Laymen from churches of the West too often become “agents of stability and the hindrance of change” by retreating into the Christian ghetto of foreign-language congregations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Instead, they should cross cultural and language barriers to help to fulfill the church’s mission in countries of the Third World.
This was the firm view of a consultation on the task of laity abroad, meeting last month in the castle Oud-Poelgeest, near Leyden, Holland. Churchmen from thirteen Western European nations and Czechoslovakia, plus North American observers, discussed the “responsibility of the European churches in the service of their laymen in the Third World.”
While asking overseas churches to name staff members to assist laymen in this ministry, the consultation decided that the home churches themselves had a responsibility to their expatriate members to equip them “for witness in the world wherever they are.”A recent survey on the American laymen overseas, made by the National Council of Churches’ Department of Research, showed that only one of twenty-one denominations had a person or office expressly responsible for programs for laymen overseas, and that no substantial efforts were made to reach or involve laymen going overseas in training or orientation beforehand. These laymen must become “agents of a just and equitable change,” the consultation said.
When they fail to do this, one report noted, then the churches should not depend solely on their members sent by secular firms but should send their own personnel to support movements of just change.
A Dutch businessman who lived for years in Indonesia warned, however, against being overly optimistic. “The aims of my firm and the aims of the Gospel were quite diverse,” he said. “I have never been able to solve that problem.” Neither did the consultation.
JAN J. VAN CAPELLEVEEN
