PICTURES SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!

The history of Pentecostal missionaries and picture-taking is a very controversial one.  The picture above is Harrison Street in 1904 sent to John Alexander Dowie, and the one below was sent to Assemblies of God donors in the 1920/30s.  The thinking behind is very clear.  The sender above wanted to tell a balanced story of the situation in South Africa, while the other one wanted to paint a picture of a continent of savages that warranted his/her presence in South Africa.  While many missionaries were so-called 'Faith-Missionaries;' they often exaggerated  why they should continue their presence in South Africa.  They exploited cultural and continental distance to justify their story.  That pattern has continued in more than a 100 years of Pentecostal missionary presence in Africa.

Building 'The Indigenous Church' is a well known phenomenon in missions.  Missionaries must ultimately 'work themselves out of a job.'  The irony of it all, is that Pentecostal missionaries were also mouthing that platitude; yet in one hundred years they continue to fly in and out of Africa.  In 1914, the AG-USA aspired to build 'The Indigenous Church.'  One of their own, Melvin Hodges, even wrote a book on the subject published in 1953.  Yet Pentecostal missionaries continue to fly in and out of Africa, and their best tool is sending pictures home that justify their presence in Africa.

John G. Lake first arrived in South Africa in 1908 in the aftermath of 312 Azusa Street; in 1913 he went back to the USA having established a fully functioning church in South Africa.  He achieved that in five solid years, and lost his wife in the process.  The question is, why do Pentecostal missionaries of the AG-USA in particular continue to fly in and out of Africa; why is it that they cannot achieve in more than 100 years what Lake achieved in five years?  Something is not right somewhere.  Either people are not asking the right questions or there is something in it for them.

Missionary history is known for its contribution to colonialism and imperialism.  Why do Africans participate in the dubious schemes of African exploitation by those who insist that they are in it for God'sake.  Why do we continue to sell our souls for the crumbs that fall of Mammon's table?

In a hundred years, many Pentecostal leaders have demonstrated that Africans, with the right motivation, can do it.  If they need assistance; then those who wish to assist them must trust them with the funds they raise in their names.  When exactly will this paternalism stop?

The problem though, is not so much with missionaries as it is with the Iscariots among us.  That is as true for the church as it is true for our politicians.