Is it the cost of sending mission partners overseas? Or that it now seems a bit old-fashioned? Or maybe it’s so-called post-colonial guilt? Whatever it is, the church in the UK seems to think twice before sending mission partners.
But Jesus’ Great Commission hasn’t changed or been rethought. There is still a role for the church to ‘go and make disciples, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you’. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Wind back a hundred years or so and we, along with other mission societies, settled in new territories and established mission stations – a church, hospital and school. In those pioneering days, starting from scratch, missionaries replicated in large part what they knew from the British Isles. Contextualization wasn’t a concept, and we exported not only the Christian faith but British culture and sensibilities.
Do we aim to do things differently now? Of course we do, but it is interesting to speak with those leading the church now about our general anxieties. I visited Kenya last week where I spoke with a senior bishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) whose family is from the northern Marsabit County – the region where Crosslinks missionaries Alfred Buxton, Eric Webster and Charles Scudder began a new ministry in the 1930s. As a second-generation Christian, this bishop is enormously grateful for the sacrifice those early missionaries made to take the gospel there and for the partnership since. Instead of us being wracked with guilt about the sensibilities of those early missionaries, he wanted to discuss how we might serve the ACK today.
Having said that, I do understand why churches think twice about sending Christians to do ministry overseas that local Christians can do just as well – arguably better in some cases, as there’s no need to learn the language and culture. However, this doesn’t negate the sending; there just must be a good reason to send missionaries into service away from home. And there is a need for the right people to serve in the right places in the right roles. That is what I spend a significant amount of time asking of both senior church leaders and our current mission partners serving around the world: ‘who do you need to do what?’
Does East and Sub-Saharan Africa need evangelists and church planters from the UK? Not really. But there are significant opportunities to serve through training and theological education, until there is a critical mass of local theologians, trainers and scholars to take this on fully.
And until the rest of Africa is ready to send missionaries in sufficient numbers, there is a need for evangelists and church planters in parts of North and West Africa. And then there is the gospel desert of Europe where existing ministries are just scratching the surface. Can you believe that the Republic of Ireland is the least reached English-speaking country in the world?
And there is still a need for ministers to serve in churches around the world. At this time partnering with the Anglican Church of Argentina would mean, at their request, sending ordained ministers to serve in churches. And in somewhere like Thailand, sending English teachers to run Bible studies for their students.
But though the need is great, it doesn’t necessary mean sending people to go wherever they want to go, to do whatever they want to do. Neither does it mean sending any willing person who may not be gifted or qualified for the task. The church’s responsibility to obey the Great Commission through overseas missions has by no means ended. It is how we seek to obey Jesus’ call that has evolved with the needs of our brothers and sisters around the world, and therefore the church can remain confident in the value of sending the right people to the right places to serve in the right roles.
If this is something you are working through now as a church or an individual, I and my colleagues at Crosslinks would be pleased to help in any way that we can, so don’t hesitate to get in touch: contact@crosslinks.org
John McLernon, Mission Director