The people of Chile are perfectly capable. They don't need missionaries like me to come in and do everything for them. For historical and financial reasons, they need assistance in certain areas, but only so far and for so long. This means that I should always be working hard to do myself out of a job. And I'm told that as I seek to teach and exemplify God's Word, I need to be careful not to become an integral part of church life, or the result will be "dependence and a painful withdrawal".*
It's better to try to be a "facilitator or servant, who works parallel to the church", with involvement that is "temporary or sporadic in nature, deliberately not taking responsibility in the local church" and that endeavours to "create interdependence between the church and the Holy Spirit, under the authority of Scripture". This model means that "you always stay outside the developing structure of the church yet work with it".
The second model seems sound, but I can imagine that in practice there'll be a lot of grey. Maybe I should aim to be as involved as the most committed 'ordinary' church member (be on all the rosters, attend all events etc etc), but exercise caution when it comes to leadership roles. Obviously I want to exercise some sort of leadership or there's not much point me being here, but perhaps I should always make sure that the purpose of that leadership is to equip someone else (whatever that looks like), rather than just getting on and doing things myself. So I'm delighted that my pastor has asked me to team up with an older (Chilean) woman to run the women's ministry at our church. But that's for later - for now I'm just being a part of things, getting to know folks, and slowly picking up Spanish.
*Quotes taken from 'Pastoral & Apostolic', a paper that is part of the 'SIM Pacific and Andes Area: Chile: Orientation Journal'
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- fional
- Fiona is a proud Tasmanian who now calls Chile home. Both Hobart and Santiago sit beneath mountains, but the mountains are very different and their cities too. With God's help, Fiona will help her Chilean sisters make sense of the Bible, get to know its Author better and learn what it means to live as loved, forgiven people.
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6 comments:
Interesting. I generally agree that everyone in ministry should seek to do themselves out of a job. I don't understand the rest though. Once you can speak spanish adequately, in what ways would your involvement be more short term than other peoples involvement? We don't usually say to people in ministry 'don't take responsibility or be part of church structures, you might only be around for a year or two' do we?
thanks for your comment Fiona! I think the difference is that this isn't my country or my culture - I have specifically moved to this place to help these guys out for a bit. And, as part of that, I want to be part of the Chilean church flourishing and maturing, rather than having outsiders do stuff for them (even if the outsiders do later - painfully - extract themselves). Does that help to clarify?
If a friend of mine from another country was to join Crossroads, would you similarly advise them to not take responsibility or be part of a church structure as they might leave a painful hole when they return home in three or more years?
I get that you don't want to be not raising up Chileans to do it, or imposing anglo-style church in Chile. I'm just wondering if staying outside (existing Chilean?) structures would achieve that?
Fantastic question!
I think that the main difference between my situation and the one you describe is that Crossroads (and many other churches in Australia) is more mature than many churches in Chile. I think a less mature church is much more at risk of becoming dependent on a leader.
What's more, even in the example you mention, while there would be much to learn from a foreigner with leadership gifts, we still might not want to have them lead outright - because they won't know the local culture too well. Better to team them up with a local and have them lead together. (Of course this depends on what sort of leadership is in mind - but in my case I'm talking about equipping people to understand and apply the Bible).
I'm really keen to hear your response to this!
An angle I find helpful is this: "Does my ministry expand or diminish ministry opportunities for people at church?"
It's not quite the same thing as training someone to replace you (which is another good principle). But it's a test of how you're using your unique gifts.
Thanks so much Bernard - that is super-helpful.
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