Indigenous v. cross-cultural mission day
On May 20, Affinity held
its annual
Churches and Mission Day at Highbury
Baptist Church in London, discussing the
question ‘Is sending cross-cultural missionaries preferable to supporting indigenous
gospel workers?’.
John McDonald
of Grace Baptist
Mission urged churches to see that supporting a gifted national believer may be a far
better way of using
limited resources. If
encouraged to support an indigenous worker, churches may say that they cannot support or pray for someone they have never
met. And how will he or she send prayer letters if they do not speak English? Yet Paul
had never met the Colossians and was constantly praying for them (Colossians 1.9).
This is a challenge to our churches.
Culture of dependency
Do our mission strategies help or hinder?
Do we ‘use’ national believers in our strategy,
or do we serve them in theirs? If some level of
control and accountability
is
lost
in
the
process,
is
that a
sacrifice worth making?
Unless we let them lead, they may not escape
from a culture of dependency which will stunt
their maturity as leaders and churches.