by: Kate Borders | Sr. Director of Mobilization
The global church is experiencing times unparalleled in history. Missiologists report that Bible translation is advancing at the fastest rate of production ever recorded. Research shows an extraordinary movement of generosity toward making scripture available to every culture and that the church is growing exponentially around the world. Yet simultaneously, data shows the decline of the church in the United States; Christians in North America and Europe are now fewer than those in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres.
As twenty-first century Christians in the United States, what are we to make of that information? Entire categories of books are dedicated to equipping the church and trying to answer that question, so I will not bite off more than I can chew but briefly share why I believe we have deep reason to hope.
We have reason to hope because God is faithful and he continues to grow his church around the world. As the church grows and changes, our recent understanding of missions may lead us to think of people being sent from the United States to unreached people around the world. That has certainly happened and is cause for praise to the Lord. Yet now we live in a time when data confirms that we, Christians in the United States, are also very much in need of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.
That is why we are so passionate about the World Orphans model of church partnership. We believe in mutuality. We value learning over teaching. The trips we facilitate are designed to foster relationships, not projects. When we talk about being equipped, inspired, and mobilized, we know that has to be a two-way street. We know that our US church partners desire to learn from their international church partners what it looks like to love and serve the vulnerable among them.
Henri Nouwen, in his book In the Name of Jesus, shares:
Jesus, speaking about his own shepherding ministry says, ‘I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.’ (John 10:14-15) As Jesus ministers, so he wants us to minister…. Medicine, psychiatry, and social work all offer us models in which “service” takes place in a one-way direction. Someone serves, someone else is being served, and be sure not to mix up the roles! But how can anyone lay down his life for those with whom he is not even allowed to enter into a deep personal relationship? Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life. We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God. Therefore, true ministry must be mutual. [emphasis added]
True ministry must be mutual. That is our deep belief, fuels our model, and is a driving force behind our commitment to the local church and to partnership.
While our ultimate hope is in Jesus, scripture is clear that God created us to need one another. Mysteriously, 1 John 4:12 (NIV) tells us, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” Jesus told Peter that on his (Peter’s) confession that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, he would build his church (Matthew 16). And Paul is clear and articulate in 1 Corinthians 12 that just as a physical body cannot function as independent parts, so God’s people, the body of Christ, cannot function as independent parts. We need each other. We need to live as a body, depending on one another as we ultimately depend on God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is what inspires our mobilization. As Christianity grows quickly around the world, and as we see the decline of the church around us, our model puts us right where we need to be; offering what we can bring to the table and humbly admitting our need for our brothers and sisters around the world. The hard work of cross-cultural partnership is so worth it, because we see the beauty of God’s Kingdom on display as we come together.
When we use the words “mobilize” and “mobilization,” we mean that we send teams from the United States to spend time with their church partners around the world. After the forced pause of COVID-19, we are more convinced than ever of the value in church partners spending time together. We work hard for those trips to come from a place of humility, be relationally focused, and be encouraging to families, churches, and communities on both sides of the partnership.
Additionally, when we use the words “mobilize” and “mobilization,” we mean that we want our US church partners to be just as equipped and inspired as our international church partners to reflect the love of God and the truth and hope of the gospel to those who are vulnerable.