EMQ » January–March 2022 » Volume 58 Issue 1
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder, EMQLibraryInstitution”]By Robert Oh
Studies in Mission
Regnum Books International, 2020
130 pages
US$17.00
Reviewed by Christopher Flanders, professor of missions in the Graduate School of Theology at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. Previously he was a missionary and church planter in Thailand for eleven years.
“If I am currently dependent on my home church’s support to do my mission work in Cambodia, how can I ask my Cambodian pastors to develop self-sustaining ministry?” This question, from a Korean missionary working in Cambodia, points to a dynamic that flows throughout this important work. That is, what does the patronage-clientelism system mean for those working in international contexts? Oh’s book, a revision of his PhD dissertation, emerges out of anger and frustration on the part of Cambodian pastors and church members due to the “problem with Korean missionaries.” Such conflict can masquerade under many notions and terms, but ultimately, Oh argues such conflict between Korean missionaries and Cambodian pastors is, in fact, connected significantly to issues of patronage.
The problem can be summarized as “Patronage governs most relationships in Global South cultures. However, regrettably, missionaries rarely recognize this distinct cultural reality” (2). Oh presses the question of how the patron-client dynamic between Korean missionaries and Cambodian church planters offers an alternative understanding of aid dependency within the discourse of mission studies. His linguistically sensitive ethnographic discussions alert the reader to many important layers of how patronage works in a mission context.
There is much to like here. Oh tells a fascinating, instructive, and often tragic story of patronage and aid dependency. When Korean missionaries and Cambodian pastors partnered together in Cambodian church plants involving Korean mission aid, but without clear exit plans, the result was frequently Cambodians in foreign aid dependency.
A key insight all missionaries should heed in cultures that have strong patronage systems (e.g., Cambodia) is that missionaries will inevitably be forced into playing patron roles regardless of their intentions. Even Korean missionaries, who come from a culture that is ostensibly a patronage culture, engage in patronage roles without properly understanding the actual cultural dynamics at play (57). Another key insight is explained by a major character in the story, a Korean father-patron missionary named Ted, “When we began ten years ago, self-sustainability issue was not important for us because the survival of a church in the un-churched area was our most urgent matter. But I see how time has changed and becoming self-sustaining church has become an important topic, especially considering how the … pastors are still dependent on my support.” (93–94). This unfortunate lack of serious consideration for sustainability from the beginning reminds me of the essential truism that Jean Johnson emphasizes throughout her important book We Are Not the Hero: What we do on day one impacts day one thousand!
As for weaknesses, though the author mentions research among Cambodian pastors including participant-observation and interviews, the voice of local Cambodians is relatively muted. Most of Oh’s research focuses on Korean issues (language, perspectives) and discusses things from a Korean missionary perspective. I would like to have heard more from Cambodians.
We should thank Oh for reminding us of the importance of patron-client relationship dynamics. All missionaries would do well to educate themselves about the resources they possess and pay close attention to how they might very well function as patrons in their relationships with local peoples. Those preparing missionaries would greatly benefit from this helpful resource.
