Promoting Autonomy in Mission-Field Churches

1993 PSN
J ames D. Orten & Billy H. Orten

American churches have been continuously involved in foreign mission work since the mid-1960’s. During that period of almost thirty years, some wonderfully successful works have been established. Malawi has hundreds of churches. Zimbabwe, Zambia, and the Philippines each have a hundred (more or less) and there are successful programs in Mexico, Ghana, Honduras and other places. New fields continue to open up, particularly in Russia, and churches here are beginning to take advantage of those opportunities. There are now more churches outside the U.S. than inside.
While all true Christians rejoice at the souls that have been saved, one worrisome question is asked even by interested and supportive brethren: When do these churches become independent? Or in other words, when will these brotherhoods be mature enough to stand on their own so that we can leave them and go on to other works? The question is legitimate. Brethren are right to be concerned about thirty-year-old churches that still are not self-sufficient. There are many places in which the cause of Christ, as we know it, is not yet established. The number of new works that American churches can establish is limited if all old ones must have continued support.

What has been lacking in all of our foreign works is a plan by which we can guide mission-field churches toward autonomy. By and large, our preachers have worked hard in foreign fields. In the process of taking advantage of opportunities, however, we have unintentionally, but effectively, trained our brethren in these developing countries to look to us, rather than to each other, for fulfillment of their needs. There were reasons for this, including the fact that these brethren generally are poor by our standards, and it often seemed faster and easier for us to do a job (build a church building, for example) than to wait for them to do it. But the main reason is that we have not developed plans by which we could work toward the goal of autonomy. We have often told them they should grow in this direction, but our practices have undermined our words. While we urged them to be autonomous we behaved in ways that fostered dependency.

We recently gave considerable thought to, and ultimately developed a plan for, bringing to self-sufficiency the mission work in the country of Ghana, Africa. We discussed the plan with some of the leaders while we were in Ghana in 1992, with interested preachers in the U.S. upon our return, and subsequently proposed it to the sponsoring church at Fairview Louisiana. They made some modifications, which was certainly their right, and adopted it. We present it here for consideration of churches and preachers who are or may become, engaged in foreign mission work. We do not consider it a plan to be adopted exactly “as is” by all churches for all missions efforts—each work is different to some extent and plans should reflect the needs of the work. But we are absolutely convinced that some plan to bring mission-field churches to autonomy is scriptural and needed.

Paul told the Hebrew Christians (Hebrews 5:12), “For though by this time you ought to be teachers ...” ... “ It is clear that there was “a time” by which growth and a degree of maturity should have taken place. To the Romans (Romans. 1:14), the same apostle said “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians ...” Paul did not owe money. Rather his own salvation had made him “in debt” to see that the gospel was preached to others. This is the reason we send the gospel to Africa and other places and also the reason they, in turn, must help send it on.

We proposed a plan that is designed to achieve autonomy for the churches in Ghana within six years. It involves heavier investments in earlier years that gradually decrease over the period, and it is designed to meet the main needs of the Ghanian churches. Those needs are:

(1) support for qualified evangelists to preach and establish churches, and
(2) help in building church buildings.

At the present, only one of twenty churches meets in its own building. Several churches have started buildings; a few have made considerable progress, one is “up to the roof level.” The need for adequate buildings is great, as there is a real shortage of appropriate places to rent in this part of Africa.

The church at Fairview agreed, upon taking sponsorship of the work, to assume the support of the Ghanian preachers who were being supported at the time. During the first three-year phase of the work we propose the following:

First Three Years

1. preachers be supported as planned with judicious additions and subtractions from the list as good judgment dictates. Subtractions can and should be made appropriately as some preachers become self-supporting, as local teachers become more capable, or if a preacher becomes irresponsible to the work.

2. That two churches a year be assisted to complete their buildings, with the agreement of those churches that the money given to them will he viewed as a “loan” which they begin to “repay” immediately upon completion of their buildings by using an agreed-upon percentage of their Lord’s Day contribution to help other Ghanian churches to complete their buildings. We develop a letter of understanding to be exchanged between “helper” and “helpee” churches that sets forth expectations. This is not meant to be a legal document, but rather a means of avoiding misunderstandings.

By the end of the third year there will be at least six Ghanian churches to complete their buildings. These churches will be asked to make the same agreement with churches they help and so on. The church buildings will he of great benefit, but the most valuable thing will be that the Ghanian brethren will develop the habit of helping each other and looking to each other for help. The initial American investment will continue to multiply throughout the Ghanian brotherhood. We believe this plan is scriptural and we practice it in America, although in a less formal way. We certainly expect congregations that are helped to be willing, in turn, to help others. However in all our foreign works, I know of no church that has helped a sister church with money to build a building. Such help may have occurred, but it certainly is not the rule.

Second Three Years
By the beginning of the second phase, several Ghanian churches will have completed their commitment regarding their buildings and will have become accustomed to helping their sister congregations. At this point, the churches that have completed their building commitment will be asked to begin assuming preachers’ support. By the end of the sixth year, Fairview should be able to be out of, or largely out of, supporting the current Ghanian evangelists

The heart of this approach is that it offers an incentive for Ghanian churches to help other churches, and an incentive for them to look to each other, rather than to America, for help. Previously we have seemed to believe that churches in poor countries were unable to assist each other. That assumption can be evaluated by recalling that ours was a “third world” nation during the restoration period, when the U.S. made its greatest spiritual growth. Although Ghanian churches do not have the financial resources of the average U.S. congregation, we believe it is an underestimation of their potential to think they cannot help each other. For example, the church in Accra has a weekly contribution of about $35.00. If they dedicated one third of that to helping their brethren, which they could do, that would be approximately $50.00 a month, enough to he of significant help to smaller churches.

We believe there will be other benefits to the congregational maturity that this plan seeks to develop. It should discourage fights in the U.S. for control of foreign mission fields, and it should prepare us better for taking advantage of new opportunities. The most populous nation on earth, China, will likely open to the gospel in our lifetimes. We should he preparing to accept that great challenge. But such preparation means that we must mature in our understanding and conduct of mission work.

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Marion, Louisiana 71260.