Why partner with local people?

If Martha and I were to go live overseas, say a place like India, and learn the language and work and pray really hard, we’d probably start one church in our career. And many of you would support us and pray for us and appreciate what we’ve done.

But the church planting teams of many of our partners in India start a new church every nine months. That’s how the vast majority of pioneer Christian work is being done today - by local people who know the language, culture and live very simply on the same level as the locals. Like the team in the photo below, an unusual one for India - all young ladies that I met not long ago.
Our help is still needed. We don’t get a pass on Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations because a local evangelist can do it better. Really unreached places have a long way to go. They might be 0.1% of the population. That’s like if your church was the only one in your entire city. If it was you, wouldn’t you feel you need help?

And lots of these new churches really are new. Suppose that your church had never run a children’s program. Or never tried a project to serve their community. Or had never even seen a Christian wedding.

We know more than we think we do, just by having been fortunate enough to grow up with highly developed Christian institutions. We take for granted how helpful they were in our lives.

But despite our wealth of knowledge and resources, there’s still a lot we don’t know. About faith amidst hardship. About suffering. About the power of prayer. And even about things we think we know. I wrote that a church might never have run a children's program. Yet, it's also true that some of our partners run better children's programs than we do!

In partnership, more gets done. And both sides have something to learn. And developing friendships with people on the other side of the world is just fun. Then it’s not “mission” anymore, not a concept. It’s about how I can I help my friend who needs me.