May 14thA New View of Missions
To my dear TFMC family,
One of the most shaping books that I’ve read about international missionary work was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I remember reading the book and subsequently becoming quite enraged by the ignorance on display within its pages. This anger led me to stop reading the book several times. Only after I realized that my reaction was exactly the reaction that Kingsolver was trying to invoke was I able to settle into the story.
The Poisonwood Bible is a critique of missionary work. I know many folk have had similar reactions to mine when reading this book. And that’s largely because today, we feel otherwise about mission work. Whether it’s because we’re pushing back from its colonial history, or whether it’s because we are in a post-Christendom era, mission work feels and looks different today than it used to.
In 2013, I joined a Mennonite Church Canada learning tour to China to see the work that Mennonite Church Canada was engaged in. Mennonite Church Canada has had a presence in China for some time by the time I visited. What I learned was that our witness workers there weren’t so much doing ‘mission’ work as much as they were partnering alongside what was already happening.
They were working alongside local organizations, equipping and resourcing local organizations at their behest. They didn’t come with any agenda; rather, their metrics for success or their message that needed to be shared. Instead, it was a posture of listening, it was a posture of learning, and it was a posture of offering. It was very different. And I was inspired.
I was inspired by this because it felt less like North Americans were bringing something to another country, another culture, and more like our witness workers were joining in and with what God was already doing. Which, for me, felt good because it pushed back against the ‘white saviour’ trope.
I was delighted this past week to have Jeanette Hanson join us from Mennonite Church Canada’s Witness. She reminded us that a significant shift has occurred in how ‘mission’ is done and what witness is. In our Sunday School discussion, she reminded us that God is at work all over the world, starting new ventures, forging new paths, and doing new things with God’s people. However, this is not due to the influence, power, privilege, or wealth of Western Churches; rather, it’s coming from grassroots organizations, from local people in the country. Mennonite Church Canada is, instead, being invited to come alongside and to companion with these exciting things that God is already doing.
I’m excited about this alternative approach to mission and witness. It honours what’s already being done, and it is inviting Western churches to humbly come alongside and join in. It acknowledges that we in the Western Church don’t always have the best ideas or approaches, and that perhaps we need to be the students rather than the teachers, the followers rather than the leaders.
Yours
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor