Present-day mission partnerships

Abstract

The centre of gravity of the church and of mission-sending has shifted from the North and West to the South and East. Currently, as many full-time cross- cultural missionaries are sent and supported by churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America as those sent from Europe and North America. In this new  reality, there is an urgent need to discover and create new patterns of missionary partnership among Christians worldwide. It is urgent that church  leaders, mission executives, and mission practitioners talk together, analyse, critique, and articulate the possibilities and pitfalls of partnership in mission  in the 21^st century. This article reflects on three aspects of presentday mission partnership, namely the broad contexts of mission partnerships; issues  related to the structures for mission partnerships, particularly the modality-sodality mission relationships, and some pitfalls of paternalism facing all  those in mission partnerships.