Editor’s Analysis: Where are the Black Missionaries?

by Jim Reapsome

Time is running out for white mission agencies to use black missionaries. At the same time, the reservoir of potential black missionaries has never been fuller.

Time is running out for white mission agencies to use black missionaries. At the same time, the reservoir of potential black missionaries has never been fuller.

Destiny ’87, the black equivalent of an Urbana missionary convention, could very well have been the whites’ last chance to make a serious effort at recruiting black missionaries and enlisting the support of black churches.

The gathering focused on the heart of everyone’s missionary agenda. Chairman Crawford Loritts said he wanted everyone to leave the Atlanta meeting with the realization that the great commission is an escapable obligation and responsibility.

This was black speaking to blacks. How could white mission agencies fail to capitalize on this black-inspired missionary impulse?

Loritts called his fellow black leaders in the churches to review what he called the blacks’ "theology of survival." His diagnosis of black churches could very well be applied to white churches: "Their excuse, ‘We have to handle our own problems first,’ is not in harmony with God’s global purpose." Some black churches have started to support mission agencies, but, says Loritts, "We’re still a generation away."

Destiny ’87 showed blacks their part in world missions by bringing in black leaders from overseas. It exposed blacks to opportunities overseas.

Loritts noted that the criticial issue among blacks is the "mobilization of manpower to reach the world." He spoke to white agencies bluntly. They need to look down the road and see their future missionaries coming from both the black and Hispanic communities and they need to provide models of integrated missions.

Then, to make the issue even clearer, he said: "They’re not aggressively recruiting missionaries from among the minorities."

He emphasizes "partnership, not polarity" and calls on white mission agency leaders to help black leaders. "We want a consulting relation with white mission organizations. This is our most strategic need. We need them to tell us how to recruit and train missionaries from the minorities."

Leaders of white mission agencies could write books about why they don’t use blacks. But with the arrival of Destiny ’87, and a new call from black leaders themselves for assistance and cooperation, we believe it’s time to close the book on all the old reasons why there are so few black missionaries among us.

It’s time now to write a new book, a book about why we can and must tap the ranks of blacks eager and willing to serve as missionaries. This may very well be our last chance to stop making excuses and to overcome the obstacles.

The world needs black missionaries. Black churches need to send out black missionaries. White agencies need them.

If we fail now, we may never again have the same enthusiastic support from black leaders as we have now. The blacks are asking us to help them to mobilize their people for world evangelization. How can we refuse them?

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