Abstract
A Just Mission comes as a helpful corrective to the history and practices of the modern Western missions movement and North American churches in particular. Raised as a member of a non-White ethnic majority in Ethiopia and living and ministering for almost two decades as a member of the Black community in the United States, Mekdes Haddis offers a needed Global South perspective on mission and intercultural service.
The first pages introduce her poignant experiences while living in the US as a Black immigrant, setting the stage for the disconnect she noticed among predominantly White ministry organizations. Chapter 2 describes her difficulty with the term missionary (as limited to the concept of being sent rather than based on one’s character and fit-ness to serve) and the importance of not bifurcating discipleship from mission. She emphasizes how one’s experience with suffering is crucial for Christians serving interculturally or abroad.
Chapter 3 calls out the doctrine of discovery, missionary power dynamics, the problematic use of the word unreached, and the stereotypes of Africans that the West has perpetuated (54–59). Chapters 4 and 5 discuss theological contextualization, the stifling of the Holy Spirit (74–88), and short-term mission trips from the West, including their imbalance of benefits for goers and recipients, task-orientedness, and transactional nature to date. In response, Haddis offers incisive guidelines for future trips (112–13).
Chapters 6 and 7 call for racial and restorative justice, describing how money has blinded the Western church and differentiated institutional from biblical generosity. Chapters 8 through 10 close with a proposal for what the future of mission should include and a rationale for remaining in one’s local Jerusalem. Haddis invites White evangelical churches and mission organizations to acknowledge mission history thoroughly enough to evaluate and alter their continuing approach, pursue racial reconciliation in the US before efforts abroad (135), involve local immigrant churches in ministry planning and preparation, and seek new ways to support diaspora missionaries. Elaboration in a few areas would be welcomed, such as detailing her view of the unreached with Romans 10, her description of an “all-white theology” (196), discussing suffering with standards of living, and the challenges that diaspora Christians face as return migrants ministering in their churches of origin.
Haddis proposes a different approach to mutuality (4), one that centers non-Western ministry leaders and that would have White leaders—conservatives and liberals alike—humbly listen and join them, yielding to their expertise and surrendering historical positions of power (166). This book is recommended for church and agency leaders, donors, and mission participants.