By Greg Parsons
U.S. Center for World Mission
(discuss on Facebook)

As followers of Christ, we are all dependent on Holy Spirit. We are also members of the Body of Christ, and as such, are dependent on others in the Body who encourage us, exhort us, and keep us accountable in our faith. That kind of dependency is healthy.

But dependency in mission work is when we do things in our ministry that cause the people we work with to depend on us in unhealthy ways. How do we do that? By doing for people what they can and should do for themselves.
So, if a new, young church in Africa needs a building and they can’t afford it, should we build one? Usually, the best answer is another question: what does “need” really mean?

We in the West have so many resources. We feel bad because we have so much more. Even a “poor” college student is rich in many parts of the non-Western world. But what we often don’t realize is that those resources also drag us down. We often don’t experience the vibrancy of churches in poor and difficult parts of the world. We often don’t experience the vibrancy that churches in poor and difficult parts of the world experience, perhaps because we have gotten soft.

So, why pass on a broken model?

Let them do what they can do from within their own cultural situation. Let local resources fuel local ministry, so that it can grow without depending on anything outside. For more info, see: wmausa.org