Power and Partnership Quotes

“nineteenth centuries, while missionaries felt there was a divine mandate to share the gospel, they struggled with how to excite the masses of church members back home to support them. In addition, those that did give their support saw the missionary vocation as simply planting Global Christianity into foreign mission fields. As the World churches grew and took on more responsibility for their own futures, missionary leaders struggled with how to convey this new reality to the average church member.”
― Jonathan S. Barnes, Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement

“also be noted that while it will be more obvious in some themes than others, the contestation of power is inherent in all four, especially during and after the period of decolonization. The first theme focuses on the issue of the home base, or those that made up the constituencies of Global Christian churches. From the beginning of the modern missionary movement, it is clear that overseas mission was the purview of a small minority”
― Jonathan S. Barnes, Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement

“While an historical analysis of the understanding and use of partnership in the ecumenical movement is helpful and worthwhile in itself, it can also serve a larger purpose. As Bauerochse notes in his study, “historical recollection can be an important aid in understanding current problems and difficulties in partnership relations . . . and can also provide a stimulus for developing new forms of such relationships.”7 In this spirit, this book will follow or trace four themes or issues that, given the contested history described above, seem to constantly reappear in the historical narrative and which, especially for those of us from a Global Christian perspective, continue today as barriers to living out relationships of mutuality. While each theme is treated as a separate issue, it must be noted that in reality they all touch, influence, and reinforce one another, each contributing in its”
― Jonathan S. Barnes, Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement

“when looking at the literature currently available, there seems to be much discussion on practical contemporary issues such as the sharing of resources or personnel, but very little on the history of Global/World relationships. Partnership is only mentioned in brief passages in David Bosch’s Transforming Mission or Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder’s Constants in Context. In J. Andrew Kirk’s What is Mission? an entire chapter is dedicated to this subject (chapter 10— “Sharing in Partnership”); however, only a few paragraphs are dedicated to how partnership has been understood historically. To date, the most complete study on this topic has been done by Lothar Bauerochse in his book Learning to Live Together: Interchurch Partnerships as Ecumenical Communities of Learning. Although Bauerochse’s main focus involves case studies on the relationships between German Protestant churches and their African partners, the first section entails an historical analysis of the term “partnership.” In his analysis, Bauerochse states that “the term partnership is a term of the colonial era . . . It is a formula of the former ‘rulers,’ who with it wished to both signal a relinquishment of power and also to secure their influence in the future. Therefore, the term can also serve both in colonial policy and mission policy to justify continuing rights of the white minority.”5 This understanding then serves as the lens through which he interprets the partnership discourse, reminding the reader that although the term was meant to connote an eventual leveling of power dynamics in relationships, it was also used by those with power to “secure their influence in the future.” This analysis is largely true. As we will see in chapter three, when the term partnership was introduced into the colonial debate, it was closely aligned with the concept of trusteeship. Later, as will be discussed in chapter six, the term partnership was also used in the late colonial period by the British as a way to maintain their colonies while offering the hope of freedom in the future; a step forward from trusteeship, but short of autonomy and independence. During colonial times, once the term partnership was introduced into ecumenical discussions, many arguments identical to those used by colonial powers for the retention of their colonies were used by church and missionary leaders to deny autonomy to the younger churches. Later, when looking at partnership in the post-World War”
― Jonathan S. Barnes, Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement

“The study of the historical development and understanding of partnership is important today,”
― Jonathan S. Barnes, Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement

“Because of this, Hanciles notes that although some aspects of Western culture can and will be assimilated by others, its basic tenets “are neither universal nor universally desirable—any more so than ancestor”
― Jonathan S. Barnes, Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement