Thread by @randallbreanna

So, Francis Chan is planning to move to Hong Kong in order to carry out ministry in Myanmar, and he introduced these plans by saying, “There’s no one fishing over there.”

That’s a very white person thing to say.

crazylove.org/updates

Years ago, my husband was talking to a friend about western church leaders and their habits of going to places where they don’t know people, working through translators, conducting serial baptisms, and marketing their “grand work” back to the West.

“I don’t know, can you love someone without knowing them?” @moungkp mused.



His friend replied, “Yes you can. It’s call rape.”

The Myanmar church is already heavily burdened with folks like Chan, people who claim to be doing radical things to serve God, while enjoying a position at the top of a spiritual hierarchy. He will fit right in here, and not in a good way.

"One of the things that is an easily observable fruit of the spirit is whether or not someone can be bothered to be a neighbor." (@moungkp)



Chan is going to live in Hong Kong. He says he wants to go soul fishing in Myanmar, but he doesn’t intend to be a neighbor here.

And for claiming to be fishing in a fresh pond, the whole fly-in, fly-out ministry scheme is a pretty well-worn furrow. Francis Chan and co. will connect really well with all of the influential Myanmar church leaders who already do the same thing.

In his announcement, Chan talks about how people were so receptive, how people were getting baptized. But on that excursion, he *had* to be working through translators, with the help of people who *chose* the sites and the people Chan would see.

There's chance that some of the people he met were prepped for him. Mono-lingual, mono-cultural people (i.e. Americans) are not so great at picking up on these dynamics.

(also, I find Chan's quick conversion story an insult to the culture here. People here like to think through such a thing and would not rush. I know stories like this. They happen to hungry people. To children who are told, "if you get baptized, you'll get a snack.)

The eagerness with which Chan reacted to the conversions, saying, “What do we do on a normal day that even compares to this?” underscores not only his own greed for spiritual glory, but it also highlights just how much he has to learn about church norms/power in another culture.

The church here is pretty territorial about disciple-making. Who baptized you and who discipled you is a big deal and is the source of a ton of church conflict.

When outsiders come in and hold tent meetings and conduct baptisms, they feed people’s desires to claim the ultimate prize: having been taught/baptized by a big shot.

When outsiders like Chan swoop in to get involved in a revival or a baptism session, they simply contributing to a system where the person doing the baptizing is more important to people than the God in whose name they are being baptized. Do we really want that?

(@crazylove, if you care about the souls of people in Myanmar, or the Myanmar church for that matter, hear this: Whenever you travel here, please don’t participate in the baptism business.)

There is a huge chasm between the western church and the lived reality of people in a place like Myanmar.

It is wearisome seeing how the impoverished at the bottom of society have to bear the heavy weight of rich Christians like Chan, men are chasing the glory of saving souls.

They walk upon the heads of the weak and much of the US church applauds and calls it a sacrifice, not knowing any better.

I don’t write any of this to throw shade on Myanmar’s Christians. I write this because I’ve listened to enough sad stories by people who are oppressed by powerful Christians within the Myanmar church.

I've borne witness to stories of poor Christians who can barely feed their families, while church leaders enjoy a well-cushioned life sponsored by gifts from outsiders such as Chan. It's a wonder to me that anyone stays Christian in the midst of such abuse/greed, to be honest.

We who identify Christianity as our faith need to keep in mind that Christianity is a system too, and we are a part of it. How we use our power within such a system is a big deal.

I think Chan is careless, and he’s a symptom of the greater carelessness of the American church. The American church is powerful, it is very careless, and it is very obsessed with their own glory.

Many books could be written about the ethnocentrism, classism, pride, and racism that has made this sort ministry announcement laudable within the world’s wealthy churches.

The fact that so many American Xians are lapping up Chan’s announcement is proof of our high tolerance for egotistic pastors and abuse of power.

For God's sake, we need to do better. We need higher standards for the way we engage across culture and socioeconomic lines.

*who* are chasing.

Here’s what I want to encourage us to consider when we hear stories about ministry or missions (or humanitarian aid work, for that matter).

Who writes the stories?

Who benefits from the stories?
Who is missing from the stories?

(h/t @jodikantor via IG: theconsciouskid)

We must reconsider way we listen to stories. We must realize that our habits of storytelling typically dignify the powerful and turn other people into objects.

Ask yourself these questions as you hear stories, and let these questions lead you to more questions. Get curious.

An example of this: on his website Chan describes his future work among the "ultra poor". He has reduced the people of an entire nation/region to the value of their bank accounts. Lots of Christian storytellers do this, and it ought to stop.