If you're wondering where things are at with the partnership proposal, here is a brief update: We are currently writing a proposal for the BC classes. We are considering our experience in Sierra Leone, weighing the input of the CRCs in BC, listening to the leaders of the CRCs in SL, researching, praying, mulling and compiling. We hope to be able to give you a DRAFT of the proposal here in the next month or so.
In the meantime, in the midst of our mullings, we have been considering how not to advance ourselves and our North American Churches as heroes. How do we encourage and support local Sierra Leonean initiatives in a behind-the-scenes role, as supporting actors? Or, as one of my seminary professors made a point of telling us aspiring preachers: "Don't tell an illustration in a sermon that points to you as the hero of the story. If you look silly or foolish; that's OK - maybe even preferable! But illustrations you give should always, ultimately leave the hearer with the assurance that God is the hero, not the preacher."
Check out the following for some provoking thoughts on who should be the hero in our relationship with African churches. A quote to tease you:
“Indeed. The people I met and the churches I visited in South Africa are the heroes. That's partly because they (not North Americans) are also ‘the experts,’ the people on the ground who know directly what the problems are. They are also part of believing communities that have people in them who sacrificially rise to the challenges God places before them. Willow, like many other North American churches doing church-to-church mission, knows all this. It's the reason Willow tries to support the local work, and then just gets out of the way.”
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/march/29.32.html
In the meantime, in the midst of our mullings, we have been considering how not to advance ourselves and our North American Churches as heroes. How do we encourage and support local Sierra Leonean initiatives in a behind-the-scenes role, as supporting actors? Or, as one of my seminary professors made a point of telling us aspiring preachers: "Don't tell an illustration in a sermon that points to you as the hero of the story. If you look silly or foolish; that's OK - maybe even preferable! But illustrations you give should always, ultimately leave the hearer with the assurance that God is the hero, not the preacher."
Check out the following for some provoking thoughts on who should be the hero in our relationship with African churches. A quote to tease you:
“Indeed. The people I met and the churches I visited in South Africa are the heroes. That's partly because they (not North Americans) are also ‘the experts,’ the people on the ground who know directly what the problems are. They are also part of believing communities that have people in them who sacrificially rise to the challenges God places before them. Willow, like many other North American churches doing church-to-church mission, knows all this. It's the reason Willow tries to support the local work, and then just gets out of the way.”
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/march/29.32.html
