The Dilemma

To See Missions From Both the Senders and Receivers Point of View

"All of you rich gringos are the same. You have everything you want and you look down on all of us who are poor." The Ecuadorian boy I was playing with was wrong and I needed to explain to him that missionaries are really "poor gringos." My Ecuadorian friend was not buying it. He asked me, "do you live in that big house over there?" I replied, "yes but that is a small house compared to what most gringos live in." Our conversation continued:

Question - Do you have a car?

Answer - Yes but it is a used car!

Question - Do you have a kitchen with a stove?

Answer - Yes, but it is just a plain stove!

Question - Do you have a refrigerator?

Answer - Yes, a small one.

Question - Is this your bicycle?

Answer - Yes.

Question - Do you eat in restaurants?

Answer - Not very often.

Yes, my clothes are new when I get them.

Yes we go on vacation.

Yes I have been to the United States.

Yes I go to the hospital when I am sick.

Yes, I will probably go to college someday.

Yes I have been to the United States.

Yes I have been to Disney Land. - yes - yes - yes - yes - yes.

My Ecuadorian friend did not change the "state of affairs" that day when I was a boy. He changed my view of myself by showing me, myself from his perspective. As an adult I have spent years traveling around the United States speaking in churches, and mission conventions about our North American "Predicament in Missions". We see ourselves as "One (Christian) Nation, under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All." But most of the world sees us as a country with a 50% divorce rate, where abortion is legal and readily available, where there are communities like ours here in central Florida, where almost half of all babies are born to single mothers. We are seen as a country where education is free but unappreciated, where illegal aliens are used to harvest crops, wash dishes, and build houses but live under the constant threat of deportation. We North American Christians see ourselves as the "Great Exporters of Christ's Gospel" without realizing that we now receive more Christian missionaries from other countries than any other country in the world. Most North American Christians believe that spending from $1,500 to $3,500 per person to go paint a school building in the Amazon, or to build a building in Haiti, or to pull teeth in India or to teach English in Eastern Europe is legitimately effective ministry that fulfills Christ's commission to "Go and make disciples (of Christ) in all the world." Our quandary is whether we should continue doing what we have been doing in missions or whether we should consider changing what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. We should be making Christ's Gospel known and understood to all people in all the world. I have to confess that for a long time I failed to appreciate the fact that I have had the unique opportunity to see missions from both the senders and the receivers point of view. Friends and colleagues at ITEC challenged me to expose other North American Christians to how we, and our traditional mission efforts, are perceived by people in other countries. With a small, nimble video team I interviewed fellow Christians from other cultures and other countries. My primary question to them was this: "If you could offer us, the North American Church of Christ Followers one piece of advice that would help us do missions more sensitively, more practically, and more productively in your part of the world, what would you tell us?" You want to know what they told me? I'm glad you're curious. We taped those short interviews. We divided their responses into seven topics. Then, we presented the interviews to a live audience and filmed their responses - so you get to see that other people reacted like you are about to. The MISSIONS DILEMMA Series gives us a chance to make a course correction to continue the conversation as we work together to process through our dilemma in missions.