Cooperative Missions Run by Different Denominations

[MaxPC]

I can share that in rural and small town areas, there are cooperative missions run by different denominations whose volunteers work together. The pastors have seats on the board and share the workload between their congregations. Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, etc. work to keep these missions humming without theological animus.

Some of the ministries involve:
- Helping the elderly and poor with home repairs.
- Running food pantries, food kitchens and thrift stores to assist the impoverished with clothing and nutrition
- Creating community food plots for fresh fruit and veg to supply the food pantry.
- Providing free transportation to doctor appointments or shopping.

[Ernie]

A thread to discuss this...

[MaxPC]

I can share that in rural and small town areas, there are cooperative missions run by different denominations whose volunteers work together. The pastors have seats on the board and share the workload between their congregations. Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, etc. work to keep these missions humming without theological animus.

Some of the ministries involve:
- Helping the elderly and poor with home repairs.
- Running food pantries, food kitchens and thrift stores to assist the impoverished with clothing and nutrition
- Creating community food plots for fresh fruit and veg to supply the food pantry.
- Providing free transportation to doctor appointments or shopping.

Additionally I can think of disaster relief operations that are ecumenical.

[Josh]

I can think of disaster relief organisations that are restricted to just those of like precious faith.

[Judas Maccabeus]

By nature, missions will limit the participation of groups to those of similar views. On my mission field, in the late 90s, we had Mennonite Brethren , Evangelical Free, C&MA and Plymouth Brethren. We had a Presbyterian couple, but it was with the understanding that all baptisms on field would be believer's baptism.

This was to insure that the message would not be confusing to the hearers.

For disaster relief, it may be a bit more flexible.

[Josh]

It would be helpful if there were a list of plain/CA organisations and then an accompanying list of their acceptable affiliations. Eg i58 will take almost anyone (cmc etc), whereas the Wengers disaste relief is only open to their young men.

Our own VS units are actually open to any CO but I haven’t heard of any outsiders applying to join one.

[Bootstrap]

Many, many Bible translation projects include translators from different denominations. That helps avoid denominational bias.

[RZehr]

Many, many Bible translation projects include translators from different denominations. That helps avoid denominational bias.

What would be wrong with having unbelievers translate? Wouldn’t have to deal with any bias.

[Neto]

Many, many Bible translation projects include translators from different denominations. That helps avoid denominational bias.

Tribal groups in our area of Brazil tend to be very small. (Banawa was probably the smallest, with 59 members at the time we were assigned to work there, in 1986.) So generally there is just one couple, or two singles in any one allocation. But we did cooperate with a YWAM (think mild Pentecostal) couple who also worked in the same village. In the early years, the people did all they could to "get us at each other's throats", well, mostly tried to create jealousy. I was not allowed (by WBT mission policy) to baptize anyone, but I was there in the water along with the YWAM (JOCUM in Brazil) missionary. I read the Scripture and made some comments. Then years later, when the people decided that they wanted to have a church house, the JOCUM man & I worked together on the building plan, and both worked on the construction phase (for which I got in trouble with some in our own mission - not the part about working with JOCUM, but with being involved in the building process).

The part of the Bible translation process that plays a major role in preventing theological bias is the translation consultant checking process. No interpretation will be approved without adequate commentary support. (And although I never heard of anyone trying to use a "denominationally linked commentary" as support for a unique interpretation, I'm confident that it would not be accepted anyway. There is a great deal more danger of this occurring with the method being used by Wycliffe Associates, which is not at all connected with Wycliffe Bible Translators. It was at one time, having been organized by mostly builders who wanted to use their abilities to aid in the translation task. We had many good experiences working with both volunteers and staff from WA during those years. My father-in-law was on the WA board for a number of years. But they later went off the rails, thinking that they could do a better job of Bible translation than those who had taken the necessary education in order to do it well.)

[Neto]

Many, many Bible translation projects include translators from different denominations. That helps avoid denominational bias.

What would be wrong with having unbelievers translate? Wouldn’t have to deal with any bias.

Where will you find unbelievers who are familiar with Koine Greek, or who are willing to live in primitive settings for very little pay? Then there is the deal about the Holy Spirit revealing the truth. Maybe I am misunderstanding. A lot of the early translation work we did was in fact working with Banawa men who were unbelievers. But there needs to be a Christian involved who knows both the Scripture and the "target language" well enough to know when the suggested translation is saying something entirely different.