September 2008

“Of course, mission is about what we do for them.” The man speaking to me was a retired pastor in the Presbytery of Minnesota Valleys, where I had just spoken. “We do so much for them,” he went on. “Look at our water projects. The doctors from the hospital in the town where I live go down to the Caribbean every year on medical missions. Mission is what we do.”

Karla with a group from the Presbyterial of Occidente.

This presbytery has maintained a long-standing relationship with the Presbytery of Occidente of the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala. Over my years in Guatemala I have been collaborating with the Presbytery of Occidente, especially supporting their women’s organization. I had been invited to visit the presbytery by the International Partnership Ministry Action Team. They asked me to speak about what I consider to be most important in presbytery mission partnerships. Here is a summary of what I shared with them.

How we are present in a mission partnership is at least as important, if not much more important, than what we do. In my time in Guatemala, I have identified three aspects of mission partnerships that I see as vital as Christians from the United States and Guatemala strive to grow in faithfulness together.

One of the greatest gifts that Christian groups from the United States can give to groups in Guatemala is the experience of working in relationships in which accountability is expected. Corruption is pervasive in Guatemala. It infects most institutions, including churches and denominational structures. Therefore, folks in Guatemala have had very little experience in their daily lives of having their leaders present clear accounting for resources received and distributed. If people gain experience in working within relationships with clear expectations that periodic reports be presented on how resources have been used, they may gain confidence to start asking for accountability from their own leaders, both within their churches and within the broader society.

Another aspect of what we from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have to share is affirmation of the leadership gifts of women. As a mission co-worker and a pastor, I am often seen as existing in a separate category. My teaching and preaching are accepted in some quarters and merely tolerated in others, but somehow my work is seldom perceived as having implications for the roles of women in the churches. But things change when Guatemalans interact with women elders and pastors from their partner churches.

One of my favorite memories of the Occidente–Minnesota Valleys partnership is from early in my time in Guatemala, before the Presbytery of Occidente began ordaining women as elders and pastors. A visiting group from Minnesota Valleys had been asked to lead a workshop on Reformed theology. Carol Stiles, an elder, got up to teach the first section on the theological understanding of the church that undergirds our form of government. The Guatemalan pastors and elders exchanged skeptical glances. What could this woman possible teach them? They found out very quickly that she had a lot to teach them. On a later visit to Minnesota Valleys while Carol was moderator of the presbytery, some leaders from Occidente experienced how well a meeting can be run by a gifted woman.

As I have watched Guatemalans interact with their visitors from churches in the United States over the years, I’ve seen how impressed Christians in Guatemala have been by how articulate many Christians from the United States are about both faith and mission. Guatemalan evangelicals have a lot of practice quoting Scripture. Sermons are often little more than a string of proof texts. Pastors tend to tell their congregations what to think, instead of encouraging them to think for themselves. Conversations with visitors spark interest in learning more about the faith we share.

After a year-long sojourn among congregations and presbyteries in the United States, I have returned to Guatemala. I have been invited by the Latin American Biblical University and the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA) to continue serving as professor of history, mission, and religions. There is plenty for the staff of both institutions to do as we work to provide church leaders with the skills that they need. There are classes to teach, texts to write, and research to organize. Already I am very busy. Yet I know that how I am present here, the quality and constancy of my interactions with people, is much more important than what I do.

If mission is about “what we do for them,” mission remains about us and we turn other people into the objects of our actions. Instead, mission is about striving with sisters and brothers near and far to discern what God is calling us to be and to do as we journey toward the future that God has for all of us.

May God help us all on this journey of faith.

Blessings,

Karla

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258