There is a four-stage framework that my team has uncovered that sets the template for how many white, evangelical church, academic, and non-profit leaders approach local and global missions.\u00a0 It goes like this: Notice, Diagnose, Solve, and Walk Away.<\/p>\n
Notice:<\/b> Because of the geographic and relational distance between white evangelical institutions and impacted communities, we\u2019ve become adept at making thin observations and then convincing ourselves of how correct we are.\u00a0 From a distance and void of authentic relationships, we\u2019re proud of the comprehensive accuracy of our surface-level noticings and tout them with the elegant air of self-acclaimed expertise.<\/p>\n
Diagnose:<\/b> Priding ourselves as savvy, resourced innovators, we pile into whiteboard sessions.\u00a0 While there we subconsciously stand on a theological foundation that places us as uniquely responsible and capable to solve the world\u2019s problems. Before we offer what we\u2019ve noticed, we begin by discussing the opportunity that this particular problem may provide us to disciple our people.\u00a0 Once convinced that we could leverage the brokenness of another for the sake of our own people\u2019s transformation, we offer our observations and coalesce them into a series of premature conclusions. Within a matter of hours, we walk out of our mini innovation labs with what we believe to be an accurate diagnosis of the problem.\u00a0 The next step will be to build the strategy for how our ideas, once implemented, will eradicate the problem of (fill in the blank).<\/i><\/p>\n
Solve: <\/b>Solution and strategy in hand, we head \u201cdown there\u201d to present our findings and intentions with the Executive Director of the organization we are \u201cpartnering\u201d with. Our solutions resemble simplistic projects that can be accomplished by groups of well-intentioned yet deeply unskilled laborers. Because the partnership is rooted in charity rather than solidarity, she accepts our proposal and an unhealthy dependence is likely to emerge (or continue).\u00a0 Within these circumstances, the Executive Director frequently sees the self-serving evangelical compulsion that the evangelicals appear ignorant to. Yet, for the sake of continuing the work that will benefit the desperate, she chooses not to ask too many questions. She demonstrates gratitude, the event is calendared, and, as the evangelicals turn our attention to marketing the program, she laments that her life\u2019s work is misunderstood as a consumable for the benefit of the privileged.<\/p>\n
Walk Away: <\/b>After three hours or three days of sweat labor and a new multitude of noticings taken in through lenses that reinforce our biases, we hand an underprivileged family the keys to their new home. Or, we conclude the soup-kitchen service and clean up.\u00a0 Or, we put our rakes and leather gloves away after servicing the under-resourced elementary school. Or\u2026.<\/p>\n
Often without a deepened knowledge of the family\u2019s story, acquiring (& remembering) the name and contact information of anyone we\u2019ve met at the soup kitchen, or growing an understanding of the systems in play that cause one school to lack what another elementary school has an abundance of, we walk away from the project.\u00a0 What was a deeply insignificant moment in the life of those impacted by housing inequity, poverty, and educational disparity was experienced as a deeply satisfying project by the evangelicals. After congratulating ourselves, we return to our regular lives relatively unchanged.<\/p>\n
This four-stage framework, when applied to short term missions in Tijuana, Baja California, has resulted in that city becoming a severely (over)evangelized city.\u00a0 Myriad organizations have built very successful (read \u201clucrative\u201d) business plans based on this framework that have resulted in tens of thousands of homes being built, bi-national \u201crelationships\u201d between churches and pastors being formed, and hundreds of thousands of Mexican children hearing the \u201cgood news\u201d of Jesus by white youth through Vacation Bible School presentations.<\/p>\n
This is great news, right? Not when you speak with Mexican faith leaders who are measuring the negative implications of Short Term Missions (STMs) on the church in Tijuana.\u00a0 From their perspective, because of STMs, the church in their city has deepened in its inferiority complex, has become dependent on US American voluntourism, and has lost its vigor to be a truly indigenous expression of the church within its city.\u00a0 It is not good news to the city planners of Tijuana who are now dealing with tens of thousands of homes that have sprung up in ways that interrupt any semblance of long term design and sustainability. It is not good news to the humanitarian non-profits who are working tirelessly to create jobs for deported and migrant women and men in the fields of creative childcare and construction.<\/p>\n