I am guilty. I have been embarrassed and sceptical of Christian development work #dmingml

Most of us remember the tsunami that hit Indonesia Dec 26, 2004. I was in Melbourne and remember finding the news updates incomprehensible. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone wanted to help. Relief agencies were on the ground as quickly as possible.

  Not long afterwards, in my role back then as VP of International Relations for Focus on the Family (not a relief agency), I was asked by a major U.S newspaper whether or not we were abusing the situation and purely motivated to help because we wanted to ‘evangelize’ the people of Indonesia.

  I remember being deeply offended, and yet at the same time, I was challenged by the accusation. Was there an underlying or ulterior motive in wanting to help? Questions like this shouldn’t be ignored, and to be honest, there have been many times when I have sceptical and questioned the motivations of other agencies wanting to suddenly help when they have never had any previous skin in the game. Are they genuine or opportunistic? I know this sounds extremely judgemental, and for that I apologize. I am relieved, though, to be able to tell you that through one of our significant partners on the ground – World Harvest – Focus on the Family were able to direct people’s money specifically to projects that provided direct medical support, housing, food, water, and so on. However, I continued to be haunted by the question of why we were doing this?

  If it wasn’t to ‘evangelize’, then how do Christian organizations represent Christ and be distinct from other humanitarian agencies? If it wasn’t to ‘win’ people for Christ, then what were we doing there? Now of course, there is a lot of meaning, distortion and critical inferences attached to the concept of evangelism. Some of it is justified, and some of it is not.

  It is at this point that I wish I could lift an entire chapter and insert it here from Bryant Myers’ book, Walking With The Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. It is his chapter on Christian Witness and Transformational Development. He deals with the issue of Christian witness far better than I can. However, let me share a couple of poignant points he makes in relation to this –

  Firstly that the need to share God’s good news is directly related to a Christian understanding of transformation and what motivates development. Jesus gave us two specific commandments. Simply, the first was to love God, and the second was to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the motivation that takes us to care for the poor, the broken hearted, the oppressed, the homeless, the widow, and those affected by injustice. Importantly, Myers’ goes on to say that this is not a call to proselytize or a “call to coercive, manipulative, or culturally insensitive evangelism…it is a call to be sure we do our development with an attitude that prays and yearns for people to know Jesus Christ.” (205).

  Secondly, whether we stand by and do nothing, or we choose to participate in development, both bear witness to our faith and what we claim is at the core of our identity, attitudes, motivation, practice, and so on. In the light of this, we may choose to do development, but if there is no cause for people to ask why we are doing it and there is no opportunity to share Christ, then we are merely doing development, not transformational development. This is why Myers takes time to explore a developmental approach to Christian witness. Drawing from numerous biblical examples where people witnessed something miraculous, amazing and surprising, he reveals that the activity or result of the activity led to an opportunity to share about Christ. “In each case, the gospel is proclaimed, not by intent or plan, but in response to a question provoked by the activity of God in the community. There is an action that demands an explanation, and the gospel was the explanation.” (210)

  I’d encourage you to read this book. Myers goes on to explore many more concepts and questions about development that I have wrestled with for years. Although embarrassed by examples of Christian development in the past, this has not prevented him from engaging in transformational development where he claims it starts with Christ, and to which Christ is central.

  Today, I work for an organization that delivers trauma rehabilitation to children and families who have been victims of war, natural disasters and human trafficking. In being part of this work, I am bearing Christian witness. Not by proclaiming Christ with a megaphone, but by bringing about transformation where the focus of our work is on bringing healing to people, their relationships and their communities.

#dmingml