Western Christians in Global Mission: What's the Role of the North American Church?

Given the current trends in the worldwide growth of Christianity, will the Western Church be “left behind”? How can Western Christians abandon their colonial mentality and honor the emerging leadership of Global South Christians? How can Western Christians join forces with Global South Christians in interdependent ways to respond to God’s call to global involvement?Borthwick attempts to address these questions. He assesses the state of the world, focusing on some of the dramatic changes that have thrust the Majority World (Global South) into leadership of the worldwide Body of Christ. The book’s advice focuses mostly on the changes of attitude that need to take place on the North American side: humility rather than arrogance, purposeful reciprocity, the willingness to sacrifice as well as generosity, accountability without control, focusing on relationships rather than finances, intentional listening, and a determination to abandon all kinds of paternalism. These are all excellent exhortations to any Western Christian who is committed to God’s global mission. Borthwick’s decades of travel and exposure to Majority World leaders forms the basis for the book, and I took note of quite a few nuggets of wisdom.• Our lives have been more about joining the work of God in the world than leading the way. In language made familiar thorough Henry Blackaby’s writings, we are looking for where God is going and joining him (15).• The Majority World church will be “a Church of the poor. Christianity will be mainly the religion of rather poor and very poor people with few gifts to bring except the gospel itself. And the heartland of the church will include some of the poorest countries on earth” (Andrew Walls). (26)• As one Christian from India told me, “You don’t make friends by texting.” (27)• From his position as a leader in India missions, Paul Gupta expresses his conviction that for true reciprocal partnerships to work, “Every partner must bring resources to the table.” If all parties do not bring resources, it is not partnership; it is ownership, and there will be controlling dynamics from the side of the owner. (130)• Time together builds trust. Our Majority World colleagues believe that we are there to serve, listen and assist as they request. We develop trust that our Majority World family will work with us to help make us effective. (132)• Going on a short-term mission trip might be motivated by the spirit of generosity. Becoming a long-term advocate for the concerns you observed or defending the rights of the people you met will take sacrifice. (144)• “When we hear the word partnership, what comes to our mind is that this is another way for the White man to control us.” (a Canadian First Nations church leader). (150)• “If you are a white Christian wanting to be a missionary in this day and age, and you have never had a nonwhite mentor, then you will not be a missionary. You will be a colonialist.” (quoting Soong-Chan Rah in The Next Evangelism) (162)The book had some interesting summaries: the nine “Greats” that summarize the great changes that have taken place in the worldwide Christian environment (pp. 36-60); and the five classes of paternalism (pp, 152 ff).Borthwick spiced up his commentary with short descriptions of his encounters with scores of Global South Christians that he has met. There was a commendable purpose behind this, trying to help the reader understand the points of view of non Western leaders, with a view toward adopting the better attitudes explained in the early chapters, but at times this felt like name-dropping, without a lot of focus. It felt like skimming the surface rather than drilling deep. I thought it very ironic that Borthwick quoted a Nigerian leader who criticized Americans for being too “assertive” (120). Nigerian culture leads the world in assertiveness! Perhaps he felt that Americans were horning in on Nigerian territory?The book’s flyleaf promised “concrete advice for how Western Christians can be involved without being paternalistic or creating dependency.” The advice was disappointing, since the advice fell short of providing any in depth descriptions of how this was happening or any models for organizational partnership. The advice had mostly to do with individual attitudes and individual behavior. And the phrase “can be involved” is indicative of the book’s lack of focus. “Being involved” seemed to be the goal, rather than accomplishing specific ministry objectives.Borthwick pointed out that Majority World Christians constitute 70% of the worldwide population yet control only 17% of Christian resources. This would seem to indicate that Western Christians need to focus on how to provide financial resources, but Borthwick shies away from this conclusion in unfortunately familiar ways: if you are only providing money, then you are not doing enough. You also need to become personally involved by taking actions and using your personal skills in ministry. This is familiar advice that you can read in almost any book about ministry partnership. Borthwick does not address the possibility that the personal skills of Western Christians might be totally unsuited to ministry objectives, or that money might be the only thing lacking for producing spectacular ministry outcomes. Has he unwittingly fallen into the trap that he critiques, that Western Christians too often arrogantly assume that they know better and can do better than their Global South siblings? Are there no Western Christians whom God has called to give generously from their wealth, without feeling the need to control or to insert their personal actions? Borthwick seems to say not. He describes “resource paternalism” as “believing that throwing money at global problems will solve them” as if the only way to use money is to “throw it” at “problems” (152).Borthwick made a confusing argument about the loss of mission vision in North America. He stated that this has ostensibly occurred because the North American church has heard messages like “send more money, not people,” and that this has led many North American churches to limit their ministry to “local” rather than global interests. He then suggests that the real cause is that North American churches have lost the Gospel, no longer believing that they need to proclaim Jesus alone as Savior. (19-20). These are all trends, but I could not see which came first or how they are connected. For instance, many evangelical churches that consistently preach the exclusiveness of Jesus as Savior also have decided to focus only on their local ministries. Others continue to support expatriate missionaries without concern for their effectiveness in ministry. And many churches that deny the exclusiveness of Christ are also active in international ministry efforts.The penultimate chapter (10) was intended as a summary but seemed to be mainly a hodge-podge of ideas, and ended with a listing of many organizations and global networks. The stated objective is to “get connected.” This was disappointing, since being “connected” is far removed from collaboration or effective partnership.This book would be helpful for anyone committed to “short term missions” (the short-comings of which are frequently described in the book), and to any who arrogantly assume that nothing good happens without the control of Western expatriate missionaries or their sponsoring agencies. The book could also be useful for any of us who are already involved in global missions and are willing to do a self-assessment of our personal attitudes and practices so as to avoid a colonial mentality. For those of us looking for concrete practical partnership models based on the attitudes that Borthwick describes, the book provides some general guidance but nothing concrete.

Paul Borthwick provides an in-depth analysis on the weaknesses and strengths of both the North American Church and the Majority World Church. This insightful probing lays the foundation to be receptive to the paradigm shift Borthwick suggests - an interdependent partnership in order to get to God’s missional goal.

Borthwick's work in this book is quite good, he accurately diagnoses some of the troubles that the Western and Northern Church has when it comes to interacting with the Church in the Global South. I will talk about what I thought were the two strongest parts of the work and then I'll discuss what could have been better in my estimation.A major strength of this work is Borthwick's commitment to relentlessly looking at where the Western Church has failed when it comes to its approach to the Global South. To that end, Borthwick tackles the thorny topic of colonialism and paternalism when it comes to Global missions. Borthwick doesn't have the space and probably the expertise to dive too deep into those topics but they are never far from the surface of his arguments and suggestions for how we proceed into the future of Global missions and cooperation. At several points during the book he takes pointed aim at the attitudes that can develop when Western Christians serve in the Global South, (I'm here to serve/save people; They just need our help; etc.) and offers what he thinks is the way forward, that is to build relationships and listen to our brothers and sisters where we're working alongside them.This brings me to the second strength of the work, Borthiwck's frequent use and promotion of voices from the Global South. While it shouldn't be surprising that a book on missions in a global context utilizes voices from the Majority world, Borthwick does an excellent job of pulling from ethnically diverse sources. And, more importantly, the sources that he often cites are not uncritical of the Western Church, sometimes they offer scathing indictments of how the Western Church has failed in the past. This commitment to engaging diverse voices and opinions strengthens the thrust of the book, that we as Western Christians should seek to listen to our brothers and sisters in the Global South and partner with them rather than condescend to them.The weakness of the work in my opinion is its sole focus on Protestantism and specifically catchall Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. As someone who self-identifies as being in the former group, I know the breadth of beliefs that can exist within that term, so I understand Borthwick's use of the term. But I also think that he misses a major point in not including discussions of the large Roman Catholic portions of the Global South and the historic institutions of Orthodox Christians that exist in other parts of the Majority World. For all of his talk about pursuing relationships with other Christians, he doesn't do a great job of suggesting how the Great Traditions can work together to advance the cause of the Gospel in the Global South.

Borthwick has long been a spokesman for being globally mission-minded. This book of helpful and oft times stinging anecdotes communicates succinctly that the North American Church still has a role in global mission going forward. This role is counter-"American"-culture by calling us away from strategies, money and tasks and forward into servanthood, humility and relationships.Excellent chapters outlining the best and the not-so-good of the North American Church and the "Majority Church seem balanced. Also the pithy chapters on the practicalities and principles of partnership (chaps 5-8) are worth engaging.It's redundancy sinks the broad points, but can make the reader impatient.Overall a solid work that I'll refer to and I'll recommend to others as well...(just like I recommended it to You!).---Addendum: I originally gave this a 4 Star Review, but after further thought I realized that this book contains an important general & global perspective which provides an important contribution to mission literature. This is the type of book that is accessible for anyone who can read in English . For these reasons, I bump my review up from 4 to 5 Stars.

This book is both an interesting and easy read from an author who has "been there". He offers practical advice for those looking to be involved in missions in the majority world where in many cases, Christianity has outpaced North American church growth.

It can fulfill its function and can trim hair without problems.