Creative Collaborations: Case Studies of North American Missional Practices

Introduction

Dana L. Robert, Allison Kach-Yawnghwe, and Morgan Crago

What does it mean to be in mission today? This book shows that for North American Christians, mission remains a touchstone for Christian identity and a core marker of faithfulness to Jesus Christ. The case studies herein show that rather than collapsing under the strain of massive challenges, many North American Christians are reaching across divisions and differences to connect with people and contexts unlike themselves. The research in this book highlights multiple ways in which North American Christians are collaborating with others to witness to their faith. Such collaborations are like the mustard seeds of the Kingdom (Mt. 13:31–32), often small and yet creative actions of believers who push beyond Christian divisions and paralyzing social problems.

It is no surprise that many are asking where is the good that comes from following Jesus Christ in mission? Today people who profess no religion are the fastest-growing religious population.¹ Instead of being an ambassador for justice, equality, and peace, the legacy of North American Christianity seems tied to colonialism and oppression. War and climate crisis hover over the world and threaten to destroy it. Millions of humans are migrating from their homes, and global pandemics are on the increase.

In such times as these, creative collaborations become testimonies of hope. In the midst of political crises and church splits, North American Christians persist in reaching across human differences. The authors of these case studies examine the intersection of three concepts – mission, North America, and collaboration – and apply them to a specific context. Authors represent Roman Catholicism, mainline Protestantism, evangelicalism, and pentecostalism. While each case study is fascinating on its own, together they suggest an exciting range of missional practices. The narratives are based on the particular interests and experiences of individual scholars and practitioners who have agreed to participate in this book project. No effort has been made to monitor the theological assumptions of the authors or to judge their analyses of the problems and the challenges that they found. Nor do the case studies have all the answers. Yet, they bring fresh imagination to shaping Christian witness in the world and – we trust – to reinvigorating North American Christianity. In compiling snapshots of diverse boundary crossings undertaken by North American Christians, this book shows that missional collaboration opens creative insights into the present and future of mission itself.

The meaning of mission, collaboration, and North America have been shaped by the participants and authors of this research. In the spirit of Paulo Freire, who noted that the road is made by walking,² this volume has privileged concrete, specific examples of mission. These allow tentative definitions of mission to emerge from praxis. Collaboration has similarly taken many forms, several of which we have identified as organizing principles for the essays. Although at the outset we loosely defined North America as Canada and the United States, we quickly realized that North America encompasses diverse and contested terrain. The Canadian case studies, for example, describe church organizations that are deeply committed to collaboration with First Nations peoples who were subject to colonization abetted by Christian mission. Today, these ecclesial bodies are invested in generous understandings of indigenized Christian faiths. The migration of people across continental boundaries – including those from the Caribbean, Central America, and Latin America – also shapes the meaning of a North American identity. Accordingly, the case study on Latinx mission, describing the physical and cultural mobility of different generations, is an important feature of the book. Urban centres are magnets for migration and home to diverse ethnicities, gender identities, and ecclesial groups. Several case studies thus address the complexities of North America in these urban spaces. Finally, some case studies explore outreach by North American Christians to persons and places outside North America. In these ostensibly classic forms of mission outreach, the very notion of being North American is sharpened and expanded in the crucible of relationships. The intersections of North America plus mission plus collaboration have provided us with rich insights to expand our understanding of all three.

The introduction first discusses the background and rationale for the book, including its anchorage in the global mission study process launched in 2021 by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches. Secondly, we introduce the case studies in missional collaboration and explore the patterns they reveal about how North American Christians engage in mission together. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of the case studies and what they might mean for North American mission today, especially in light of relational practices and the larger research project that frames the volume.

Background to the Volume

In 2010, mission leaders from around the world met in a series of meetings in Edinburgh, Cape Town, Aarhus, Boston, Tokyo, San José, and elsewhere to commemorate the centennial of the 1910 World Missionary Conference. A renaissance in mission theology flowed from these meetings: important statements were produced that represented significant theological convergence among a wide spectrum of Christian communions.³ A 35-volume book series from Regnum Press featured multiple topics and perspectives on mission contexts and themes.⁴ Despite significant differences in ethnicity, ecclesiology, and politics, major Christian communions shared a basic commitment toward holistic mission theology – that mission is essential to Christian identity itself. Mission reflects the movement of the triune God. It includes both evangelism and charitable outreach, concern for individual salvation and social transformation, and care for all of God’s creation, including the least of these.⁵

A decade after the 2010 meetings, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1921 provided a further opportunity to take stock of mission over the past century, and also its current trends and hopes for the future. Instead of organizing discussions according to ecclesial groupings, as in 2010, the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) launched a study process in which 15 academic centres around the world took responsibility to research the history and current realities of mission in their own regions. The historical reflections and analyses of core mission issues were presented to the WCC at its Karlsruhe Assembly in August/September 2022 in order to help guide missional priorities for the next decade.⁶

During the 2021 study process, each regional study centre chose its own questions and contributed to the several phases of the project as each was able. As coordinator for North America, the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the Boston University School of Theology selected the intersection of three concepts – North America, mission, and collaboration – as the framework for its investigations. The purpose of examining mission practices, in collaboration across multiple boundaries, had several purposes. We hoped to investigate new missional energy at the grassroots level and to move beyond the typical narrative of North American mission as polarized and dying. We wished to avoid theological and ecclesiological siloes that locked research into familiar patterns. We determined that research into missiological collaboration and convergences had not been undertaken in a serious way since the heyday of ecumenical partnership as a model in the 1960s and 1970s. In the intervening decades, entirely new ecclesial groupings had emerged that merited renewed scholarly attention. We ascertained that although tremendous research into converging mission theologies had taken place since the 2010 meetings, little research on converging mission practices had been undertaken.

Accordingly, a small team under the leadership of Professor Dana L. Robert designed an ambitious grassroots study process and advertised it on the website of the Center and at the 2021 meeting of the American Society of Missiology.⁷ A group of leading North American missiologists were recruited to launch the study process and to evaluate the results that flowed from the initial research. A second group of researchers volunteered to write longer case studies that would result in this volume – one of a series representing approaches to mission in various world regions. Missiologists involved in the project fielded a panel for the centennial celebration of the IMC in November 2021. The preliminary report from North America was submitted to the WCC in January 2022;⁸ and, in June 2022, another panel of researchers presented their results at the American Society of Missiology. This volume of case studies, therefore, flows from the larger global research process launched by the CWME in 2021. Some content overlaps with the North American report submitted in January 2022, but this case study book has proceeded separately from the preparation of the report.

Case Studies and Patterns of Missional Collaboration

The case studies in this volume demonstrate a variety of approaches and models for missional collaborations. They draw upon different ecclesial traditions of collaboration and expand those into multiple directions. Because each case study illuminates multiple angles of collaboration, it makes sense to organize the papers along a rough spectrum. We group them under four main descriptors, but this organizational scheme does not box them into mutually exclusive categories. The four descriptors are 1. Ecumenical Unity, 2. Mutual Partnerships, 3. Cooperative Projects, and 4. Decolonizing Frontiers. Each descriptor links to historical emphases that we selectively employ as a framework for the volume. The range of practices that each encompasses helps to frame the meaning of mission for the group engaged in them.

Ecumenical Unity

Often when people think about cooperation and collaboration among Christians, the image of mid-20th century ecumenism comes to mind. During the high point of the 20th century ecumenical movement, churches worked together on matters of shared doctrine and outreach with the end goal of organic unity.⁹ By the 1970s, despite the progress made by the Second Vatican Council and denominational church mergers, the official ecumenical movement was losing steam in North America. A case in point was the 1970 refusal of laity in mainline Protestant denominations to support the Plan of Union put forward by the Consultation on Church Union.¹⁰ Secularization, theological discord, and the privatization of religious practices and beliefs washed over North America, and the public witness of united churches lost favour. Competing evangelical movements, push-back from traditional Catholics, and divisions and decline among mainline Christians weakened the official ecumenical movement among North Americans. Nevertheless, visions of church unity continued to inspire shared mission, and engagement in mission inspired visions of Christian unity.

Today, it can be said that the vision of Ecumenism with a capital E has in mission largely given way to ecumenism with a small e. In other words, instead of unity being a matter of global organization or top-down pushing for denominational mergers, a range of regional and local movements model Christian unity through their intentional collaborations. More than one informant for the case studies noted that ecumenism today is local. The volume opens with three case studies that demonstrate a broad sweep of commitments to Christian unity, as well as unity based on common humanity, as intrinsic to their core missional identities.

In his research on contemporary Roman Catholic collaborations, William Gregory undertakes an ambitious survey of US Catholic ecumenism in relation to outreach. He opens his case study by affirming the central importance of Christian unity to Pope Francis and to the policy and doctrine of the largest church in North America, and he puts the idea of ecumenical unity into dialogue with major missional collaborations through examining Catholic Charities, the Society of Saint Vincent De Paul, the pregnancy help movement, and the faith-based community organizations supported by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.¹¹ Through interviews with leaders, Gregory uncovers a high degree of collaboration on the ground with other churches and community organizations on behalf of those dealing with poverty or addiction, those who have been incarcerated, refugees, and other groups of people in need. Justice and charity for the least of these take place across ecclesial boundaries in reference to the kingdom spirit of Matthew 25 – I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Gregory finds surprising intersections, such as both Mormons and evangelicals donating substantially to Catholic Charities for the sake of their common mission. Behind the impressive range of practical cooperation, however, Gregory asks the nagging question as to whether practical collaboration can lead ultimately to ecumenical unity in terms consistent with Roman Catholic theological commitments that stretch from the period of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) to the present.

The case study by Dustin Benac and Christopher James, like that of William Gregory, engaged in comprehensive research through over 40 interviews, in this case with leaders and participants in citywide church networks. In their research, Benac and James identified up to 100 North American cities with active evangelical church networks devoted both to serving the city and to Christian unity. For the case study, Benac and James looked in depth at two groups – Transforming the Bay with Christ (TBC) in San Francisco and UniteBoston (UB). Commitment to locality, across a range of evangelical groups, is a new phase of Christian unity. Although evangelicalism and ecumenism were often seen as enemies in the past, the reality of a North America in which large percentages of people are now unchurched has inspired evangelicals to take seriously the classic Christian unity text of John 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus that his followers may be one. Collaboration with other Christians amplifies the witness of city networks. The question of theological and geographic limits to unity remains a challenge for the city networks.

Another model for ecumenical unity is demonstrated in the work of Latin Americans from a variety of ethnic backgrounds networking together to improve Latinx theological education. In their chapter, Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi and Britta Meiers Carlson describe the history and mission of the Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH), a network which brings together Latinx scholars from across the theological spectrum – Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, pentecostal, and neo-pentecostal. Established in 1991, this organization hosts conferences, publishes scholarly and accessible theological literature relevant to the Latinx community, and provides certification to various theological schools and Bible institutes in partnership with the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Because of its commitment to facilitating the Latinx community’s access to theological education and highlighting this community’s specific concerns, AETH seeks to challenge the boundary between accredited theological schools and non-accredited Bible institutes and widen the boundaries even further to include community organizing networks and producers of online content.¹² AETH brings scholars into community in order to theologize en conjunto, or together. As AETH enters its fourth decade of existence, Cardoza-Orlandi and Carlson report that the network’s constituency is increasingly pentecostal and non-denominational, with less participation from mainline Protestants and Catholics than previously. They also note that AETH must adapt to reflect the concerns of immigrants coming from different parts of Latin America as well as the issues relevant to second and third generation Latinx Christians.

Mutual Partnerships

In mission circles, the idea of partnership became a dominant motif during the late 1960s and the 1970s, as a reaction against colonial mission models in which Western churches and missionaries dominated the non-Western recipients of their outreach. As North American and European churches declined in number relative to the growing Christian movements of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, it was clear that cooperation among groups needed to be on equal bases, with recognition and appreciation for what each group could bring to the table. Various experiments in partnership emerged during the height of the ecumenical movement. The limitations of partnership as a 1970s model soon became apparent, as old colonial patterns of Westerners supplying money to worthy supplicants remained common practice. Even now, many churches in Latin America dislike the term partnership, as it reminds them of paternalistic arrogance and financial dependency in relation to North American partners.¹³ By the 1980s, especially with the deregulation of the airline industry and the rise of easier forms of global communication, the short-term mission trip arose as a chief way of establishing relationships with racial, ethnic, or national others. The rise of the STM movement from the 1980s resulted in the reduction of long-term missionary infrastructure, as churches began diverting their mission money to support service trips by their own members.¹⁴

Over the past few decades, ideas of partnership have developed strongly in the direction of mutuality and reciprocity as their core values, where give and take between the partners is the norm.¹⁵ Formal ecumenical dialogue continues among church leaders, and shared projects remained important for mission agencies of all types. But ordinary church members seek partnerships that flow through personal connections. They often but not always use their own denominational family as a framework for the partnerships across ethnic, racial, economic, or national lines. Or they partner with specialized agencies and non-governmental agencies that provide valuable expertise for their hands-on outreach. In the old days, partnership needed to be managed by denominational executives who could handle currency exchanges, book travel, and tap into long-term missionary infrastructures. As building relationships across differences has become a chief personal goal for congregations and individuals invested in partnerships, the range of possibilities has expanded.

At the same time, truly mutual partnerships require hard work and the willingness to work through misunderstandings over time. The four examples of partnership as mutuality explored in this section exemplify long-term, multi-generational commitments to relationships, friendships, loving care, and social justice as ways of being in mission. Although the individual partners have changed over time, as have the details and programs of the partnership, long-term commitment is the signature feature of collaboration as mutuality.¹⁶

Through her case study focused on Dallas, Texas, Glory Dharmaraj presents the history of Bethlehem Centers – multi-racial neighbourhood centres in urban communities organized by southern Methodist women around the turn of the 20th century. By looking at the pronouncements of Methodist women’s organizations from 1911 to the present, she identifies the concept of sistering as a key theological motivation and uncovers the theological shift of mission to women and children in need to mission with these partners.¹⁷ Dharmaraj shows how the partnerships of the Dallas Bethlehem Center (DBC) evolve to meet the urgent needs of the people among whom it is located. She does this by charting the ups and downs experienced by the centre – from its origins under an interracial board in the 1940s, to the DBC’s solidarity with the African American community in their geographic displacement after the construction of a new highway, to the DBC’s recent collaborations with neighbourhood community services in the 21st century. Her case study highlights the importance of locality in mission partnerships, in connection with regional networks for transformational social change.

James R. Krabill describes over 50 years of partnership between North American Mennonites and African Independent Churches (AICs) in western and southern Africa. This inspiring case study describes partnerships across ethnicities, nationalities, and ecclesial bodies, and persistent commitment to relationships over multiple generations. His case study emphasizes their African-initiated nature, beginning with the first call from Nigerian congregations to the Mennonite Board of Missions in 1958, made after the Nigerians heard of the Mennonites through a Mennonite international radio programme. He describes how historical and practical features of the Mennonite faith – such as their principled disassociation from the state, commitment to a believers’ church, and history of persecution by established Catholic and Protestant groups – facilitate friendly connections with the AICs, since many AICs share these characteristics. In shaping their partnerships, the North American Mennonites often worked in the area of biblical training or coordinating gatherings for AICs across the continent, and they steered away from one-sided colonial models such as bringing in large sums of money for church projects.

Another study that focuses on the struggle toward mutuality in mission is Christopher Ney’s narrative of the 50-year partnership between the United Churches of Christ (UCC) in the USA and The Pentecostal Church of Chile (IPC). Beginning in 1980, when an IPC missionary to North America met UCC leaders in Brooklyn, NY, this relationship grew into a regular association between the two denominations, with representatives of each attending the other’s annual meetings and the appointment of a full-time missionary to anchor the infrastructures. The partnership’s Missionary-in-Residence programme – in which an IPC family would come to New England for a period – produced mixed results. The North American congregations appreciated the opportunity to learn about pentecostalism, but the Chilean family experienced many logistical difficulties as they returned home. A later manifestation of the partnership – the CONPAZ youth programme in which North Americans and Chileans undertook a retreat at a Chilean creation-care centre – promoted the values of cultural respect and friendship-building among the participants. With partnership as the framework, different practices emerged depending on the persons involved and the needs of the times.

Locating her study in the context of landmark papal and episcopal documents, Angelyn Dries presents another longstanding international partnership – a parish twinning relationship between Catholic parishes in Wisconsin, USA, and Nkokonjeru, Uganda. In this instance, the partnership was initiated by the North American parish, St Eugene’s. Nevertheless, the parish’s decision to look to Uganda for a twin emerged from a friendship between St Eugene’s pastor and a Ugandan priest studying at a Catholic university in Wisconsin, in addition to some connections forged by the Little Sisters of St Francis, an English group working in Uganda. As in Ney’s study, this twinning relationship proceeded by trial and error, as when the Wisconsin parish sent an enormous amount of requested goods to Nkokonjeru without considering the logistics of getting these gifts across the sprawling Uganda diocese. However, as with all of the studies in this section, the various members of the partnership have persisted in continuing interracial and international friendships and formal connections through ecclesial bodies. Over the years, the partnership has led to significant agricultural development in the Uganda parish, and the Wisconsin parishioners keep in mind their connection to their Uganda twin through annual celebrations of the partnership during Lent.

Cooperative Projects

In addition to ecumenical unity and mutual partnerships, another aspect of collaboration in mission is practical cooperation for specific projects and aims, including educational, charitable, social, and political purposes.¹⁸ The missional collaborations in this section demonstrate that diverse groups of Christians often organize around a particular purpose or issue as a means of mission. Each of the studies represent cooperation between transnational and interdenominational groups for projects in a particular geographic location, area of social concern, or ecclesiastical domain. In the three case studies that follow, shared concern, a united vision for change, negotiated values (or differences), and mutual respect act as catalysts for missional action.

First, David Restrick’s chapter charts the cooperation among local denominations, mission practitioners, and international associations and networks to develop tertiary theological education for the training of Mozambican leaders and seminary faculty. In the face of significant political restrictions, scant theological infrastructure in Portuguese, and remnants of colonial mission models, Restrick details how the need for theological education among evangelical and pentecostal Protestants in Mozambique was addressed by creative cooperation conceived by the Faculdade Teológica Sul-Americana (FTSA) in Brazil and Overseas Council International in the United States. Committed cooperation between the Nazarene and pentecostal Bible schools led to the founding of a Masters level programme in Portuguese and the Instituto Superior Teológico Evangélico de Moçambique (ISTEM). An example of cooperation and relationship building across difference for the shared purpose of improved and localized theological education, ISTEM operated from 2007–2019 and trained 71 women and men from 18 different denominations.

Stephen Allen’s chapter looks at KAIROS’ Indigenous Rights Program and the KAIROS Blanket Exercise as an example of cooperation that extends beyond the confines of the Christian church. Social justice, political advocacy, and healing and reconciliation for and with the Indigenous people of Canada have been powerful motivators for KAIROS members, diverse church partners, Canadian government officials, and participants in formative programmes that come together under KAIROS. The injustices and traumas experienced by Canada’s Indigenous peoples at the hands of government and church policy and programmes, such as the Indian Residential Schools, unites concerned parties, many religiously affiliated, toward lasting change. KAIROS’ Blanket Exercise, a role-play activity that illustrates the process and effects of colonization, has significantly contributed to an increase in the understanding of Indigenous people among non-Indigenous people in Canada and around the world. And, as Allen notes in his chapter, KAIROS’ commitment to decolonizing the Canadian church and society rests in mutuality fostered by cooperative partnerships.

The urgent need for cooperation to mitigate global climate change motivates the organizations in the final case study of this section. Tyler Lenocker explores how concerned North American evangelicals have responded to the ecological crisis by aligning with creation care networks like the Lausanne/World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network. Lenocker explores the history of the creation care movement in North America, its ties to traditional white evangelical parachurch ministries, and its predicament in an increasingly politically polarized and volatile evangelical subculture in the United States. Incorporating the experiences and work of evangelical creation care leaders in the United States, Lenocker demonstrates how North Americans committed to creation care as mission and witness find belonging and express agency through cooperation with global networks. And, while evangelical Christians concerned and active in creation care in North America remain on the fringe in the very churches and