Mandate eNewsletter, 2007 - Issue No. 2

Watering the Seeds Without Trampling Them

Dependency. Dependency. Dependency. Talk to any seasoned missionary about the African church—and even many unseasoned ones—and this word comes up constantly. Most observers believe that dependency on the western church is crippling the church in Africa, the flow of human and financial resources from the west undermining the development of indigenous leadership and local giving in Africa. Many argue that the explosion of short-term missions has only exacerbated this long-standing problem.

These historical dynamics create problems for any western organization trying to help the church in Africa, including the Chalmers Center. How can we partner with churches in Africa without squelching local initiative? How can we change the historical dynamics and become servants and followers of the African church rather than its controllers? How can we help the African church without hurting it in the process? The Chalmers Center doesn't always answer these questions correctly.

In that context, it is a cause for rejoicing that in the past seven months, three of the Chalmers Center's, week-long training events, called Christian Economic Development Institutes (CEDIs), have been conducted in Kenya and Uganda without any of the Center's staff uttering a word! Organized and staffed by Africans—and even partially funded by donations from Africans—these CEDIs have resulted in nearly two hundred people being trained to help their churches to help the poor to help themselves.

The key to offering these CEDIs has been a team of Ugandan and Kenyan trainers who represent the first cohort of the Chalmers Center's Global Fraternity of Trainers (GFT), a learning/ training community that the Center has recently started to foster. The Chalmers Center is carefully selecting individuals who love the local church, who have a passion for the poor, and who have gifts for training to join the GFT community. After going through a training process, certified members of the GFT are equipped and authorized to deliver the Chalmers Center's CEDIs and similar trainings on their own, thereby increasing the number of churches equipped to help the poor.

The GFT is doing more than just increasing the quantity of churches trained; it is improving the quality of that training as well. Most GFT members are from the Global South (Africa, Asia, and Latin America), meaning that they have a better understanding of local cultures and customs than the Chalmers Center's staff do. This enables the GFT to adapt Chalmers' materials and courses to their local contexts and to train in a more culturally-appropriate way than the Center's staff can. In addition, the GFT members have incredible insights and experiences to share with the Chalmers Center, with each other, and with the churches they are training. Hence, by fostering a dialogue amongst the GFT across time, the Chalmers Center hopes to create a powerful community of learners equipped to share their knowledge with others through a variety of training venues.

The first cohort of the GFT has hit the ground running, conducting two CEDIs for the Anglican Church of Kenya and one for a Pentecostal association of churches in eastern Uganda. Members of the GFT are planning additional CEDIs for Kenya and Uganda in the near future. In fact, the Chalmers Center can hardly keep up with the GFT, which brings us back to the issue of dependency. By refusing to do things that the African church can do on its own, more is being accomplished for the kingdom. The Chalmers Center will not increase in size through this strategy, but the church and the kingdom might! And, of course, that is the goal.

Breaking dependency will not happen overnight. Substantial changes will be necessary in the attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors of all the parties involved. Foremost amongst these will need to be a realization on the part of the western church that God has planted tremendous abilities and insights in the African church. The western church needs to prayerfully consider how it can help to water the seeds God has planted without trampling them in the process.

For more information about the Chalmers Center, visit us at www.chalmers.org.