To be or not to be: Missional
I come into a scene where evangelizing has taken place with a lot of skepticism. To be honest, I have never really liked the idea. I wish that I could have listened to the stories of the people of Phnom Pehn Mennonite church with an open mind and heart, but I soon realized that I was much too jaded. For them, Christianity is so simple. After four years of academia, nothing to me — especially religion — can be a simple matter in my mind. So I write this entry with a disclaimor of my perspective as only one perspective. It is by no means to be taken as the truth or to reflect the thoughts of everyone involved in bikemovement.
Initially, I become very skeptical of white people bringing the church/gospel to developing countries. There are huge layers of racism, colonialism, and issues of poverty that lend to unwarrented, even unconscious assertions of power by westerners. For this reason, I fear so much, that nothing is pure.
Thinking long and hard for years about missions I have come to a few conclusions:
- For a mission to be free of manipulation, the relationship between the people and the missionary must be number one. Insofar as if someone rejects the beliefs of a missionary, that missionary will still uphold that relationship, but not with the intention of conversion. Evagelism should never be about numbers.
- A missionary dare not go in with the assumption that he or she has nothing to learn from the “unsaved.” Why not be open to sharing beliefs and perhaps even integrating? Too often we see that Christian missionaries lay out ultimatums, “you do it this way, or you are not a true Christian!” But haven’t we been integrating religion all along? Many symbols of modern Christianity are symbols of ancient pagan religions. I’m sure that western Christianity differs greatly from the early church due to the sythesis between religion and culture.
- Humility, humility, humility. This is just so, so, so hard to find in a person. True humility is rare and especially rare amongst westerners in developing countries. One can easily lose sight of the goal of sustainability for the people, when they are being praised greatly by his/her followers. Along with that, I think a missionary must NOT go in with the belief that “these people are in great need of me,” no more than, “I am in great need of these people.” Perhaps one can only wish that something in the new testement may grab the attention of someone and enrich their lives somehow.
- Missions must be holistic, not just about coversion but about social justice and community building. I think it is too bad when a conversion separates a person from his/her family. Not to mention, it doesn’t create a very good feeling towards westerners.
I say all of these criticisms with a grain of salt and they by no means refer solely to the Mennonite evangelism that has taken place in Cambodia during the past ten years. Also, I recognize that I have never been a missionary and therefore completely lack that point of view. And I would like to affirm the Mennonite Church for being intentional about a lot of the things I mention above. Mennonite missions are never short so that relationships can be developed; there is generally a huge emphasis on humility, being holistic about the gospel, and wanting to create sustainability so that people are not dependent upon westerners.
On a final note, I must admit that a lot of my reservations about missions are because if my faith was to be evaluated by many missionaries I would certainly not be considered a Christian. I think to be really excited about Christian missionary work; I would have to be really excited about Christianity as the one and only true religion. I am not at that place. I never have been and probably never will be. From what I know, I love the life of Jesus and think that God is love. The rest to me is just details, details that I see holding people up, creating divisions, and that is not what I believe the world should be about.
I note with great emphasis that the new Christians of Phnom Penh were extremely excited about their faith. They told their stories with conviction and vigor, and I can never discredit or take those stories away from them. Perhaps I even have a hint of jealousy as they have found something to believe with their whole heart and I have not…
Adele Liechty
5/08/2007
Ho Chi Min, Vietnam
May 18th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Well spoken, Addie. I really want to respond with some of my own thoughts, but not with a quick comment. I will get to you later and thanks for the sharing. Love, Grandma
May 20th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Topic: living as a “missionary” for 9 years in Botswana.
Thought No. 1 - Husband, Jack, and I were asked to come and work in apartheid burdened South Africa by the people of South Africa.
The South African Council of Churches had become acquainted with Jack Purves when he went at his own expense to volunteer at those offices in any way he could help with their fight against the apartheid government.
The upshot of Jack’s several weeks of volunteering (writing pamphlets, for example) was that the SACC asked him to bring his wife and work as bursar (treasurer) at INANDA. This was the best school for black women in South Africa, located near Durbin. (the history of this invitation will await Addie’s request to hear it, if that ever happens)
The UCC church owned and ran INANDA. We applied to the USA’s UCC church for help with funds to be able to accept the invitation. The UCC of USA offered to subsidize us at a minimum salary. Since we would be going under the church, we would be called “missionaries.” We needed a visa to be able to take the job. After some time, the South African government refused the visa, since they found out about Jack’s volunteer anti-apartheid writings at the SACC. The SACC countered with a proposal that we go to Botswana instead to work at the only high school in the northwest quarter of that country. We agreed and were accepted into a UCC orientation program in Canada, which would last a full month. At any time a candidate among the 25 or so being considered as missionaries around the globe was judged unsuitable for a mission job, that person would be dismissed from the program.
Thought No. 2
Persons in charge of this 4 week orientation included citizens of Chile and of China. In Chile, the US government was known fairly recently to have helped assasinate a democratically elected leader.
We were given information about more than one country in which the US government had interfered in elections, even to getting rid of undesirable (communist-leaning in the USA’s opinion) candidates. We needed the humility occasioned by such knowledge.
In China, we needed education about Christians living in a country in which the government was Communist.
Memorable are these two pieces of advice: (a) Don’t try to be anything but an American in a foreign country. For example, dont’ try to emulate everything done by a Chinese citizen. “All the Chinese need is one more Chinese” was the tongue-in-cheek advice.
(b) Don’t ever think you came to a country to “bring Jesus.” That is arrogant. Be yourself in your concept of living the way taught by Jesus. Then if a new acquaintance asks you something about your way of life, introduce this new friend to your old friend, Jesus. THEN STEP BACK AND LET THEM WORK IT OUT. In other words, realize there is a living Holy Spirit who can assist in answering without you immediately pushing your individual point of view. For example, more than once I was simply asked, after some action or behavior on my part, “Oh, are you a Christian?”
That opened the door for conversation.
Okay, Addie, first installment completed in response to your thoughtful entry of May 16.