Mission with both hands

While doing mission, justice is every bit as important as mercy

by Hunter Farrell, director of the World Mission Initiative at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Special to Presbyterian News Service

the Rev. Dr. Hunter Farrell

“Has the Church merely to gather up those whom the wheel has crushed or has she to prevent the wheel from crushing them?”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Ethics”

PITTSBURGH — “Beginning in 1984, the world was confronted with horrendous televised images of starving children and their weeping mothers, victims of the now-infamous Ethiopian famine that eventually claimed more than one million lives. Christian churches responded generously, including Ethiopian famine relief as a mission priority. Together with a wide array of governments and nonprofit organizations, the international community quickly generated more than $100 million to provide direct food aid.

“But as media attention moved elsewhere, some troubling facts began to emerge. Although the humanitarian crisis had been framed as a famine, throughout the 1980s there actually was enough food produced in Ethiopia to feed its entire population. But in the national context of the rebellion of the Tigray, Eritrea, and Wollo regions against the brutal Derg regime in Addis Ababa, the root problem was one of food distribution: the government, after engineering widespread starvation to punish the rebels, adeptly diverted the donated food aid from the needy to feed its own army. The end result was chilling: ‘The humanitarian effort prolonged the war and, with it, human suffering,’ concluded renowned British researcher Alex de Waal after his exhaustive study of the international response to the famine. Because sincere Christian mission efforts had ignored the underlying structural injustices, well-intended help was misdirected and tens of thousands more Ethiopians died. Mission without justice ceased to be God’s mission at all.”

God’s mission clearly includes charity: a cup of cold water given in Jesus’ name; the Samaritan’s extraordinary care for the victim of highway robbery; the traditional “alms for the poor” that has characterized the institutional church through the millennia. Charity is clearly biblical and a hallmark of Christian faithfulness. After 35 years of working with Presbyterian congregations engaged in local and global mission, I have found that the overwhelming majority of congregations dedicate nearly 100% of their mission attention and budget to charity work. But as the story from the Ethiopian famine reminds us, a singular focus on charity can blind us to the larger issues behind the suffering we seek to alleviate. A Congolese proverb says, “It takes two hands to wash”: God’s mission consists of both charity to stop our neighbor’s bleeding and justice to prevent the wound in the first place.

This fact has caused me to reflect on the reasons behind this curiously singular focus. I know, for myself, charity work is highly satisfying. I am almost always thanked for my service. When I offer a hot meal to a homeless family at the city shelter, I generally stand behind the counter. My position as benefactor shields me from the uncertainties and insecurity of a deeper relationship with a person forced to live on the street in conditions I would not tolerate for my own family. Charity can even anesthetize me into thinking I’ve done my part when in fact my neighbor is being exploited in ways that benefit me: when my insistence on lower taxes results in my neighbor not having access to desperately needed mental health services. If the “unbelievable price” I paid for my new shirt was only possible because of the unjust wages and dangerous working conditions of my global neighbor, I am profiting from my neighbor’s suffering. If my stock portfolio includes investments in companies that abuse their workers to extract greater profit and enhance dividends, I am a direct beneficiary of injustice and am literally funding the wheel that is crushing my neighbor’s life. And so, I’m tempted to turn a blind eye, claiming “it’s just too complicated.” Mere charity can divert our attention from the other hand of mission: the struggle for justice to prevent the suffering before it begins to crush the life of our neighbors.

Confronted by the complexities of global poverty, maybe I feel better about myself and my own relative wealth when I gaze upon the smiling picture of the sponsored child on my refrigerator or share on my Facebook page the story of my church’s clothes closet for the poor. Now, I know for a fact that unjust structures condemn the poor to inadequate housing, education, health care, and jobs. But I’m certain that to work with the oppressed in identifying and addressing the root causes of their plight would require something more costly to me. It would require me to heed Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s call to stop ignoring the wheel that is crushing so many people. It would require a commitment to justice to prevent their suffering, rather than merely tending their wounds. Because changing the unjust laws and structures that keep the poor down would require a long-term relationship of accompaniment with the poor. And I’m certain that relationship would be very costly, because it would change me, too. It would change the products I buy, how I invest my money, how I vote. It would force me to choose between the worship of Mammon (my investment income) and Jesus (who overturned the money changers’ tables in his anger with injustice).

So I have to wonder, has the American church’s almost singular focus on charity, as opposed to justice, become an idol that keeps us feeling good about ourselves, but ignorant of the causes of our neighbor’s suffering? Can I fully love my neighbors unless I’m willing to keep the wheel from crushing them?

I think these questions were in my mind 20 years ago when the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s former international coordinator, Lionel Derenoncourt, first explained to me a new model of mission, the Joining Hands against Hunger initiative. The effort wisely saw that the American church was using only one hand of mission — charity — and invited our church into the slow, hard work of solidarity for justice — to creating spaces where mission partners from the churches and civil societies of the Global South could share their analyses of the root causes of injustice with partners from the Global North and work together to overcome them.

Because “mission in solidarity” is woven through innumerable human relationships, tangible fruits of the Joining Hands model have taken some time to be seen. But laws in Egypt have been changed in favor of children with special needs; a highly polluting, U.S.-owned metal smelter in Peru with a legacy of thousands of lead-poisoned children was forced to decrease toxic emissions; and Cameroonian families displaced by the Exxon pipeline have found the encouragement to organize and advocate — these are the results of the global solidarity woven together by the Joining Hands initiative.

So take a look at your own congregation’s mission work: what portion of your time, your budget, your prayer and your attention is dedicated to the important work of charity? And how much to justice — the preventive work of identifying and addressing the root causes of our neighbors’ suffering? Could it be that our need for the instant gratification that charity work generates has become an idol that keeps us from joining God and neighbor in the deeper work of justice? Maybe it’s time to use both hands in mission.

The first two paragraphs are from the author’s “Justice and Mission Embrace” in “That They May All Be One: Celebrating the World Communion of Reformed Churches: Essays in Honor of Clifton Kirkpatrick,” Neal Presa, editor (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), p. 32.

The Great ‘Co-mission’ - Sharing our faith to the ends of the Earth

by Josh Heikkila, regional liaison for West Africa | Special to Presbyterian News Service

Girls in northern Ghana walking to the river for water during the dusty dry season. (Photo by Josh Heikkila)

ACCRA, Ghana — Proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel and making known to others the teachings of Jesus has been integral to the church since its earliest days. We may ask, why does the church share its faith in Jesus Christ this way? The simple answer: We do it because Jesus commands us to do it (Matthew 28:19–20).

In mission, we share with others how Jesus inspires us to work for justice and reconciliation in the world, and how he gives us a sense of grace and peace in return. We also share with others how Christ’s blessings have transformed our lives, and we express a desire for others to experience the fruit of the Spirit, too: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, humility and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).

Faith in Jesus Christ touches the deepest parts of our being, so it is not always easy to articulate to others how he touches us and transforms us. But still, by the grace of God, we go out and we try, praying and working for the best, and knowing with certainty we will always fall short. We trust that Jesus himself, the redeemer of the world, can make up for where we fail.

The Bible itself gives an account of early missionary endeavors in Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul. In the centuries that followed, missionaries carried the faith to the ends of the earth: to Ethiopia and Egypt, and the rest of Africa; to Armenia and India, and later East Asia; to Rome and the countries of Europe; and eventually to the Americas.

In some countries, early Christian missionaries are recognized as the patron saints of their lands: Saints Mark, Thomas and Andrew; Saints George, Patrick and Francis Xavier. There also were women among these early missionaries: Mary, as well as Priscilla and Aquilla in the Bible; Saints Helen, Monica and Theresa in years thereafter. Women’s names were often left off the historical record, and memory of their work has unfortunately been lost.

The accounts of these apostles and saints can sometimes make for interesting (and even humorous) reading. Take, for example, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, an apocryphal account of a young woman converted by Paul who survives being burned at the stake and later overcomes attacks by lions, bears, bulls and even seals, to go on to baptize and preach about Jesus.  The Church Father Tertullian lashed out against Thecla because he did not like its account of women preaching and baptizing in Jesus’ name.

Like all of us today, missionaries have been a complex assortment of people. Their intention, for the most part, was good — to share the love and light of Jesus Christ with others, being the hands and feet of God in the world. But at the same time, they were broken and sinful people, and as with any human being, it is necessary to consider both the good and the bad manifested in their lives.

In the last century, as Western Protestant Christian missionaries were sent out into the world, they were often accused of employing simplistic and colonialistic practices in their disciple-making efforts. While some of this criticism is well-deserved, the reality of mission has always been complex.

The Edinburgh Mission Conference of 1910, a historically significant gathering of Western Protestant mission bodies, articulated its desire for “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” It asked churches in the West to expand and recommit to missionary efforts in Africa and Asia. To this day, we are living in the legacy of decisions made in Edinburgh.

Even in 1910, the conference was attuned to criticism of missionary activity. The American politician and Presbyterian elder William Jennings Bryan defended the work of missionaries before the delegates gathered at Edinburgh. In an address covered by The New York Times, Bryan claimed that missionaries serving abroad got into much less trouble than businessmen seeking profit.

In its deliberations, the conference concluded that those sent into mission must be given “the opportunity of obtaining a knowledge of the country of their adoption and something of its traditions and its capacities before they become immersed in their work.” It saw a need to train more Indigenous Christian leaders and to eventually turn mission efforts over to them, The New York Times reported on June 27, 1910.

Edinburgh had a profound effect in transforming mission. In its wake, thriving and locally led Christian denominations eventually came into being around the world. Health and educational facilities, which continue to impact their countries to this day, were planted. There were repercussions, both positive and negative — and many times unexpected — to all this work.

In “Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy,” published in the American Political Science Review, historian Robert Woodberry argues that Protestant missionaries laid the groundwork for liberal democracy the world over. Another historian, David Hollinger, opens his book “Protestants Abroad” with this thesis: “The Protestant foreign missionary project expected to make the world look more like the United States. Instead, it made the United States look more like the world.”

In considering one of the ideas raised in Edinburgh — the need for mission personnel to be knowledgeable of and sensitive to the cultures in which they work, we can turn to an example from Scripture, the Apostle Paul in his missionary work in Athens (Acts 17:16–28).

Paul took the time to learn about the poetry, the religious practices and the yearning of the people he was among. He was taught by them, he appreciated their culture, and he affirmed aspects of what was good about it.

Informed by these elements of local culture, Paul then spoke to the people about Jesus, in a way he believed could enrich their lives. It was a delicate balancing act of both humility and boldness, which continues to inform the way we live our faith in relationship to others.

Women in Niger separating grain from chaff. A video of this can be found here. (Screen shot by Josh Heikkila)

The work of mission, of course, has always been shaped by the example of Jesus himself, who loved and valued the people among whom he worked. I am struck by the times when Jesus was conducting his ministry of healing, when after healing people, he speaks those confusing words: “Go; your faith has made you well” (Mark 10:50–52).

For those of us involved in mission — especially in areas like health, development and poverty reduction — the words of Jesus make wonderful sense. Although we may be supporting partners to improve human flourishing, it is ultimately the people themselves who bring about well-being in their lives. Mission at its best only helps push it along.

When working together with mission partners, there are many methodologies that inform what we do. Community organizing lifts up an “iron rule,” never do for others what they can do for themselves. And it emphasizes that leadership always needs to come from within the community. Participatory Assessment, which is used by the United Nations, involves listening to people and empowering them to organize for societal change.

Community Health Evangelism, a methodology now widely used in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) World Mission, describes itself this way: “CHE equips communities to identify issues and mobilize resources to achieve positive, sustainable change. Lives and communities are transformed as people come to Christ and work together to address local needs.”

In 1974, the All Africa Council of Churches, in the wake of independence movements that were spreading across the continent, called for a moratorium on the sending of Western mission personnel and financial support. Although the moratorium was never fully implemented, it pushed for the transformation of mission practice around the world. Anti-colonial and anti-racist movements fought for their voices to be heard. And although we still struggle to fully hear and listen to them, these voices have shaped how mission is now done.

Fishermen mending their nets in the seaside town of Cape Coast, Ghana. (Photo by Josh Heikkila)

At a recent gathering of African Presbyterian mission partners in Kenya, a colleague from Malawi referenced the well-known adage: if you give a person a fish, you feed them for a day; if you teach a person to fish, you feed them for a lifetime. She added, it is time to put aside any emphasis we once placed on giving and teaching. Instead, let’s go out and fish together.

The central focus of Christian mission, she explained, should not be what we do for each other. It is not a transactional relationship. Rather, it is that we “be” with one another, and how we live together as one Christian and human family.

Although evangelism is still central, and the health, education and development work remains a vital part of what we do, there’s a new aspect of how we carry out mission together.

We must first of all walk side by side and together with Jesus Christ. We must sit down and break bread together in Jesus’ name. We must get to know each other as siblings, and with the help of the Spirit, love each other as family. As we strive to do these things together, God will set our hearts aflame with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Josh Heikkila, mission co-worker with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), serves as World Mission’s regional liaison for West Africa. Before his appointment in 2009, Josh served for five years as an associate pastor of the House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He worked with the youth program there. He also coordinated activity for the Self-Development of People program in his presbytery. Subscribe to Josh’s letters. Consider supporting his ministry.