The ministry of Jesus was wildly effective because of its counter-cultural nature. Christ’s presence was able to cut through racial prejudices, gendered norms, social constructs, and religious heirarchies to level all humanity at the foot of the same cross.
As technology evolves in its ability to connect people across these same borders today, the Church has an incredible opportunity to practice ministry in a similar counter-cultural manner to Jesus.
But before we can humble ourselves before our neighbors in other parts of the world, we must first understand what led us to disunity. As Americans, we may not sense the same friction in our relationships with other nationalities.
What we perceive as our sacrificial generosity may be received by others as degrading charity. What we perceive as our valuable education may be received by others as impertinent teaching.
The Gospel has the power to run in every direction, through every town and across every ocean. Kindred exchanges with those very different from ourselves invited us into a more brilliant understanding of the One who created the complexity of humanity.
The First American Foreign Missionary:
George Liele, An Emancipated Slave
For many years, Adonarim and Ann Judson have been counted among the first U.S. missionaries as they set sail in 1812 after being commissioned by one of the original missionary societies. It was at least 30 years prior to the Judsons’ departure, however, that African American pioneer George Liele left for Jamaica with his wife, Hannah, and their four children.
Liele, a former slave in Savannah, Georgia, had been seperated from his family as a child but clung to the stories of his father’s spirituality. His owner, Deacon Sharp of the local First Baptist Church, recognized the calling on Liele’s life and emancipated him in order to enable his full committment to a still segregated faith culture in Savannah.
After a successful ministry in Baptist churches in Georgia, Liele led hundreds to Christ through his life in Jamaica. His effectiveness reached widely from Canada to Sierra Leone through those who considered him a beloved teacher and mentor in missional living.
The Evolution of Missions:
We Wanted More, Then Less
The turn of the 20th century saw an exciting burst of communication technologies. Scientists were learning how to record music, transmit voice messages, facsimile photographs, and even fly planes. The world would soon feel much smaller as narratives from faraway lands could be shared through visual and audible storytelling.
The allure of exotic mission fields, as experienced through these new technologies, coupled romantically with the Great Commission. By 1900, each of the major denominations in the U.S had formed their own missionary societies and were sending out about 5,000 missionaries.
World wars, genocides, famines, and civil rights victories filled the front pages of newspapers for the next century, and U.S. Christians filtered the heaviness of global issues through their lens of faith.
International missions took on a strong humanitarian aid component, and much effort was made to combine the care of a person’s spiritual needs with the pressing necessity of physical relief.
With mercy ministries, however, came a set of practices that twisted promises of health and wealth with evangelism. Today’s generations are grappling with the messy nature of this marriage.
Healthy Intentions with Unintended Harm
According to the Changing Markets Foundation, as much as one third of clothing sent from the wealthy west to developing countries every year may be ending up in a landfill. Kenya alone receives 900 million pieces of used clothing each year, many of which are unusuable (like skiing outfits) and end up being burned, exposing local residents to toxic fumes.
Merriam-Webster even recognizes a term rice Christian as a noun meaning “a convert to Christianity who accepts baptism not on the basis of personal conviction but out of a desire for food, medical services, or other benefits.”
At Kindred Exchange, we are eager to explore the blind spots of the North American missions system as it seeks to impact global communities. We also hold a conviction that the Global Church has so much to teach our communities of faith here at home.
The Rise of the Church of the Global South
Gordon Conwell University estimates that over the last 100 years, the Global North has grown in faith by 10%, while the Global South has grown by 182%.
In many ways, traditional mission efforts have succeeded in sharing the Gospel across cultures. As we see national leaders in every country around the world take responsibility for reaching their own, it is time to reimagine the modern model of missions.
If 0.1% of the wealth held by the world’s Christians is being shared for Great Commission efforts, what is the role of the North American Church?
It is critical to focus on indigenous leadership already mobilized towards the world’s 7,246 unreached people groups. Equipped with the right resources, these leaders are answering the same call to go into all the Earth with great conviction and powerful vision.
Unfortunately, many Christians in North America are unaware of the massive growth the Church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is experiencing. Missions language is outdated and still focused on people from the U.S. “taking the Gospel” outside a clearly stagnated faith community.
Missions of Mutuality
My colleagues and I are far from the first to voice the need for a significant shift in the way the Global Church works together. Diaspora leaders have been advocating for change for decades, asking to be recognized as experts in their home cultures and champions for the Gospel among their own people.
Recognizing harm that has been done through recent mission efforts does not mean that we, as those who may have participated in harmful practices, disappear completely from the missions space.
It does mean, however that we explore the way our language reflects the posture of our hearts, and that we repent of the prejudices we have held as we other those who were created to be our brothers and sisters.
Our presence in foreign contexts can be just as fruitful as it can fail. With a new posture—one of mutuality—we can build effective bridges that foster social capital around the globe.
It is my deep desire to see the churches in our own neighborhoods be enriched by the faith and practices of churches in Uganda, in Myanmar, in Honduras, and in Ukraine. We are seeking to discover a new way of missional practices that invite a Global Church to serve together.
A Prayer to Posture Our Hearts for the Future
As you read through these words, I hope you will take time to pause...
To recenter your heart and your mind on your humanity, and perhaps reflect on the times of deepest spiritual growth in your own life.
You are invited to pray the following as you consider your social location in the world, the humility that will be required to continue rethinking your biases, and the openness to reimagine the Great Commission within the context of a beautifully ancient, but also refreshingly modern Gospel.
Breath In:
Lord, you are the same
both yesterday and forever.
Breathe Out:
Give me courage to hold to this truth
as I live in a changing world.
I wrote these words for an story gallary at last week’s first Partership Dinner. It was SUCH an incredible night, and I am still sitting in loads of gratitude to have had a room full of people willing to reconsider the presence of the American Church around the world.
If this sounds like the kind of room you’d like to be in, we would LOVE to have you speaking into our processes. Check out this link to get involved!
Have you read the books "When helping hurts" and "Helping without hurting in short term missions"? Both are excellent. They explore all the different kinds of poverty that exist other than economic. Really eye opening. I also love that they used the term "The Majority World" throughout the book to refer to the economically impoverished countries that have historically been called the Third World.