The Deceitfulness of Dependency

I would like to ask for your indulgence by allowing me to divert our thinking from the Simplified Master Plan overview in order to address an issue that for me is the greatest hindrance to lost people all over the world having the opportunity to hear, understand, respond to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Recent events in Baptist life has raised awareness of mission strategies that can go terribly wrong.  It is not my intent to cast blame or to engage in personal attacks of anyone or any organization be it Baptist or any other evangelical group.    What I do wish to address is the decision making process that many are utilizing today that leads to situations that do hinder the spread of the Gospel message.

Of all the activities that Christians can involved themselves in when looking at a lost world, it is decisions and activities which lead to an unhealthy dependency which has done more to hinder the access of the Gospel to more lost people groups and segments than maybe any other single factor.  I know this may sound hyperbolic, however, I would only ask that you walk with me through a thought process and see if you too would come to the same conclusions that I have reached.

It is only fair that I begin by saying that I do not believe that for the majority of people, both career missionaries or missions volunteers, do anything with a wrong intentions.  I have said this before and I will say it again, Southern Baptists are a gracious, loving, and giving people.  The non-Christian world has little to no real knowledge of the impact that Southern Baptists have made in terms of responding to human suffering around the world.  I would also like to say, that a much better treatment of this topic has be addressed by Steve Saint in his book, "The Great Omission".

What I wish we could communicate to Southern Baptists is that good intentions does not necessarily equate with effective missions strategies and activities.   Because Southern Baptists are loving and giving people, our first reaction to any problem is to solve it with giving money or tangible items.  And yes, there are many circumstances when this is an appropriate response.  A perfect example of this is in response to natural disasters.  To meet the immediate needs of those who have experience indescribable trauma through a natural or even man-made disaster is not only the right thing to do, it is biblical!

However, if we do not find ways to make our evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and leadership training strategies, non-dependent, indigenous, and reproducible, the effect on missions and global evangelization is that literally millions of people will never have the opportunity to consider the claims of Christ simply because the Gospel message never extended to where they lived.  Methods that "depend" on outside resources to continue slow the spread of the Gospel and they inhibit local believers from being truly obedient to the commands of Christ.

Many plans and ideas are inherently flawed from the beginning when the decision are made to employ a strategy that is dependent on outside resources, not indigenous to the local culture, and could not be reproduced by local believers.  When will we learn that we as U.S. Christians cannot pay for, build, or supply all that is needed to reach this world for Christ?

Recently when I was preparing for a missions training event, the question came to my mind and gripped my heart.  "Which commands found in Scripture are local national Christians exempt from obeying?"  The obvious answer by most would be none, however many of our practices do not support this position.  Here are a few examples.

If a U.S. church determines to pay a local national pastor's salary are we not depriving that national congregation both the joy and responsibility of caring and providing for their leader?  But some would then say that the local national congregation are too poor to pay their pastor a full time salary.  And this may be true.  But when did receiving a full time salary become the norm or the only expression of support?  Even in the SBC today, over half of the pastors are bi-vocational leaders.  Yet there is probably not a week that goes by that another pastor or national leader is offered support funds from the U.S. in lieu of funding coming from within the local body of believers themselves.  When does this local members of this church learn the principles of tithing or sacrificial giving?  How does a young man in this church who feels called to the pastorate respond?  I can't be a pastor until a U.S. church offers to pay my salary?

In one Latin American country for the past 15 to 20 years, you can track the number of new church starts by the number of new church buildings built.  In other words, if the building is not built from outside resources then church planting is non-existent.  The logical conclusion to this thought process is that people all over the world will not be able to hear the Gospel until someone from outside their own people group arrives to build a church first.  I just cannot believe that this is God's heartbeat for reaching a lost world.

Any discussion on dependency is a very emotional discussion.  However, it is one that we must have and must have in an open and honest forum.  I would hope that this blog might be one of those locations for a discussion of a difficult issue.

My questions for you are:

1. What do you think about the issues surrounding dependency?
2. What questions do you have or do you hear most often when broaching this subject?

Comments

[Kevin Peacock]

Although the context of these passages refers to brother caught in a sin, I believe the principles apply to some extent to dependency issues. The scripture says these two things:

1. "Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2).

2. "For each one will bear his own load" (Gal 6:5).

It is interesting how the two of those are juxtaposed. The "load" of verse 5 is the term for a soldier's backpack -- of which no one should expect help carrying. It is the personal load that God expects a person to bear for themselves. The "burden" of verse 2 is a load that is greater than one can bear alone; therefore, it is our privilege to help carry it with them. That's where this idea of "body" comes in -- the different members can help each other.

What is also interesting is that Paul immediately goes on to state after the "load" statement, "The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him" (Gal 6:6). The implication is that it is the local believers' job to support those who minister to them spiritually -- that is their "own load" that "each one must bear."

As you stated, Ken, Are we doing them any favors by lifting their "load" when our job is to help them with their "burden"?

In my area of ministry, my task is to help train leaders at a level that the nationals could not yet do on their own. Hopefully as the national brethren mature and strengthen, outside help will not be the need one day. But right now it is a "burden" that Southern Baptists are privileged to help them carry. (Note that the Macedonian call was, "Come over to Macedonia and help us" [Acts 16:9] -- not "do it for us"!) When they can carry it themselves, it will become their backpack to carry.

[David Rogers]

My question related to this is: If we as Southern Baptists pool our resources in the States in order to help local churches that would not be able to send missionaries on their own, why would it be any different in principle if we pooled resources on not just a national but a global level in order, not to build buildings, or pay pastors, but specifically to send out missionaries?

[Greta Hernandez]

I have seen people with amazingly low incomes do amazingly huge things because they have an amazing God.

Our US culture says we need money to get the job done. (Just look at all of the newest Bible School materials each year--wow...lots of stuff.)

I still maintain that the root of the problem is simply transporting my worldview to another culture. If I expect things to work the same here in Mexico as they do in the USA, I'm going to do the same things I do at home, but often with undesireable results.

As a comment to sending out missionaries, it's simply amazing (again) what truly Spirit lead churches will do to get missionaries to their place of service--no matter what their economical level appears to be!

Sometimes I feel like I lack creativity and initiative when I see what my national brothers and sisters do to get the job done.

[Katie Florida]

It sounds like you are looking at dependency through the U.S. lens, yes? How can U.S. churches and missionaries help internationally without creating dependency overseas? Maybe a good starting place would be at home first. I've noticed U.S. churches often have the same mentality "We can't have a revival until September, or when an evangelist signs up." "We can't reach our community unless we spend $10,000 on a Christmas cantata." I realize that I'm being very cynical, but how do we address this in U.S. churches? We must understand this concept for ourselves before we can apply it to others.