The shifting dynamics of mission:
Those sent to—have become senders
by Stanley W. Green
Executive Director/CEO
Mennonite Mission Network

Our mission capacity is increased as we partner with others to expand their vision and reach. - Stanley W. Green

During the 1950s and ’60s and somewhat in the ’70s, some parts of the world lived through major convulsions as former colonies threw off the shackles of centuries of foreign control and gained their independence. These shifts changed the face of our globe as maps were redrawn, names were changed and new alliances were formed. Geopolitically, the world became a different place.

Without too much notice and fanfare, changes of similar magnitude have been taking place in the church. Once-dependent churches, which had been trained to see themselves as the objects of mission, grew up and matured. As they matured, they began to discover a missional call. In the Scriptures, they learned that the whole church is called to be involved in mission. They, too, were not merely recipients of the gospel but also the privileged bearers of the good news of God that had come in Jesus Christ.

As this missional consciousness took root, churches around the world began to discern a vision for what God was calling them to do in mission in their regional contexts and around the world. Gradually, Western mission agencies came to discover that many of these churches had become churches that also send missionaries. It was clear that a major shift had taken place when we were encountering missionaries, in applications or on the field, from Asia, Africa, Latin America, in addition to those from the traditional sending continents of Europe and North America. Some of these newly missional churches were inviting agencies like Mennonite Mission Network to be the sending agency for their workers. Others simply were sending workers in response to their sense of the vision and call God had given them. Yet others were inviting agencies like the Mission Network to become their partners in global mission.

For some in the West, this changing reality was threatening and evoked resistance, as it did for former colonial regimes. Thankfully, through the foresight and vision God gave to those who shaped the new mission agency, Mennonite Mission Network was born out of an affirmation of what they perceived the Spirit was doing and a celebration of this new trend. The structures for the new agency incorporated a commitment to partnership and networking with what God was doing around the world. For us, this was a time of great opportunity — an exciting time, perhaps the most exciting time in the history of the church, when the whole church could become bearers of the whole gospel to the whole world.

This meant finding new ways to acknowledge and affirm what God was doing through the church in other places and to partner with that initiative. That led to Mennonite Mission Network giving leadership, along with our partner agencies related to Mennonite World Conference, to the development of a new entity, the Global Mission Fellowship. The objective of the fellowship is to provide a global forum for Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches to discern together how we might effectively form partnerships together in faithful response to God’s call in mission.

At the invitation of our partners, Mennonite Mission Network will continue to send people to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Mission always will be about credible representatives who can enter into meaningful relationships. In these new partnerships, however, our mission capacity is enormously increased as we form partnerships with others to encourage and expand their vision and reach. These days, we no longer can measure our effectiveness merely in the number of workers we send (and these have increased rather significantly since the beginning of Mission Network). Rather, our mission is measured by all the many ways we, in partnership with sisters and brothers from various churches around the globe (some of whom are

What an exciting time to be alive and to be part of God’s mission in partnership with God’s people everywhere. We are privileged that you too have chosen to be our partner. We invite you to celebrate with us what the Spirit is doing through the churches, and we welcome your prayers. We thank you for your ongoing financial support in these exciting times and look forward to your continued generous support.