Two critical issues face world missions today. Increasing financial paternalism and the accompanying Westernization of the gospel are the two most critical issues facing us in world missions today. The cause of our Great Commission demands that we do the latter. Let's look at these issues in sequence, and then consider how they are related. First, the issue of financial paternalism.
Paternalism creates dependency.
It denies the wholeness of the individual and ultimately leads to his or her bondage and suppression. There can be no genuine reciprocity between individuals or groups when one of them treats the other like a child. Paternalism opens the door to financial abuses. Church leaders can and do go directly to funding agencies and churches in North America and Europe. But not all of them.