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October 15, 2007
More blessed to receive than give
Recognizing, accepting gifts of all is key to partnership, panelists say
LOUISVILLE — A seminal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) world mission document is entitled “Presbyterians Do Mission in Partnership.” But all too often, Presbyterians engaged in overseas mission fail to take into account that our mission partners have much to offer, a panel of mission experts told participants last week toward the end of “World Mission ’07: A Celebration of Grace.”
The Oct. 2-5 conference brought together more than 600 mission-minded Presbyterians from throughout the U.S. and overseas.
“We come to our mission engagements with the danger of hubris — that we have something to offer the rest of the world,” said Will Browne, former associate director of the PC(USA)’s Worldwide Ministries Division.
“We’ve been blessed by God by many riches and are by nature generous,” he said. “Because others do not have those gifts we create power imbalances which makes mutuality difficult.”
The Rev. Tricia Lloyd-Sidle Frequently that imbalance takes the form of Americans failing to recognize what others have to offer, said the Rev. Tricia Lloyd-Sidle, regional liaison for the Caribbean.
“When the Cuba Partners (a mission network of congregations and presbyteries with relationships with the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba) meet, we wrestle together with giving gifts and the appropriate ways to share our resources,” she said.
“What’s far more difficult is figuring out how to receive gifts from our Cuban partners, because we find it easier to give than to receive,” Lloyd-Sidle said. “We have to be vulnerable, empty ourselves of our assumptions, learn about other people and cultures. It’s usually easier to think about how to share what we have than to put ourselves in a position to receive what others have to share.”
She recalled a group from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis that studied the parable of the Good Samaritan while on a Cuba trip. “Before the trip we would have considered ourselves the good Samaritan,” she said, “but after our visit every person said ‘we are the injured man.’ Tears flowed that day because of the profound understanding of ourselves and our group and our needs and interdependence.”
Rebecca Landholm Such spiritual insights are common among those involved in mission partnerships, said Rebecca Landholm, convenor of the Peru Mission Network, likening overseas mission involvement to layers of an onion.
“The first layer starts in our own heart and our walk with God,” she said, noting that in her experience “it always seems like there’s too many people involved in mission but without a firm faith walk.”
Coming to mission involvement from a core of personal faith “takes dedication and discipline,” Landholm added, “and then we’re open to hearing what others can do, knowing that God has given everyone gifts and being open to seeing them all.”
In that spirit, the power imbalance can be overcome and true partnership flourish, she said. “When we go in country, we can see who’s doing what there without the attitude that we’re going in to fix things. They know their culture and we don’t, so we have to listen to our partners — find those people and work through them, finding where our gifts match theirs.”
The Rev. David Dawson Discovering mutuality in mission doesn’t absolve North Americans from sharing their resources, insisted the Rev. David Dawson, executive presbyter for Shenango Presbytery and a member of the Sudan Mission Network.
“There’s not a lot of wriggle-room in the New Testament about having resources and not sharing them, he said. “With all our money and need to engage it in mission, we can mess up a church oversees with just the money in our petty cash fund.”
That’s why paying attention to the expressed needs of our partners is so important, Dawson said. “We don’t go around handing out money indiscriminately, but neither can we be effective in mission without consideration of resources; we need partners who can say to us ‘arise and walk’ because it’s not something we’re very good at.”
Another key factor in effective mission partnership is patience, said Heidi Aspinall, who coordinates the work of PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteers in Miami. “It takes time to figure out what the most effective ways to respond to our partners are,” she said, “particularly for Americans who don’t want to give that much time before acting.”
Landholm agreed. “Our partners are not expecting an overnight fix,” she said. “We are culturally haughty in that regard.” |
