If I were to sum up Latin America Mission's history, purpose and focus, it would be the word "partnership". Over the years we've tried defining LAM by listing the multiple focuses of these partnerships such as evangelism, children at risk, theological education, women's rescue missions, medical ministry, discipleship… and the list goes on and on. It's been hard to concisely explain what LAM does, because unlike other organizations, we don't have one specific target group However, what we have done for nearly 100 years is work with, and alongsideLatin ministries, allowing them to identify the need and helping them accomplish a specific goal. I've come to realize that the "what" we do is encompassed in knowing the "how to" of partnering well with the Latin Church.
More recently we've been using the word "alliance" to express how we unite various partners to accomplish gospel driven goals. My previous assignment was as LAM's Director of International Alliances, or overseeing and coordinating with our multiple and varied partners throughout Latin America. My currentposition as Director of North American Alliances is more of a development position but with a similar focus in assisting North American Churches and Ministries in thinking through and then accomplishing their missions efforts in partnership with our international Alliance members.
More recently we've been using the word "alliance" to express how we unite various partners to accomplish gospel driven goals. My previous assignment was as LAM's Director of International Alliances, or overseeing and coordinating with our multiple and varied partners throughout Latin America. My currentposition as Director of North American Alliances is more of a development position but with a similar focus in assisting North American Churches and Ministries in thinking through and then accomplishing their missions efforts in partnership with our international Alliance members.
Again, the word partnership is the key, and something I believe needs to be re-defined in the North American Church's understanding of international missions, especially when it comes to our perception of the Latin American church's current and future contribution toward "making disciples of all nations…".
Too often there is the perception that North American Missions to Latin America consists of: "us going to help them because they need our help", or the other extreme: "Latin America is now evangelized so we should focus elsewhere". If we approach missions to Latin America from either of these perspectives we fail to recognize what God has accomplished through generations of missionaries and that the Gospel has not returned void but produced much fruit and new partners in the Great Commission. The Church in Latin America is strong, continues to grow and is fervently evangelizing their own, yet thisdoes not therefore mean that the second perspective holds true either. There remain pockets of extreme need be that regional needs such as localized tribes that still do not have the Gospel in their own language or needed church plants in a particular country, or types of global needs such as equipping churches' to respond to child sex trafficking, rescuing women at risk or providing further education to pastors and ley leaders in theology, counseling, servant leadership etc. The needs still exist, and the Latin Church is beginning to meet them, but using an outdated missions paradigm, or abandoning the region all together are not options.
Aside from the waning focus on going to Latin America, I am hearing even less conversation about partnership with the Latin Americans. A partnership with the Latin Church to fulfill the Great Commission in Latin America itself, throughout the world, or even dare I say, Latin Americans coming to North America to equip us in reaching the rapidly growing Latin communities within our own boarders. As North Americans, our tendency is to want to accomplish the task alone, but sometimes that is simply not God's strategy.
Consider King David. Despite his faults, scripture speaks of David as a man after God's heart (Acts 13:22). Late in his life, his greatest desire was to construct a focal point of worship and build the "House of God", the temple in Jerusalem. God's response was not what he anticipated:
"David said to Solomon, "My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged greatwars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so muchblood before me on the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in hisdays. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.'…" (1 Chron. 22).
Reading on, we see that David did everything he could to assure that Solomon would be successful in the work God had called him to. He equipped him with materials, provided him with plans and commissioned all the leaders of Israel to assist Solomon in this endeavor. David trusted his son Solomon to accomplish the task he assumed would be his, and provided the means to make his calling successful.
In many ways I believe this exemplifies what partnership with the Latin Church should looklike. I find great encouragement in this passage but also correlations that are painful to consider. In many ways the Latin Church of today is the result of God guiding generations of missionaries to planted seeds, many of which He has grown to maturity and are now bearing fruit, just as David trained his own son to bear fruit in the work before him. But there are other, more painfulsimilarities: "'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth." I have no interest in drawing a correlation between the wars that David fought and our modern wars, nor am I addressing the reasoning behind these wars, however as an unintended result of our modern wars, those carrying a US Passport are currently seen (right or wrong) as part of an aggressive collective group, and encounter unprecedented resistance or closed doors simply due to our nationality. Right or wrong, we are not seen as heralds of peace but as aggressors, baggage that the Latin population does not carry with them to foreign lands.
However, what the North American Church does have are generations and centuries of our successes and failures to draw from. Like the preparations David made for Solomon, we can provide experience and "plans", as well as a wealth of resources (Bible teachers, cultural studies, mobilization programs, literature, translations and an unsurpassed mix of cultures) to the Latin Church. (You may notice that I intentionally left finances out of this picture as that has often been another knee jerk response to simply throw money at a problem rather than take the time and energy to learn what true partnership looks like before responding with the wallet.)
We need to think in a radically different manner about "accomplishing the task". We need to think proactively but remain sober and humble, taking stock of what we have in our grasp and how best to use it. Asking our partners how best to work with them as opposed to assuming that we only serve them. We need to give glory to God who has worked through us, yet not assume that the labor of the future will follow the same pattern of that of the past. I'm excited about where we may be ten years from now, but I'm even more excited to see where Latin missions will be ten years from now, and what kind of partnership theLord has in store for His bride (be that Latin or North American or other) in this next phase of His Great Commission Plan.
In His Hands / En Sus manos;
Kevin S. Abegg
