New Shape of Colombia Demands Sensitive Missionaries

by Paul Goring

In Colombia we are preaching the gospel in an atmosphere of change. In order to speak with effect to our hearers, it is necessary to understand what is happening to them and to adapt ourselves to present realities.

In Colombia we are preaching the gospel in an atmosphere of change. In order to speak with effect to our hearers, it is necessary to understand what is happening to them and to adapt ourselves to present realities.

The climate of change is largely an advantage to us whose mission it is to propose radical change in the religious thinking of a formerly tradition-bound culture.

People who a few short years ago were stoning us are now eager to hear our message, if only to show how modern they are. Change is a two-edged sword, though, because in the new acceptance we enjoy as "separated brethren" to the traditional religionists, we are sometimes lumped together with them and rejected along with them by the radicals to whom our gospel of individual regeneration seems hopelessly conservative. Although I don’t admire sectarianism or exclusivism, I think it’s necessary for us to maintain a clear evangelical identity. We are in fact offering a happy opportunity for change to any who have not been born into the same family of God in which we have begun a new life in Christ through acceptance of him by personal faith.

What then are some of the changes taking place in Colombia at the present time?

RAPID POPULATION GROWTH
The advent of penicillin some 30 years ago has made possible the survival through childhood of a large proportion of infants who otherwise would have died during their first years of life, as was the case before the antibiotics were perfected. Besides this, these drugs are saving people from infections and diseases that a generation ago would have overpowered their victims. The result: a sharp net increase in the number of living people.

Unfortunately, the Colombian economy is simply not agile enough to adjust adequately to the increased demands for food production for several reasons: (1) Lack of heavy industry to produce farm machinery domestically; (2) ownership of most fertile farmlands by absentee city dwellers. This propends to the production of beef cattle, the farm product requiring the least supervision. Meanwhile, fruits and vegetables are inefficiently grown on tiny hillside plots by small land-holders -making the vitamin and mineral foods scarce and expensive. (3) Inability of the agrarian reform program to accomplish its goals. Bureaucracy and favoritism have held back the progress of land distribution, and the humble farmers who are acquiring acreage under the program are not being trained in efficient farming methods.

This picture points to hunger. Hopcraft reported in 1968 that 100 Colombian infants die daily of malnutrition.¹

Another corollary to population growth (doubling every 22 years at present growth rates)² is the trend toward urbanization. For instance, Medellin, Colombia’s secondlargest city, has a present annual growth rate of 6 percent, meaning that its population doubles every 12 years.³ This situation foments crime and prostitution because for most farm-to-city migrants, there are not adequate facilities for housing, schooling and employment. Of the 125 thousand people who migrated to Medellin in 1966,⁴ almost all had to settle into substandard or unzoned slum neighborhoods because during that year the number of new housing starts was not even sufficient to accommodate the increase in Population due to birth rate.⁵ With a rate of unemployment and underemployment of about 21 percent⁶ (as compared to 9 percent in the U.S.), few migrants are able to find jobs.

INDUSTRIALIZATION
Colombia is now in the throes of its industrial revolution, trying to accomplish in a single generation what it took the Western democracies virtually 150 years to achieve: the change from agriculture to industry as the economic base.

Industrialization produces trauma in any society where it takes place; problems are intensified by the rapidity with which they are occurring in Colombia. Families are fractionated as husbands and older brothers leave home to seek jobs in the cities; those fortunate enough to find jobs suffer loss of identity in the regimentation of the factory, where their value consists only in terms of what they produce for their employers. Lacking more positive resources, they resort to alcohol and philandering to try to fill the void in their lives.

EDUCATIONAL EXPANSION
Since industry needs a regimentable and minimally literate labor force, as well as skilled technicians and knowledgeable administrators, during the past 20 years there has been a hard push to educate more Colombian Youth. This has affected all educational levels; from 1960 to 1968 attendance in Colombian unversities doubled.⁷ Most high school and university students are the first generation of their families to have had opportunities for study. This is causing a marked communications problem between semi-literate, tradition-bound fathers and go-go sons who are well acquainted with the space age, the new morality, and Latin versions of the new left. Now we need to look at some of the implications of these changes as far as Christian life and growth are concerned.

RAPID CHURCH GROWTH
One of these we celebrate as the merciful redeeming work of the Holy Spirit in Colombia: the evangelical community is growing as never before in this country. The rate of church growth was at the average of 12 percent per year during the period from 1960 to 1967;⁸ all indications are that this rate is increasing. This means that the church is doubling every five and a half years or sooner. It’s exciting to be on the scene while this is happening, and to have a part in seeing these new names being written in the book of life.

NEUROSIS AMONG EVANGELICALS
Most of the people who are being added to the church are recruited from the ranks of the masses, whose socioeconomic status is at subsistence level or barely above it. It is proper and right that our churches be composed of the poor and the uneducated, since this is the condition of the people. This was true of the apostolic church, during a time when Paul wrote: "Look at your calling, brothers, that not many of you mighty, nor noble…"⁹ But in this picture there appears a stark truth: the grim reality of the believers’ daily struggle for existence the instability and upheaval that characterize the present period of changes in the society – produces neurotic, unhappy individuals. The people who frequent our churches live among these conditions. We shouldn’t be surprised to find a large number of unhappy and psychologically upset people responding to our message in Colombia. Most of the people are sick, and the gospel offers hope for health. Writing within the context of a society much saner and more stable than this one, Paul Tournier states in Guilt and Grace "…even a neurotic syndrome may be…the occasion for a genuine experience of divine grace. There are many instances (of this) in the lives of the saints."¹⁰

There are some other factors contributing to unhappiness and maladjustment among believers in this country, in which we missionaries ourselves are involved. We have adopted certain practices, motivated by our own convenience and perhaps by a mistaken conception of piety, which are conducive to emotional atrophy and distortion instead of growth. Some of these practices which I believe to be ill-chosen are listed below.

Some of us are guilty at times of manipulating national believers for the convenience of our work. I have observed that some salaried national workers are moved about or replaced for no other reason than the simple convenience of the mission group. In other cases young believers have been encouraged by missionaries to rush into marriages that have later proved to be disastrous. Missionaries on occasion counsel promising young men to enter Bible school instead of getting professional training. Even when the results may be positive in such cases, it is not acceptable for missionaries to move other people about at their own whim. This hinders their growth into responsible, self-directing persons and implies a basic lack of respect for them as redeemed individuals who are capable of getting their own guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Too often, our dealings with national believers are influenced by judgmental attitudes. This makes it difficult for troubled Christians to seek our counsel or help in overcoming some vexing temptation or sinful habit. The conditions of poverty, and the indignity it produces, render national Christians particularly vulnerable to certain temptations. For instance, crowded living conditions and overwork can cause wives to be scandalously bad-tempered and physically unattractive. Under these circumstances husbands are easy prey to the bottle or the nearest coquettish female.

Missionary wives can enjoy a reasonable amount of privacy and usually can obtain household help, besides having certain labor-saving appliances. These are aids to sanity and sweetness that protect us from the morbid realities faced daily by third world Christians. Instead of judging our national brothers for falling into sin, we should rather look at their situation from their point of view in order to understand their vulnerability to temptation. We can help them by demonstrating an empathic understanding of their reality. If we show a rejecting attitude, we will drive them away from us and their only hope of real help.

Another growth-retarding practice I have observed among some missionaries is to encourage their national colleagues to become so involved in meetings, visitation and travel that they must necessarily neglect their wives and children. (There is reason to suspect that some of our national colleagues use the Lord’s work as an excuse for being away from their wives and children. Home is not a very attractive place if it is too small for its brood of noisy children; it is also hard for wives to be sweet and goodhumored under these conditions). Neglect by father causes adjustment problems for mother and children.

The discrepancy between the respective economic levels of national pastors and missionaries causes feelings of resentment and can lead to problems in inter-personal relations. I’m aware of the stickiness of this problem. In Colombia’s subsistence economy, would an appreciable increase in national workers’ salaries itself become the reason for a rash of "calls" to the ministry? I honestly doubt it. I’ve noticed that Colombians who are occupying the better-paid positions among the national evangelical institutions are indeed men of outstanding ability. I wouldn’t like to see any of them earning forty dollars a month, which is a common salary among Colombian pastors. If we are going to commit errors on this difficult problem, I’d rather see us err on the side of mercy and ingenuousness than caution.¹¹

Some mission groups are seeking solutions to this economic problem by incorporating nationals into their missionary force with the same status as their American, Canadian, or British counterparts, and securing their financial support from foreign sources. Others are offering agricultural training to national workers and sending them to their fields of service with a heifer, litter of pigs, or hive of bees. We need to explore more creative possibilities of this sort.

The current emphasis on church growth is a good thing. However, I have seen some missionaries more interested in applying strategies for evangelism, than practicing the pastoral ministry of communicating with the individuals already in the flocks, and caring about what hurts them. Some large evangelical churches have become another institution in which the individual is a faceless nonentity, or appreciated only for his utility in evangelism. One possible means for celebrating the individual and facilitating meaningful relationships would be to group the congregation into small semipermanent fellowship cells to meet once weekly. Small-group week-end seminars on Christian marriage and family life, or for study of special themes, would also be helpful.

A common hurtful attitude among us missionaries is an "us-them" way of relating to nationals. I was able to see this attitude and its negative effect vividly from the point of view of a person on the receiving end in a revealing incident. One of my missionary colleagues is a Latin American who emigrated many years ago to the United States, became an American citizen, and married a North American girl. He and his wife are missionaries on the same basis as the rest of us, with the same economic support, and as it happens, he is one of my closest friends and working associates.

He was the guest in another missionary’s home in a distant city, attending an important meeting. As he was sitting alone in the house one afternoon while the host family was out shopping, an American lady missionary knocked at the door. Since she spoke to my friend in Spanish, he answered her in that language. She didn’t know that he spoke English, too, as well as she can. On learning that the family was out, she turned and called in English to her husband, who was waiting in the car, "There’s nobody here!" My friend was partly amused, but the fact that he commented on the incident showed that it had made an impression on him in a hurting way. Her "third person" manner of relating to him showed a basic lack of respect for his personhood.

CONCLUSION
The rapid and traumatic changes taking place in Colombia are causing nationals to feel bewildered and alone, cut adrift from familiar cultural landmarks and threatened by deteriorating family relationships. We missionaries must learn to relate to all people (I almost said "them") in caring ways that promote health and growth.

Endnotes
1. Arthur Hoperaft, Born to Hunger. London: Pan Books Ltd., 1968, p. 152.
2. Ignacio Alzate, Humberto VeIez and Wildebardo Mari., Anuario Estadistico de Antioquia. Medellin: Departamento Administrativo de Planeacion, 1967, p. 32.
3. Ibid., p. 35.
4. This figure is an estimation by the author, considering that of the 6% increase in the 1967 Population of approximately one million people in Medellin (Alzate et. al.), a 2-1/2% increase would be due to migration, since 3-1/2% of the increase is due to the birth rate.
5. AIzate et. al., op. cit., p. 309.
6. Diego Salazar Valencia, "Analisis del desempleo en Colombia 1970" Boletin Mensual de Estadistica. Bogota: Departamento de Administrativo Estadistica No. 238 (Mayo, 1971), p. 80.
7. Alfredo Rodriguez, "Estadisticas basicas de la educacion superior en Colombia", Boletin Mensual de Estadistica. Bogota: Departamento Administrativo de Estadistica, No. 207 (June, 1968), p. 5.
8. Wayne Weld and Donald MacGavran, Principios del Crecimiento de la Iglesia. Chicago: Moody. Press. pp. 1-10.
9. 1 Corinthians 1:26.
1O. Paul Tournier, Guilt and Grace, New York: Harper and Row, 1957, p. 64.
11. For a national Christian worker’s point of view on this subject, read Juan Isais, The Other Side of the Coin.

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