The shift in the “centre of gravity” of the Church from the West to the South and East is well documented.
- The workforce for world missionĀ is increasingly being drawn from churches of the South and East, not from the traditional churches of the North and West.
- The leadership of the mission movement is being increasingly drawn from the growing world Church. This emerging leadership does not always share the presuppositions and concerns of historic Western leadership.
- Western assumptions that history, supposed “theological sophistication” and finance allow us to “call the shots” in world mission are being challenged and refuted.
- Little thought has been given to the role of traditional mission agenciesĀ in a changing world. (By contrast, a lot of effort has been given to thinking through the role of the newer emerging movements.)
This is the third in a series of three posts; read numbers one and two.
5 replies on “Mission Strategy III: World Demographics”
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Thanks Eddie great piece. Your point on not calling the shots just because we (in the west) have the finance seems very important. Are we (whether as agencies or individuals) calling the shots simply by deciding who/where/what to send money to? Or is your concern more about the way lots of strings can get attached in doing this?
Hi Sam, I think you might have inspired another blog post (or I may have written on this already, but forgotten). Off the top of my head, there are a number of ways in which finance can result in strings being pulled:
1) as you say, the choice of which projects get financed automatically places some control in the hands of those doing the funding. The most ‘attractive’ projects may not be the most important to the local people.
2) Agencies can control the way projects are run by insisting on certain processes or reporting criteria.
3) Even when we want to be good partners; government regulations on the accountable use of charity funds can force us into a controlling position.
Thanks Eddie, very thought provoking