
In these pages Mekdes Haddis addresses “a broken mission system … (where) we hurt culture” (x). It is her conviction that “by laying down power we will gain the ability to embrace mutuality. It is not easy, yet it’s the necessary work we must do as Western Christians” (109).
It is a confronting book. I understand it has proved to be an irritant for many in the missions community—but I suspect these ones read with a ‘been there, done that fixed that’ mentality. Are you sure it is fixed?
At times Haddis can seem a bit harsh and sweeping in her assertions. However, let’s choose to lean in a bit closer before defensiveness gets the better of us. As a young Ethiopian woman, Haddis immigrates to the USA. She encounters plenty of pain in that transition. This causes her to reflect on her story, to gather her insights—and to write. Gee, if that is from whence she comes, I am ‘all ears’, eager to listen and to learn. I’ve roamed her website, where she is finding resonance with younger generations, especially. I even signed-up for her webinar a couple of weeks ago, so I could hear her voice and not just read her words.
My conclusion? She is on to something. My hunch is that aspects of her argument will resound through mission organisations for the next decade. Let’s see if their leaders have the grace and courage to respond to her concerns. As for me and my house—Barby did hear a bit of it read aloud to her (!) and then joined me for the webinar—the book provoked an Ouch, some Amens and an Ahh Yes.
An OUCH
The ouches begin with her language. All kinds of inflammatory phrases lie at the core of her concerns: the ‘hierarchy of elitism’, ‘white saviorism’, decolonising the faith, a ‘condescending culture’—and so it goes on. And then, how’s this for an ouch? The three most frequent questions she has been asked are: “‘What’s Ethiopia like?’ ‘Were you a Christian before coming to the United States?’ and ‘Can I touch your hair?'” (16).
There’s obviously a gap in my education somewhere because ‘the doctrine of discovery’ was a new phrase to me. The idea is that if you ‘discover’ a new place/people and you plant your flag there, it is yours—and they become the beneficiaries of your culture and religion! “Labelling people groups as ‘unreached’ because they haven’t been colonized and Westernized is a dangerous fruit of the doctrine” (48). It creates “a theology that pities and belittles non-Western cultures” (47). It brings to mind the quotation of 2022 for me, from Ghanaian Kwame Bediako—’Missionaries did not bring Christ to Africa. Christ brought missionaries to Africa’—as well as the book of 2022: Vince Bantu’s A Multitude of All Peoples.
It is two chapters later where the ouch is the sharpest and scratchiest.
Short Term Mission trips. Although it has its own chapter—’Decolonizing Short-Term Mission’—this issue seeps into most chapters. The fact that “two million people go on short-term mission every year and spend about four billion dollars per year”(95) is especially grievous. Haddis uses a variety of phrases to describe what is happening: “mission vacations” (90), “slum tourism” (91) and “poverty tourism” (142)—with the need to self-actualise (‘the desire to become the most that one can be’, the highest need in Maslow’s hierarchy) being the main thing that is happening. The critique is withering.
It is extraordinary to see how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs reflects the Western church’s view of salvation. The poor at the bottom of the pyramid clamor to receive their daily bread, and the rich at the top pursue self-actualization by capitalizing on the pain and suffering of others. There is no exchange of privilege for the sake of another. There is no walking in another’s shoes or seeking to understand their life. There is simply exploiting another’s reality to feel good about one’s own (100).
Do you see what I mean? While that does feel a bit unfair, is she not exposing one of the idols of our time, lurking in our blindspot where idolatry delights to linger? Goodness deary me, what would Jesus have to say about self-actualisation? And the critique keeps coming…
Short-term mission trips are about the goer, not the receiver (96).
Short-term mission trips are the byproduct of a drive-through culture, a quick excursion to do what Western Christianity expects of us so we can check a box and go back to our lives of surplus (97).
Short-term mission is a horrible tool to build relationships between two cultures because it exposes the worst living conditions of one group while it highlights the apex of white saviorism for the other (97).
The result is what we see today: a never-ending cycle of white saviorism and economic disparity, as well as a large gap in mutuality of leadership. The system was not set up to create relationship but dependency on one another. You give me my self-actualization and I’ll give you bread… (98).
These are not new issues. People have been working on them across the West for some time. I recall writing a blog on the topic a dozen years ago! To her credit, Haddis has lots of ideas about what to do. After I post this blog, I am going to add a separate one with her five questions and seven practices when considering such trips. So insightful. Things like starting with “learning from marginalized communities at home” (109); going first as a “real tourist” (112); taking “learning trips…(with) opportunities to sit under local pastors’ teachings … (for) a time to listen, learn, grow” (89); and introducing “vision trips…creating a platform for the locals to be their own storytellers…giving them the upper hand” (110-111).
There are other ouches, like the problems that gather around money, generally—and generosity, more specifically. It is reminiscent of an experience I had in Bangkok some years ago. For Haddis, “top-down philanthropy is an open door for foreign ideologies, political control, influence, and power to flood into economically vulnerable countries” (130).
Some AMENs
While the ouches will be a stumbling block to many, there is much wisdom in these pages.
Posture. If you read carefully, there is guidance around the way we need to be. “Lead with listening” (145). Or, “leading with questions, rather than assumptions” (43). Or, again, visiting that church ‘across the ocean’ being “done upon invitation, not by inquiry” (182). And, for God’s sake, let’s be FAT:
Instead of producing a mass influx of international superheroes seeking self-actualization in the name of Jesus, let us make faithful, available, and teachable servants for the kingdom (189).
Mutuality. Here is the essence of the book. The sound is getting louder. Has the word ‘partnership’ had its day? Too readily it has become something transactional, rather than relational, with one partner retaining the upper hand.
My goal in this book is to help move us from a heavily transactional relationship in the mission movement to a relational mutuality that can be owned, championed, and led by everyone in the global church (4).
How can we learn from each other if one side always demands to be the teacher? How can we build trust and mutuality when one side insists on making the rules? … The church of the West still needs to be beautified, purified and infused with the aroma of the theology of the global church (84).
Transactional says, “I have something you want, but you can only have it if you give me what I want.” Relational acknowledges,”I need you in my life, and I’m here when you need me” (100).
Every good relationship starts from a place of mutual interest, mutual give-and-take, mutual understanding of the other’s perspective, and mutual room to share grievances and reconcile. If one person has the power to alter the life of the other, that is not a mutual relationship, no matter how good the intentions are (114).
This is the future. This is the agenda. There are a growing number of “my white friends … who no longer want to be saviors; they want to experience community and mutuality” (180-81). Amen. Every now and then Barby and I talk about whether marriage should be 50:50 (as it is often described today)—or whether it needs to be 100:100, marked by the total ‘giving-up, giving-in’ teaching of the New Testament. I wonder if 50:50 is an illustration of partnership, while 100:100 is reflective more of mutuality?
Diaspora. Once again, she is on to something in her advocacy of diaspora communities in the leadership of mission. This is the future—and yet there is “(this) irony that the Western church talks so much about the nations (and yet) has ignored the people who represent those nations” (189) in their midst.
She opens it all up in a section entitled “Sending Nehemiahs” (150-156).
People like Nehemiah are immersed in both their home culture and the culture of the land of their exile … Members of the diaspora community who have been educated in the West and are living their lives as minorities possess a unique ability to walk the fine line of cultural sensitivity and dignity (154).
Diaspora believers are the epitome of bridge builders (174).
[and from the final two paragraphs of the book] As God gave Nehemiah the wisdom to delegate the work to each tribe, the Western church must delegate to God’s multiethnic children … We cannot do it alone while separated and segregated (214).
This area is now a focus of Haddis’ consulting work: “Beside addressing the lack of equity and inclusion in mission organizational leadership, I focus in my consulting work on helping Western Christians engage leaders of the diaspora community” (166).
And because I don’t want to lose them, there are also insights offered on Hospitality, “as the most utilized tool for the next missions movement from the West” (190)—and the way those who have experienced the Margins find that “their integration into the communities they go (to be) that much easier” (197).
Ah Yes—again and again
This is my favourite part of this book. Haddis makes these fleeting little visits to different passages of Scripture. If you are not looking for it, you might miss it. I loved it—partly because they have been such big passages in my little story.
Philippians 2. My Dad had me memorise this one as a boy, with its example of Jesus: “He chose to experience life through our perspective…(and) the outcome of his life on earth gave him an unbiased, well-informed, and real relationship that moved him to deadly obedience on the cross” (63-64).
As there is no Biblical Index to the book—and because, once again, I don’t want to lose track of them—there is also a discussion of the Mary/Martha story (91-92); of Mark 12.41-44 (94); of Hebrews 13.2 (121); and of the Good Samaritan (137). And while on the subject of Jesus, have a listen to these words:
There is a unique but harmful privilege built into Western mission work: believers have permission to categorize themselves and others as givers/senders, goers/missionaries, and receivers/the poor. These terms are dangerously segregated and don’t allow space for the believer to be all of the above at the same time … Jesus could identify with all of the above at every moment of his life. Even though he was born a king he had to flee to Egypt as a refugee. While he was a healer he was wounded and died at the cross. While being the giver of all things, he received provisions from people wherever he went, including two fish and five loaves of bread from a little boy (152).
Acts 8. I just love the story of Philip and the Ethiopian. I can’t get enough of it. I am opening it again this next Sunday. The parallels with the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24) intrigue me. And Haddis reminds us to appreciate the roles that God, Philip and the Ethiopian each play in the story (41-45). [By the way, did you know there is a very cool Ethiopian in the Old Testament as well? Ebed-Melech, in Jeremiah 38].
I Corinthians 12. This passage, more than any other, drew me into cross-cultural mission fifteen years ago. I’ve made mistakes along the way, but this passage remains a wellspring for me. And yet I have not always been able to convince people of its connection with mission! Plenty of blank faces… but Mekdes Haddis gets it. It is a biblical basis of the mutuality at the heart of her book.
To worship God alongside his global body learning from one another without any expectations requires humility and equality. Just as each part of the body has its own function, I believe God is calling the Western church to be the ear, to take a listening and learning position instead of always trying to lead and to teach…. (109-110).
Subtle remnants of the doctrine of discovery still exist in our partnerships that demand dominion, and they must be eradicated …. We are not called to have a parent-child or employer-employee relationship with the body of Christ. We are to function as one whole body of Christ, as colaborers and coheirs of God’s kingdom. We need to make room for everyone to sit at the table, even those we deem less honourable. And if our partnerships don’t reflect that, we need to take strong measures to insure they do so (114).

1 Peter 2. In more recent years, Peter has settled in next to Paul —1 Peter 2 alongside 1 Corinthians 12—to shape the way I think. Chief among the shapers has been the PhD of Katie Marcar, at the University of Otago here in New Zealand. She demonstrates how the metaphors of family, race and nation are applied to the church by Peter, which now becomes our primary identity.
It is this identity we have in Christ, shared with all the others in the global church, that establishes who we are, first and foremost. Then, a bit like a lens, it is through this foundational identity that we see our literal family, race and nation. And yet so often family/race/nation continue to loom so large in our understanding, so easily taking on idolatrous proportions.
Ah yes, 1 Peter 2 can be overheard in this book and at one point Haddis makes it especially specific— and with this I close:
Even though the majority of immigrants to the United States are Christians, the stereotype is that immigrants are godless. The media has played its part, painting Mexicans as rapists and Arabs as terrorists. When the church doesn’t address these issues, which break God’s heart, it leaves the door open for us to act on our biased views. The exclusion of people of color from church-planting networks and mission movements didn’t happen by accident. We are largely divided by design and don’t view each other as family (143, emphasis mine).
Like I said at the start, it is a confronting book!
nice chatting
Paul
About Me

the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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Thanks Paul.
Challenging reading indeed.
A comment if I may: Mekdes appears to be writing primarily from her experiences in the USA.
While “superior” attitudes are not absent from our A,NZ communities, I do not find it helpful to transplant an American-based critique into our culture – which is significantly different in numerous ways (thank God!). Some of Philip Yancey’s writings demonstrate this difference too with regard to eg the term “fundamentalist.”
Being an Anglican, I am aware of the transitions the likes of CMS have made over the years to move more towards what I would call a servant model of cross-cultural mission. So to transplant some of the sweeping assertions in this book onto the ministries of numerous “Mission partners” who are serving overseas in a variety of capacities seems rather unfair and counterproductive.
In the vein of language used though, a continuing irritant for me is the way many people who should know better use the term “Missions/missions” – as though this applies only to what the church “at home” does “on the mission field” (overseas). So Yes, there is still some significant work to do on the educational and awareness front.
Yes, thanks for these reflections, Glenda.
She does tend to reflect on a mostly American experience and project it onto ‘Western Christians’ more generally. It is easy to do — and it is done often! In an earlier draft of my engagement with the book I remember going down that track, but deleted it because I didn’t want people to ditch all that she was saying simply by hiding behind that observation — and becoming defensive. For example, I think some of her critique around short-term mission does land uncomfortably in a NZ context.
But let me push back on your comment about ‘a servant model of cross-cultural mission’. Of course, at one level, that is great and I think it is the direction in which mission has been moving for a generation, or three. Who would want to critique such a statement? Not me. But I hear Haddis saying something a bit different — and that is why some of the biblical-theological reflections near the end of the post are so important for me. Isn’t mutuality and reciprocity saying something more than servanthood? I think it is and, for me anyway, it seems to be a direction in which we need to move (without lessening the importance of being a servant).
best wishes
Paul
I think you should look into fundraising tactics for missions to Africa that largely ends up in America (in pockets of individuals, families, church groups) with little or no accountability. You read highly exaggerated reports of churches planted, pastors trained, students graduated, and food distributed. Problem?: little evidence of it on the ground to support reports. I find this, not just unethical but criminal.