What Hath Our Western Money and Our
Western Gospel Wrought?
by William J. Kornfield
Increasing
financial paternalism and accompanying Westernization of the gospel
are the two most critical issues facing us in world missions today.
We have a choice to make: either push these issues under the rug
and hope they will go away by maintaining the status quo, or face
them honestly with confession, repentance, and the search for better
ways. The cause of our Great Commission demands that we do the latter.
Paternalism creates dependency. It denies the wholeness of the individual
and ultimately leads to his or her bondage and suppression. There
can be no genuine reciprocity between individuals or groups when
one of them treats the other like a child.
The late Charles Troutman, who served with Intervarsity Christian
Fellowship USA and Australia and the Latin American Mission called
financial paternalism the "worst curse" that we could put on the
national church. As a longtime missionary myself, I have seen its
debilitating effects upon the churches wherever I have traveled
in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Financial paternalism separates the people who get the money from
those who do not. When church leaders receive such increased income,
which often is several times greater than their peers' jealousy
and strife often ensue. It leads to the professionalization of the
clergy. This in turn produces a false dichotomy between the laity
and the clergy.
We must confront the long-range effects of supporting Christians
overseas on a regular basis, especially pastors and evangelists,
Among the Quechua Indian believers in the Andes mountain area of
Latin America, indiscriminate outside financial support is an ever
increasing problem. Previously the Quechuas were self-supporting
and self-propagating, but now--because of financial paternalism
of some agencies and individuals--they are divided. A number of
Quechua churches, now supported by foreign funds no longer have
the same vision to reach the lost as they once did when they were
self- supporting.
Another problem with our Western financial paternalism is that it
implies that the church cannot grow, or in some cases even exist,
in its own native soil apart from Western money. To disprove this,
all we need to do is look at the phenomenal growth of the New Testament
church of the first century and the outstanding growth in our own
century in both Ethiopia and China, when the churches were completely
cut off from outside funds. When will we realize that more Western
money will only stagnate the growth of the church around the world?
On every continent we can find outstanding examples of self- supporting
churches and national missionary bodies. In Nigeria the Evangelical
Churches of West Africa, which has more than a million baptized
believers, sponsors its own mission agency with nearly 800 Nigerian
missionaries. There are other examples as well, such as some of
the Presbyterian missions in Korea. One local Korean church with
700 members sent seven couples with full support to Japan and the
Philippines. When their missionaries lack support, pastors themselves
refuse or postpone their own salaries until the support is made
up. Christians will fast using the money to meet their financial
commitment to their missionaries.
Financial paternalism also stifles local initiative, usually in
direct proportion to the length of time such assistance has been
given. It is no accident the Haiti and Bolivia, for example, which
have received generous foreign aid, are still today poor countries.
Paternalism may explain why the majority of community projects fail,once
the development agency is left. The project belongs to the foreigner
or the outsider, not to the local people or the community.
A better way
Is there a better way? I believe there is. The International Fellowship
of Evangelical Students (IFES) of Latin America provides a good
model of interdependence. In order not to be dependent on foreign
aid, in Latin America the IFES works on the principle of funds being
raised in each country where it has Latin American Staff workers.
In one Latin American seminary, where financial paternalism was
endemic, the students paid no tuition, received textbooks at half
price,paid nothing for their room and 50 percent for their board.
The situation was so denigrating, that the students, most of whom
came from the poorer classes, went on strike. With the backing of
the local church board, the seminary closed for one year. It opened
with a new structure, that was not paternalistic, and there were
only eight students--all of them of a higher caliber academically,
spiritually, and socially than the pervious students. They paid
moderate prices for their tuition and room and were given free access
to the kitchen and dining room, although they paid for their own
food. Most of them worked in the afternoon to pay their seminary
fees.
As these students began to show their spiritual gifts, the churches
began to support them. At the end of that year, for the first time
six churches were supporting seminary students and the seminary
was able to open its own bank account. After three years, nine part-time
teachers were completely supported by the tuition of the growing
student body. Student morale was high and the teachers gave it their
best shot. A number of these graduates are now full-time pastors.
Unless Local churches support their own theological institutions,
such institutions will always be seen as foreign, with little impact
on the local society.
Westernization of
the Gospel
The second critical issue facing us in world missions is how deeply
and tragically we have Westernized the gospel. Westernizing the
gospel is a surreptitious process growing out of financial paternalism
and it begins with the feeling that "Western is better." It is magnified
when church leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are trained
in the United States or Europe.
Our failure to address properly cross-cultural contextualization
is one reason why the sycretistic, independent African churches
are growing so rapidly today, numbering more than 81,000and growing
at a rate of 850,000 members per year, according to David Barrett's
report in 1986. These people have reacted to the Westernization
of the gospel and returned to their traditional roots. The North
American and European packaging of the gospel has made it difficult
for them, and for many others in other parts of the world, to internalize
biblical truth.
Our Western cultural forms are also highly visible in many of our
mass evangelistic efforts. At times the only change is the translation
from English into another language. For example,in Latin America
we have a culture of courtesy which implies doing what a person
of higher status indicates. Our North American evangelists usually
belong to the upper middle class. Therefore the masses of people
will almost always respond to there invitation to accept Christ.
However, in most instances the number of genuine conversions has
been minimal. I was the chairman of the follow-up committee for
two major evangelistic campaigns in Bolivia. I found that after
the campaigns the number of people in an evangelical church, or
identifying themselves as born again Christians one year later was
as little as one percent of the total number of professions. Alfredo
Smith, a leading Latin American pastor, has come up with the same
statistic.
Over the past 25 years, in spite of our missionary rhetoric to the
contrary, there has been little cultural adaptation in the continuing
use of North American evangelistic methods, techniques, and forms
in non-Western cultures. Unless our missiologists, missionaries,
and home churches are willing to grapple with these issues and pay
the price of change, the Westernization of the gospel--which is
simply paternalism in another guise--will invariably increase.
There is a strong connection between our financial paternalism and
our Westernization of the gospel. The greater the funding from Western
agencies and individuals, the greater the danger of our spreading
"another gospel" --i.e., a Western gospel--whose form is often irrelevant
and out of the context of the people in Africa, Asia,, and Latin
America. Cultural strings are often attached to our money, because
"he who pays the piper names the tune." One missionary colleague
recently confirmed what I have seen in so many parts of the world:
"National leader have so absorbed the Western cultural transplant
that they will defend to the death the imported ways of doing things."
Thus a foreign, Western model--rather than a truly biblical, indigenous
one--continues to be perpetuated in much of the world.
No simple answers
Financial paternalism and the Westernization of the gospel are complex
issues with no simple answers.
The leaders of our Western agencies must make some major shifts.
Changes of attitude, thinking, and methods will not take place unless
people at the highest levels of our missions organizations, denominations,
and churches decide to do so.
We also need to dialogue with our Christian brothers and sisters
from Africa, Asia, and Latin America who continue to receive so
much funding from the West. More people need to write about financial
paternalism and the Westernization of the gospel. We need practical
advice to get out of the mess we are in, without at the same time
neglecting our responsibility to give and minister cross-culturally.
One thing seems certain: We cannot continue to do "business as usual."
Ignoring financial paternalism and the implications of a "Western
gospel" will only stagnate the growth of the church and hinder the
fulfillment of the Great Commission.
[Used with permission
from Mission
Frontiers magazine (Jan-Feb '97)]