This report is a work in progress. The study of "mission" and "missions" is the theological discipline of Missiology. These pictures and descriptions are an invitation to join in missiological reflection and discussion. We assume that all who are involved in "mission" want to walk as brothers and sisters in Christ, to build and not destroy. See 1 John 3:16 ; Ephesians 4:15 ; and Philippians 2:3. In that spirit we begin the tour.
"Financial control in the (general world-wide mission) field, during the 1920s, was strictly in the hands of the missionaries. There was a growing feeling that all these things needed to be changed. Hence the emphasis on the INDIGENOUS church. All these were well-founded and legitimate aspirations; but they still dealt with what are really marginal considerations, and did not face the essential theological problem of the nature of the Church and of the relation between missions and the very existence of the Church." (Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions, p. 516)
From 1982 until 1992 we were in Panama as missionaries with a large Lutheran church body, assigned to the Colon area for church planting and leadership development. The proclamation of the Gospel brought about the development of a number of small congregations and Christian fellowship groups in the area, along with superb local leadership.
Eight years later, we returned for a visit during November 2000. The following pictures do not tell the whole story, of course, but they certainly tell an interesting story. We found, to our surprise, most of the small congregations no longer existed! Also surprisingly, we found remains of Lutheran work from the 1960s and 1970s in the town of Miraflores, and in the old center of Panama City! We found nothing in the city of David, where thousands of Forward In Rememberance funds were spent in the 1980s. The only remaining evidence of that investment we found in Concepcion, near David -- a small hand-full of Lutherans looking for a place to worship.
The financial investments gone, the missionaries gone, -- only the people were left. Why? That would be the "rest of the story."
Does some of the answer lie in the "essential theological problem" mentioned by Neill above? Study the history, look at the pictures, talk to the people involved. What is the answer? What is your answer?