Mistakes in missions have a strange way of reproducing themselves. Take 'paternalism' as an example. In days gone by paternalism showed itself by the foreigner creating a dependency of nationals on foreign fmissionaries. Sometimes it was done with the best of intentions but it was still paternalism in the way that it created dependency on foreign leadership. We are now in a new day of missions where we have shed any vesture of colonialism and feeling quite proud of our models of equality and partnership. The fact is, we have come a long ways in living out the brotherhood of believers across cultural and national borders. But my question is, have we slipped into a 'new paternalism' not by making nationals dependent on our leadership but on our funding. Tens of thousands of evangelists in India receive their salaries from supporters in North America. Thousands of short-term teams go to majority world (Third-World by old terms) churches and paint walls or bring money for local projects with the best of intentions, but are still creating a dependency on the foreigners money.
So what has changed?
