Decolonizing Mission Partnerships: Evolving Collaboration between United Methodists in North Katanga and the United States of America

by Taylor Walters Denyer

Overview

We all know that healthy partnerships are essential to fruitful boundary-crossing ministries, but how exactly do we create them? What barriers must be overcome, and what self-examination must we do? How do the legacies of colonialism, racism, and unhealed trauma impact missional collaborations today? In this doctoral thesis, Denyer reflects on these questions as she examines the history of relational dynamics between American and Congolese United Methodists in the North Katanga Conference (DR Congo). By surveying memoirs, magazines, and journals, and conducting in-depth interviews, Denyer presents a complex and multifaceted example of a partnership that is in the process of decolonizing. More than just a history lesson, Decolonizing Mission Partnerships presents the questions, hard truths, pitfalls, and toxic assumptions we must face when attempting to be in mission together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725259133
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	06/26/2020
Series:	American Society of Missiology Monograph Series , #47
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	364
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Taylor Walters Denyer is a missiologist, pastor, and global nomad. She serves as president of Friendly Planet Missiology, Executive Assistant for Strategic Partnership and Engagement in the office of Bishop Mande Muyombo (The United Methodist Church’s North Katanga Episcopal Area), and is currently on loan to The Church of England, shepherding their congregation in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Taylor Walters Denyer takes an important topic—the missional relationships between large groups of United Methodists from the North Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and from the United States—and analyzes it through a refreshingly wide variety of critical lenses. In so doing, she lifts up important Congolese voices, and adds her own unique voice, developed through close personal connections to the Katanga region about which she so knowledgeably and passionately writes.”


—David W. Scott, Consultant, Office of the General Secretary, General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church





“Taylor Denyer’s research on the dimensions of one colonized partnership—and what it would take to decolonize it—presents an informative case study and a compelling challenge. Her skillful integration of several academic conversations into a single missiological framework provides a helpful model for further reflection on transforming mission partnerships. This hope-giving study embodies an ethos of deep listening and vulnerable self-criticism coupled with a determined personal commitment to work for change.”


—Johannes (Klippies) Kritzinger, Professor Emeritus of Missiology, University of South Africa





“Decolonizing Mission Partnerships is a book that should lead us into redefining what it means to be a church engaged in God’s mission. Structures and systems that support mission are called to reevaluate themselves through the lenses of the perspective and experiences that Reverend Denyer presents to us. I appeal local churches to reflect on this book.”


—Mande Muyombo, Bishop, North Katanga Episcopal Area, The United Methodist Church

Editorial Reviews

Taylor Walters Denyer takes an important topic—the missional relationships between large groups of United Methodists from the North Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and from the United States—and analyzes it through a refreshingly wide variety of critical lenses. In so doing, she lifts up important Congolese voices, and adds her own unique voice, developed through close personal connections to the Katanga region about which she so knowledgeably and passionately writes.”


—David W. Scott, Consultant, Office of the General Secretary, General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church





“Taylor Denyer’s research on the dimensions of one colonized partnership—and what it would take to decolonize it—presents an informative case study and a compelling challenge. Her skillful integration of several academic conversations into a single missiological framework provides a helpful model for further reflection on transforming mission partnerships. This hope-giving study embodies an ethos of deep listening and vulnerable self-criticism coupled with a determined personal commitment to work for change.”


—Johannes (Klippies) Kritzinger, Professor Emeritus of Missiology, University of South Africa





“Decolonizing Mission Partnerships is a book that should lead us into redefining what it means to be a church engaged in God’s mission. Structures and systems that support mission are called to reevaluate themselves through the lenses of the perspective and experiences that Reverend Denyer presents to us. I appeal local churches to reflect on this book.”


—Mande Muyombo, Bishop, North Katanga Episcopal Area, The United Methodist Church

From the Publisher