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During your latest sojourn in North America, what have you noticed about North American Christianity?

Well, the affluence is always striking, but what I'm starting to see while living here is how the power of money can actually detract from the life of a church. In most Latin American churches, not even the pastor is paid. They're part-time if they're paid at all.

But here it's not just pastors who are full-time professionals: There are degree programs in Christian education and youth ministry and worship. So everybody serving in the church is a professional! Being a church staff member is their job. What does that leave for people in the pews? It seems hard for them to be a real part of the church. They just attend and "consume" church rather than acting as an integral part of it.

What good, if any, can come from North American Christians having such a concentration of wealth and power?

I don't think it's very useful to say, I'm sorry I have so much power. I wish I didn't have it. Or for individual North Americans to try to erase that inequality personally. You could step out of the grid, but the grid still exists. Rather, I think you need to say, I do have power. Whom is it supposed to serve?

The free-trade agreements between our countries are supposedly about giving people opportunity. There's something to that: Part of human dignity is the capacity to work. But people need to be granted that option. How can free-trade agreements really be free when this country subsidizes its agriculture and other industries in order to favor its own interests? North American Christians can do something about this with their political power—by calling for trade agreements that are both free and fair.

But there is more to life than money and comfort. The resources some of these poor people have for coping with life and for understanding others make them very rich—in another currency. The best experiences, to me, of Americans that have joined us in Latin America have taken place when people have recognized that. They may come with wealth and education. But they encounter brothers and sisters with valuable strengths and insights they don't have, and they are willing to learn in order to partner in God's mission.

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Ruth Padilla DeBorst gave her testimony about dealing with the death of her first husband at the 2000 Urbana conference.

DeBorst spoke more about missions at the July 2007 Christian Reformed World Relief Committee meeting.

She is the director of Ediciones Certeza Unida, the publishing house of organizations linked to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

Earlier Christian Vision Project articles on mission include:

From Tower-Dwellers to Travelers | Ugandan-born theologian Emmanuel Katongole offers a new paradigm for missions. (July 3, 2007)

The Mission of the Trinity | Singaporean theologian Simon Chan says 'missional theology' has not gone far enough. (June 4, 2007)

Christ, My Bodhisattva | Multinational businessman and politician Ram Gidoomal talks about 'translating' the gospel in today's world. (April 27, 2007)

Living with Islamists | A year in Pakistan gave me a glimpse of what Christian witness might look like today. (March 30, 2007)

On a Justice Mission | Thanks to William Wilberforce, we already know the key to defeating slavery. By Gary Haugen (Feb. 22, 2007)

A Community of the Broken | A young organization models what it might mean to be the church in a suffering world. By Christopher L. Heuertz (Feb. 9, 2007)

An Upside-Down World | Distinguishing between home and mission field no longer makes sense. By Christopher J. H. Wright (Jan. 28, 2007)

Christian Vision Project articles on culture are available on the Christian Vision Project website.

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August 2007, Vol. 51, No. 8