Solidarity for Kingdom Mission in the Americas
Many followers of Jesus in the United States long for more than what they are currently experiencing in the community of the church. In fact, many are regularly seeking new experiences of worship or teaching or healing that will bring the kind of life and connection they sense they are missing. The unfortunate result of this search is that increasing numbers of United States churches have turned their focus further inward, examining the structure of their liturgy, the quality of their worship, the extent of their “sacrifice” of devotion, etc. This reflection is good and worthwhile, but it is often done as if the members of the church all live in a vacuum – as if the society and world outside the doors of the church do not exist. It seems that the working belief is that each person’s personal submission to Jesus as Lord of the Universe is simply to accomplish salvation for each individual soul. Discipleship, in this environment, simply means leading individual Christians to develop a heart that is internally “right” with God as well as growing in personal obedience which is manifested in their own life and relationships. In many churches and therefore in many Christians’ minds, this is what salvation, righteousness, and community have come to mean.
The isolation and affluence with which many North American Christians live has blinded us to the way most other followers of Jesus live around the world today, has reduced the mission of the church to something mostly unrecognizable to Christians world-wide, and has eroded the North American church’s view of the Gospel itself. What this has left is an anemic, privatized version of a faith that in the words of Tom Sine, an American author and futurist, is little more than “the American Dream with a little Jesus overlay”. At first, this may seem a harsh critique. But as we open our eyes to what God is doing in his church worldwide, we have to begin to wonder why churches in the United States begin to feel so inwardly focused and irrelevant to society and the rest of the global community by comparison. The kind of transformational life and vitality that so many of us long for seems so often to escape North American Christ-followers. Many churches in the United States (especially mainline protestant “evangelical” churches) have become proficient in proclaiming and living an excessively privatized gospel. To the extent that this “gospel” engages the surrounding culture at all, it often does so through an extremely narrow “values” agenda that rings more like discord than good news. Though there are many reasons for this, and many contributing factors, this essay begins with this statement, this negative critique, as an assumption.
Many churches in the North languish. Denominations are dying out. The gospel believed and preached by the church in the United States seems too weak and irrelevant to compete with the (North) American Dream. It has little or no sway over consumer aspirations. While there is evidence of God’s Kingdom at work, it is often not the Church that is found investing in and bringing salt and light to these places, it is more often non-profit ministries, para-church workers, and concerned groups of Christ-followers acting outside the umbrella (and often the mission) of their church.
And yet, the church in the United States still considers itself to be a leadership force in the world. Despite its decreasing ability to partner in the world wide (or even local) mission of God’s Kingdom, the United States church still views itself as the trend setting, theologically solid base of the church in the world. This is a significant reason why, for some years now, non-western church leaders have been expressing concern for and frustration with the church in the United States.
In a way that is reminiscent of Isaiah 58, the United States church runs the risk of becoming a kind of closed community - a group of people professing faith in God while religiously attending to an almost entirely privatized form of worship. These self-focused communities miss God’s invitation to live lives of Kingdom purpose that would bless those around them – especially those so close to God’s heart: the sick, the prisoner, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and the stranger. Isaiah 58 makes it clear how this kind of worship saddens the heart of God.
-Isaiah 58:2-3
And through the invitation of the same chapter, we can hear God call out to his churches in the North, offering just the kind of blessings they are seeking:
-Isaiah 58:9-11
Church historians and missiologists agree that though the church in the West and North (predominantly led by Europeans and North Americans) has for the last Millennium led the world church, this era of northern leadership is coming to an end. There are now more Christ-followers living in the Southern hemisphere than in the Northern. As a result, says Walbert Bühlman (one such missiologist), “the Third Millennium will evidently stand under the leadership of the Third Church, the Southern Church. I am convinced that the most important drives and inspirations for the whole church in the future will come from the Third Church.”
From a more global perspective, it is amazing what churches in extremely under resourced areas of the 2/3’s world are able to accomplish as they embrace the Integral Mission of the church. Though often starved for capital, these churches and ministries are able to develop extensive vision and programming that serves many of the needs of their communities while witnessing to the wonderful redeeming work of Jesus. Many of these ministries have become models of holistic transformation as they have impacted individual people and their communities, souls and societies. (It should be noted that not all Southern churches are beacons of Integral Mission. In fact, many Southern churches also languish with a privatized gospel. But we should further note that in many cases, this partial gospel was “handed down” by western missionaries and seminaries.)
So, the irony is that while many Northern churches are financially well resourced, yet continue to lose ground and vitality, their poorer counterparts in the South often strain under the expansive ministry and mission they have embraced as well as the severe financial resource limitations that are their physical reality. From this perspective, each seems to have so much of what the other needs. The financial capital to which most Northern churches have access could easily resource so many needy and worthy churches and ministries in the South. In return, the vitality, life, and mission that is the reality of so many Southern churches and ministries could be the key to revitalizing, refocusing, and expanding the Northern church and its influence in the United States.
Yet North and South continue to labor on, largely in isolation from each other. There is little solidarity of heart, mind, or mission.
A Solution:
In this proposal we offer a solution to the needs of both: Global Solidarity for Kingdom Mission. One dictionary defines solidarity this way:
sol·i·dar·i·ty (n)
As North and South come to the place of harmony that comes from shared responsibility, it is beyond imagination what God would accomplish through such powerful unity.
The Old Paradigm: One way “partnerships.”
First, a word about what we mean when we say “partnership.” In the past there has been a certain amount of caution expressed with respect to the connection of ministries in the 2/3’s world to churches in the United States. The fear has been that unhealthy dependencies might be created and that the “natural” and “right” progression toward self-sustaining, healthy, independent ministries would be artificially interrupted or arrested. There has been fear that this kind of relationship would produce unhealthy “enabling” of Southern ministries by Northern Churches. While there is obvious truth to this possibility, and there are likely some unhealthy partnerships that do currently exist, we assert that a biblical model of Integral Mission will only grow from an Integral Church: a church that is fostering solidarity across boarders through partnerships which create two-way, healthy interdependencies.
Part of the problem of the old paradigm is that a power and resource dynamic was kept in tact. The church in the North was considered (often by both parties) the wealthy, educated, well-resourced church. Ministries in the South were seen as needy not only in resources, but in training and theological rigor as well. So, unhealthy partnerships were created which only allowed a one-way flow of resources from North to South.
A New Paradigm: Global Solidarity for Kingdom Mission
Healthy partnerships must contain a conscious flow of resources in both directions. Both parties must be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They must both understand what they can contribute to the partnership (this is especially true for the under-resourced or “weaker” partner). However, both parties must also be aware of their needs and what benefits they receive from the connection (this will be especially true for the well-resourced or “stronger” partner).
This interdependence is (and must be) evidence of the Kingdom. It is not only our calling, it is becoming our final option. According to Samuel Escobar, a Latin American Theologian, “…in coming decades Christian mission to all parts of the globe will require resources from both the North and the South to be successful.” Escobar is not only referring to the movement to bring the Good News to every people group on the planet, but to each church’s own mission among its own people and in its own community. …Escobar adds, “Christians from old and new churches are called to new partnerships to participate in mission on their own doorstep as well as in global mission.” Many Northern churches will learn how to do this from churches in the South.
But how will this learning take place? How will we open ourselves to new kinds of partnership? How will churches and ministries connect in their own cities? Across borders? These questions (and many more) are being addressed by a surprising number of emerging churches and ministries North and South.
Integral-Mission.org and The River Church Community have created a partnership to advance this discussion. We are co-hosting a conference called Integral Mission, Partnership and the Well-Formed Disciple with keynote speakers Dr. Rene Padilla and Brian McLaren - two contemporary church leaders who are living out just this kind of partnership. The conference will be a combination of plenary talks and workshops and worship. We are working to make it as inexpensive as possible and welcome the participation of any who can make it to San Jose for this 24-hour event March 30 and 31. Click here for more information.
