensnared in the global web of human trafficking.
Hunter Farrell is director of World Mission for the General Assembly Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). With his wife, Ruth, and their three children, he worked for 15 years as a mission co-worker in Congo and Peru.
Published in Presbyterians Today magazine, May 2010.
*Robert Priest, Effective Engagement in Short-term Missions: Getting It Right! (Pasadena: William Carey Press, 2008).
The above article was sent to us from,
Dennis A. Smith
dennis.smith@pcusa.org
PCUSA Enlace Regional, Brasil y Cono Sur, Misión Mundial
PCUSA Regional Liaison, Brazil and Southern Cone, World Mission
PCUSA Representante Regional, Brasil e Cone Sul, Missão Mundial
Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.pcusa.org/worldmission
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